Island in the Storm

There you are out in the freezing cold and rain, with only a bare few minutes before you have to get back to normal life with the kids and The Thing on the Couch and you still have at least Humpty-thousand Christmas presents to buy and there are so many people in the shops and all of the pulling and shoving and cursing and kicking this might as well be a Rush Week party and there are still cards to send out and people to phone and even though you have your super deluxe aircraft carrier sized phone handy on the flatbed you have to have to carry it you'll never have time to do it all and what about the cookies you promised to have for the school party and if only there was an island of peace and sanity where you could get a coffee and something that you really might enjoy eating instead of the usual cardboard hamburger but wait...there...just across the mall, it's Aromas!

Sure it couldn't be all that good because its in the mall and next to a burger joint and there aren't any long lines and no one you know has ever been in or even heard of it and that is the way you will want to keep it but of course you won't be able to shut your mouth because when you get inside and have a taste you'll be dragging all of your friends and Twiting and Facebooking and Instawhatevering and you just won't be able to stop talking about Aromas.

Now you know the Ole Trawler is very shy about endorsing anything and I don't do it very often but I'll make an exception for Aromas because this is a place where you will want to come often and tell everyone you know and brag to your family about at Christmas and then you'll ruin it because everyone will know and come in and the place will be packed and that is the price of being Soooooooooooooo good.

So what is so special about it? For starts, it has REAL food, not mall food. You know the kind you actually want to eat. Like Christmas brownies. Sure you can get a brownie at any place in town and some of them are very good brownies but for the sake of your stomach you want the very best and while the other places have good brownies Aromas has the best so go there and treat your stomach like it was a part of you and you liked it.

This is a brownie topped with creamy icing sweet enough to balance the bitter of the dark chocolate, stuffed with nuts and some other good stuff which of course I don't know cause if they told me they'd have to kill me cause it is a secret family recipe and that's why not just anyone can know what it has in it.

Then have a panini. That's a grilled sandwich with nothing at all suitable for children, no ketchup, no slimy cheese, no secret sauce, no Happy Meals just solid through and through yum! I had one with pesto which is the Italian way of making Basil into heaven and The Long Sufferin had a chicken which was just about as far from a chicken sandwich as a speed bump is from Mount Hood. No loser there but I still think I won lunch. Pesto Rules!

And if you still have a need for something wonderful to carry away from this island in the storm have one of their smoothies not to be confused with the stuff which comes out of a quick freeze machine at one of those places with a drive up window. I had the peach banana and it was like cobbler in a cup.

Sure you can order all of your shopping from Amazon and live to see January or you can send gift cards and be despised by all of your family, but if you have the courage, the will, the pride to face the crowds and actually do your shopping go to Pony Village Mall. They'll have the same stuff you can find anywhere but they'll also have Aromas.

No beasts, no breasts, smoothie-foo, panini-foo, fun-foo, Ron-bob says check it out!