Mind Trix...

No, not the cereal. I don't think I'm very fond of the Trix cereal.

I just got into the habit of writing "x" instead of "cks" or "ct". For example: connexion, blox. This way, I save a second when I write notes. Yay! Plus, I'm moshing together Ye Olde English and txting eng. I'll try stay away from that on this "grammatically correct" [but politically incorrect and socially awkward, and thus, potentially grammatically incorrect] blog.

Anyway, I think this image is a mind trick, because you THINK it's a typical generic burger on a tasteless bun with plastic tomatoes and leathery lettuce, and you THINK that those are prefrozen waffle fries, and you THINK that I'm sitting in a shady diner somewhere.

And, yeah, it's a burger, MADE OUT OF SPICY BEANS AND OTHER YUMMY STUFF SANS ANIMAL PIECES! And, yes, it's a lame tasteless bun that is saturated with mustard and ketchup [I really need to ask whether the chocolate milk, ketchup, jam, and peanut butter here has HFCS. I really need to know. I'm dying to know. Literally. I'm going to get mercury poisoning if I don't! Actually, I don't believe in the previous statement; it's just something that extremists have been screaming about for the past month or so. I'm lamely trying to make fun of them]. The tomatoes are fresh, and I saw a cook sticking fresh lettuce into the containers yesterday, which shows that this lettuce isn't seven days old. Which is quite reassuring. And, yeah, those are waffle fries [I love waffle fries. They just make fries so much more aesthetically pleasing], but they're most likely made from cut-up pieces of potato the same day they are drenched in oil, as the advertising in the cafeteria so audaciously announces... And yeah, I'm in 1920 Commons, which could be considered a shady diner. Especially when I'm sitting on the barstool chair staring out of the window, or lounging in a diner booth, alone, eating breakfast food at dinnertime [or vice versa. It works either way]. It gets really empty and shady at around 10 minutes before closing... it's when people look at you strangely when you decide to go in, because why would anyone want food 10 minutes before closing?

It's even worse when I'm alone, which tends to be the case since I haven't made friends yet. Or, at least, friends who eat at the same time as me. My schedule is quite horrific.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes!

It's actually the 19th but I shall post this as the 18th.

For dinner I went out to eat pancakes with BV. We went to the Ritz Diner... because where else do you find chocolate chip pancakes at 8pm? Yes, PM, not AM. An amazing but sugar-crashing-filled meal. Seriously, by the time I was halfway through the pancakes, I had a huge sugar rush and I felt all hyper and sleepy at the same time. Which is how I felt on the night of graduation. Anyway.

When the waitress asked us what we wanted and we both said pancakes [I got two pancakes, he got three. I know that three is a LOT of pancakes, since last time, I got three blueberry pancakes and even though my brother ate some of it, we still didn't finish it...so that's my experience with food from the Ritz. It's a rule. You can't finish a plate of it in one sitting. This was proven true again since BV didn't finish his pancakes, and nor did I. Again.]

The chocolate chip pancakes are fabled to be amazing. That's what I had learned from people but not from experience two years ago from after Counties in Spring Track. I personally think that they are deliciously fluffy pancakes [not boiling-water-spattering like the blueberry ones] and not too sweet, which meant that the syrup filled all the spongy cavities in the dough. They were also neither extremely eggy nor gluteny, which I like. I noticed that the chocolate chips only appeared on the underside of each pancake, though, which I suppose helps the chocolate chips not stick to the griddle.

The people at the Ritz are nice.

Amazing day.

Breakfast at the Comfort Inn

I'm still talking about Boston. Eh, I suppose it's a good thing since I haven't actually eaten anything worth noting, except half a "German Apple Pancake" from the Ritz yesterday with EY, but since I had run there, I didn't bring a camera.

The breakfast at the Comfort Inn was nice, considering that for the past two days, I had been eating stale raisin bagels and mini muffins at the other hotel... with utterly no nutritional value. I went ellipticalling at around 7am since I hadn't run in AGES but I was honestly really tired. Anyway. I ended up drinking a ton of milk and eating a lot of food.

They had these egg patty thingys, which is basically a thin cylinder of some egg material that you microwave for 45 seconds and stick between some toasted English muffins. Come to think of it, I have no idea what that egg patty is. It could be leftover egg pieces from the day before, mashed together and pressed through a mould. It could be some premade egg and maltodextrin mixture. There's probably PHO in it. I don't want to think about it. I love toasted flour products! I ate a piece of processed cheese in the sandwich even though I dislike processed cheese... but I suppose this is some sort of comfort food, since way back when I actually like Mc.D in HK, my brother and I used to get this if we were early enough to get to the shopping centre before 11am. Usually we weren't.

They had a waffle maker so I made some waffles which were really airy and too crispy for me. They actually tasted like inflated wafers without the layered creamy filling. Which I guess wasn't too bad.

Waffle maker!

My brother didn't finish half of his cinnamon bun so I ate it. It was too bready so it conflicted with my previous cinnamon bun experience at Cinnabon, where the cinnamon bun was like a huge buttery pudding thing with an avalanche of icing.

Another sandwich, because I got bored of waiting for the rest of the family. It didn't help, though, because I ended up making tea for my grandpa, coffee for my dad, and waitressing pieces of bread and waffle around to them. Even though we were literally 3 steps away from the food table.

One thing I don't understand: I used one plate. One cup. Everyone else in my family is INCAPABLE of using one plate and one cup. They all used at least three plates. Maybe three cups. One for juice and one for milk and one for tea, I suppose. I don't understand, because I usually eat more than the other members of my family do. So, if using ONE plate and ONE cup is so simple for me, why is such a difficult task for them!? It's not even like what we were eating was going to ruin a plate by drenching it in gravy or something. Like I said, when I go to college, I'm just going to bring my own ceramic plate/mug and metal spoon and try set an example so that we, as consumers, won't be so wasteful.

Berry Nice Morning.

With ice cream dollop.
Without ice ceam dollop.

I'm gonna let two grad parties slide [too many pictures]... and instead talk about berry pancakes and smoothies. Yesterday morning, my brother and I went to JM's house to make some berry smoothies for breakfast and watch the movie 21. We brought along a lot of raspberries, some gooseberries, and a few blueberries from our yard. JM has this mulberry tree, so the smoothies we made ended up being berry berryful. Actually, I can't really take credit for what JM's sister and my brother made, with milk and ice and berries. Oh, and maple ice cream, once we realised that the smoothie tasted way too sour without a shot of sugar.

JM and I, on the other hand, made some berry pancakes with the leftovers. We used this flat-pancake recipe but omitted the baking powder because apparently last time, the pancakes had turned out sour. JM actually has a griddle! GRIDDLES ARE AMAZING! Although I never butter or oil the pan when making pancakes, JM does. I personally didn't see much of a difference...

The only problem with not having some sort of raising agent was that they tasted more like crepes, and the berries had to be flattened in order to actually get something that looked uniformly flat. Actually, we had dumped in too many berries in the first place, and there proberry ["probably"] was more berry than batter. I liked that they weren't sweet, though.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning :)