It’s that awkward time of day when I’m hungry but it’s too early to have dinner (even though our cafeteria opens at 4:30 PM). If I were home, I would have a snack with some hot tea. For very special occasions, my mom and I go to Cafe Sabarsky, which is part of the Neue Galerie. They serve the best tea and cakes in New York. My favorite cake is the chocolate cake with orange jam and marzipan. It is absolutely delicious!
This semester has had its ups and downs, and I am definitely beginning to appreciate the little things in life. After a difficult day, I like to take a minute and eat a La Vie de la Vosgienne hard candy. These candies are some of my favorites, and they come in so many different flavors (right now, I have orange and raspberry).
These sweet and slightly tart French candies remind me of home. My mom would buy these for me as a treat when I felt sick or had a stressful day. Trust me though, you don’t need to have these candies when you have a bad day. They are great for anytime. Nowadays, when I suck on one of these tasty morsels, I think of how I will be in France in less than a year for study abroad.
The title of this post is a little misleading, as I do believe that you can eat soup anytime of the year. What I meant to say is the mild winter has caused my demand for soups I am used to eating this time of year (i.e. warm pea soup, lentil soup, minestrone, etc) to go down. (Can’t you see the inner workings of an economist?) It’s too cold to eat vichyssoise (cold leak and potato soup) or gazpacho but too warm for what I consider the “winter soups.”
This snowy leap day is quite the exception to the winter weather of 2012. The snow outside makes me want to curl up on my sofa with a good book and a bowl of soup nearby. Given my current circumstances, this is impossible (as I don’t have a couch in my room). Guess I will just make do trudging through the snow to the cafeteria to see what soups they are serving tonight.
In my opinion, you can’t make a good sandwich without good bread. I love baguette and multigrain bread, but one day, I wanted to try something different. We had pretzel rolls in the house, so I used one of these instead. I added turkey, gruyere, and tomato. I ate the sandwich with some warm homemade lentil soup. The preparation and assembly was quick and easy, and ever since this delicious sandwich, I have not bought a pretzel from a street vendor.
The cafeteria is serving flat iron steak tonight, which is not my favorite meal but definitely not my least favorite. I doubt it will be a quarter as good as the steak (in the picture above) from David Burke Townhouse, which was served with a flavorful peach salad. This side gave the dish a whimsical note. The whimsy was a nice touch, but today I will settle for just the meat.
Actually there is no logic behind the title of this post other than the fact that I love the Wizard of Oz and was talking about it with my roommate the other day. This morning, I sat in Black Sheep Bakery and enjoyed an apricot danish which was the perfect combination of sweet, tart, and sticky goodness. It had the perfect ratio of apricot jam to pastry dough (you can see the inner math nerd in me coming out from this comment). I ate the danish, whilst sipping one of Black Sheep’s signature hot mochas and reading my econ textbook. A live band was playing in the background. What a great way to start of my day (and probably the best possible way to do homework).
This evening, my friend and I went to an Italian restaurant in town called Bertucci’s, and what a wonderful night we had. The food well made up for the few “obstacles” we encountered (the gusts of wind we faced on our walk over and the 20 minute wait for a table).
We started off with delicious focaccia bread that had melted cheese and came with a tomato dipping sauce on the side. I ordered chicken parmesan for my main dish, and my friend ordered tortellini which was Bertucci’s signature dish. Mine came with the option of soup or salad, and I opted for the minestrone soup. This was very good, and even though my friend’s tortellini dish did not come with soup or salad, our waiter offered her this as part of her meal. She ordered a very nice looking salad.
Both my chicken parmesan and my friend’s tortellini were superb. The waiter told us after the fact that the tortellini dish has 1900 calories in it. I just couldn’t get out of my seat after hearing that. The gym is sounding like a good idea right now.
Yesterday, my friend and I went to Whole Foods, and I was proud of myself because I bought only healthy things, mostly yogurt (10 individual containers to be precise) and fruit.
I just came back from the gym and ate a peach yogurt, adding some maple granola, walnuts, and strawberries to it. Healthy but delicious!
The first meal I eat when I get home will definitely be sushi. Just three more weeks away. I can’t wait!
One thing that Amherst lacks (both the college and the town) is fruit. Besides the fact that there is a limited array of fruit in the cafeteria, the bananas often run out by lunchtime. Furthermore, the town does not have one single fruit store. Therefore, every two weeks or so, I take the bus or get a friend to drive me to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods to stock up on my produce. (I plan on going tomorrow). I don’t expect to get the exotic fruit in the picture above (from my trip to Costa Rica many years ago), but I wish it didn’t take so much effort to stay healthy in college.
Food Follower 