Nestlé Toll House Cafe by Chip vs. Mrs. Fields Cookies
As a child, if I successfully managed to beg my mother to buy the golden bag of Nestlé chocolate chips instead of the ugly generic brand, life was good. We would bake Toll House cookies, and I’d eat them straight out of the oven, warm and gooey. Nostalgia is a bitch, I thought to myself as I crunched my way through a dry, nearly burned, stale-tasting chocolate chip cookie from the Nestlé Toll House Cafe by Chip. Disappointment carried me to the Mrs. Fields storefront, where I ordered up a semisweet chocolate chip cookie with walnuts. “Do you bake these cookies?” I skeptically asked the older South Asian woman helping me. “Oh yes, every one,” she said, handing me a waxy paper bag. She went on to explain that, while she shows up for work at nine, she holds off baking as long as possible before the store’s 10 a.m. opening. Mrs. Fields is located close to one of the mall entrances, where gusts of winter air routinely come rushing in, wreaking cold havoc on the baked goods. “But feel your cookie,” she said with a wink. “Still soft.” And indeed it was—chewy and salty sweet, far superior to the Nestlé Toll House cookie, and obviously imbued with love. ANGELA GARBES
Auntie Anne’s Zone D vs. Auntie Anne’s Zone F
It may be of some comfort in this cold, uncertain world, to know that no matter which of Alderwood Mall’s two Auntie Anne’s pretzel stands you might be patronizing, a pepperoni pretzel always costs $3.93. At both Auntie Anne’s stores, employees will extol the merits of lemonade, iced tea, cheese topping…