So, it turns out -- until something odd happens I don't want to completely bore you with my en-pasta-ing in it's basic ways. Just prior to this post was a pile of pictures.
Here's the summary since we last left our intrepid hero:
Thursday: Lunch on the way to work, 2 carry outs at different stores on the way home. (That's 3 different uses in one day. I may one day go as high as 50, but I really don't know what that would do to you, so let's just start with what we have.)
Friday lunch, Saturday dinner with Abbie and Mat (with my first actual sit-down reorder. One bowl of pasta is usually plenty coupled with breadsticks and soup and/or salad), Sunday dinner with Mat and my other friends, Monday lunch, today carry out lunch.
Here's what I've learned about various pasta choices in the Endless Pasta Bowl...
The spaghetti, the cavatappi, and the angel hair are probably exactly the same pasta, different shapes. The penne might be, too. But the prior 3 forms are usually a bit mushy and don't add much. The penne has a texture to it, but that might just be because of it's shape -- a mechanical engineering benefit, perhaps. The linguine is a different pasta, and generally better than all of them -- but I like the sauce-catching ability of the penne so I've ordered it more. The whole wheat linguine tastes like whole wheat pasta. I'm not a fan, in general.
The sauces are all decent enough. The traditional marinara is the weakest choice and quite watery. The meat sauce is the same, but with meat in it. I don't like either choice because they don't cling well to the pasta and the coverage is poor. I realize "real Italian" sauces are generally pretty watery like this, but I do have a relatively Americanized palette. The alfredo is pretty good -- overly salty, but I mean, this is Olive Garden, what do you want? My favorite is definitely the five cheese marinara. It solves the watery issue by the addition of cheeses. This gives it a much thicker, paste-like consistency, which works very well with the penne.
The meatballs are really kind of bad. They're mealy, soft, and overcooked. You can definitely tell they're more grain than actual meat. Popcorn shrimp are exactly what you'd expect, and the fried chicken strips are only barely passable. The real star, and what I've ordered half a dozen times already are the italian sausage. Not only do you get a tiny bit of chicken or shrimp when you order those, in addition to them being not as good... The sausage, on the other hand; It's italian sausage -- sweet and delicious. And you get two big fat links of it. It's the way to go.
I've used my pass an average of more than once per day, and eaten OG nearly every day. I'm not sick of it yet, but I do feel like it's likely to get old before a lot longer. Too bad I'm actually using this as a groceries-savings item.
Here's the financial rundown for the 9 days so far, to the best of my memory:
$5 in tips (4 visits solo eat-in)
$105 Total Cost at day 10.
6 Italian Sausage Topper * 2.99
$152.93 Total Retail Value at day 10.
Something like 39 days to go.
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