In Praise of Coffee

Mmm- Brown Gold, beloved of students.

And of all other sources of sustenance so dear to students during hard times. Mi Goreng, various forms of concentrated simple sugars, pizza delivery... when you haven't studied as much as you should have throughout the semester and therefore have little time for shopping or cooking come swot-vac, these things are a godsend. Of course if I was truly serious about knuckling down I wouldn't be posting on my blog, but everyone needs some procrastination. Some need it more than others. Plus, I'm waiting for my latest coffee to kick in.

Gam and I have notched up our consumption to an entire 200g bag of beans per week over the last couple of weeks- usually we get the PNG Highland something-or-other beans from Oxfam stores (in the pretty blue bag) but because we've been too busy to go into the city we have been buying bags of the house blend from our favourite cafe. I know it seems a bit too posh for a couple of poor students bludging off the government to be drinking 'real' coffee as opposed to instant, but the smell of instant makes me gag. Besides that, I bet taxpayers are funding nice beans for the politicians in Parliament House, and they could actually afford to pay for it themselves! Our flatmate has a big tin of 'farmland' brand instant that she bought last year and is still using that has gone stale and now smells like some sort of bizarre savoury soup. Ugh. I keep giving her samples of decent brands of instant whenever I get them in the hope that once she tries them at least she'll give up on the farmland one, but no luck. I guess, to her credit, she only seems to drink it for the caffeine around exam time or when she has assignments due, not because she likes the stuff.

Because I don't cook when I'm studying I tend to just make do with whatever is around the house- my favourite snack this swot-vac has been chopped apple microwaved with a teaspoon of brown sugar and honey dissolved in some hot water and a sprinkling of cinnamon, then refrigerated... partly to let the apple soak up the syrup, and party because it's been a bit warm for hot food.

My favourite junk snack is chicos... addictive little buggers. Gam doesn't like them, so when I buy some, as I did yesterday, I wind up eating them all myself. Mmmm. Horrid things. I don't even like buying Allens sweets, because they're owned by Nestle, but I make an exception for chicos because, well, they're so tasty. After eating a whole packet I don't feel like buying them again for a while, which is good.

Now I'm curious to hear about other people's study-foods...