Hello from beyond the grave, Junk Food Nation!  Wait, no that’s not right. Hello from auto-posting Vegas Land!  Ok, in fairness, I don’t leave for Vegas until tomorrow.  Still, I have a big hearing today, so I decided we should begin St.VegasMarchIceCreamYouScreamWeAllScreamForPatricksMadnessDayPalooza early!

Day 1 topic: Have you heard about these Homeless Hotspots that have been drawing a lot of media attention at the SXSW conference in Texas?  Apparently a company known as BHH Labs has been paying homeless people, outfitted with mobile Wi-Fi devices, and told them to go to the most dense areas of the conference, areas where tech would be running slow.  They paid each participant $20 a day, and the homeless people were also able to keep whatever customers donated in exchange for the wireless service.

How do you guys feel about this? The obvious two sides of the debate are “THAT’S SUPER EXPLOITIVE”  vs. “How self-righteous are YOU to tell these people what they can and CAN’T do to make money?”  My feeling?  Well, my feeling is how do the homeless people feel about it?  It’s not like they are being paid to fight each other on film to be sold at 3am on MTV (this exists). Those videos obviously de-humanized those people? Here?  The homeless people are at the SXSW conference, a place I would KILL to attend, and they get paid to walk around, interact, and provide a service to attendees – a job I’m sure some silly college kids would LOVE to do as well!  (Hell, *I’d* do that.  Someone get me on a plane to SXSW!)  So, to me: if they’re good with it, I’m good with it.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Today’s junk food, the last of this season’s Limited Edition Häagen-Dazs ice creams:  Limited Edition Salted Caramel Truffle Ice Cream!

Photolog time! The fourth limited edition: Häagen-Dazs Limited Edition Salted Caramel Truffle Ice Cream

So literal isn't it? Pieces of gooey caramel and chocolate truffle depicted, with big pieces of coarse sea salt.

Have I ever HAD a salted caramel truffle before? And when did this salt caramel thing catch on?

Fleur de sel is hand harvested sea salt #thingsyouknownow #yourewelcome

Salt is an awfully low listed ingredient here

Love that caramel peeking out already

Lots of these little cube truffles in there. My spoon couldn't avoid them.

Inside the tiny truffles was caramel-y goodness. Really tasty.

The official Häagen-Dazs Limited Edition Salted Caramel Truffle Ice Cream review: Well….it was VERY good, but I think this may be my least favorite of all the new Limited Edition ice creams: Vanilla Bean Espresso, Spiced Caramel Biscuit, and Coconut Macaroon.  The sweet cream ice cream was delicious and always tasty – standard.  The truffles were hard and crunchy, with sweet caramel innards.  Very tasty. The caramel band swirl throughout the ice cream was REALLY good – very sweet.  Plus, definitely salty – it gave the ice cream a distinct taste, bringing out the caramel flavor and cutting the richness.

So, it was good, but overall, I’d put it at a 6.5/10.0 for me.  Tasty, would eat again…but it’d be fourth on my list.  Check out The Impulsive Buy’s take on this H-D L-E!

Comments? Hit me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy