The Last Meeting of the Breakfast Club

Sunday November 10, 2013

Our time with Ana Bianca and Alfredo with us at the marina is sadly coming to an end.  They leave in the morning to head back to Miami, and it’s likely that we may not cross paths again for two years, if ever.  Trying to spend quality time with all the people in our little group one on one, they invited us on board Kajaya today for breakfast.

I love going aboard Kajaya (although this is what, my second time?).  She may only be three feet larger than Serendipity, but it just feels so light and airy in there.  Plus, Ana Bianca and Alfredo have a kick ass sense of style.  From scarves being turned into lampshades giving it a slightly Bohemian feel, to a large painted scene of tall ships in a bay on their wall, to the nice creamy color of their settees, it all comes together to make a classic and simple feel of a well traveled person.

When we arrived, me with a french press of Pumpkin Spice coffee in hand, the galley was already abuzz with a flurry of activity between Ana Bianca and Alfredo, chopping vegetables and properly setting the table.  I didn’t even have to ask what we were having for breakfast, because I knew that with a Cuban in the kitchen, we were in quite good hands.  Months of dinners (and breakfasts’) at Luis’ had already taught us that.  Plus it was all we heard from Ana Bianca before meeting the infamous Alfredo months ago, how great his cooking skills were, and how every meal on Kajaya was a production in itself, candles even lighting the nightly dinner table.

Since we were actually their second date of the day, we were greeted with apologies of “Sorry, we were left with a little less time than we originally thought, so we’ll just be doing breakfast burritos today”.  Breakfast burritos with fresh salsa, scrambled eggs, and lightly toasted tortillas.  What was there to be sorry for?  Don’t they know we could live off fresh salsa, and the rest is just a bonus?  Although I have to say, on our dark overcast morning, the pumpkin spice coffee really did bring the meal together.  Luckily I had gotten the thanks I deserved because I had slaved minutes over making it.  I know guys, you’re welcome.

Through mouths full of food, where it was a combination of trying to stuff it down as fast as possible because it was so good, and then slowing to take 30 seconds to chew each bite since I knew that not only was it my last meal with them but also that there was only so much food to go around this morning, we chatted and laughed and swapped cruise stories such as the one of the woman who left her family of five to sail off with a middle aged man that had kindly befriended them in their travels.  Apparently ‘helping to up the anchor’ held two different meanings between the husband and wife.  We talked about future plans and where the next few years might land each of us, Matt and I hopefully in the Med for a good long while, and things still a little indecisive with their photojournalism work popping up here and there unscheduled.  I’m still hoping for a reunion in 2015, but we’ll have to see how things go.  Or, maybe even in Miami this winter.  Our tracks East are still completely up in the air.

All talk of the future stopped though, as soon as we came to dessert.  Nutella crepes.  Except, replace the crepe part with lightly toasted tortillas.  Some might consider this a step down, but it was perfect for me because now it means that I have found a way to make them myself!!  Without having to pull out my cast iron skillet that I begged Matt for last fall and has never once gotten any use.  No need to figure out how to produce delicate little crepes because that part has already been taken care of for me!  The last meeting of the breakfast club, and I was sent away with the best gift a girl could ever ask for.  A short cut on how to make a delicious dessert.  Or snack.  Or you know, we could even skip the meals and just go straight to the Nutella.