lemon monkey after a fruitless cactus shopping expedition

eighty one o six

o and i went to stokey's aptly named 'flowers n sixteen' in search of a cactus. o's had a cactus on his mind since a mishap with my mini-cactus last year. i had been in mourning for it (i suppose it was kind of a delayed mourning for eight-one-o-six) and the dessert in general. i had over time come to love scottsdale, az and our house there. it had been a gradual transition from hate to like to love. and then in twenty-o-eight everything changed as the recession bit into our family business. my parents moved back to pakistan and my brother followed after graduating from asu. my mother had bought me two mini cactus from az on one of her trips to london - one of which didn't survive the journey. the other one thrived quite happily until o decided (with all good intent) to re-pot the cactus. it died shortly after and remained on my window sill for quite a while in some crazy hope that it may just revive itself. it turned out in the end that british soil was too moist for the cactus. 

flowers n sixteen had a gorgeous cactus but it was too large for our current flat. and we didn't really want a small one. o was particularly displeased with his failed cactus shopping expedition and so to console him i suggested coffee and cake. i have been meaning to try lemon monkey and purposely steered him away from the tea rooms and the fat cat cafe both of which we have tried before. we weren't disappointed.

o picked the pistachio tart which had the filling of a frangipani cake with the thinnest and flakiest pastry base. it was so thin that it seemed almost to look like a baked crust. but then you bit into it and it had a lovely flakey buttery crumb. the top was dusted with icing sugar and crushed pistacho's. it was a real treat. on the side o had a flatwhite and i had a hot apple and ginger. i also bought home a bag of monmouth coffee for our cafitiere. 

so although we didn't manage to find a cactus, we did come home with our sweet tooth satisfied and a great start to our sunday brunch with fresh ground coffee.