Monday is either free or over priced.

Just when you start to take free food for granted, you are met with an unexpected boon of exceptional free food that really makes you feel fortunate to work for an institution of higher learning, as if being in the top economic percentile of the world population simply by virtue of being an American with a job wasn't fortune enough. Kind of makes you feel like an ass hole for spending time on a Tuesday afternoon to write pithy drivel about the things you ate on a Monday instead of working in a soup kitchen in Sarajevo. Can't really make it to Sarajevo on my lunch break, though...

It was one of those mornings where I skip breakfast, partly because I frequently get bored with eating and wait for real inspiration to eat (often only to fall prey to something mediocre but easy and/or free) partly because I realize that, as an American, I'm in the top percentile world wide for fatasstedness, and I could probably stand to skip a few mornings of bacon and eggs.

I was afraid the meeting to approve our collective bargaining agreement with the university would run long, though, and I didn't want to run out of blood-sugar while the union reps explained exactly how they dumped probation-term health benefits and paid leave incoming employees for the sake of securing 6 weeks of personal use vacation a year for those employees who have worked as university staff for 30+ years. I want to remember all the details I can use to taunt future rookies, assuming that the university ever rescinds its hiring freeze, not that I'll ever be on staff for 30 years, so I bought a pack of Grandma's brand "homemade style" oatmeal raisin cookies from the cafeteria vending machine. This cost me a dollar.

They weren't terrible, but the oil they use leaves this waxy sheen across the inside of your mouth. It was very unpleasant and obviously the result of machine-assisted baking that would never occur if they were in fact made in someone's actual home. Thanks to the goodies provided by my local union post-voting, I was able to hold these vendy cookies up to what I thought might be fair competition, but even the oatmeal raisin cookies produced by the university's in-house catering service in ridiculous amounts far outperformed "Grandma's" in flavor as well as mouthfeel. I also put down a 1" cube of carrot cake petifour and two chocolate covered cream puffs. It's important to eat a balanced breakfast.

I thought after the cookie binge I ought to get a salad, but free food tempted me again. At least for lunch I ate what some might call a healthy meal. To my surprise and for reasons I am still uncertain of, I managed to avail myself of the tail end of some luncheon in the faculty cafe. Pecan roasted chicken, fingerling potatoes, very thin asparagus with roasted peppadews, three-color tortellini with marinara sauce and mixed field greens rounded out what was probably the most well-ballanced meal I've eaten all month. The chicken was surprisingly good considering I was eating well after the buffet was originally served. The potatoes didn't fare as well, but there was plenty of butter on hand. I would have been happy with that meal had I paid $12 for it, but it was free. That's really a lot of free. It's like when this really cute girl you like asks YOU out before you can ask her. Maybe not, but it was rad.

Then dinner sucked. I am perhaps being unfair given the delightful freegan feasts from earlier in the day, but Habana Outpost in Ft. Greene does not deliver the quality or quantity to justify their price tags. if a "Catfish Burito" is going to run me over $8, it better be plated with an actual side item and contain more than one piece of catfish tucked in all the rice and lettuce. Not that the catfish itself was bad, although the chicken in one of my companion's chicken burrito was pretty dry and uninteresting. The guac and chips was decent, but only about $4 of decent, not $6 of decent. The corn and cotija cheese that is a staple at the Habana Eco-Eatery family of restaurants was reasonable at $2 an ear for city prices, but still more expensive than the same item at Cafe Habana, two for $3.75. Also, for the tail end of June, the corn was not particularly succulent or vibrant. If you need a place for 10+ people to drink margaritas outside in Ft. Greene, this might be your joint. If you want to actually enjoy eating, maybe not.

Consolation desert: Vosges brand Mo's Bacon Bar, bacon crumbles and smoked salt in milk chocolate, not bad, although bacon dipped in chocolate is generally better fresh. Also, some kind of foreign sandwich cookie with vanilla icing and a cookie textured like a more delicate vanilla wafer but chocolate flavored. Yuppie impulse buying at The Greene Grape. I also got a pack of lamb merguez sausages, dried chantrelles and some duck hotdogs, to be featured in future bloggings.