Bali Banana from a Good Friend

Once, during those hectic time of my line training with Air Asia, a good friend of mine visited me at my working place. He goes by the name Dito, a former classmate who is currently working with Air Asia as well and based at Denpasar, Bali. I was busy preparing the flight data for my next sector when I heard this familiar Javanese accent lingering at the cockpit door. Could it be, I thought to myself. I was damned sure that it was him - because my auditory system excels most compared to my other functioning system, so I can recognize and memorize sounds well. And, just when I finished setting up my FMGC, I turned my gaze around and found him smiling and waving at me. I couldn't help but to scream with joy because it felt so good to reunite with an old friend.  

After the breakup, I've developed this new habit of turning my cellphone off every time I fly, including that day. Turns out, Bli Dito knew in advanced that I was coming to Denpasar from his duty schedule, which has my aircraft registration and my name in it. He took the liberty to notify me before hand through LINE that we were going to meet. "See you on board," he said, which I noticed later on when I turned my cellphone on to snap pictures of us inside the cockpit. We ended up exchanging quick updates about our lives despite the super short ground time. 

Like the usual caring and generous Bli Dito, he gave me a bag of souvenir just before the door closes. "For you to enjoy, Ket," he said, "send my regards to your parents.". He bid his goodbye and I bid mine. In a snap of a finger, the flight attendant closed the door and the aircraft was being pushed back. He stood there under of the aircraft nose, waving his hands whilst smiling, which I replied with an overly excited waves despite the fact that I was flying with an instructor. Couldn't care less, tho. I was dead happy to meet a familiar face in a such strange environment.

During the next few hours of my flight, I was content. Didn't do the flight as stressful as my previous flights as I was in a good mood. Despite the fact that my landings were still not center lined, I managed to do well on my flight and did a proper calculation of my descend profile. Then, I went home to my Mom and we opened the souvenir together. Well, what do you know, it's a banana cake!

Unlike any other banana cake I've had before, Bali Banana's banana cake was slightly different as it was sprinkled with toasted pastry flakes on the surface of the cake. Garnished with chocolate streaks, Bali Banana made sure that its' cake was eye-catching and appealing to the eyes of its' consumer. As Mom was slicing the cake, I notice a green paper lying on the bottom of the plastic bag. I took it out, and it was a note from Bli Dito. 

This banana cake from Bali Banana is very soft, with a slight hint of chewiness here and there. The chocolate accent blended nicely with the banana flavor, and the toasted pastry flakes give a nice subtle change to the monotonous texture. They were slightly savory and buttery, adding a more variant flavor to the whole being of the cake. 

Now, I believe I had told you in some of my blog posts about how I like to eat my chocolate, or ice cream, with something to chew on, like chocolate sprinkles, or crushed peanuts, or biscuits chunks, or shredded orange peel; the same goes with this cake. It's already delicious the way it is, but the pastry flakes and the chocolate streaks made it more enjoyable to eat.

P.S. Thanks for the cake, Bli Dito! Stay safe, and I hope we'll meet again when I have the chance to fly to Denpasar.