On weekends my husband and I like to go to downtown Austin for coffee. As people who do not drink, coffee has become our cocktails and coffee shops have become our bars. I enjoy going to Epoch near the Hike and Bike trail, as the barista is always so dang awesome and there are many-a-doggos to watch as we sip our cold brews.

The way Epoch’s brilliant contactless system works is as follows:

1. You order your drinks (and food if you’re feeling so inclined) with a barista. S/he is on one side of a doorway which has a plastic covering over most of it. You order and then pay using a credit card on the touchless card reader. There are also masks and hand sanitizer for people who did not prepare to drink such delish coffee.
2. Next, you wait for a different barista to call your name through a different door opening, where they drop off your order on a tray and walk away while you pick it up. Brilliant.

Generally, I order the coffees because my ordering is a bit higher maintenance (you should see my Taco Bell receipts). Jon scores a place to sit and watch the doggos as we drink our coffee. Sometimes we people watch- but that’s usually reserved for dog-free traffic times. I wait for the coffee near the second door, where I generally look at other dogs.

This morning I could not help but overhear two women talking. First, I am embarrassingly good at listening to the conversations of strangers. It is not generally my intent, but if I find something interesting I tend to commit to the listening experience. Today a woman (likely early 40s) was talking to another woman (I think mid-30s). They were clearly strangers but were talking about Barre classes and local gyms. This caught my attention, as I enjoy working out as well. However, this conversation took a TURN.

These women bonded over how much they hated their bodies since Covid began- shaming themselves with the other in full agreement. It was the strangest thing. It took me a bit to process the conversation before I brought it up to Jon. What kind of world is this? We bond over loathing our bodies? I would like to add that these women were both legit hotties and if I knew either of them I would have promptly shut that crap down. Of course that made me start to wonder “I wonder what they think about how I look…”

This is a problem, y’all. I realize this is a blog dedicated to food. However, how can a woman write a blog about enjoying food when people are so ready to just crap on themselves because Covid made Barre harder to attend?! I miss Crossfit. I do not, however, miss eating tater tots. I had some today and they were delicious. I know that there’s a legit industry hoping women hate themselves. I’m not here for that kinda energy. If you need me, I’ll be ordering European Butter from Farmhouse Delivery to practice my lamination skills (or eating pumpkin pie from the pan as seen below):

XO,

The winter storm made me less motivated to write. I am back on my A-game and will get back to posting weekly. I am working on some Snail Mail treats and a new Pastry to finish March out strong. I hope everyone is safe and sound.