I'm back from treeplanting. Looking back at the three months I was gone for, I can count on one hand the number of meals I cooked for myself - instead, I dined, breakfast and dinner, at a variety of logging camps, outdoor planting camps, and small-town restaurants/greasy-spoons/pubs. The philosophy was mostly quantity over quality, but I did have some memorable meals (not to mention some memorably awful ones). I learned to appreciate the value of a perfectly cooked french fry, and that the best fast-food is Subway (12" veggie on honey-oat with everything except olives, and at least 4 sauces), and that nothing beats a well-made chocolate milkshake from a restaurant. I also developed a roaring caffeine addiction -- there's nothing better than an ice-cold mocha, but in a pinch you can mix coffee and hot chocolate at 7-11 and it's not half-bad - keeps you going through the day, at any rate.

Current thoughts on food/restaurants: good -- places that accept and welcome dirty, hungry, loud treeplanters, and give them good deals in return for a lot of business; non-traditional breakfast foods (breakfast burritos, perogies, ...); delicious vegan spreads with beans, nuts, spices, other yummy things; desserts containing coconut; restaurants open all night; french toast with real french bread; abundant cookies, cakes, icecream at all hours of the day and night. bad -- frying anything in bacon grease; desserts that are custard with canned pineapple; crappy repetitive music in a restaurant; food that makes you ill the next day.