At last cooked rice

As I have explored the diverse albeit limited eateries in the Emory village I have come across many pleasantly surprising meals. However upon venturing out of the Village to Publix with my roommate we decided to go ahead and dine in the area. After closely reading the names of the restaurants and weighing our options we decided to go and eat at a Vietnamese and Thai restaurant. I was excited to go to the Saigon Café for I had never consumed food from those particular regions of the world. 

As I entered the relatively empty restaurant, which probably due to the fact that we were their during the awkward couple of hours in between lunch and dinner, I was meet with an array of odors which was a nice change from the same fried smells of the DUC. This was the first indication that the food was going to be flavorful, which made me even more excited to try the meal to come.  At the table in which we were seated there was a large variety of sauces, some I had never seen.  There were also some chopsticks, which I have often tried but failed to use properly. The general ambiance of the restaurant was very casual which was fueled by its eclectic mix of music, the large colorful photos of some of the numerous food items offered, and a tree from which hung colorful wax like tubes.

The menus that were given to us by the friendly server contained multiple items that were previously foreign to me. This variety only made it more difficult for me to choose what to order. Since it was a new experience I wanted to try many different items so I decided to order an appetizer, which is something that I usually do not do.  I decided to order a spring roll that had shrimp and pork. Because it has been strangely warm outside considering how late into the year it is when I saw the various soups on the menu I had to deter from choosing them even though they looked intriguing and instead opted for a rice based dish.  I cannot remember the name of the dish because when I ordered my food I only pointed to it on the menu because I could not pronounce the name of it.  But it was a rice dish with two different forms of pork and a baked egg.

The first to arrive at our table was the spring rolls that were accompanied by a dipping sauce that was sprinkled with crushed peanuts.  Though I usually do not enjoy peanuts in savory food I just scraped them off of the top of the dipping sauce and began to eat the spring rolls. They chewy exterior of the roll was nicely contrasted by the tender shrimp and beef and crunchy bean sprouts. The bean sprouts initially were the ingredient that was the most pronounced and slightly overpowering however when I dipped the spring roll into the complex sauce the sweetness from the sauce helped balance the flavor of the bean sprouts. The rest of my food arrived fairly quickly, probably because of the small amount of customers.

As I began to eat my meal I was overjoyed by the fact that the rice was actually cooked unlike the rice that is served at the DUC. The grilled pork was sweet and had a charred flavor to it, which was complimented by sweet and tart coleslaw. The shredded pork is another story however, it was cold and the texture was not something that I was used to but that is not to say that it was all bad for it was flavorful at least.  The baked egg was not what I expected but it contained many different savory ingredients that took it beyond the flavor of that of an ordinary egg.  Overall the meal was delicious and the large portion allowed for leftovers. The best part of the meal however was that I was able to practice eating with the chopsticks.

Quintessential American food

For weeks I had been hearing recommendations for a restaurant in the village that sold great hamburgers from peers, friends, and even food blogs.  Yet every time that I wandered down to the village I ended up going to the same three restaurants that I had become accustomed to. Just recently however my roommate and I found ourselves in the village and there I of course ceded the decision making to my roommate due to my inability to choose anything. And with me ceding over all of the power to my roommate I finally saw myself going to Wonderful World.

My roommate who had previously visited the establishment ordered first and with her grilled cheese she ordered a milkshake, which she suggested that I try. I ordered from the few menu items, which I would like to think show that they decided to make just a couple of things well rather than making to many poor quality items. However when I ordered my food and milkshake, I was sadly informed that there was only enough strawberry ice cream for one milkshake. Even though I was not able to have the sweet treat, which in hindsight was probably for the best, I was even happier with my cheeseburger and fries came out snuggled in a pie pan. The whimsical plating really brought character to the otherwise plain ambiance.

 While the fries were large in quantity the cheeseburger in comparison seemed to be very small and compact. I dove into the fries that I can now only describe as salty, blistering hot, and herby. Not only were the flavors of the fries great but so was its structure. It was a great size that was easy to manage and it was not drenched in grease like many other restaurant french fries. The dill that was sprinkled all over the fries gave it a sense of freshness that is usually not found in fried food let alone french fries. Every bite that I took of the perfectly crisp fry made me forget the boring fast food that is readily available. However when I bit into the juicy hamburger I was pleased by the large flavors overflowing from the small package of meat. The buttery bun held a garlicky beef patty and real cheddar cheese, not the processed American cheese, as well as bacon and of course lettuce and tomatoes.  Wonderful World was able to combine the cornucopia of flavors and textures from the various ingredients of the cheeseburger into one singular flavorful experience. Though my experience may have been swayed by the fact that I had not had a real hamburger in months the seasoned food was a nice deviation from the usual under seasoned food. However that was not to say that the meal was without flaws. The garlic flavor in the patty was delicious however the salt content, at least for me, was too much.  Though the salt was not at the level that I would have liked it was such a small flaw when compared to all of the other delicious components of the meal that I was easily able to overlook it.

 The greasy residue of the slab of beef that was cuddled in between two warm halves of a buttery bun was all that remained on the unorthodox plate. With the remnants of the gluttonous meal pestering my conscious, I lifted the pie pan that moments earlier had nestled the greasy burger and french fries and placed it with the mountain of other pans, that sat there representing the patrons that had come and gone. With that my roommate and I walked back to campus a little slower, weighed down by the calories accumulated by the sinful food. While the price was reasonable, with the best purchase being the French fries, and the flavor was explosive when compared to the plain cold stale and disproportionate burgers at the DUC, I would have to say that it was still not the best hamburger that I have experienced. For this very reason I do not think that I will be frequenting this particular establishment as often as I will be other nearby venues though that does not mean that I will exclude it either, for there are not many restaurants in walking distance that specialize in the quintessential American food.

Disenchanting Breakfast

Free, the word holds so much more value when you are a struggling college student. My roommate and I went to the village in search of an edible meal as we usually do every once in a while in order to get away from the norm. Since we had already been to many of the restaurants in the village, which was easy since there sadly is only a small handful, we decided to go to Panera. A chain restaurant like McDonalds, yet Panera is able to have a better quality of food as well as a more welcoming atmosphere. After waiting in line and pondering my choices it was finally my turn to order. Though I was not exactly prepared, seeing that I take a long time making any kind of decision, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. The cashier kindly took my order and my money and then told me about their myPanera card. When she said that it was free and that I could get a surprise if I registered, I was engulfed with a sense of happiness and gleefully strolled to my seat as I waited. It was such an easy thing to do that as I waited for my buzzer to go off I registered my card.

The next week, my roommate and me went to Panera for breakfast in order to redeem our reward, which turned out to be a free pastry. As we entered the all too familiar restaurant, we stepped into the massive line preparing to choose what to use our reward on.  I looked at the options and took into consideration which item would allow me to get more out of my free reward. I was stuck between two different pastries, a cobblestone and a cheese pastry.  Since I had already tried the cheese pastry, I chose the large, textured, and iced muffin.  I was worried however that the pastry would be overly sweet because it had a streusel topping and was drizzled with a white icing, and I have never liked icing on anything even cake, but I decided to give it a try.  Though the doubt that I would actually enjoy the pastry stayed in the back of my mind.  When I ordered and gave my card I decided that I should purchase at least something so that I just don’t get something for free. So of course I just grabbed the most convenient object, which was a fruit cup, and purchased it. For the amount I paid for the overpriced fruit cup I could have purchased a larger and more varied fruit bowl at any grocery store.

Because there was not a description for the cobblestone I bit into the muffin like pastery with hesitation. My first bite was surprisingly moist, which came from the chunks of apples that were in the mixture. Despite the combination of the streusel and the icing the item was not overly sweet. The combination of spices that were incorporated into the dough had plenty to do with the muted sweetness of the ingredients. However, one big regret that I had concerning the cobblestone was that it was full of raisins. I later came to know that cobblestones are made with cinnamon raisin bread dough, something that I would have known if I had only asked.

 I am usually not a picky eater but I have a strong hatred of raisins. From my youth raisins have always been something that I disliked. Raisins are corrupt forms, in my mind at least, of the complex fruit that they come from. They are transformed into an overly sweet and shriveled morsel. I have always just picked them out of whatever heterogeneous mixture they were in, such as trail mix or granola, when I was younger. My childhood habits were mainly gone because I always try to never get anything that contains raisins.  I had to resort to my old habits again when I was confronted by the raisin filled pastry. However, because it was free I felt that I was not as upset about the entire thing as I would have been if I had paid for it. After this unsuccessful experience with my raisin filled pastry and my over priced fruit, I think that I will stick to bagels if or when I go to Panera again for breakfast.

Refreshing Pizza

A week of club activities, never ending readings, and consuming labs was almost over. My roommate and I decided that it was time to seek real or at least edible food. After weighing our options we decided that we should go to Everybody’s so that we could each eat something that we both enjoyed. We arrived at 1 p.m. ignorant of the fact that it was the middle of lunch. Because of this, we were met with a crowded eatery. Overcome by hunger, we quickly glanced at the menu and made our choices. The specialized menu suggested that they put care into a few dishes, yet it was varied enough so that both meat eaters and vegetarians alike could find something to their taste. My lack of creativity prevented me from creating a personalized pizza and moved me towards choosing one of the signature pizzas. While waiting for the food to reach our table, which felt like an eternity due to hunger, I looked around the rustic restaurant.

            An eclectic mix of artwork, road signs, and alcohol advertisement covered the walls, a mixture as diverse as the clientele. The simple table was set up with the usual processed parmesan and red pepper flakes in small glass shakers; however, Everybody’s had something that many others do not a glass bottle filled with olive oil. The smell of freshly baked crust, roasted chicken, and pesto was the first thing to hit me when my “Paradiso” pizza arrived in front of me. Being from Georgia it has always been difficult to find good pizza. The years of conditioning on the monotonous taste of mass-produced pizza made the pizza at Everybody’s that much better. It had a look about it that was rustic and yet carefully crafted a characteristic that alone set apart from any other pizza I had ever encountered.

My first bite of the delectable concoction was not met with the usual layer of grease that is a part of almost all delivery pizza. Instead I was met by all of the distinct flavors of the delicately constructed pizza that when combined provided a burst of flavor. After weeks of bland unseasoned food, even a simple food like pizza prepared well seemed like the best thing in the world. Since I have been trying new things, I decided to get something other than the usual tomato sauce based pizza and opted for a pesto-based one instead. As I ate my meal I was happily surprised that my decision allowed me to discover a new, and I must say better, flavor combination with the other ingredients in the meal. Though I did not have the traditional tomato sauce my pizza did not go without the tomato component of a traditional pizza. However, on my pizza it was found in a more intact form. The tomatoes were, sadly, my biggest regret when it came to the meal. The general sweetness that I associate with tomatoes was gone and all that was left was an acidity that overpowered all of the other ingredients on the plate. Even the onions on the dish, which were a relatively large amount, were very mild and crisp compared to the tomatoes.

Flavorful roasted chicken that alone was delicious was found all over the pizza like little mounds of flavor. Nothing is perfect and the same goes for the chicken that was at times dry, mainly where it was not coated with some of the four cheeses that covered the pie. The cheese is one of the components that I thought was going to be overpowering when I was deciding what to order. Although there was a lot of cheese they were not strong and worked well together on the pizza. The excessive amount of cheese on the pizza served as edible glue holding the entire pizza together. Despite the amount of large toppings on the pizza it was surprisingly structurally sound. The fact that everything did not fall off the pizza after one bite shows how much thought and care was put into the food. The large portions, welcoming environment, good prices, about 12 dollars with a soft drink, and wonderful flavor will make me come back to this restaurant. 

Divine French Toast

The whirlwind of changes that comes when entering a new phase in one’s life can be invigorating, yet many individuals have the tendency to pick out the worst in situations. Humans will never be content with any change in one’s life as can be seen with entering college. With the freedom that comes with living on your own for the first time so does the dreaded cafeteria food. Although the cafeteria staff is kind and attentive, it does not change the fact that the warmth and love that is put into a home cooked meal is completely stripped from the assembly line style of food production. The process of mass producing food is a necessary evil at such a large institution, considering the copious amounts of individuals on campus during much of the school day that need to eat and the fact that the DUC is the cheapest and usually the most convenient place to go when hunger sets in. This does not change the fact that it is comforting, especially for a student away from home, to eat in a smaller and more intimate dining environment. After a week full of repetitive and tedious orientation events my roommate and I decided to go explore Emory Village, a disappointingly short series of quaint eateries, that are a part of the area that we will call home for the next four years.

After a bit of aimless walking we stumbled upon a small restaurant that had a crowd of people lined outside of the door. We looked closer and we saw the Rise and Dine where breakfast is served all day, with that we were immediately drawn in for we had not eaten breakfast since our arrival at Emory. This was due to both our busy mornings and because of my aversion to waking up early enough to eat breakfast. Because of the short waiting period to enter the restaurant my roommate and I decided to look that the menu they thoughtfully placed on the outside the front wall. I am usually a very indecisive individual, but after a couple of minutes of pondering the choices, which I found to be slightly restricted, I finally decided on the French toast. When we entered the relatively small space with a decorative style that I can only describe as retro, we were seated by the kind waitress in one of the small booths.

After waiting only a few minutes the waiter arrived with our food. Four abnormally thick slices of lusciously browned French toast dusted with powdered sugar were set in front of me alongside small packets of butter on a simple white plate. I dove into the plate of French toast and was instantly meet by the traditional homemade flavors of the delicious, dense, and decadent challah bread. The richness of the dish prevented me from finishing the meal and now I know why they offer a half order. Although the French toast was a little dryer than I would have liked but the large portions make this meal worthwhile. The price is about 10 dollars with iced tea prevents an average college student from being able to enjoy their delicious breakfast on a regular basis. 

*Picture From: http://www.yelp.com/user_local_photosuserid=_t2W6Th7tc_fcs4dFR1BoA&select=lJdv3AmWLxkFqPwKDzOcCQ