Itty Bitty Mac

One never knows where they'll find their next mac & cheese.  The obvious places are those that serve  or sell food.  Restaurants and grocery stores have been the root location of 99% of my blog posts so far, with an honorable mention of inedible mac bandages found at a candy shop in San Francisco.  Easy marks.  What if you up really want to challenge yourself.  Where would you look?

How about an antique store.

Now I bet you're thinking, antique shops don't sell food.  They can't. It's against the law, or it'd be a crime against humanity to buy some mac that was last sold in the Eisenhower administration.  Well I've not found any food (or any old packages of mac for that matter)... yet, but I did find something pretty damn cool. Miniature dollhouse sized mac n' cheese.

I had found myself back in the Niles district of Fremont, once again wandering the shops on a Sunday afternoon.  While I did walk by Bronco Billy's and their tempting mac bites, this post is about on one of the antique shops a few blocks down.

My Friends And I is located at 37521 Niles Blvd.  Like almost all the shops (as far as I can tell) on Niles Blvd., they have a bit of a focus, and numerous vendors that work to that shop's theme.  This shop (like any good one) has a little bit of everything, vintage and new but something I've noticed as I've been through the area a few times is that they make sure to decorate up their shop and work with their vendors to do so for calendar events.

The shop was pretty busy when I was there, but remember, they close at 5PM daily, so no late night antiquing for you!

Not only is that a good sign of rotating inventory, but a store that has vendors who don't want to just have a stagnant look that in my opinion, turns off the potential customers.  Why go in, if the stuff you can see in the front, is the same stuff you saw three months ago?  They want to sell their stuff and by rotating and bringing in new stuff regularly, it's actually an adventure to go in and browse. 

Besides, the ladies that work there are really nice, so even if you don't buy anything, you'll have a great conversation.

The Review

Brand:
Dollhouse Miniatures Macaroni and Cheese

While that's not the 'brand', this was the only sign in the booth (which was filled with miniatures for dollhouses), so huzzah for impromptu namings!

Price:
$3.00 from the second to last booth on the left in the back of the shop.

Packaging Description:
It's a teeny tiny box of mac.  I spend all my money getting more mac, I don't have the budget necessary for the rental of a telescope to properly zoom in on a creation this tiny to read the words.

Preparation:
*While there isn't really anything to prepare so to speak, you do still need to find yourself in Niles.  You took the Niles Canyon Railway didn't you?  It was a bunch of fun wasn't it?

*Wandering down Niles Blvd. (preferably not like a drunk biker, because the bikers frequenting the 3 bars on this street in Niles may take offense), you've found My Friends And I and made your way into the shop.

*Working your way to the very back of the store, on your left you've found the Dollhouse Miniatures booth full of teeny tiny things for your personal dollhouse.

*Walk straight into the booth and look in that display case that is up against the wall.

No, this isn't a picture of the booth, this is a picture of a miniature shelving unit, filled with miniature items on a shelf in that display case, found in the booth!

 *Keep those eyes peeled.  You'll need to zoom in CSI style to find it.

It's like a walk down the snack food aisle! Mini Twinkies, Circus Animal Cookies, Ritz crackers and Cracker Jacks. Just as expensive as their in store counterparts, but lacking the calories.

*Head back up towards the front of the store and let one of the people working behind the counter that you'd like something from the Dollhouse Miniatures booth. Head on down with them, point it out and make your way back to the front of the store once it's been retrieved.

*Pay for your mac, but be careful not to lose it.  It's TINY!  They'll offer a little bag, you'll want to take it. 

How tiny you ask?

Oh so very tiny.

The box is incredibly detailed, even showing the preparation directions.  I didn't notice until I took these scale pictures but both sides of the box have preparation directions.

*While I got this just because, it works great with dolls & figures.

Yotsuba may only be 5, but boy does she LOVE mac n' cheese!

Taste:
N/A

Final Score:
While the employee who rung me up for the mini mac isn't the booth owner, she did know that the booth owner doesn't make them herself, but these are made in the US somewhere.  I've gotten similarly small yet bad ass things off Etsy in the past (Harry Potter miniature stuff), so if for some reason you want to try your luck, you may find something similar (though there wasn't anything quite the same up as of this posting).  She mentioned a doll convention coming up in the Bay Area in October, so that may also be a good place to go hunting for mini mac n' cheeses.

The print and build quality on this is great.  It's on some kind of thicker paper, giving it some sturdiness and the tiny print, while not legible on something so small, it in fact a 1:1 lift of a recent Kraft Macaroni & Cheese box.  From the preparation directions down to the ad on the back of the box, this thing has it all.

While $3 is what it would cost to buy 2-3 boxes of the real stuff, I can't fault the booth owner for charging 3 bucks.  This thing is so tiny and was made by conjuring some form of magic.  Filling your dollhouse pantry would end up costing as much as a trip to Whole Food in the end, so all in all it's a pretty realistic experience shopping for miniature doll food.

Nutritional Information:
No food here! Just a cute box that will not fill you up.