So in recent months, I’ve been going to have some sort of pho now and then. I’ve noticed that pho is a nice fellowship food largely because of its wide appeal and general availability. For some reason, Chinese people like pho a lot. Not only do we like it a lot, but it happens to be everywhere in Toronto and more importantly, it’s one of the few things that don’t suck in Waterloo, provided you go to the one near Conestoga (plaza pho is fairly garbage).

Usually, I go there just for an extra-large bowl of pho with everything in it. Raw beef, cooked beef, tripe, beef balls, everything. I mean, half the tastiness of pho is eating cow, so I like my pho to contain large sums of cow. However, one of the times I was in Waterloo, when my friends from Toronto were visiting, I decided to get one of those ominous mango milkshakes. This was not an unwise decision, considering that we were waiting there for over an hour.

Unfortunately, in terms of expense, the decision was unwise. It wasn’t that it wasn’t worth it. It totally was. I’m sure you’ve all had a milkshake before at one point. But this was a milkshake made of mango. Mangoes are the ultimate fruit. No other can rival it. So while your monotonous chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla milkshakes are quite tasty, mango milkshakes are clearly superior.

Of course, the problem now is that whenever I happen to traverse into a pho place to satiate my hunger for extra large quantities of beef in noodle soup, I am assailed by the temptation to get myself a tall glass of that delicious mangoey mango milkshake. It is quite a problem, since extra large pho is extra costly, so adding that to the cost of a super-tasty milkshake equals a large sum of money that I would rather not depart from my wallet so quickly.

But it’s so good. ;_;

So here I was, sitting around, trying to work on my history paper and trying to figure out what to eat. I decided that since I already had some specific noodles, I wasn’t going to have those. I would have liked some superior instant noodles, but I didn’t feel like having that specific taste. And then I got a brilliant idea.

The first thing is to say GTFO to the soup packet and sesame oil. I was quite honestly sick of that flavour for a while. But, I remembered being adventurous over coop, when my housemate stole my bowls and I was unable to eat any noodles with soup for a while. What I did was instead of using the default instant noodle flavour, I just put a pile of satay sauce and mixed it in with my beef balls and vegetables. That worked quite well, but I didn’t have a jar of satay here with me this term.

My alternatives were soy sauce, sriracha sauce, or Lee Kum Kee’s chili garlic sauce. I’d tried soy sauce before, and it was quite tasty, but it was also quite blood pressure inducing, as I’m sure with the amount I use, I take in about a family’s worth of daily sodium. I’d also figured that sriracha would be nice, but I wasn’t feeling in the perpetual burning mouth sensation. And I figured that, since I’m eating dumplings with my noodles anyway, I’d give the chili garlic a shot.

The nice thing about the chili garlic sauce is that it isn’t on fire like sriracha sauce. It’s also a lot sweeter and has a different texture to it because of the chili flakes in it. All in all, it was quite enjoyable, and works quite well.

You’d think that after a few times, I’d learn, but no. Because I didn’t want to blow $20 eating out, I got fish and chips at Kelsey’s. Every time I’ve eaten fish and chips, it’s always ended in me in saying never again. At the beginning, it’s great, with the deep fried fish and the deep fried chips. Those oily and crunchy fishies taste awesome. And then as you continue to eat it, you can feel your heart screaming in agony as you take another bite of oily goodness. And then all you can taste, whether it’s fish or chips, is oil. Oil, oil, oil. Eventually, you’re forced to either stop eating or have your heart drown in a sea of oils.

But, the four cheese spinach dip is full of good tasties. Deep fried pita thing is gold. I would have been happy just eating lots of that deep fried thing dipped in cheeses and spinach. Of course, I could imagine all of the oil from the deep fried stuff and cheese just flowing through the bloodstream. Not a happy thought if you’re into being healthy and living long.

You know those chocolate croissants that you find in those supermarket bakeries? They taste like crap. I don’t know what kind of chocolate they use on those things, but it always makes me feel sick. After trusting them and eating some every few years, I’ve learned (for now, anyway), never to eat those things, ever.

But today, I had the most amazing chocolate croissant ever. It was perfect. The chocolate wasn’t disgusting. It melted when it made contact with your skin and it tasted like quality chocolate, the stuff they never put on baked goods. The croissant by itself was incredibly tasty, not tasting all like butter like its lower-class, proletarian brothers. The problem with eating one of these things is that it’s probably clogged your arteries upon finishing that last bite. The other problem is that it’s really hard to eat neatly. Maybe it’s just me, but after I was done, I had a face full of chocolate.

In short it was a fine baked good. I think it’s from the new baguette place in STC in the upper level food court. The almond croissant was quite tasty too, just like the chocolate version without the chocolate. Sufficiently satisfying.

I’m Chinese. I eat with chopsticks, even though I can’t hold them properly. My parents told me about that too late. So occasionally, I’ll eat with spoons, usually for fried rice, or as a companion to my chopsticks when eating noodles or pho.

Now then, being Chinese, I grew up using those huge Chinese soup spoons with the thing you’re supposed to put your finger in. As I grew older, I was introduced to the other type of spoon: the metal spoon. Metal spoons have long handles and incredibly small capacity. I mean, the thing was about half a centimetre deep. That caused a lot of problems.

See, apparently, people use these metal things that can’t hold a lot to drink soup. That was physically impossible, I thought. A slight shake and whatever I was holding in the spoon spilled. Even, if it did reach me to consume, there wasn’t that much in that dinky little spoon. Not at all satisfying.

Nope, Chinese spoons are much better for any type of eating. Unless you’re into not eating, of course.