Kaikorai Valley College year 13
Gravel crunched under my feet as I ambled along, almost unnoticeable among the almost overwhelming noise of the marketplace.
Small pieces of conversations and the sound of laughter surrounding me.
Each new stall I passed sold something different, something new.
I continued past most of them, reminding myself that I’d have plenty of time to look at them properly later, but for the time being I had my mind set on one thing and one thing only — lunch.
I’d passed the food trailers once or twice earlier that morning but hadn’t had a proper look at what they had to offer, so making my way around them now I was seeing just how many options there were.
There were a range of smells assaulting my nose, but as I moved closer to the next truck there was one that particularly stuck out to me.
The truck was bright red with a large yellow stripe wrapping all the way around, and written in bold black letters down the side was the word ‘‘churros’’.
The air smelt of sugar and cinnamon and I couldn’t help but be reminded of my first time having them.
It had been a warm sunny day, and me and my family were wandering through the streets of Movie World amusement park.
With all the crowds surrounding us we had to take extra care not to split off from the group, at least not without warning.
Half of us decided to avoid the thrill rides, preferring something a bit more tame, so the other half went to pursue said rides while we stuck to the more family-friendly ones.
After a few rides it was heading towards lunchtime and the group was getting a bit hungry from our various adventures.
Because of this, we decided to all come together again in the food court, calling the thrill riders to meet us there.
Once together, we set our minds to finding a table out in the sun, with most being full as the lunch rush was coming through.
Once seated we discussed what each person wanted, the younger people (me included) were left to make sure no-one took our seat as the others got their various choices for lunch.
The others returned with their lunches and it was our turn to get our choice of food, being given money to pay for what we wanted.
As time ticked on I had set my sights on the nearby churro stand, which despite the long line was looking more appealing every time I looked at it.
I’d never tried churros before but my cousin and I had discussed it during the wait and she was willing to give it a shot.
So we made our way over there through the crowds and joined the line.
Fifteen minutes of shuffling and following the line forward step by step later and we’d made fair progress towards our target, though regret was beginning to set in.
The sun was beating down, leaving us overheating and wishing we’d picked one of the sheltered little shops to get our food instead of the stand out in the sun.
Yet we still had hope that the churros would be worth the wait.
By the time we reached the front of the line to get our long-awaited churros and paid a fairly high price we’d set some big expectations for the food as we were overheated, hungry and overall impatient.
Would they be fluffy or more like a biscuit?
Would the cinnamon be the prevailing flavour or would the churros have a sweet taste of their own?
How many churros would we get for the money we had (as the price board didn’t tell us much other than the sizes of the dish)?
The more we thought about the final product, the more hungry we had become, but once we finally got our churros we were only left with immense disappointment.
The portion size was tiny, for the amount we’d paid, and after taking a few bites we found they weren’t even that good.
Having since then tried other brands of churros, I’ve learnt they can be incredibly tasty, when made right.
Unfortunately, because of the small serving size, my cousin and I were left very hungry but didn’t have enough money to get anything else for lunch, due to the very high prices of the theme park scam churros.
So we finished our snack of a lunch and continued on our way, albeit very unhappy.
And to be fair, the marketplace churros tasted pretty good, with the soft inside and harder shell coated in cinnamon sugar and even a small cup of heated chocolate sauce to go with it.
The size of the portions was actually stated to the side of the serving window and were decently priced, especially for how many you got in each serving.
The people inside the trailer were also really nice, so I would definitely go again.
