Home Slice with my Homies

Every new semester brings with it a new dinner club and fall 2007 is no different. This time the members are Maggie, Stephen and meeee. We kicked off our club by going to Home Slice on South Congress last Friday. We got there, and we were all lookin pretty fly, feelin pretty confident, and we told the waitress we wanted a table for three. She said, "the wait will be fifty minutes." And Maggie and I were like, "damn." Really though, we hesitated for half a second before saying okay, but she interpreted our "okay" by saying, "ughgh it is Friday night you know." The wait was fine, we just sat on the street drinking Fireman's Four. But for the record, the wait was not fifty minutes. It ended up being an hour and a half, which is a LONG time to wait for pizza, even on a Friday night.

Also, a funny story from the night: Our hostess complimented Maggie's dress and said she has the same dress in the same color. "American Apparel right?" and Maggie said, "oh no actually, I made this myself." And the hostess bought it.


Home Slice Pizza Pie

Since we had an hour and a half to decide what we wanted, and we already had beer, we were overly anxious to order as soon as our waiter showed up. We had half white pizza, half sausage, ricotta and roasted red pepper. Our waiter said "good job man!" I am pretty sure he was trying to say, "good choice," but he was kind of crazy, and clearly Maggie and I are not men. Stephen is a man. But he didn't do the ordering.


Home Slice- a closer shot

So this is what one piece of pizza looks like in case you didn't know. It really was delicious. I've been deeply disappointed by some of the pizza I've had in the past few months, especially in Austin. I was even starting to accept Austin's Pizza as the standard by which to judge all other pizzas by in Austin. But Home Slice really is where it's at, or at least it's right up there with Salvation Pizza. The ricotta got to be a little much after a while and I scraped it off. But the sausage was really good, and that's something I rarely say. As my mom always says, "there is no good reason for any human to eat pepperoni or sausage." And I have tried to apply that wisdom to my life. But sausage really does taste good. Roasted red peppers are always good but they were sparse.


Home Slice Bathroom Doors

Home Slice is decorated like many other pizza shops, and that is to say ...forgettable? I liked watching them bake the pizzas behind the bar, and there were a few funny quotes on the wall, but the rest of the place was so dark I didn't really know if there was anything going on with the rest of the place or not. The bathroom doors are another story. When I first saw them I thought maybe they were an entrance to a back kitchen and I needed to keep looking for the bathrooms. Upon further inspection I realized what the pizzas symbolized and I am really impressed that someone was able to come up with signs for bathrooms I'd never seen before, and that are actually clever.

Home Slice ***

Peggy Sue BBQ

Landle and I went to Peggy Sue BBQ in Highland Park about two weeks ago. We knew we wanted barbecue and I found this place online. For ambiance, it said "country decorations, television." Our other option listed "country decorations, outdoor seating" for its ambiance, so obviously we went for the tv.

Anyway. Peggy Sue BBQ, not Peggy Sue's. It's not her restaurant, or maybe it is, but the name says "this is my own unique style of BBQ." OK.




This is what the wall next to our table looked like. We had been staring at art all afternoon so this was a nice break.




This is what the wall opposite us looked like. Behind me there was a tv. Landon watched golf the whole time and commented when cool things happened that I missed. They did do a lot of incredibly slow motion replays that I did get to see though, and I'm sure Peggy Sue had something to do with that.


Dinner

So we had the rib combo, a pound of baby back and spare ribs with fried okra and mashed potatoes. We both liked the spare ribs better than the baby back. Honestly I don't even remember the baby backs. The meat on both kinds fell off the bone way too easily. I wanted to work for it. Still it was too messy to really enjoy. If you're going to have meat on the bone, I vote for wings. The okra and mashed potatoes were great though. The okra wasn't greasy (mostly) and the batter was home made, which automatically means it was good. The mashed potatoes were thick but a little lumpy, not a big deal.


We ate everything. Our incredibly unfriendly/lame waiter tried to take our okra before we were finished with it. Obviously we were just saving the best for last but we had to ask him to give it back. He was kind of reluctant about it and was like, "ohh okayyy..." whatever. We're not going back to Peggy Sue.

There are much better BBQ restaurants out there, probably even in Highland Park.

The Hill's Cafe, Round Two

I was insanely excited about returning to the site of my first chicken fried steak, The Hill's Cafe on South Congress, last night with Becky and her dad. We were really hungry after moving Becky into a new apartment all afternoon, so I suggested The Hill's because the last time John and I ate there I couldn't finish half of my amazing dinner.

We had fried pickles as an appetizer, which I forgot to take a picture of. They serve them as spears instead of chips, which I usually don't like because chips are more fun, and also there is there is a greater fried batter to pickle ratio with the chips. Becky is basically a fried pickle connoisseur, and she prefers chips for the same reasons. However, we both loved the fried pickle spears at the Hill's. I think the secret is in the batter. It doesn't come out too oily, and it is perfectly crispy. Also it is kind of lumpy which gives it that homemade look.



The Hill's Chicken Fried Steak

It took forever for us to get our chicken fried steaks out and when we did it was slightly disappointing. They were lukewarm, and the meat was tough. The flavor was still perfect though. Also, Becky's dad and I got the yellow gravy instead of white. We asked the waiter what the difference is and he said "nothing but the color." I'd never had yellow gravy before, and it's true, there is absolutely no difference.

For sides I had okra and fried macaroni and cheese. Okra is always good, but remember that amazing batter I told you about earlier with the fried pickles? Definitely not used on the okra. It tasted exactly like the okra they serve in the cafeteria in Jester, like it had come out of a freezer ten minutes before and then deep fried a minute too long. I still ate every piece, but I am disappointed that my search for truly amazing okra must go on.

I'd heard of fried macaroni and cheese before, but never seen it with my own eyes. It is definitely one of the more interesting things I've seen done with food lately, while at the same time looking and tasting like something that should be served at McDonald's. They come in little triangles of friedness, not quite bite size, but a finger food nonetheless. I think I would have liked it, but for some reason all of the pasta would end up in one corner of the triangle and all the cheese ended up in the other corners. It was incredibly imbalanced. If you chew it up really quickly it's pretty good, but it also sits incredibly heavy in the stomach and there is no way I could eat more than two pieces (it came with about ten).


Ice Cream Nachos

This is a brand new dessert at The Hill's, and it was our waiter's first time making it. Here's what it is: cinnamon chips (the texture of a pita chip with the flavor of a churro), vannila ice cream, chocolate and strawberry sauce, whipped cream, and cherries (to look like jalapenos). It was okay, but it wasn't mind blowing, which I think it should have been if you're going to eat dessert after such a huge meal. The ice cream melted really quickly, and it was too messy to try to dip the cinnamon chips into it after that. We ended up only eating about half of them.

Overall, it wasn't the best meal ever, but still there is something very comforting about eating at Hill's. Being there is a completely relaxing experience. I think it's a combination of everything being made out of wood, the booths being very encapsulating, and the service being incredibly friendly. Even if the chicken fried steak was lukewarm and tough, I will go back there again and again.

Watermelon

I don't really have time to be doing this but I said before if I don't update this week then I don't deserve to be the restaurant critic for the New York Times which is probably true so here it is.

Good in the summer.
pink flesh and juice drip drip drip
watermelon yes

Happy Birthday to Me

Strawberry Pie

This is my all time favorite dessert. My mom made it for me before I came back to Austin. It's a graham cracker crust, a layer of powdered sugar and cream cheese blended together, and then a layer of strawberry glaze mixed with strawberries. It is very sweet and mom and I are going to try to come up with something to add to the recipe to balance that. I am sure we will make this a few more times this summer so I will work on getting a better picture next time. Also, for the record, this has been my birthday cake for ... I don't know how many years now.


Kevin's Cookies

A really nice lady at work got me cookies from Kevin's! They are really good. I got chocolate chip, Heath bar (which I've reviewed in here twice) and white chocolate with macadamia nut. This batch is definitely the best I've had from Kevin's. It's never gotten stellar reviews from me. In general they are way too sweet but these were pretty good.

Happy Bday YESTERDAY landon

Choco Honeycomb

I got a chocolate covered honeycomb yesterday at Sprouts, this little weird grocery store in Flower Mound. I was expecting it to be oozy honeyness but it wasnt at all. It was very dry and crunchy. But it still kind of looked like a honeycomb. Maybe that's what happens if a honeycomb dries. I am going to have to ask Landon because he is the only person I know that has eaten a real honeycomb before.

TC Breakfast Tacos YAY

Taco Cabanananana

I went out with a bunch of the twins friends to celebrate one of their birthdays last night. It was kinda lame since it was a Sunday night there wasn't much to do. So we were walking into the bar next to gachet that isn't the beagle and they ID there? So I just handed the guy my driver's license that clearly states I'm not 21 but he let me in any way. That was pretty trill.

The point is afterwards we walked across the street to go to taco cabana and I finally had one of their breakfast tacos. It was pretty good. I took the strip of bacon off and just had the tortilla with eggs. It was amazing. But really greasy at the same time so I couldn't eat it all even though I wanted to. And Chips and Queso duh.

Some More of What? You're Killin Me Smalls

smores

Smores first won my heart in the movie The Sandlot for obvious reasons. Now I think they're making a comeback. Your coffee shop is majorly lacking if you don't have a tableside smore roasting kit. Not to mention the fact that camping is seeing a 20% rise in popularity compared to statistics from the same time last year, due to nostalgia for the smore.

Anyway Annick bought smore making stuff and we've been making them in the microwave which means we're probably going to all get cancer but Mark is building a fire pit in the backyard which will be cool and then we can roast marshmallows old skool.

Chipotle

I don't eat Chipotle that much when I'm at home for several reasons. For one thing, I usually eat three meals a day here instead of cramming them all into one like I do when I'm in Austin. For another, Chipotle is a personal thing that I like to eat by myself and there are usually at least nine people at dinner here. Finally, the Chipotle's in Dallas SUCK. They are truly awful. As soon as I finish this post I am going to e-mail Chipotle and complain.

Okay so, I ate Chipotle the other day in Dallas. Actually Becky and I were visiting Matthew and his mom and his new apartment in Irving and we decided that's what we should have for lunch. So we went on a wild goose chase through Irving (actually not really thanks mom my memory is impeccable) and found one. EWWW. It was like walking in to Chipotle's evil twin. It didn't even smell right. I didn't completely lose faith until I watched the girl making my burrito completely ruin it while trying to wrap it and squeezing all of its guts out and ripping the tortilla. I had to ask three times (and two different people) for a bowl to throw the disgusting mess she made into. I'm so mad. I'm going to email them right now. Never go to Chipotle on Beltline in Irving.

Grandma's

Grandma's Roast Beef

My grandma, god bless her, insisted on making a yank meal for us Texans during her two week stay at our house. The ultimate yank meal, in my grandma's opinion, is roast beef with mashed potatoes and noodles.

I have to stop right there and ask, have any of you heard of eating noodles on mashed potatoes? It seems really ridiculous and carb happy and bland. Well it doesn't seem that way, it is. So why would anyone ever want to eat this?

Roast beef is like 110% fat. I hate bad cuts of meat and that's pretty much whatever the cut roast beef is made of is. AKA Maggie got all of mine.

I still love my grandma though.

Baby Gross

Baby Greens Spinach Chicken Wrap

WARNING: Don't eat here. A vegetarian burrito from chipotle costs less than twenty cents more than this and is far superior in every way. This was bad. so bad. Becky and I got these and we were really excited about it because we always pass it on the drive to visit Matthew is south Austin and I've been wanting to try it since we went to to food show in january and FINALLY we were going to have it for real.

It was so bland. It was just a bunch of lettuce and some other ingredients (dry chicken for example) that leave your mouth begging for juice and flavor. In short, this wrap made my tongue want to weep but didn't let it because there was no liquid to weep. I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. But really, if you love yourself, don't eat here. The only good part was the cute boy working. But he totally rushed us through the drive-thru (that's all there is- no dine in option) and didn't give me any time to decide what kind of tortilla I wanted.

Tuna and Fro-Yo

Cipollina Three Salad Sampler

Gooze and I went back to the place where we shared our first restaurant meal many months ago tonight, Cipollina. Feeling adventurous and indecisive, I ordered the three salad sampler which came with yellowfin tuna salad, mediterranean orso salad and Cipollina slaw. This who know me well know that I usually try everything I get at the beginning and then eat what I like in ascending order, saving the best for last. That didn't happened tonight. I ate the slaw, which I have no objections to because it wasn't smothered in mayonnaise and really only consisted of cabbage, but it didn't blow my mind. Then I couldn't help myself: I ate the tuna, not saving the best for last. It was irresistable. If you could only have tuna salad prepared one way for the rest of your life, this is the way you would want it. And it's funny, I don't remember what was in it. It's fading in my memory like a dream.

Then I ate my Mediterranean orso salad. It was romaine, rice, olives, some cheese. It was good. Not tuna though.


TCBY

Then we had TCBY for dessert! White Chocolate Mousse was the perfect way to end the meal. I love that old familiar taste. I almost tried Fudge Brownie but when it came time to order I chose my favorite.

Lucky Seeds

These seeds weren't lucky at all!

Chipotle X 5

Burrito Paradise

As you can see, when I'm not studying I'm eating burritos. This is the most ideal way to live. Hopefully if I get my raise at work I will be able to afford to just sit in the Chipotle downtown and eat burritos constantly. My friend told me the other day that I'm going to get burned out on it soon. HAH. we'll see about that. Also, one of these times I ate there with my family, and that was awesome, so I took a picture of all of our burritos.

Taco Bell

7 Layer Dip Crunch Wrap

What was I thinking? I saw a commercial for this and I was like "sweeeeeeet!" I like seven layer dip. So annick and I had taco bell the other day. ummmmmm. why is fast food so disgusting? I'm never eating again. First of all, the grill marks on the outer tortilla layer were obviously airbrushed on which is nasty. Second, it tasted like they scooped all the ingredients out of a big can and threw it together and nuked it in the microwave. SICK. never again.

Future Endeavors

Do any of you know how to make a web site?

this is food related I promise.

Which?????????

Which Wich?

Mmm sandwich. It took a higher power to get me from walking another block down the street to get a burrito tonight. But I did it for my blog, for my readers. FOR YOU. And it was a good sandwich. I don't regret eating it. I just want to make every meal count, and I know I can always count on Chipotle.

So the last time I went to Which Wich? I went a little overboard on ingredients. Today I kept it simple with turkey, wheat bread, spicy mayo, lettuce, tomato, jalapeno, pepperocini, and i think a few more vegetables that I can't think of right now. It was good. I really did forget how enjoyable a nice sandwich is. This is way better than Jimmy John's.

The one bad thing was how long it took to get a sandwich. There were only two people working. The place wasn't even busy, and it still took about 10-15 minutes to get a sandwich. That's too long!!!

Chipot Update

If you can believe it, I've only had two burritos since my last Chipotle update. You know what sucks? When they don't put the tortilla on the tortilla press long enough and it gets crusty halfway through your meal. No hard feelings though. Every burrito is as good as the last. I love the consistency. I'm kind of sick about talking about Chipotle right now because I'm making a book about lovemarks, and Chipotle is obviously mine, so I reference it a lot. The second picture here is actually a polaroid I took for the book. Look for it at a Barnes and Noble near you any day now.

HEY

Hey Cupcake!

There's a cuuuuuuuute new cupcake stand in West Campus and it's worth all the hype! I had the vanilla dream, which means vanilla cake vanilla icing. It was delicious! I seriously don't remember the last time I had cake that was so light and fluffy. I highly doubt they are using a cake mix for these babies. The icing is awesome, light and fluffy too. It was really nice to have a good icing and a good cake together, it's so unusual these days. It felt like I was putting a pillow in my mouth. Then Maggie dreamed up the idea of having a cupcake pillow to go to sleep on every night. I think that's a good idea.

So they cost two dollars, and you could buy your own cake mix and jar of icing for two dollars. But this cupcake is truly decadent and worth the two dollars. Just don't go every day because that would stretch the wallet and the waistline more than any college student can handle. <3

The Hills: good tv show, great restaurant

Hill's Cafe Chicken Fried Steak

From their menu: The Hill's award-winning chicken-fried steak is the last of its kind, a genuine South Austin original. We take a Texas-sized tender breaded cutlet, hand grill it to perfection (NOT deep-fried) and then top it off with our famous yellow gravy. Served with your choice of two of our delicious sides.

My sides were fried pickles and mashed potatoes.

Um wow. I can't stop thinking about this chicken fried steak. I'd never even had chicken fried steak before this, except for in the school cafeteria in elementary school. And now it's the second thing that comes to mind when I'm hungry (after chipotle). It's pretty amazing and you can see why from the description. The fried pickles were spears instead of chips which I usually don't like, but these were extremely hot and not a bit soggy so they were very good. The mashed potatoes were okay, I don't like mashed potatoes that much but I didn't want to get fried okra (fried steak, fried pickles, fried okra= fried jenny).

LET'S GO BACK ASAP.

Miscellaneous Adventures with Gooze

Cocaine

There's a new energy drink that has been getting advertised for months. It was released in New York and LA first, and it's finally being sold in lame cities like Austin, TX. A boy I met recently informed me that they were selling it at a novelty store on South Lamar called Planet K so I WENT AND BOUGHT SOMEEE. for me and gooze. They were like four dollars each which I thought was pretty ridiculous, the marketers are really banking on idiots like me that want to try it just because of the name. Anyway, it burned so bad in my entire mouth and throat that I only had like two sips. Unfortunately, because of that, I can't vouch for how much energy it gives you.


TCBY White Chocolate Strawberry Truffle Blend

White Choco is my fav. I was feeling adventurous that night and got the strawberry truffle flavor swirled with it. It was really yummy but it had just been made and therefore was too cold and creamy for the flavor to be very pronounced. It was a nice night though and we were sitting on my balcony so it started to melt and it got better.

Czech Stop

Czech Bakery, West, TX

This is what the bag looks like. It's also what the employees look like.


Strawberry Cream Kolache

I'd like to start off by saying that I hate pastries. Donuts taste like moldy bread with sugar on top in my mouth. I don't this makes me a bad person or a bad critic but it would potentially make me a bad pastry chef. I like food ok?

Anyway, so I got this one the last time I was driving through. It sounded the most generic and therefore the safest. It was okay. I'd rather eat something else though. When you don't love what you're eating it's a waste of calories. Unless you're starving, but there are still ways to make ramen noodles taste good (see back entries).


Poppy Seed Kolache

John and I stopped in West on the way back to Austin today and I tried the poppyseed one. I like poppyseed muffins , why wouldn't I like Poppyseed Kolaches? It was not very good. It tasted like rhubarb pie surrounded by glazed donut. puke. I've never even had rhubarb pie, it's just what I imagine it to taste like. Next time I'm getting the jalapeno one.

Maggie

Wendy's Hamburger

Sometimes I buy my dog Maggie hamburger from Wendy's because she is losing more weight every day and she needs the extra calories. I think she likes them?


Sometimes I color Easter eggs and write Maggie and Gooze Town all over them!!!

Out of This World

Galaxy Cafe Mexican Lime Soup

Gooze had this a while back and I tasted it, and it was delicious so I decided to get a whole cup for myself this time around. All the chicken sunk to the bottom. Other than the color and a few ingredients, this seemed to be tortilla soup with some lime juice. The broth was really good, I wish I could have it at home on cold days. The chicken was kind of gummy and sank to the bottom like I already said, but it kept sinking over and over again so maybe I should say it over and over again.


Galaxy Cafe Turkey Sandwich

Pretty standard sandwich. Nothing special and I'd rather have Jimmy John's if I was just going to get a sandwich. I can say with confidence that you should definitely stick with the wraps at this place.

Update coming soon I promise!!!

Burger King Exposé

Burger King

Driving back to Austin, we decided to stop in the middle of nowhere for brunch. There was a sign that said “Country Cookin” so we followed it…all the way to a gas station with a small counter inside serving corn dogs, fried okra, fried chicken, and French fries. We left and went to IHOP across the street. There we waited fifteen minutes to sit down, and two cups of coffee and twenty minutes later, we were informed that our food would not arrive for at least another 45 minutes. We left and began our search for food. By this time it was 12:30 in the afternoon, and we had been on the road since 8 a.m. We were hungry, and desperate. So we did what any red blooded Americans would do, we went to a gas station. Lucky for me, they had a Burger King attached. Lucky for my parents, the gas station had Dr. Pepper and Famous Amos cookies.

I had to stand in line to order my Burger King meal for fifteen minutes. My parents refused to eat it, but they cheered me on from the sidelines and would wave and smile from the gas station section. By the time it was my turn to order, I had read the menu ten times and couldn’t decide. My mom came over and asked me what I was going to have, and all I could say was, “everything.” I sacrifice myself for you dear readers, and as I sit typing this in the back of the car, my stomach filled with grease, I know that my suffering is for the greater good.



Surprisingly, this wasn’t awful. I was impressed by how many condiments and other “food accessories” came on this one dollar hamburger. The sesame seed bun was a pleasant surprise, as was the general taste of the starchy white bun. The sandwich also had lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayonnaise, and ketchup. I easily could have stopped after eating this.


Burger King Onion Rings

These little things are fried, not salty…and everything you would expect from a fast food onion ring. I think making onion rings is a labor of love, and there is no love being put into making these. I could tell these onion rings had been sitting in a freezer for at least a year before making their way into my mouth, because the onion inside was dried up and tasteless. It was pretty disappointing. After a while I kept trying to imagine there was onion flavor there, but not even my wild imagination could do anything to help these pathetic onion rings.


Burger King Chicken Tenders

I hope you all can see in the picture that the chicken tenders are not tenders at all, but nuggets shaped like crowns. It is truly the most unnatural sight you can imagine for food. I was also upset because they were COLD. Maybe I’m exaggerating, and they were lukewarm. But if I order chicken “tenders” at 12:45 I expect them to be piping hot, because after all, that is prime chicken tender time. They were gross. I will say that the batter they are fried in has pepper mixed in with it and you can definitely taste it, and it gives these nugget/tenders the upper hand on other fast food restaurants’ chicken.


Burger King French Fries

Once again, I tried to save the best for last. And I did. It’s hard to mess up French fries. Even in a shaking car with the air conditioner on, they were still warm when I got to them. They could have been a little crispier and a little saltier, but by the time I got to them my expectations were rather low, and the fast food addictive chemicals had begun to kick in, and therefore they tasted like heaven.

Little Diner, Big Dinner

Little Diner

After doing my research on West Texas restaurants, I discovered that Little Diner in Canutillo, TX is THE place to eat, and review. Gourmet reviewed the place back in the 90s, and Texas Monthly did it more recently. Of course, Eat Your Tart Out was next. The place has gotten rave reviews from everyone, but locals like to keep it to themselves. Finding it was a pain in the ass. We drove all over the place, and in doing so we found an amazing fruit stand in the middle of nowhere with delicious oranges and avocados for less than half the price of the not delicious versions at HEB.

When we finally found it, my mom was hesitant. It was literally in the middle of a neighborhood with trailers all over the place and dirt roads kicking up sand and making the car unbelievably dirty. Also, underneath the sign for the restaurant was a sign for the coin Laundromat that is behind the restaurant. We went inside.

You order at the counter and they bring you out your food. It took my dad and I a while to decide what we wanted, but we ordered some nachos to start and then we both settled on the Gordita Plate. My mom finally came around and ordered cheese enchiladas with red sauce.


Nachos

This actually looked really pretty, even though it was just a bunch of chips piled up on a plate (weird!). The cheese sauce is definitely tasted like it came from a can, but it was steaming hot and spicy so it didn’t even matter. I would even eat it again if it were served like that. Also there were a ton of jalapenos on top, making it even more delicious. I guess now is a good time to mention that all the corn for the tortillas (and therefore the chips) is milled AT the restaurant. Everything is 100% percent homemade, even the cheese sauce and all the tortillas.



Gordita Platter

I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but this is a mountain of food. For six dollars, you have enough food to last two days. The gorditas are what Little Diner is famous for. The gordita shells are out of this world. They are really crunchy on the outside, and soft like cornbread on the inside, and then stuffed with lettuce, tomato, and beef. I added the jalapenos from the nachos for more taste. Also, the shells are deep fried but not greasy at all. And when they first came out they were too hot to hold. This was way too much food though… my dad couldn’t even eat 2/3 of it.


Churros

Even though we were stuffed, we ordered Churros for dessert. I am convinced that they are the best churros in the world. It’s a twisted pastry stick that is fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar. It took a few minutes for them to come out and I’m pretty sure it’s because they made the batter for it right after we ordered it. Somehow, despite being fried, it tasted so fresh and homemade. I can’t really describe it. Every bite was as warm as the last, and the cool sugar was a perfect balance. I wish Chipotle had the person from Little Diner making these at their restaurants. Later at the hockey game a bunch of kids were eating churros from the concession stand and my mom just looked at me and said, “I know the ones we had earlier were so much better.”