Chocolate... not chip cookies

It would seem that there are people who are somehow offended by some of the things my friends and I make. Yes, part of it is because we're curious as to how it'll turn out, if it's even edible, or if one of us is stupid enough to eat it as a challenge, but part of it is simply that we actually enjoy eating this stuff. Listen, I realize that the internet is a precious commodity (not to mention very serious business), and I'm sorry if you believe I'm wasting your bandwidth, but until my inevitable heart problems catch up to me, my posting will continue. Or until I'm broke. That might come sooner. Without further adieu, I present something that we made looooong ago... assorted candy cookies. Hmm, maybe I need a better name for that. I don't actually recall the specifics of us deciding to make a batch of these, it might've been fueled by a candy surplus. Anyway, onto the specifics.



First you start with a giant batch of candy. I um... somehow fall into mass quantities of candy bars and M&M's. It's just one of those things that's always in our suite, guaranteed. In fact, there's a bag of probably 20 or 25 bags/bars of candy in one of our closets right now. Between Twix, Butterfingers, M&M's (peanut, dark chocolate, and regular), Snickers, and all the usual suspects, we have a fairly diverse selection to choose from, but let's be honest, eating chocolate by itself gets boring at some point, and I do use food as a means to relieve stress from school.



With a dough recipe lifted from 'The Girl Who Ate Everything,' a bit of everything went in to replace the chocolate chips. Broken Twix bars, some remnants of Butterfinger filling, Snickers, M&M's, Almond Joy and Mounds both, and I think some Milky Way, all of them found their way into our batter. There was a concern that the chocolate and caramel bits would burn well before the dough counterpart baked to completion, so we scaled back the temperature to 275 and let it sit in the oven to cook on latent heat. For some reason, the picture above makes them look really flat (and yes I fail at portioning/spacing), but the end result was a fairly moist, almost cake like cookie. The candy bits more or less all melted into the dough, so there wasn't any hard shell like remnants from the Butterfingers or the M&M's. All in all, it was a pretty pleasant experiment, that I would most likely repeat. Nothing overly heavy, but definitely not something I'd want to have on a nightly basis.
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Canadian take on donut burgers

I've done this before previously. When I did this the first time at the beginning of the year, I had sworn that I wouldn't do this for a long time. You feel tremendous eating the 1st one, but by the 2nd you begin to feel it, and by the 3rd, you just feel awful. It really makes you wonder how something can taste so amazing, but 5 minutes later... is the last thing you want to look at. Anyway, more than a few people got pissed off at me for not inviting them for the first go, so it was more or less a given that we had to give donut burgers another shot (I was also chastised for calling them 'Luther Burgers' when I didn't use Krispy Kreme, so I'll avoid that this time).



Like I said, a Canadian take on this abomination. Last time we used Dunkin, I think because there was a sale. Well, we were in midtown, and I love me some Tim Horton's. Mostly for their coffee ice cream drinks, but this was a mission, with a single thing on mind... donuts. It was kind of embarrassing when we walked in and just started saying... "We'll take all of the honey glazed, and um... all of the vanilla frosted... and all of those too." Whatever, in the end we walked out with some 24 donuts, since we figured about 3 or 4 per person (and some that would inevitably be eaten prior to cooking).



We used just over 3 pounds of ground beef for 15 burgers (yes 9 donuts disappeared mysteriously... ~weird). Just about a quarter pound per, it was appropriately sized given the small diameter of the donuts. My hand is there for size comparison. Like I've said previously, I have small hands, but not comically small, so that's a fair amount of ground cow.



Holy crap those were good. Chris mixed it up with the double chocolate and honey glazed for a little bit of mixed action. We chose American cheese (not because it was preferred, it was just really cheap), but it worked well. The classic honey glazed were what you'd expect, overly sweet, with an overwhelming amount of oil spilling out of the homemade patties. The vanilla frosted ones were similar, slightly cloying with the amount of sugar present between the frosting and the glaze. Like I said, the winner was probably the double chocolate mixed with the honey glazed. Since the double chocolate donut uses a non-glazed cake base, it was just slightly bitter, and managed to hit the perfect spot in terms of sugar. Sigh, where am I gonna find friends who are willing to indulge in my stupid food experiments like this at Penn? I'm kinda sad that I'm graduating (as much as I hate Columbia).

On a side note, why am I getting so many visitors from NYU lately (end creepy stalker questions)?
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Bacon pizza (not what you'd think)

So now that I've finished my backlog of posts on Taiwan, I can finally get around to posting about the stuff that I actually ate during the year (not overly exciting for the most part). My suitemate and I got into a lot of baking at the beginning of the year, so I'm probably going to knock out those things first. This list... starts with a bacon pizza. What you see above is the final product. Although I must warn you that when I say bacon pizza, it's not as simple as it seems. Since we made this from scratch, we were able to take some, let's call them liberties.



We first started by making dough from scratch. With a recipe borrowed from somewhere on the Slice website. Really simple, basically the standard mix of flour (although we had to use a lot of whole wheat when we ran low on white), sugar, salt, yeast. Mix it all together, beat the crap out of it and let it rise. Since this was in the dead of winter (yes, a long time ago), and Columbia doesn't know how to regulate heating/cooling relative to the seasons, we borrowed the heat lamp from our turtles to make our dough rise. SORRY GUYS!



While we were waiting for our dough rise, and oh did we wait, we prepped a full package of thick cut bacon. By our estimation, the baking time in the oven wouldn't suffice to cook through the bacon, and we wanted a crispy topping, not a soggy strip of bacon that wouldn't break. Let's be honest, the thought of gnawing on semi-cooked strips of pork fat isn't very appetizing.



We also took some sweet Italian sausage and separated it from the casings, crumbled it, and pan fried it until it was just browned. It was a group consensus that a single type of meat on pizza was somewhat weak. I think this was actually cooked in the bacon fat, so that it would infuse the flavor. To be completely honest, I don't think it made a difference, but it sounded good in theory.



What post of pizza baking would be complete without a picture of Chris shredding cheese (obviously taken without him knowing). I will probably be murdered in a few hours for posting this. Worth it.



And there is our crust, post rising, and post beating. It was recommended that the dough be separated into 3 smaller pizzas, but when we were rolling it out, it seemed to tear way too easily. In retrospect, post baking, it rose quite a bit, and even though our pan was way larger in area than a traditional circular pan, it would've been smart to split it into 2 batches. Whatever, it ended up being a super thick pizza, although it wasn't overly doughy. We would've eaten it one way or another, so it's really a moot point, but note to self... scale back dough for singular pizza. Oh, and if you have a really sharp eye, I'm sure you can notice that our crust is actually lined with bacon. That wasn't on purpose, I just did a craptacular job of tucking it in.



What post about baking pizza would be complete without a picture of Daven being 100% useless and continuously throwing up peace signs. If there were an award for the most Asian white person, he would win it. For real, his Chinese is probably as good as mine, and he's even better at Japanese.



And... the pizza ready to bake. We should've used green peppers. There's all too much red on this pizza between the sauce, sausage, and peppers. Did I mention that we used an entire pack of cheese on this beauty? I think the final thing probably weighed close to 5+ pounds between the dough, cheese, sauce, and other crap that we added. Easily finished between 3 (yes it was just the 3 of us... shut up). It was delicious and I kind of want to do this again before the end of the year. I'm also tagging this as a recipe (questionably haha).
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Chocolate pie... bar?

What happens when 3 ex-rowers get their hands on 20 candy bars (don't ask how or why I have so many candy bars lying around)? Of course something stupid. Somehow, between Chris, Dominic, and myself, we ended up with about 10 or so bars of Nestle Crunch, 7 or so bars of Hershey's bars, and 4 or 5 packages of peanut M&M's. Yes we could've gone the lazy route and simply shoved them in our mouths, which we've done before. Nope, we decided to get slightly creative (albeit nothing earth shattering) and we melted all our candy bars in a makeshift double broiler. We then crushed our peanut M&M's and layered a pie tin with them. Working in layers, we alternated between M&M's and melted chocolate before we were left with a full tin of melted chocolate. After 30 minutes of thumb twiddling, we took out our masterpiece and sliced it. This was the end result. It's basically a richer Crunch bar with peanuts in addition to rice. Again, nothing incredible, but the sheer scale of it was nice. Chris had 1/4, Dom had 1/4, and I had 1/4... and the last bit of it for breakfast. Breakfast of champions. Does this qualify as a recipe btw?

This is basically what Chocomize does, but with more exotic ingredients. Founded by former C150 rowers, so I felt I should at least support my former teammates.
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I like pie... I also like cookies

Inspired by this sweet ass idea... my suitemate and I wanted something super fat for superbowl Sunday. To be fair, we had ordered roughly $50 dollars worth of KFC and Chris was planning on making chicken skewers (which were incredible), so it's not like we weren't already acting like pigs... but we felt compelled to make this to push us over the edge. I had actually invited other people to come help make it, but me being an idiot... failed to take into account the preparation time for the dough. I refused to give up the idea of having a chocolate cookie pie though, so I did the most bootleg thing possible, and bought premade pie crust, and cookie dough in a tube. I know, I know... for shame. Some might even call me a 'loaf' haha (seriously though, that's the greatest insult I've ever come across... wtf do you even say as a response?). I didn't care. I just wanted chocolate chips, and cookie, in pie form.


There it is in its unbaked configuration. Seriously, we just took the pie crust, baked it for 3 or so minutes, and then put a layer of cookie dough in. We might've layered a thick layer of chocolate chips in between more dough. Just to make sure that we were extra heavy the next day. In an unrelated note, is there a reason Pillsbury calls their dough 'chocolate chip flavored cookies' instead of just 'chocolate chip cookies?' Is it because Nestle Tollhouse owns copyright or something? I'm genuinely curious.


Post baking. Fully risen. It was a gorgeous thing that... didn't taste all that great once it cooled. I mean, when it was warm, it was soft and gooey, everything you expect from a good chocolate chip cookie. The only drawback was the fact that the crust was kind of salty. Once it cooled, it got too crisp, and the crust would just break off when cutting. Know the reason why there's no picture of single slices? Because it's impossible to cut perfectly. Whatever, it tasted like it was supposed to, and that's all I care about. I might have to do a take 2 the proper way though... this failed experiment was enough to make me believe the real thing is 10x better.
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This is why I'm hot... I mean fat

I'm not actually sure how to tag this... does this count as a slice? Or a recipe? Anyway, I'm finally coming back to this post, partially because I'm bored, partially because it really annoys me to see a mishmash of pictures on the front page of my blog. Anyway, if you know me... you know that I jizz in my pants love the 'Spicy Special' at the deli found at 109th and Amsterdam. It's also no secret that I love Koronet's despite their absurd yearly price hikes (seriously, class of 2012 and on... you have no clue how glorious it was when the jumbo slice was $2.75). It would only make sense that the 2 things belong together, considering their close geographical vicinity. I can't claim credit for this, as someone on my team actually did this before I did, but I do have to say that the combo sandwich roll is a thing of beauty.


So this is how it works... two things that are incredible individually get rolled together. Simple as that. I know a lot of people find this disgusting, that the thought of a Koronet's slice is enough for a meal and then some. Same thing for the 'Spicy Special.' Well guess what, I'm a fatty and I happen to consider this a very balanced meal.



End result prior to rolling. Actually since then I've found a better way to do this (inspired by my ohsowhite friend Davenport). For each half of the sandwich, you cut the slice down the middle, parallel to the crust, not along the bias. By doing so, you can effectively roll the sandwich 1.5x around for a nice thin pizza shell. As far as how it tastes, imagine having tomato sauce and hot cheese before hitting a nice center crust of toasted bread... then reaching a perfect mix of mayo, pepper jack cheese, and hot turkey. It's pretty much like eating a pizza with the toppings of a sub... but with more carbs. If that doesn't sound awesome to you, then... I'm sorry, you're probably dead to me. The synergy of double cheese, and artery clogging oils is undoubtedly one of my favorite meals in Morningside. The kicker? Total price... $8.50.
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Pizza... take 2

So on another day of boredom, Chris and I decided to make another pizza. Partially because our first one was pretty damn awesome, but also partially because our crust was overly... pillowy the first time. Anyway, experimentation is always good. This time we found another pizza crust recipe, of which I'm not sure of the details (this was all Chris), which called for us to make our dough, let it rise, beat it down... basically the same routine as any other dough. This one differed from our last mainly because it asked us to bake for 15 minutes prior to adding sauce and cheese. So we went about our business, made our dough, heated it beneath the heat lamp (borrowed from the turtles), and baked it. Oh yeah, this time we had a pizza stone. Maybe that helped a little. Maybe.


See our dough... laid out freehand on the pizza stone, dusted lightly with basil and coated with olive oil (I think there's something I'm forgetting since I distinctly remember seeing Chris crumbling something). It looks so... naked. I failed to snap a picture of the baked crust, but there was a moment of worry when we saw a giant bubble in the oven. I proceeded to pop and flatten that, and also burn myself. My hand hates me btw. There's also probably the element of my impatience to add to that equation. I was in a real hurry to pile on sauce and toppings, so I completely forgot about pictures.


Look at Chris go. I don't think he ever realizes I'm taking pictures until they show up on my blog. For the record, if he looks dazed, it's because I had just woken him up 5 minutes before that so we could continue our pizza making.


Pizza is no longer naked. We liberally spread sauce, 1/2 a pound of mozzarella cheese (shredded by Chris), sausage, green peppers, and chunks of chicken breast. I know what you're thinking... this is stupid not too exciting, those are boring/traditional toppings. Well you know what? This is my blog, and I'll post stupid stuff as much as I want.


Into the oven that went, and 10 minutes later, we were greeted by this gorgeous, non-symmetrical pie. You know, I think I liked how this one looked better than the perfectly rectangular pie we were planning on making. It has character.

Also, btw... to the person who made me listen to Miley Cyrus/Taylor Swift... if you're reading this, I absolutely hate you. It's really embarrassing when someone walks in when I'm listening to 'Party in the USA.'
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Giant chocolate bar!

I've been told that I take things too far sometimes when it comes to food. That certain combos of flavors and ingredients shouldn't be mixed. Well, it should be obvious by now that there is virtually no standard for most of the people in my suite with regards to what we eat. If there wasn't enough proof of this already... yes, that is a triple decker sandwich made with peanut butter, frosting, and Nutella. It came about because we had left over frosting from a cake we made the night before (finished off in a single night between Chris, Daven, and myself, if I remember correctly), because Wayne graciously bought a jar of Nutella (gone within 2 days I might add), and well... peanut butter goes well on everything (if you say otherwise, we're probably not friends... and I hate you).


As if that weren't enough proof. That's a 5 pound bar of Hershey's chocolate. Courtesy of Chris. The rate at which it disappeared was incredible too. I think we got to the R within 2 or 3 days of opening it. Keep in mind that only 3 of us have been eating it on a daily basis. To answer the questions that you're probably asking, no I don't have a death wish, and I feel fine.
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More crap I eat at school (baking surprise)

More of a teaser post than anything, I'll update later on... if you can guess what it is (and you aren't already aware), then I'll give you a prize. Serious. In another installment of 'Crap I eat at school...,' Chris and I decide to make another dinner that I'm pretty sure almost every person we know would call disgusting. Our glorious concoction was one in which there was an overabundance of bacon, hot sausage, way too much bell pepper, and really a bit too much of everything. It was a starchy mess that, strangely enough, included graham cracker crust (meant for pie baking). Are you confused yet? Yeah so am I. In any case, we set out for Appletree Deli, our new go to supermarket (screw you Morton Williams and your outrageous price gouging! I'm well aware you get all your crap from Shoprite), and collected our ingredients and began to go to work. For the record, this wasn't some sort of intimate experience Chris and I shared alone, but rather... a gathering of 'has been' rowers, as we were joined by Davenport (who I should mention has the coolest name I've ever heard), and Dominic. Really it was a sausagefest brofest more than anything else.


I'm also including another photo of Chris', so whoever keeps clicking on his picture can continue clicking *wink. So I'm finally getting around to finishing this post. Have you figured out what we made yet? Yeah, homemade pizza. I actually have no clue what went into the crust, Chris handled that part, the toppings though... all me baby.


So yeah... we made a lot of dough, I think we actually doubled the recipe given on some random site. When it came time to roll it out into our baking pan, it felt really thin and weak. It was really a struggle to get it to stretch to the edges, but after baking, we realized we basically made a pan pizza. The dough was not as we expected at all... that is to say, thin, slightly charred, and kind of crunchy.


Um... this is my friend Daven. He is hands down the most Asian white person I know. He speaks Japanese and Chinese that could probably rival my own. How did I come across such a character? Former rower. In addition to being one of my favorite people to talk to about Japanese or Chinese culture, or random stuff in general, he's also one of the few people who will openly try virtually any Asian food I find. Oh, and he's also the jerk who started me on my killer 20k erg a day program last year. I really should thank him and Chris for helping me shed myoutterfatty. Look at the picture, did I mention he's really Asian?


Right before we shoved her in the oven. Just a final rundown on our awesome ass pizza. Start with enough dough for 3 pizzas and stretch them over a baking pan dusted with graham cracker crumbs (no flour, that can be construed as healthy). The dough should seem like it's not enough, but trust me, it's plenty. Top this with a full jar of pizza sauce... which I think was supposed to be enough for, you guessed it, 3 pizzas. Spread on half a pound of mozzarella... a.k.a. the entire package. This only happened because our 'back of the envelope calculations' suck ass (not mine, I never took Frontiers of Science). Throw on 3 strips of bacon, browned enough to crumble, stuff 4 more strips of bacon into the crust :D... secret twist there. Then brown an entire red pepper and 2 hot sausages in said bacon's fat, and throw all that on too. Bake for... I actually forget how long, until it looks right, and voila. You're well on your way to becoming obese.


There's the final product on the left, and the up close shot of the crust, so there's proof I actually stuffed bacon in there. How was it? Excellent. The crunchy bacon provided a nice contextual contrast to the soft pillowy crust we had made. The sausage and peppers gave just enough heat to offer a variation on plain bacon pizza, and the bacon in the crust... ugh, just a nice way to finish off a slice. Come to think of it, I wish every one of my meals ended with bacon. Oh wait...
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My heart still hurts

For the amazing conclusion to part 1... I present our dinner! So after we made our beef patties (cheaper this way, rather than buying premade burger patties), we began our cooking. I realize this was fully possible on a frying pan, but to ensure full meltage of both the glazes on the various types of donuts, as well as the cheese, we chose to go the George Foreman route. Plus, it seems like kind of a waste if we don't, since we have one sitting in our kitchen. In any case, 7 burger patties went on and cooked for just about 5 minutes. There was a moment of anxiety when we thought the patties were going to fall apart, but this quickly passed once we slapped on the cheese (muenster if you're curious) to act as a binding agent. Once the cheese got all viscous and whatnot (sorry, my chemE background is showing), bacon got slapped on a few selective burgers. Why only some? To be honest, we ran out... probably because I make disgusting peanut butter and jelly bacon and egg sandwiches sometimes. That deserves its own post. Back on point, we removed the burgers so as not to burn them, then began our assembly operation. I had previously sliced the donuts open, so all it required was flipping the donuts inside out and closing the grill. Out of the 4 with bacon, 2 went to the maple syrup glazed donuts, with the others going to the Bavarian cream and the strawberry glazed.


Look at that close up... way too much cheese btw, since I had anticipated our patties being, well, flatter. All was good though, it just meant that there was more to pull away in strands when eating. In addition, since we chose not to add eggs to our burger patties, it was essentially our adhesive.


So my personal favorite ended up being the strawberry glazed. The maple syrup was nice, but a little bit cloying (weird for me to be saying that). While the maple syrup flavor did shine through, I thought it more or less destroyed what semblance of flavor the bacon was supposed to bring to the show. The jelly donut was... meh? I mean, I can't say it was bad, they were all pretty good, but the jelly just kind of confused my mouth. It wasn't supposed to be tart, but it ended up leaving that odd aftertaste in my mouth. To be honest, I'm kind of on the fence about that one, meaning, I probably won't make it again. Bavarian cream... now this one was all Chris' idea, and I'm glad we did it. It was nice and milky, with the cream complementing the cheese oh so well. The muenster provided a nice kick, while the cream balanced it out, aside from the logistical difficulty of squeezing the cream out when grilling it, it was probably my second favorite. Now the strawberry... was winner, like the maple syrup donut in structure, it allowed for even browning on the flat interior, but... it offered a sweetness that was more subtle than that of the maple syrup, and a tang that wasn't offensive like the jelly donut's. It was the perfect blend of exotic and just enough artery clogging for me to deem it my favorite. Now the remaining votes... Chris said Bavarian cream (no arguments here, that's arguable), Wayne seconded strawberry, and uh... Han will eat anything that has calories, so his opinion is gonna get ignored.
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Disgusting things I eat at school (part 2)

What could you possibly make with these ingredients... donuts, ground beef, bacon, and cheese? Hmm... I'm sincerely curious (well not really since I already made them), but let me just say it was delicious. On a day where I was too annoyed to do anything, I decided to do the one thing that makes more sense to me than anything else. If you haven't guessed yet what I mean, I'm talking about eating. Given my personality though, it would be completely pointless to eat something normal like ice cream, pizza, or a cheeseburger. No, to alleviate my stress, I needed something that was so calorie dense, and so overwhelmingly fattening that it would clog my arteries melt my troubles away. So before Chris and I left to go get my new bike... a Cannondale Caad9 (they're not paying me to say this btw), I came up with a plan for an irregular dinner. On our way back, we collected our ingredients, which made biking back to the dorm a little bit more difficult, and we were on our way to culinary success (or I guess some people might say failure/disgust). On a completely unrelated side note, it might've taken me something like 12 or 13 years, but I've finally figured out how to ride without hands on a road bike. It's something that I could never do for fear of crashing, but it turns out that it's incredibly easy once you learn to overcome the fear of sitting up, double win? Anyway, wtf is it that we made?


Start with a dozen donuts (+1 since the guy at Dunkin gave me an extra for some reason... I think he might've been hitting on me, but that explains why there's a 'friend tag' on this post).

Continue by making 6 balls of ground chuck. I'd like to note that there is something like 1.6 to 2.0 pounds of meat in those 6 meatballs (which eventually became 7 when Han arrived). So yeah... 4 to 5 oz. per. These were made into perfect circles, because... well... look at Chris go to work on those balls!

This will continue when I decide to end your suspense, if you're friends with me on facebook, you probably already know what I made, in which case... stfu, don't ruin it for the other 20 readers I have hahaha. With that said, I have a favor to ask of my readers (not many of you), if you could introduce just 1 person to my blog... just 1 is enough... I can double my reader base! Maybe that's wishful thinking, but I like to think that there are actually people reading my senseless rambling, and even possibly enjoying reading it too (big LOL at that). In any case, thanks?
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What do I eat at school?

Well since I can't sleep (don't ask why, I should be tired as a dog), I figured I'd make a short blog post on what I eat at school... i.e. what I normally eat when I'm not wasting money like water. Well, that's kind of a stupid statement. I eat like any college student, which is to say, I'm always on the lookout for free calories, be it in the form of pizza, cupcakes, or handouts (wink wink to anyone near Columbia). When I'm in the suite with my suitemates, my meals usually consist of cereal, oatmeal, toast, or carbs of some variety. Not very interesting. Once in a while though, I like to mix it up... you know, try something different, or what my friend Wayne would describe as 'disgusting.' Yesterday was one of those days where I just wanted to experiment with something. The monstrosity you see in the upper left? It is a whole wheat bagel that's been toasted with peanut butter, topped with 4 strips of bacon, a fried egg, a hamburger patty that I think was 6 oz., mixed cheddar cheese, lettuce, and my of course barbecue sauce. Keep in mind this was post workout, so that makes it okay... I think?

btw, I'm calling this a recipe because I included all the ingredients necessary... I don't know how else to tag this without adding a 'stupid' tag.
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RT Mart... (a.k.a. Shoprite on crack)

For the record, I actually went grocery shopping (this time in a traditional market) over theweekend, but I'm still so backlogged that I'm posting this now. I actually have no clue where the exact address is, but it's near 復興 (Fu Xing) Sogo. Asian supermarkets are different, they sell weird things, more electronics and appliances (and clothing). Actually, if I had to find a comparable, it's almost like a super Walmart or Target... but with a full food section... if that makes any sense. In any case, I like to wander around just looking at the food, since I know that I'll never find half of it in the US even if I go to H-mart or JASmart. Er... as an example of that, I found Burger King branded chips. I'm not sure if they're sold anywhere in the US (maybe they are, but I've never seen them), but I thought it was interesting. I was really tempted by the french toast flavored ones, but I ended up skipping on this since I had bought a giant bag of Calbee chips. There's always next time.


As far as what I truly love about RT mart, I had previously mentioned that there were a glut of Asian bakeries. While that's true, those more famously branded bakeries tend to be a bit pricier (maybe an extra 10 NT). So when I go to RT mart, I tend to stock up on the baked goods. That pictured above? That's a pineapple bun 10" across... and how much did it cost? Only 22 NT (60 or so cents). Fay Da has nothing on RT mart lol. Oh, did I fail to mention how they also offer red bean filled, a taro filled, and pork floss filled variants to the traditional sweetened butter? Same price on each. The real reason I went though, was so I could finally try that ridiculous pork chop sandwich that was to be handmade by sandwiching a cutlet inside a Chinese bread. Well, the pork chops looked small, so instead I got a chicken cutlet, and I actually grabbed the wrong kind of bread... taro as you can see. In the end, I did get to try both variants, but honestly... the pork chop bun is way overhyped. The chicken cutlet bun with taro is where it's at. You get a soft pasty feel when you hit the taro, with a faint earthy sweetness that's missing from the pineapple bun (which is just bluntly sweet). Add in the fact that I think RT mart uses 5 spice (五香) to fry their cutlets and you get a winning combination of spicy savory goodness with sweetness. Total price of construction... 7 NT for the bread (came in a package of 8 assorted) and 10 NT for the cutlet. Find a sandwich in Manhattan like this for 50 cents and I'll buy you lunch for a week. Serious.


Uh... as far as running today, I'm not sure why, but I was really tired. I completed a labored 3.34 miles, then proceeded to walk for another 2 or so, but I won't add that part into the counter. In any case, it was pretty disappointing. In other news, I heard it's going to rain for the next 7 days... straight. Great.

distance for the day: 3.34 miles
distance biked for the day: 0.00 miles

distance on the year: 281.29 miles
distance biked on the year: 142.68 miles
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