Banana Cream Pie

Ritesh was watching the Food Network the other day (when we still had the TV connected due to the inauguration - it has meanwhile been unplugged), and on one show people were talking about some of the best things they had eaten in their lives, ever, anywhere. And one guy mentioned as the best thing he'd ever eaten in his entire life the banana cream pie at a place called Bandera right here on Wilshire, three blocks from our house.

Now you have to understand that Ritesh loves loves LOVES banana cream pie, and that he has been cursed with a wife who'll bake him any variety of Germanoid chocolate-cherry cake including a full-blown Black Forest Cherry Cake from scratch, and who's made him banana bread and even banana oatmeal, but who's been singularly sheepish about the prospect of making a banana cream pie (I'll have to learn, I know, I promise I will). All this to say, the prospect of the world's best banana cream pie just around the corner triggered Ritesh's decade-long deprivation as well as my guilt over it and propelled us over to Bandera right the next day.

And here is is, the famed banana cream pie. Ho hum. Not bad. Really, it was perfectly respectable, apart from the fact that the custard wasn't banana flavored, which is the way Ritesh likes it. It was just a plain vanilla custard, and the only thing that made it a banana cream pie were the banana slices on top. My original peeve was that I thought they used whipped cream out of a spray can, which just doesn't taste as good as freshly whipped cream, but I have meanwhile had a couple of comments from someone who works at Bandera and insists it is indeed fresh whipped cream and not from a can. So take note that my impression may have been wrong.

We were a little disappointed at not being blown away, but that was a function of overblown expectations - it was really a very decent pie. What we couldn't get over, though, was that this was the best thing this food network guy had eaten in his entire life... I mean, come on! Not just the best banana cream pie but the best thing out of all foods, ever? What does this guy live on? Just goes to show, TV is full of crap.

an ok mojito, at Bandera.