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

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.

Epic Run Times

Run around town...Actually, once I got to 9th St., I started walking, and I walked four a few hours. Hehe. At least four hours.

I saw a bunch of giant cakes in a storefront, but the store looked like it was closed and there wasn't a door or anything. The cake looks pretty sumptuous.

I went to The Space Corner again and got dried roses (to make rose tea, rose water, and Turkish delight later when I get home) for $1, mango black tea ($1) and cream of tartar.

Then I walked around the "Little Italy" area of Philadelphia and checked out the market on the pavement...and I noted that Italians aren't the ones who sell the vegetables, which is kind of ironic I guess. I bought some red peppers and walked over to a candy store, Sweet Tooth, on the corner of South and 4th. I'll update about that later.

Then, I went to Reading Terminal Market and saw this at one of the chocolate stores...which I like. Haha. Screw the diet.

At Reading Terminal Market, I dropped by the Sweet as Fudge Candy Shoppe to buy some pretty delicious morsels of sugar. That'll be another blog post.

After getting to Chinatown, I walked past a dingy little store with a zillion boxes in the store front. Then, I realised that it was a fortune cookie factory, which is pretty amusing in my opinion.

I dropped by the Mayflower bakery to get some bubble tea.

I was shocked. They had kiwi bubble tea. They had avocado bubble tea. I couldn't believe it; AVOCADO BUBBLE TEA! This is when I'm glad I'm bilingual; I asked if they used real avocado, and the lady picked up an actual avocado and said, yes, we use real avocado. It's kind of funny because on the shelf above the sinks, there were tons of boxes of powder, labelled "taro" or "coconut" or whatever.

She cut up half an avocado, used half-and-half milk, (and sugar?) and added crushed ice at some point. In all honesty, it was more of a smoothie than a "tea" or drink.

The smoothie was very thick, and tasted mildly of fresh avocado. I was surprised that avocado tastes good when it's sweet, although I prefer it in avocado sushi with soy sauce. I suppose avocado's sort of like peanut butter; both incorporated in sweet and savoury dishes.

I was really thirsty, so I ended up drinking all the slushie (oh so thick and my favourite colour and nicely textured!), and there were lots of bubbles left. The bubbles were really chewy, and not overcooked. I would really recommend Mayflower Bakery. 1008 Race St.

After a bit, I went to KC's Pastries and got a sweet yam tart, which I've never had before. Egg tart, sure, and coconut tart, but not a sweet yam tart!

Unlike other bakeries, KC's Pastries doesn't have seating, so I went to eat at Reading Terminal Market.

The yam tart was surprisingly gelatinous. It was like a super-thick pudding.

The pastry was just normal and bland.

I dropped by some grocery stores to get some vegetables and Chinese snacks.

Then I went to Cube Cafe, intending to get some eggettes ($1.95), but I was so thirsty as opposed to hungry. I contemplated bringing some eggettes home. Instead, after chatting to the shopkeepers (who were very helpful with explaining dishes and drinks), I got the Icy Poppy Drink.

I've been abstaining from soda for the past half-a-decade (I think?), partly because of the high-fructose corn syrup thing, and partly because I've just been indifferent to it (e.g. the way I'm indifferent to baklava). This drink is basically some sort of clear soda with mango bubbles.

Now, the bubbles are the strange exotic things. Once popped, the bubbles reveal a thick mango goo. I'm not sure what the covering of the goo is; it seems to be some cellulose fibre. It's an interesting concept, but I don't think that I'm going to get it again. It's an ephemeral toy.

On the way back, I got samples of hummus and chips. "Why are you guys giving out free hummus?"

"Oh, it's cuz a lot of us still don't know what hummus is, so we're giving it out to people"

Cool.

I also saw Wizard Con, like Comic Con, but I didn't get in because I needed tickets.

At Rittenhouse, I got a free can of coffee.

Nice day for food.

Sweet Tooth, 630 S 4th St.

Sweet As Fudge Candy Shoppe, 12th and Arch St.

Mayflower Bakery, 1008 Race St.

KC's Pastries, 109 N 10th St.

Cube Cafe, 145 N 11th St.

JM's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JM!
The problem with getting home late from parties is that I don't have time to update, so I hope that you all can imagine that today is the 12th, and not the 13th.
I didn't actually take many pictures because I spent most of the time playing frisbee and watching Up and Little Miss Sunshine. For some reason, a bunch of the other girls thought that the 15-yr old guy who doesn't talk is really "hot", yet I doubt that they'd want a boyfriend who wouldn't speak and was a misanthrope. ANYWAY.
The funny thing is that pretty much everyone ate the cookies and the chips, but only a few grapes were consumed throughout the whole party. It was pretty upsetting, actually. Anyway.
We should've just cut the pita bread [well, it was "flatbread" since it lacked the pita pockets] into 8s. We actually spent a while debating the shapes into which we could segment the pita rounds... and this appeared to be a very... er, "varied" plate of shapes.

Somehow, JM's mum cut the pineapple into that amazing masterpiece. Very interesting.

South Pacific

Yesterday evening was prom. I didn't go, because I'm not interested in the over-$200-for-the-ticket-and-the-dress-and-shoes-and-blah. I also don't like dancing much. I actually wanted to see the preprom, because then I'd see people in their dresses and stuff, and hot guys in their tuxes, but I think it wouldn't've made much of a difference to my level of happiness, mingled with exhaustion. A, SL and I went to NYC to watch South Pacific, on 65th. I've never seen a musical before, so I found this rather intriguing. Though, despite the awesome performances [as in, Very. Talented. They know the words and lyrics so well...it almost seems real, along with the shifts in scenery and the wonderful orchestra], I don't think that musicals are my thing. It was an experience, though, sitting in that theatre at the very back [and thus, the very top], and seeing every motion happen fluidly before my eyes.

Anyway, we went to a Medditeraean restaurant, Nanoosh, on 68th and Broadway, before our show began. We had to wait for 20 mins or so, which really sucked because we were sort of pressed for time. They have approximately 56 seats in the store, and it was PACKED! However, as soon as we got seated, all the other tables started clearing up, too, which was rather upsetting. [Hah]. I got this Labane wrap, which was ridiculously DELICIOUS. Labane is actually this yoghurt cheese, and it's still sour... it actually tasted just like thick yoghurt. I think I'm going to start putting yoghurt in my sandwiches, because of this. Oh yeah, there was quinoa salad. It. Was. The. Best. Quinoa. I have. Ever. Had. It was sweet, with raisins and cranberries, but also sour. Ahhhhhhh.

SL got some hummus with sun-dried tomatoes, and A got a mushroom hummus wrap. They also got this pomegranate tea, but I personally don't like pomegranate. We managed to consume everything in 15 minutes. Which was... kind of sad, because we had to, since we were pressed for time, but I would honestly have rather savoured the meal for 30 minutes.