I was at Crossroads Mall last year for their 2nd annual Bite of Crossroads, and reading back on my entry from that day, I seem to have been in a pretty good mood. Tonight, just to keep a record of what’s going on with this little shindig, the husband and I went for a walk around the 3rd annual Bite.

Here’s what really Bites: Ticket prices are up steeply this year. They are now $2 apiece or 10 for $15, from last year’s $1.25 or 10(?) for $12. What a shock to the system. I can assure you that the size of the plates have not grown, and so what was last year a nice little dimsum- or tapas-sized meal of 5 bites, this year simply bites for $10 or $7.50. We’re assured that a portion of the proceeds will be going to the Crossroads Community Center, which would only be of comfort to anyone who wasn’t already treating the mall as a community center of sorts.

It’s a pity too, because they have that new Kaiten Sushi place (it took me a while to figure out where the conveyor belt of sushi was, because I was forever in a hurry and rushing past the little food outlet. The belt is behind the store — in front of the russian piroshky place, and at that late hour, housed only half a dozen sushi bits and two bored employees), and the new boba place. The sushi place’s bites were astoundingly boring and non-sushi-like. Curry Rice?? Chicken Katsu?? At least the boba store had boba as one of its bites (the other bite was popcorn chicken, which made me go “hm”).

Starbucks still hasn’t learned its lesson from last year. It has one thing no one else does: coffee. It needs to make that one of the bites. This year’s bite is “Shaken Passion Iced Tea”. Actually, I noticed a lot of “liquid bites” this year. There’s also a masala chai tea, homemade soup, borscht, and a split pea with ham soup.

It’s hard for me to gauge exactly what the most expensive bites are, and no doubt that is one reason why a “ticket” system is used. When you give up one of your tickets for a “small chocolate chip macaroon cookie” it sure feels a lot better than say, giving up $2 for a tiny cookie, doesn’t it? But here are some that look doubtful: the vietnamese eggroll bites, and anything that has “rice” in the title (such as “veggies over rice” or “curry rice”).

As we wandered around, the husband tried to enjoy the strains of calming Pearl Django music — a perennial live favorite at Crossroads. I carped and pouted and generally made threatening noises to boycott the mall; a useless threat since it remains one of those compromises where if you’ve got a group of people with differing appetites, you know everyone will find something to eat, and it won’t be that stupid chain sort of stuff like McDonalds and Steak Escape.

The night was not a total waste, however: here’s some good gossip for you. A new candy shop has moved in where that silly stamp and coin store used to be. Only two weeks old, it’s called Munchie Paradise or something like that, and it’s… different. There’s individually wrapped unfamiliar-looking candies for $2.75/lb, but there are also all these differently flavored nuts (lemon chili pistachio nuts!) and dried fuits (lemon kumquat!) (free samples!!). Not your usual jelly-belly cornucopia, that’s for damn certain. For a moment there, I was jolted right back to my childhood where you used to be able to stop at the corner store for candy at 2 or 5 cents a piece — and I wanted so very badly to pick up a handful of candy and walk up to the counter to see if they would weigh out to the same price. Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow.

PS: No photo ops — my camera’s in the shop. I miss it so.