Confessions Of A Splenda Stealer

On a delightful note, I am happy to post yet another installment of my FREE COFFEE finds. Usually, on a morning where I awake on the couch/floor of a friend’s apartment in the city, the Au Bon Pain in Port Authority has increasingly become my go-to for really good coffee on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Last week, I even bought a muffin as a treat and I think, no, I know—I’m in love.

There is an Au Bon Pain about one block east, and one block south of my office, yet, I never go because by the time I trek all the way across 40th st. to get to my office, I refuse to walk any further for my coffee. Why don’t I just buy my coffee from the Au Bon Pain in Port Authority, you ask? Because it would be lukewarm by the time I got to my desk, silly. Timing is everything.

Moving along. I was alerted that there is a free coffee deal today from 2pm til closing at all Au Bon Pain locations. Sheer joy. I walk across 39th and see a really, realllllly long line and I begin to get pouty. I had made peace with the fact that there may be a wait of some sort, but this was nuts. And why do they all have luggage? And hats? And…oh wait–it was the line for the Hamptons Jitney. THANK GOD.

I get in–no line or anything. It seems that most of the customers already in there have no idea. I spy a girl my age sort of looking around, like me, for the iced coffee dispenser, or counter. It is clear we have never been in there before, and we become friends over our love of free coffee. It was a short term friendship, but a fruitful one—we figured out that the iced coffee was right by the fountain soda and you have to drink the iced coffee out of the same cups as you would fountain soda. Odd. That’s not how Cafe Metro does it, or DD. Well, they are French.

Need less to say, back in the office, I am elated. I am,

…sick??

Today’s train of thought was inspired by the Google reader that I just set up, thanks to my friend Ria. She brought my attention to the RSS feeder because I am always hopelessly doing things the old school way, i.e., haivng about a million open tabs. I feel that there are so many short-cuts in the world, at least when it comes to computers and tech-stuff that I just have no idea about. I still keep numbers and addresses written down in my Filofax. Bluetooth what? Smart phone what??

Anyway, as I sat down excited to check my Google reader and all the new hits that await for me to take note of, I just started recently reading another sister site of Apartment Therapy that I really like, called The Kitchn. Today’s wisdom comes from The Kitchn’s posting called Good Quote: On Tasting Everything.

In the introduction to his book, 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World, Gary Vaynerchuk gives one of the most compelling arguments on taste that we’ve heard:

The best way I’ve found to exercise your palate is to taste everything, and I mean everything–not just wine…There is nothing in this world I won’t eat. So, when you see me on WLTV or Conan O’Brien chomping cigars or sucking wet rocks, it’s no gimmick. These really are the things that I’ve done to train my palate. You need to explore every exotic fruit, imported candy, farm stand jam, animal, vegetable, and mineral, because by a miracle of nature, all these flavors can appear in a glass of wine.

I would have to say that I completely agree with this. Now, I’m not neccessailry going to order an entire plate of a foreign taste, but I will try a bite of something at least once, so it’s good for me to have at least adventurious eaters around me. But besides from tasting at the table, it made me think back to when I was little, like really young, when you almost have that animalist instinct to put everything in your mouth out of sheer curiousity. There is so much of that curiousity that we lose when we get older, so I think that Vaynerchuk has a great point. Even if we don’t like the taste of something, it is still knowledge. I learned at a very young age that I do not like the taste of crepe paper, the green rug in my bedroom, and my Pooh bear’s nose. I don’t think that this knowledge will nessarily make me a great sommelier, but it’s something to think about.

Sometimes I fear that my palate is dulled by peanut butter and oatmeal overload. And coffee. I also do love my crushed red pepper flakes…not all together, obviously. I would not have to taste that combination to know that would not be a good one.

What have you tasted today?

While I think that cheapassfood.com is resourceful and funny, this idea to save money on booze I’m not so sure about, unless you really know what you are doing. From the site:

Absinthe – The Green Goddess Homemade

INGREDIENTS:

INSTRUCTIONS:

COSTS:

By the way, if you ever have wormwood listed on your grocery list, please take me with you when you go shopping. I would not want to miss that.

New word of the day alert!! According to style.com,

vocabulary lesson: recessionista

“…the younger, hipper sister of the fashionista is the recessonista, —who is at the mall finding designer threads (or diffusion designer threads) at discount prices. Look for her at Target, Uniqlo, Payless, or Kohl’s, all of whom have inked deals with designers recently. That’s because recessionistas aren’t letting a little thing like falling stock prices and rising gas bills get in the way of their wardrobe. And with the Fourth of July on the horizon, think of it as doing your patriotic duty. Says Tara Subkoff, the former Imitation of Christ designer (whose frocks occasionally hit five figures) who now does a collection for mall giant Bebe: “As Andy Warhol said, ‘What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest.’ ” As usual, the man in the white wig got there first.”

As a Splenda Stealer, I would have to say that I’ve become somewhat of a recessionista myself…even before the recession. I guess anything with an “ista” at the end makes it sound like you are savvy of a subject, rather than just cheap.

Stemming from that theory, is it safe to say that when I scope out a cheap happy hour, am I a lushista? Or, how about when I secretly look for ways to be a mooch, like when I search for free samples or raid my parent’s pantry when I’m home, can I call that being a moochista? Who the hell came up with “ista” as the suffix anyway??

Wiktionary had the answer:

-ista –one who follows a principle; an adept

example: Marxista

Does anyone else find it ironic that the one example they give has communist connotations?