Take-In

It appears that for some people, no restaurant meal can surpass the food you make yourself. At least I assume that was what was going through the mind of a man a friend and I observed the other morning.

We were sitting at a booth next to the window at a local bagel restaurant, with a lovely view of the parking lot, when we noticed a man carrying a small blender and a paper cup. He stopped in front of a large, covered trash can right outside the window, and placed the blender on top of the can. He took the lid off the blender and poured what appeared to be water from the paper cup into the blender container. Next he took two paper packets out of his pocket, and poured the contents into the blender. Then he picked the blender up and walked away, with the electric cord dangling, and disappeared around the corner.

Strange, we thought--was he going off in search of an electrical outlet? Did he think there might be a strategically placed public outlet nearby, like an ATM or a phone booth? I've never seen one. And if he was in the habit of blending-on-the-go, why didn't he buy a battery-operated blender? (Although I'm not actually sure whether they actually exist--but they must, for camping or something...)
Anyway, in the time it's taken me to digress about blenders, Blender Man has returned from wherever he went around the corner, and he evidently has located an outlet, because now the stuff in the blender container appears to have been blended.
It was brown.

As he passed by our window, he removed the container from the bottom of the blender, walked to his car (which was parked next to the trash can,) put the bottom of the blender in the trunk, and proceeded to come into the restaurant.
Was this the opposite of take-out, we wondered? Making your own food at home (or, in this case, on top of a nearby trash can) and then bringing it to the restaurant to eat there? I suppose that's one way to get "home cooking" without having to actually be "home," although, frankly, it seems like a lot of extra and unnecessary work.
But Blender Man didn't sit down. He walked over to a group of diners who were just preparing to leave; spoke a few words; and then turned around and went outside and got in his car.

Just before he drove away, he took the lid off the blender and took a sip.
It's the new version of "take-out": "home cooking" meets "drive-thru."