Champaign Day 2: Monicals and Jarling’s Custard Cup

Yesterday was quite a busy day. I had a full day of interviews, another pre-night for more interviews, and had to walk around Champaign buying Illini t-shirts for friends (Joe and Ariel, I bought you two Illini shirts!!) After a full day of work related functions, I finally had a minute to myself (and Audrey) and we chowed down on pizza (ONCE AGAIN).

Thursday, 4:45 PM – call Monical’s on Kirby to place an order for a medium pizza – half pepperoni, half onion, chicken, and green peppers. Ask for an extra side of French dressing because their dressing is da BOMB.

Thursday, 6:25 PM – finally have the opportunity to pick up the pizza from Monical’s – we were supposed to leave at 5 PM, but didn’t end up leaving until much later because of interviews and such. Thought of the cold pizza we’d be eating.

I had to rush to another event at Kennedy’s immediately after all of the interviews so I didn’t have a chance to eat any pizza, but I let Audrey start without me because I knew she’d starve otherwise. Here’s our half-eaten pizza:

Thursday, 9:30 PM – Begin devouring pizza while watching The Office. Yes, I realize I am on central time and that The Office is on at 8 PM here, but Audrey saved the episode for me. Okay, back to the pizza. The red sauce is their “special sauce” – kind of similar to the Papa John’s garlic sauce that you can dip your pizza in; I hate French dressing on salad, but French dressing with fat and carbs just WORK! The crust is really thin and also crispy (kind of like matzo with more flavor). The pepperoni was a little greasy, but if you douse it with French dressing, who cares how greasy it is!!

Thursday, 9:45 PM – realize during the middle of The Office that Custard Cup (Jarling’s) closes in FIFTEEN MINUTES. Tell Audrey to stop everything she’s doing to run to get custard. End up driving across the street:

The inside smells SO delicious – like freshly baked cookies EVERYDAY:

I almost worked there when I was in high school, but decided against it because I was afraid I’d get too fat from eating custard. I got fat, but because of other foods! I told Audrey that my favorite thing to order there is the cold fudge with custard (in all seriousness, I’d probably shower with cold fudge if I had an endless supply of it). I ordered a strawberry custard (which used to only be available on Wednesday’s) with cold fudge. Audrey followed suit by ordering their vanilla custard and cold fudge:

Audrey was really impressed with their cold fudge and loved the congealed texture. It tastes like Jell-O, but thicker. Kind of like the chocolate fudge sauce you get at McDonald’s, but it’s a lot thicker AND it’s served COLD. Crazy, I know. Custard cup is the best because they make their custard in the shop AND it’s from the milk from cows from UIUC. Pretty amazing, I know. Tom Hanks’ brother used to be a professor at UIUC and when Tom visited, he would always hit up Custard Cup. If Tom gives it the seal of approval, you know it’s good!

Thursday, 10:30 PM – creepily drove by my old house and took photographs. Didn’t have the opportunity to go to the backyard to check out the peach tree or the Asian pear tree.

I also headed to Firehaus and Brother’s after driving to my place and realized just how old I am because I didn’t recognize ANYONE there. Now I don’t regret my decision to fly back to New York tonight (Friday) instead of Sunday.

Surprising how good the food in Champaign is, right??