Confetti Cupcake Pop-Tarts: a terrible error

You might remember my previous Pop-Tart experience, but it is safe to say I have learnt nothing from that, as when I was in the grocery store the other day and noticed new Pop-Tarts then it was inevitable that I would buy them. Especially because they were covered in rainbow sprinkles. 

I present - Confetti cupcake flavour Pop-Tarts!

Confetti cakes, which are just white cakes with rainbow sprinkles in the cake and in the frosting, are fairly common here. You can get "Funfetti" mixes in the supermarket (I like the name and their rainbow-ness). They are highly colourful, but very mild in taste. So I figured it would just be a mild sweet flavour and I could totally polish off 8 Pop-Tarts. And how wrong I was.

The photos don't really explain the icky "birthday cake flavour". A lot of things are cake flavoured here, I have eaten birthday cake oreos (mint ones are far superior) and cake batter oreo ice cream from JP Licks (very batter-y in flavour and far superior to actual birthday cake oreos). However, these Pop-Tarts were a complete failure, filled with nasty cake-y flavour cream and bland sugary-ness. I swear I could feel my tongue drying out from all the sugar (like an osmosis thing?). So I took the bite that you can see in the top photo, broke a piece off for the second photo, then tried to make myself eat another bite, gave up and had a nice bowl of Weetabix (from Wholefoods, which also sells Nandos sauce! Joy!). One week later I accepted that I didn't want to eat any more cupcake Pop-Tarts and that I didn't know anyone who did. No more cupcake Pop-Tarts for me, I gave up and threw them out.

Shame I'm missing out on those eight vitamins and minerals. And all those weird colours. It would be nice to start each morning with a rainbow.

The Galaxy runs on Dunkin'

I have returned from my wanderings (which do not count as exploring, as I just returned to the original Cambridge, no Brave Explorer badges earned) and can report that in my absence there have been some pleasing donut developments:

1. Cherry blossom related donuts are OVER! *Dance dance dance* Although they were pink on the inside they were not very tasty.

2. The new Men In Black 3 promotion is most excellent and has brought a delicious new donut that is shaped like a star! And stuffed with a delicious chocolate goo. It also has star shaped jimmies.

Dunkin' donuts was my first stop on my Boston return. It was not a disappointment, due to the "Undercover Black Cocoa Creme" donut (the second best donut ever!). Coincidentally, the main Dunkin' rival, Krispey Kreme, was my first stop on UK soil. I used to love the Krispey Kreme at Terminal 3, particularly the lemon meringue doughnut, but US Dunkin' has ruined it forever.

As well as fancy new star shaped donut, there is a boring chocolate glazed one ("Chocolate lunarmax") and there is also special Black Cocoa Creme iced coffee, which tastes like "cookies and creme" according to the poster. I am not tempted. But, let's face it, it is probably just a matter of time. I'm going to crack on with some hula hooping now, in an optimistic attempt to avoid developing my very own spare donut.

St. Patrick's Day donuts

Good news everyone! The seasonal St. Patrick's donuts have appeared well before St. Patrick's Day, allowing me to have donuts last week! Yay! My particular favourite is the chocolate donut, with chocolate frosting and green sprinkles. The green sprinkles are mint flavoured, making it a chocolate mint donut! My ultimate donut surely! Actually, it isn't as tasty as the kreme filled, heart shaped donut - my one true donut love. 

You've got to eat your greens....

And just in case you think that the green donut is that green because of some kind of hipster instagram filter, allow me to show you a unmodified picture, with iced coffee for colour scale (you've got to have something for scale).

Have you seen Re-Animator? It's not far off being as bright as the day-glo re-animator fluid....

Luminous, eh? I feel I use the word luminous a lot in this country, particularly when talking about food. The other disturbing thing about the bright green donut is the fact it doesn't really have a flavour. The icing just tastes of sugar.

So I have obviously used up my seasonal donut allowance for March now. Sad face. However, I did learn something new in Dunkin' Donuts last week. Sprinkles here appear to also be known as "jimmies" (here is wikipedia proof!). I discovered this useful new word by eavesdropping on the man behind me in the queue asking for a donut with jimmies, and receiving one with sprinkles. New country = new language! Now I must find something with "jimmies" on, and try out the new word. Perhaps I do get to go to Dunkin' Donuts next week after all......

In other seasonal food news, McDonald's is doing a Shamrock Shake for March. It's very green and mint flavoured. A small one also has a staggering 540 calories. Don't worry. I'm on it. And I promise to go to the gym for an hour and a half afterwards. You can look forward to more brightly coloured photos of food in the future. Because I am the BRAVE EXPLORER! 

I'll adventure more soon - I promise.

Farewell donuts

I am giving up, or at least severely cutting back on the Dunkin' Donuts. Mainly because they are bad for my waistline, my wallet and my midmorning mood (Hello, Sugar crash!). So having decided to give up the donuts on anything but a special occasion (e.g. fancy white kreme filled heart shaped Valentine's donuts), my only reason for going to Dunkin' Donuts was to buy my nice iced coffee morning treat. However, I was basically unable to go into Dunkin' Donuts to get an iced coffee and not buy a donut or two. They have those big signs that you get in fast food joints advertising "combos" (1 bagel and a coffee $4!, 2 donuts and a coffee, $3.50!). I think I have spent too much time playing/watching people play computer games as when I see words like "combo" I kind of feel like I get more points when I get the combo. Even though clearly Dunkin' Donuts is the winner, as they get my coins, not the other way around.

Given that I do not have the will power to go to Dunkin' Donuts and just buy a coffee I needed to find a way to satisfy my need for caffeine in the morning. I have a nice pink cafetière that I use to make hot coffee on very cold days, but I tend to prefer iced coffee first thing in the morning. So I bought a special iced coffee making french press from Bodum. I like it, it's purple. I'll explain how it works properly at some later point, but the important point here is that I no longer have any excuse to go to Dunkin' Donuts (except for when there might be special edition donuts, like around St. Patrick's Day!). Thank you for the memories Dunkin'....

America runs on Dunkin'

Bye donuts... I'll miss you!

At least I have Lucky Charms and Smorz cereal at home. And Ice Cream Shoppe Pop Tarts!

Note the homemade ice coffee on the left! Victory is mine!

What are you drinkin'? Not Dunkin' anymore. I should go back and buy some coffee for brewing there. Everyone who works in there was very friendly to me, I really appreciated it when I first arrived and I would show up at Dunkin' really early in the morning because of the jetlag!

MIT Valentine

On Valentine's Day last week I woke up in my special, dancing Snoopy, Valentine's Day pyjamas.

I enjoyed looking at flowers in my new vase/old cold cup.

I ate my last heart shaped, kreme filled donut. In fact, I ate two (only 30 cents more than one).

I painted my nails to be pink and red. They matched my replacement cold cup. I thought pink and red nails would cheer me up whilst I was typing at work. They didn't.

It was all a bit depressing. My Valentine is far away.
So I was pleased to see this in the lift in the department.

Nerdy and not really romantic. But still sweet. Very MIT.

It made me laugh in the elevator at work on a day which felt a bit sad (which wasn't helped by the crazy donut sugar rush). Fortunately there wasn't anyone else in the elevator with me, although I imagine they would have laughed too.

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)