Magic Carpet

So I guess I've been to Magic Carpet more often than any other food truck, and now I've tried all the pita bread sandwiches that I've wanted to try. The one below is the Sloppy Jason (from Monday), which is basically a vegetarian chili with tofu. It isn't as good as the Magic Meatball sandwich, though.

 SP got a falafel and rice thing which came with one pita bread.

 Today I got a the falafel sandwich, and I think that it's the best thing to get here; the tahini sauce is great!! Other ones that I've tried include the seitan sandwich and the tofu salad one. Those weren't too special. I guess the sandwiches with the tomato-based sauces aren't as good as that tahini! I guess if I come here again, I'll only get the falafel sandwich. However, I really need to branch out and try the other food carts.

PennApps Hackathon Spring 2012

Stuff I ate at PennApps (more than this but I didn't take pictures of everything) -- free:

Curry, paneer, rice, vegetables

Fruit

Chocolate Insomnia cookie

2 slices of vegetable pizza

Falafel, hummus, pita bread

1.5 bagels. Full boxes of bagels. 2X as many bagels remained after the event was over.

3 bubble teas

3 Jimmy John's sandwiches

2 goat cheese/spinach/tomato sandwiches, with tomato/tofu salad.

House of Pita Hanan

Last Tuesday (I know! I have so many things to blog about and not enough time because I've been programming!), SP and I went to the House of Pita Hanan, which is a food truck. I think that I'm obligated to go to every food truck on/off campus (from 30th to Walnut, from Spruce to Market, I guess) since I

1. am a college student
2. have a food blog
but I'm busy all the time and enjoy eating peanut butter sandwiches with spinach. Either way, two trucks down (the other one being Magic Carpet, but I haven't posted about them yet since I didn't take a picture of my food last time...), many more to go, 5 semesters left (oh. wow.)

Going to the House of Pita and getting a falafel+hummus+lettuce+feta cheese sandwich really cheered me up though, from the organic chemistry exam that I completely shredded with failure...(got the results back today, but I'm not looking at my exam until 3pm tomorrow so that I can stay happy for another 25.5 hours). SP and I walked in the rain for 4 blocks, and when we arrived, my jeans were drenched, my sweater was soaked, the jacket under my sweater was getting moist, and my shoes and socks were saturated with rainwater. SP, on the other hand, was just lightly speckled with rain water. It was also really cold, and I huddled under the counter-that-juts-out-of-the-truck, out of the rain, next to the engine, for a minuscule bit of warmth. Apparently, the counter is taller than me, which is pretty sad. SP remarked "You should take a picture of yourself and send it to your friends in HK and tell that that everything in America is big".

Ha. Ha.

I would've brought my camera if it hadn't been pouring.

Anyway, I enjoyed the sandwich because it had crunchy bits of falafel (NOT dry) and a nice sauce. I kind of wish they put more falafel pieces in instead of having a lot of lettuce, though. That's the whole point of the falafel sandwich, right? However, it was overall a delicious sandwich. I can't really judge falafel sandwiches though, since I've only had two in my life.

SP got rice with chicken and falafel and a piece of pita bread. For some reason, the pita bread that he got wasn't as flexible as the pita bread in my sandwich, and it was less tasty. I know it's a bit strange to measure pita bread by flexibility, but it's the perfect adjective. I think like flexible, chewy, gluteny pita bread.

House of Pita Hanan
38th and Walnut St

Quiz Bowl at UMD

Just a multicultural girl...

Livin' in the stressful world.

She took the 4:40am train going the south-ish way...

Just a multicultural boy...

Born and raised around the world.

He took the 4:40am train going the south-ish way...

A reader in an UMD room,

A sound of buzzers and voices too.

For a smile they can share a bonus...

It goes on and on and on and on...

QUIZ

BOWL 

WHOOT 

WHOOT!

So somehow I wrote a mirror to the first few verses of "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey so that it fit the Early Autumn Collegiate Novice Quiz Bowl Tournament on the 1st of October (I know! I've been super busy! No time to blog!)

We (4 frosh guys and me, the sophomore... the "leader") took a 4:40am train, two metros, and one taxi to get to UMD from Penn by 9:00 am. We were a few minutes late, but other teams didn't arrive until later anyway. The tournament was pretty intense and fun! Of course I messed up a few times :( but we came 4th overall out of 14 teams, which is quite neat.

Since we missed breakfast (due to a lot of 20-minute waiting at the metro station and bus station), during the bye round, we got food at the "UMD version of Huntsman Hall", and I got waffle fries from Chick-Fil-A. SP commented that it's pretty sad that I'm taking pictures of fast food for my blog. I suppose the point is that I'm recording fun times, and this Quiz Bowl tournament was DEFINITELY fun (despite the fact that I had 3 hours of sleep, slept on the train a bit, and was demented for comp sci homework for the next week).

We got back just in time for the dining halls to close (not that it mattered to me, because I lack a meal plan) so we went to the Mediterranean Cafe and I got a Falafel wrap and the dude charged me 2c less, which was cool. The falafel wrap sauce was really nice.

Hummus (The Restaurant)

At Pennfest, I got to sample pretty much half (or 25%. I don't know Hummus' serving sizes) a meal from Hummus. In fact, I could've sampled a bucketful of falafel and pita if I really wanted to... the next morning, as I walked around campus for MI Green, I saw that the whole platter of pita (kilos and kilos!) was on the floor. Delicious, but social suicide to pick up. The servers were friendly (well, of course they would be; here was the one chance to win the allegiance of some 2000 college students!), and the food was all vegetarian!! It was surprising, because before that, I had passed a whole herd of dead cooked animals in the form of deli food, subs, pepperoni, chicken curry...

I really liked the spring-roll-type-thing, and I'm not sure what the filling was but it was really umami. The hummus was beany and the pita tasted gluteny/yeasty (which was unexpected) and pillowy, which contrasts with the normally more dry pita bread that I'm used to. In all, I did enjoy the food by Hummus.

In other news, SR (who gave me the peanut butter cookie), abides by the vegetarian-most-of-the-time-unless-the-animal-flesh-is-getting-thrown-away. This sort of encourages me to be that type of vegetarian (in that case, I wouldn't be a vegetarian anymore), because it means that less food is wasted. Interesting concept, since I've been trying to figure out the logistics of being a sorta-freegan. More on that when I feel like typing an essay.

Hummus Restaurant
3931 Walnut St.

Spring Fling 2011!

Spring Fling 2011. The yearly event that everyone loves, because of the blatant alcoholism and horde of people wavering around drunk. The event in which alcohol is in every bottle and cup. The event in which wearing neon is purely acceptable, and wearing those huge sunglasses and no pants is classy snazzy.

Despite missing the Fling concert, my friends and I did have a lot of fun with a lightsaber fight with glowsticks, and walking around, eating food, and watching movies. We went to the Burger Fling, an event right before the Fling concert. It was advertised as a huge barbecue, but it was nothing of the sort; all we did was stand in line indoors, get a plate of food, and disperse. Because I asked for a veggie burger, I had to wait an extra 11 minutes for them to cook it :( but it was pretty good, and I got an extra slice of cheese with it. I also got a pretty fresh and yeasty pretzel. It wasn't bland, airy, and untextured.

Tonight, I present you with the carnival! The carnival was supposed to be on College Green, but since It's been raining for the past 12 hours, it was moved into Houston Hall. Somehow, they managed to stick in a whole bunch of food samples, a jumping castle, two mechanical bulls, and over the fire-hazard-limit number of people&umbrellas onto two floors, and everyone actually seemed happy about it!! I had arrived a bit early, and there were already lines forming. I got some key lime water ice, and the best part was that it was a full container of it! It was delicious, although I think that the cookies and cream flavour was way better (I tried some of CC's. He actually preferred the fruity ones since mixing cream and water didn't seem to be his thing).

I also got some Chipotle, but they didn't really offer what I wanted; it was just a flour tortilla with cheese, tomato, and lettuce. Dude. Where're the beans? The guacamole? The salsa? Where are all the things that make a Chipotle burrito a Chipotle burrito? Yes, I understand that they had to feed some 1000 or so of us with a limited budget, but this gave TJ a bad impression of Chiptole. As I am already biased towards Chipotle, I don't really mind but now TJ will value Qdoba over Chipotle :(

Actually, I did try some Qdoba tortilla chip dip. It was pretty good-cheesy, spicy, drinkable like soup, so I ended up chugging most of it since we ran out of chips. My friend took a picture of me drinking it, and that's the closest picture I have to the cliche plastic-red-cup-filled-with-vodka image. Haha.

Boxes of...

Costco churros! This is the second (?) Costco churro of my life, and although it tasted rather stale and dry, the inside was quite delicious and spongy!

Samosas from...someone, filled with potato and peas and spicy stuff- Amazing! (still vegetarian although it looks like there's cow mince in there)

...And the grand finale...THE MAGIC CARPET MEATBALL PITA! Delicious mustardy cheesy something light kinda sauce (Not sure what it is), seedy nutty delicious falafelish smooshed non-meat meatballs with crunchy lettuce and a crusty pita - AMAZING! I really have to advertise Magic Carpet now! Next year... Gonna buy from this food truck!