Hot fudge sundae ice cream shoppe pop tarts

I know that pictures of food bought in a supermarket and consumed in my room don't quite fit the premise of the blog, i.e. that blogging will force me to explore Boston. However, I propose that eating food which is so very colourful is a *type* of exploring. 

They contain 8 vitamins and minerals, so are clearly good for me. There's even a helpful graphic on the box drawing my attention to it, so it has to be a good fact. I find it really funny that they actually contain the same number of vitamins as the number of toaster pastries that you get in a packet. Even better, there are fewer vitamins and minerals in the pop tarts than there are added colours, of which there are 9 with names like Blue #2 Lake and one hopefully more natural one -  "Caramel Color". 

Let's look at what's actually in a pop tart in more detail.... I am worried I should have left this until I had finished the packet. The 8 vitamins and minerals (plus and one extra) that you get are (with RDA in brackets); Vitamin A (10%), Vitamin C (10%), Calcium (10%), Iron (10%), Thiamin (10%), Riboflavin (10%), Niacin (10%), Vitamin B6 (10%), and Folic acid (10%). Why are they all at 10%? What are the chances? Is it a rounding thing? Does the nutritional information just have to show everything to the nearest 10%? Also, note the swooshy white thing in the picture saying a pop tart is a good source of calcium. I find this surprising, as even if you eat 2 pop tarts for breakfast you only get 20% of your calcium. At least you also get 20% of your calorie allowance too, so you're not out of balance. In fact, if you only ate pop tarts for those 2000 calories you would get 100% of the previously listed vitamins and minerals! And 100% of your saturated fat allowance! You'd also need to buy another packet of pop tarts as they only contain 8 "toaster pastries". 

I sensibly only ate one of the crazy pop tarts. Although I did eat it for pudding and not for breakfast, so I probably lose some health points there (maybe lose some *more* health points, as I must already be down for just consuming pop tarts). Once it was out of the packet it was clear why there were so many colours on the ingredients list. 

I mean, look at the sprinkles! So neon. It was impossible to really take a picture of the insides, but they were pleasingly filled with a mild vanilla-ry cream like substance (probably a kreme) and not some kind of rainbow explosion. I am relieved that my dental insurance card has come now, because even though I don't intend to buy any more pop tarts I feel that 16 of these guys might do some damage. Strangely the box doesn't announce that 12g of sugar is 30% of my maximum sugar allowance. At least they have 10% of my daily calcium in them though, to fight the tooth decay.

Does instagram make it more palatable? You can pretend the colour comes from a hipster filter...

I mean, good grief! I must never eat pop tarts without also drinking a glass of milk and brushing my teeth sharpish. 

I wonder how long the packet will last? What do you think? 

As a guide, the Lucky Charms are now all gone, so pop tarts are the sweetest breakfast foodstuff available. But they are also a bit too sweet. And a bit nasty.

P.S. Do you like the way the MacBook makes a pretty pop tart background? It owes me after being so expensive this week. Stupid new battery.  

P.P.S. Soft kitty! Homesick is a type of being sick. 

The best housewarming gift ever!

Update (April 2012): Probably if you are not into Police Dog Lego the best housewarming gift is a framed map of the world or the country that you're living in. I got an excellent USA map decal from Amazon, which has brightened up my dorm room no end and helps me to learn about the country I now live in!

Last week, whilst we were hanging out together on Skype, Mat ordered me a present from Amazon. Ever since, he has been asking me if it has arrived, often with cryptic comments like "Make sure you don't open it in the office". He has also been saying things like "You'll know what it is as soon as you see the box". However, it is worth noting that I didn't manage to guess I was getting a Kindle for my birthday, despite being in the car when one of our friends turned to Mat on the day the Kindle was delivered (i.e. sometime before my birthday) and said to him "So, how do you like your Kindle?". I am not good at spotting clues as to what gifts will actually be.

The box arrived today and it looked so much like a normal Amazon box I didn't bother to take a picture (and I am taking a lot of photos at the moment). Worryingly the box even rattled a bit as I shock it... which made the fact that I was going to end up opening the present in from of Mat via Skype a little worrying - suppose it was broken? Fortunately the boring Amazon box contained the most exciting Amazon gift ever, and it was one which is meant to rattle!

LOOK! IT'S A LEGO POLICE MINIFIGURE COLLECTION! SCREAM!

I LOVE IT!

Look! It's the amazing police dog!

So, admittedly it's kind of an in-joke, but I have been looking up this range of Lego stuff on Amazon so much that Amazon has been sending me increasingly targeted ads, finally culminating in one with the subject "LEGO City 7285: Police Dog Unit"all about the police dog set. I am very keen on the Lego police dog after seeing a program on television about how they designed the Lego police station.

But the reason Mat got me the minifigure collection and not the police dog set (with dog transporting van) is the guys in the photo below. The swarthy criminals. 

You see, the last night before I left the original Cambridge for Neo-Cambridge we went to TKMaxx, probably so I could obsess about suitcases or something. It's right next to Toy'R'Us, so we popped in to look at the Lego city police station (isn't it cool? Aside from all the bricks with only one use). And we'd looked at all the police sets and I'd decided that the police dog set was boring, despite including the dog, and clearly the multi mini figure set was the best as that had a dog AND other exciting figures. And that was before I knew it came with a comic, from which I have recreated a few panels here.

I love the comic because the police dog catches onto the crime before the police officers

Thanks Mat! It's perfect. I am stupidly excited for someone so far above the recommended 5-12 year old recommended age range.

Mostly, since I arrived in Boston, I have been eating

The student center at MIT has a 24 hour Dunkin' Donuts. I lasted approximately three days before I became aware of this fact, which is surprising as I am normally almost preternaturally good at locating junk food outlets. I can already locate three Starbucks within a mile, I know where McDonalds is and have been to nearly every Chipotle in the walkable/T-able Boston area. I have been here for less than two weeks. However, now I know about the Dunkin' Donuts I am there most mornings, buying my iced coffee with milk (things picked up when I realised milk was option and it wasn't just black coffee or coffee with cream). I've provided an illustrative figure on the left, because I have to justify all the pictures I'm taking of food somehow.

Instagr.am-ed patriotic sprinkles donut. Note the star sprinkles
and how hipster Instagr.am makes me - my new life is so cool.

Unfortunately the donuts are tempting (notice the paper bag in the illustrative figure). My first Boston donut was, appropriately, a Boston Kreme Donut (oh good grief, the nutritional information is not obvious in store, this is not California! Why did I have to look that up on the internet? The truth is inescapable now). Boston Cream pie is relatively famous - here is proof in the form of a wikipedia article. My first Boston Cream pie experience actually occurred in Santa Barbara, California, (nearly 5 years ago!) but I have subsequently had one in Boston and they're pretty good. And so, when I saw Boston Kreme (not cream) donuts on the menu at Dunkin' Donuts I thought I should try one - it would be a traditional foodstuff, I would be *exploring* my new territory.... The Boston Kreme Donut is a custard filled, chocolate frosted donut. It is not exactly a breakfast item. Obviously I thoroughly enjoyed the sugar and caffeine roller coaster and so I have been returning to the donut shop most mornings. The cereal I have in my room at the moment isn't much better to be totally honest; Lucky Charms (heavily depleted, also note the banner at the bottom right hand corner of the link-"Hey Kids, this is advertising!"), Honey Nut Cheerios, Chocolate Frosted Mini Wheats and low sugar (?!) apple and cinnamon porridge. One of these items is not like the others... In my defence I haven't bought Pop Tarts yet, even though there is a hot fudge sundae flavour (note that it is naturally and artificially flavoured), and I also have not bought the following cereals: S'mores cereal (styled as Smorz), Brownie cereal, Cookie cereal, Fruity Pebbles, Tony's Turboz (but only because I haven't seen the last ones - don't worry Ali, I'm looking).

As if eating a donut for breakfast wasn't bad enough I have now discovered that it only costs an extra 30 cents (or some other amount made of smallish coins I don't yet understand) to have TWO donuts instead of one. It's a slippery slope. And EVEN WORSE, they have started to do a Valentine's special donut, which is shaped like a heart, has chocolate frosting AND chocolate chips and is filled with that unnaturally bright white, sweet, totally non-dairy "cream" (or kreme at Krispey Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts). You know, the kind of filling you get in Twinkies, a sugary snack food so unnatural that a) I won't eat them and b) they are a subplot of post-apocalyptic film Zombieland, due to their ability to not decompose, or really even change at all over time. There is even a *really, really* BRIGHT pink donut that is also shaped like a heart (I haven't tried that yet! Maybe the "kreme" filling is strawberry flavour?)

I obviously have to cut back on the donuts. Especially the unnaturally luminous/flavourful ones. I'm thinking once a week, and only buy one? Does that sound reasonable?

♥ I HEART YOU, lovely kreme filled chocolatey donut ♥ 

Donuts tried to date: Boston Kreme, Jelly Stick (ug - terrible), Sprinkles, Chocolate Heart (comfortably the most unnaturally delicious - good thing it's seasonal)