FOUND OUR RAMEN! (Which, in a recap, we are pretty much going to be dependent upon for basic nutrition for 3-10 days while in Europe-- DD and I both, potentially)
But not before "adventures in low-caffeine struck at Store number 1."
(Typical.)
The Story of "Not all That LOOKS safe... is the same as that which actually IS"
Store number one-- called this morning. "I need a particular brand of Ramen noodles. Yes, <laughs> I know-- but this is because of food allergies. Everyone else in town except (ratty store) seems to carry Nissin/Top-Ramen and not Maruchan. Any chance that you carry the Maruchan brand?"
"Yes-- we carry both brands."
"Great!" (Since this is also "budget-priced" grocery store and it's next to PetCo where I need to go to get more of our only-sold-in-one-store-in-the-entire-universe cat food.)
In store, I notice the rows-and-rows of shelf space devoted to Maruchan cup-o-noodle (you know, in the foam cups?) And then I spot it-- HURRAY! That magical BLUE label... loose packets, not ideal.. I prefer the case/sixpacks which are tidier, but at this point I could CARE LESS, because they HAVE IT...
Hey-- 0.10 each, no less. AWESOME. I grab $3 worth. Yes, this is a lot of ramen.
Get out to the car, drop that off, walk over to get cat food. Back to car, drop THAT off, and something about the ramen catches my eye...
Hmm.
WHAT?!!!! AUghhhhhhhh!!!!! It's all NISSIN. WTF?? HOW could I not have even noticed this?? HOW?? HOW??
Back into store. Yup. That's right. All of the cup-of-noodle stuff is Maruchan... and all of the plain ramen is Nissin.
So I go to the OTHER (more expensive) store after I go back to pick DD up at the end of her workshop...
At first, all I saw THERE was the Nissin stuff, too. I was just about to throw a giant hairy cat fit when DD gently pointed out to me the smaller wire bins of the Maruchan next to it. Well.
It cost twice as much. But at that point, it could have cost $1 each and I seriously wouldn't have cared. Now, why didn't I go to this store to begin with, you ask? Well, because the CSR there didn't seem to "with it" when I called around this morning, quite frankly.
The good news is that I can probably count this four hour adventure as community service. LOL. Yeah-- sure.
Because I was "buying food to donate to the food bank."