they’ve changed the tables (and chairs) since i was last at messina. the stools are now handsome bentwood affairs, and the tables are shiny oversized metal trays set precariously on spindly tripods (all the better, i suppose, to see how you look as you gorge yourself on the product).

the gelati, of course, is as delicious as ever. i still think about the triple chocolate extravaganza i had on my birthday last year. sigh… there are always more flavours on display than i know what to do with, and late this afternoon, barely two hours after weed strudel and exotic cream cake, i thought it might be unwise to have more than, ahem, two.

we were meeting with the artist formally known as “the little matchboxgirl” for a gelato date, and by coincidence found ourselves on the same bus hurtling out of the city towards darlinghurst. the kid rummaged in her handbag for a comic she had made specially for the occasion, and was quite matter-of-fact when sonya immediately handed her a baggie full of tiny tchotkes in exchange. a little later at the shop, maeve sidled up to me and offered, sotto voce, “i like sonya.”

the kid is mostly guided by colour when it comes to icy desserts. sometimes she will surprise me with a left-of-field request for passionfruit or green tea, or — once, confoundingly — mint-chip, but more often than not, it’s a choice between this pink one or the other. this time she picked the only pink available: raspberry.

i always want a scoop of coconut and lychee at messina, but there is always something new i want to try that won’t match, and so i have spent the last few years coconut-and-lychee-less. this time i picked burnt fig jam, walnut and mascarpone because i thought i ought to, for research, and pavlova because it looked so cheery. you may argue that those two flavours do not match, but anyway.

it wasn’t surprising that the fig, walnut and mascarpone gelato was figgy, and walnutty, and extremely rich and creamy from the mascarpone… truly it was a proper grown-up flavour with undertones of seriousness. by comparison, the pavlova gelato was light and charming, milky with highlights of tart berries and tangy passionfruit.

in a cruel twist of fate, sonya did choose the coconut-lychee, but began by eating the chocolate fondant. i’ve had that chocolate fondant gelato; it means business! it fills your mouth with a voluptuous chocolatiness, and once you eat it, you can’t really have anything else in the same sitting. and so it came to pass that the scoop of coconut-lychee sat forlorn in the paper cup as the kid and sonya merrily swapped ballet stories in the balmy breeze.

next time, coconut-lychee, i promise i’ll choose you.