Google Foodie - Guest Post

My computer, despite anti-virus and anti-malware running 24/7, came down with a nasty new virus Friday afternoon, which took down most of my hard drive.

The good news?  Yesterday I was able to reimage the hard drive from last week's full backup.

The bad news?  Candy photos and other goodies updated this past week, including whatever I artfully edited to almost resemble more skilled photography -- *poof* gone.

The good news?  In an unusual turn of events, I never got around to deleting the originals from my camera. Woo-hoo!

So while I spend the upcoming week confirming that my 'puter is indeed free of nasty virus bits, then reuploading and rephotoshopping said photos, in the meantime please welcome a very well-timed guest post from theDaughter, Sharon.  In case I haven't mentioned it enough, Sharon works at Google, the most awesomest place in the entire universe.   The soft swirl machine mentioned below is just one of many desserts and snacks provided free to Google staff.  Along with lunch.  And breakfast.  And dinner (if Googlers ever have to work late, poor babies).  Please read on and enjoy!  And visit her blog afterwards.  There's good stuff there, including 82% more dog photos.

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My mom ever so subtly requested that I write a guest post about the wonderful food at Google Los Angeles, where I work. After weeks of what I'm calling research, I finally have enough material to write a comprehensive article.

I could have chosen the breakfast omelet bar, or the wood-fired pizza oven, or perhaps just the charcuterie to write about.

Or, in the best Googler fashion, I could instead complain about the absence of rainbow sprinkles. Yes, you read that right. There are two soft-serve machines, serving vanilla, chocolate, and two random flavors, all of which are made on-site daily. Cake cones and waffle cones. An array of chopped fresh fruits and nuts to adorn swirls of ice cream.

BUT NO RAINBOW SPRINKLES!

The daily random flavors range from basil to lemongrass, coconut, and ginger. Sadly, the lemongrass, coconut, and ginger was one flavor, so naturally I absolutely refused to try it. The basil, shockingly enough, tasted like basil. In fact, all the weird flavors tend to taste exactly like their ingredients predict. 

Due to my bacon aversion, I stuck with just the maple. My less inhibited coworkers described the swirl as tasting like breakfast, when the syrup from the waffles wanders into the bacon territory of the plate.

 Since I'm fairly sure I'm not a cow, the lemongrass was also avoided.

I was told the chocolate banana was quite good, but, for some reason, no one seemed eager to try the mango chile.

Both of these flavors were unusually light, so the swirl was surprisingly edible.

The peanut butter tasted like bizarrely cold peanut butter, but with the wrong texture. Also, there were no sprinkles.

Best. Flavors. Ever. And made with the real alcohols! The swirl was a magnificent Irish car bomb of delight. It would have been perfect if the chef's special that day hadn't been bacon-wrapped monkfish with black olive tampenade.

Now that you are thoroughly envious, I leave you with a picture of Reese and Zero. What do these two incredibly cute dogs have to do with anything? Why, they get to come to work with me and get treats from the kitchen staff.