Thursday, June 05, 2008

crave

i just had this incredibly specific, visceral craving for those homemade candies made out of fried chinese noodles and butterscotch. i don't even know what they're called, or exactly how they're made, or when the last time i ate one was. aha, here they are. they're not even one of my favorites -- i think it's more about the sweet/salty combination. when i was fourteen, i worked at a candy store called sweet street, where my favorite thing was dark chocolate covered potato chips. i can just taste exactly what these were like -- rippled, salty chips dipped in a thin, thin layer of perfect dark bittersweet chocolate. my friend holly, who worked there with me, wasn't so crazy about them as i recall (hmmm, true? i have this vague memory of feeling like a weirdo for liking them). that was my first non-babysitting job, and the woman who owned the store (her name, unbelievably, was NONDI) was so mean. she hired us under the table and paid us $2.50 an hour. i used to gobble gummi bears in the back room, and every once in a while, i'd sneak a truffle (her truffles were square, with thin layers of chocolate and hazelnuttiness). i remember she bought her chocolates "from a place in brooklyn." one terrible day, holly dropped a huge tray of chocolates. i think she got fired. my favorite thing about this job (besides stealing candy) was making color-coordinated easter baskets.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

when john and i lived in asheville, i worked in the bridal dept. at belk, which also put us in charge of the candy counter and the 40 varieties of godiva truffles. we used to fight over who would go to the refrigerated storage room to stuff our faces, i mean restock the counter...

Anonymous said...

And my best friend Stacey and I worked at a Carvel ice cream store, where we had a lot of fun playing frisbee with Flying Saucers on slow winter nights. We also loved giving free ice cream to our friends and creating odd sundae combinations for ourselves, though none involved potato chips.

Dancer Lady

Anonymous said...

but do you remember the ever-present droplet of liquid that was always hanging off the end of nondi's nose? i barely remember dropping the tray of chocolates (shaky, anxious 15 year old that i was), but i have a PERFECT memory of her profile with the drop hanging there precariously over whatever candy she was working with!
ugh.