The Recipe For Happiness

<img alt="perilla.jpg" src="http://suttonfirstchurch.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/perilla.jpg" width="250" height="187"

As I learned on Saturday night, happiness is a very straightforward concoction. It's comprised of four key ingredients: starch, fat, sugar and alcohol.

I know this because I found myself in a state of unhappiness on Saturday night and fortuitously discovered the recipe by accident.

The evening had been going swimmingly, catching up with my friend Kendall over Roasted Cornish Hen and Grilled Treviso Radicchio at Bellavitae in the West Village.

Then we made a wrong turn. A very wrong turn. A turn downstairs to the performance space at The Cornelia Street Cafe, where we had expected to see the advertised jazz chanteuse Gretchen Parlato along with bassist Alan Hampton. Sadly, the performance was a disappointing game of bait and switch. Ms. Parlato only sang one song during the set. For the rest of the hour we were subjected to the whiny musical renderings of Mr. Hampton.

To make matters worse, I was foolish enough not to have ordered alcohol when the waitress came by before the set.

That situation needed to be remedied -- quickly. Alas, the space was so small and intimate that Kendall I felt obligated to stay until the set was over. But, no sooner were lights turned back on then we hightailed it out of the cafe and around the corner to Perilla for liquor and solace.

Grabbing two seats at the bar (pictured above), the bartender immediately assessed that we were in dire need. Two cocktails were placed in front of us. Then, a stroke of genius, she set the dessert menu there as well. This was service at its finest. We didn't even take a minute to peruse the list and let her order.

Soon a platter arrived, cradling four warm, sugar-coated Vanilla Scented Doughnuts. Their honeyed perfume clung in the air, as we dipped chunks of the sweet, puffy dough into the Meyer Lemon Curd and Dark Chocolate Ganache that accompanied the dessert.

Heaven!

Suddenly all was right with the world again.

And, now I know the cure for all that might ever ail me: starch, fat, sugar and alcohol. A happy foursome, indeed.