My Kind of Selfie

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Holiday Inn Express. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’m not a fan of selfies. I’m generally of the opinion that the only good portrait is one that someone else, with full range of motion and full control of the camera, takes of you. I remember the time back when yet-to-be-named “selfies” were a last resort—something you did while traveling to get yourself in some snapshots when there was no one around to ask to do it themselves. They certainly weren’t something you shared with the world. As a blogger, I’ve learned to accept them as a necessary evil. Selfies do well on social media so I take them and share them reluctantly.

But a selfie on a pancake… now that’s something I can support!

When I learned that Holiday Inn Express was bringing their #PancakeSelfie food truck to the Bay Area, giving visitors the chance to have their picture cooked onto a pancake, I was eager to go check it out. I live for the absurd, especially when it comes to strange foods. So, this was right up my alley. The Pancake Selfie Truck was on a nine stop national tour to promote the hotel brand’s new push-button instant pancake machine, which lets guests grab a few pancakes as a snack at any hour of the day. I like this idea–I can’t tell you how many times I’ve arrived at a hotel late at night, starving, with no food on-site, nor restaurants open.

The truck was making two appearances in the Bay Area—first in San Francisco at Fisherman’s Wharf, and second (where I caught it) in Oakland’s Lakeshore Park, at Lake Merritt. Folks out walking around the lake on their lunchbreak were drawn in by the offer of free (selfie) pancakes.

When I arrived at the truck, a tent was set up next door. A member of the Pancake Selfie Team handed me an iPhone and let you snap a selfie against a white background. The photos then synced immediately over to her laptop where she grabbed the file, converted it to black and white, and tweaked the contrast until a recognizable profile showed up on the screen. She then sent the file over to the food truck where the pancake was made, and image placed.

At first, I thought that the printer-like device was “painting” the image by brushing some kind of dye onto the surface of the pancake. Actually, the printer has a heated laser that cooks the image onto the top of the pancake. One of the guys working the truck shot this video on my phone to show me exactly what was going on…

When I got my pancake. I was hooked. I instantly regretted not doing a goofy face, so I talked them into letting me do a second shot…

I would have played all day if they had let me. I snapped dozens pictures of myself with the two pancakes, trying to get just the right angle and lighting, etc. The Pancake Selfie truck did the impossible–it turned me into a selfie addict!

Finally, it was time to say goodbye. Pancakes are pancakes, and they are meant to be eaten.

Hey Sacramento: The #PancakeSelfie truck is coming your way! Look for it this weekend, October 9-11.