A toast to Coke Light

I've become a "semi-regular" at a nice Seattle restaurant up the street from my work. By semi-regular, I mean that I've eaten there about a half-dozen times and after one particularly loquacious lunch, I'm now on a first-name basis with the two main servers. It is a vaguely continental and entirely charming place called Boat Street Cafe. It has things like crustless quiche and flourless cake, dishes that I'm sure are are all the better for the things they do not have. My favorite entree is egg, spinach, ham and buttery crumbs. It's the only one I've had. My taste, while being dragged toward the realm of sophistication by my partner and coworkers, is for the familiar. For a girl who, left to her own devices, gravitates toward Taco Del Mar, Boat Street is different - but delicious. I feel like a grownup when I eat there. (In the interest of full disclosure, and to the surprise of anyone who knows me, Boat Street is the kind of restaurant I only go to when I can "expense" it, i.e., dine there for business reasons.)

I wash my ham, eggs, spinach and buttery crumbs with Coke Light. Which is like Diet Coke, but cooler since it comes in a bottle and it's not American. I usually drink my soda in plastic cups, so this is a pleasant change of pace. It also tastes different. Because it is different, I learned via my friend Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke): it's sweetened with a blend containing cyclamates, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium. Mmmm.

One other thing: I prefer fountain Diet Coke to canned. And now I know why: fountain DC is sweetened with saccharin, and I'm a saccharin girl. Now I just need to figure out how to get a fountain in my home. I bet it's not that hard. I see that the Costco Business Center, just down the hill, sells DC syrup.