Tuesday, July 18
Vending Nirvana
Ok, if you work in Information Technology like I do, you know the demands of the job often put you out of synch with the real world. Crashed servers, stupid users and general equipment failures can all conspire to keep you away from meals, family and the other things in life that you desire.
So, I'm always on the lookout for something cool that could help with this problem.
Three weeks ago tonight, I was at Texas Women's Hospital, where my wife was in labor with our twins. I had lunch that day, but went straight to the hospital at 5:30 PM. Our twins were born at 6:55 PM. The hospital cafeteria closed at 7:00 PM. Needless to say I missed dinner. So, armed with just a five-spot and my wits, I headed to the cafeteria to get something from the vending machines.
I was looking forward to another wonderful meal of a Coke Zero, bag of chips and a candy bar.
But when I walked into the cafeteria, I came upon the Holy Grail of vending, the Kraft "Carry Out Cafe", a machine that advertised it would dispense Pizza, Hot Wings and Chicken sandwiches.
So after getting over my initial disbelief and shock. I had to decide what was for dinner.
I decided to go with something tried and true, a Tombstone Pepperoni Pizza.
At the low, low price of just $3.00, I could afford a Coke Zero and a candy bar as well to make it a balanced meal.
So in went my five-spot, out came two Sacagawea Golden dollar coins in change, and the countdown began. I was off to the Coke machine while I waited.
Once my pizza was done, I got the standard warning about it being hot.
And out of the serving bin it came to the table.
The back of the box tells the story of this pizza, it is beyond tiny, only 340 calories. That's not even close to a snack in my diet. We'll have to see if it is at least tasty.
Yeah, that's my cell phone, and it's not one of the old ones that is huge, that is a nearly new Motorola V325 from Verizon. This pizza was freaking tiny, about six small bites.
Here is the again, compared to my Coke Zero. Good news, it tasted a little better than it looked. But it didn't taste that good. The biggest problem was it's consistency. The end on the right was overcooked, and very hard and too hot to put in my mouth comfortably. The middle was a little too hot, and the left side was just right. This might be good for some people, but I'm not into Goldilocks food when it comes to meals, even ones eaten quickly on the run.
The pizza taste was good, it could have used a little more cheese, and the pepperoni chunks could have been distributed more evenly. All in all, not bad for food when there is none other available. But I would not expect to walk away for full for less than twenty bucks either.
So, I'm always on the lookout for something cool that could help with this problem.
Three weeks ago tonight, I was at Texas Women's Hospital, where my wife was in labor with our twins. I had lunch that day, but went straight to the hospital at 5:30 PM. Our twins were born at 6:55 PM. The hospital cafeteria closed at 7:00 PM. Needless to say I missed dinner. So, armed with just a five-spot and my wits, I headed to the cafeteria to get something from the vending machines.
I was looking forward to another wonderful meal of a Coke Zero, bag of chips and a candy bar.
But when I walked into the cafeteria, I came upon the Holy Grail of vending, the Kraft "Carry Out Cafe", a machine that advertised it would dispense Pizza, Hot Wings and Chicken sandwiches.
So after getting over my initial disbelief and shock. I had to decide what was for dinner.
I decided to go with something tried and true, a Tombstone Pepperoni Pizza.
At the low, low price of just $3.00, I could afford a Coke Zero and a candy bar as well to make it a balanced meal.
So in went my five-spot, out came two Sacagawea Golden dollar coins in change, and the countdown began. I was off to the Coke machine while I waited.
Once my pizza was done, I got the standard warning about it being hot.
And out of the serving bin it came to the table.
The back of the box tells the story of this pizza, it is beyond tiny, only 340 calories. That's not even close to a snack in my diet. We'll have to see if it is at least tasty.
Yeah, that's my cell phone, and it's not one of the old ones that is huge, that is a nearly new Motorola V325 from Verizon. This pizza was freaking tiny, about six small bites.
Here is the again, compared to my Coke Zero. Good news, it tasted a little better than it looked. But it didn't taste that good. The biggest problem was it's consistency. The end on the right was overcooked, and very hard and too hot to put in my mouth comfortably. The middle was a little too hot, and the left side was just right. This might be good for some people, but I'm not into Goldilocks food when it comes to meals, even ones eaten quickly on the run.
The pizza taste was good, it could have used a little more cheese, and the pepperoni chunks could have been distributed more evenly. All in all, not bad for food when there is none other available. But I would not expect to walk away for full for less than twenty bucks either.
Number of people who will never get their time back from reading this page:
