Krispy Kreme - Free Doughnut Day

June 3rd is National Doughnut Day in the U.S., apparently, to honor the ladies who made doughnuts to people during WWI. I was fully unaware of this.

TJ and I walked into Center City to check out First Friday, and to just explore. We got lost a bunch of times, found a gallery that was closed, ate some veggies at the Fabric Museum (they were also serving wine, which I suppose they would've given us if we had asked), found a cool store that sold expensive pins/fun junk, went to Trader Joe's (Well. I have to say, meh. Not as good as I had expected), went to Chinatown (AMAZING! I have to blog about all the food there!!), and had dinner at Qdoba. TJ and I trying to see which is better: Qdoba (she says) or Chipotle (I say). Technically, we can't judge yet.

On the way, we passed by a Krispy Kreme and TJ commented on how the doughnuts there are amazing. I've never been to Krispy Kreme before, although I've seen one on its grand opening at Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. I remember walking up to the store, which had giant wreaths of flowers next to the windows, and seeking the ridiculously long line of people, waiting to spend 10HKD on a molten doughnut. It smelled amazing. I recall watching the doughnut machines operating through the glass wall (novel at the time), and seeing a dude entertaining the crowd with his guitar. I even pulled out 10HKD, with half a mind to try the doughnut, but for some reason, I decided not to. I'm not really sure why, but I've never been a doughnut addict.

TJ looked closer, and realised that Krispy Kreme was handing out doughnuts! We stopped on our tracks, ran across the street - this is no exaggeration - lunged in and stood patiently in the short line while the lady gave us each one sugar glazed doughnut, normally-sized (i.e. not Costco sized or dining hall sized) and perfectly beautiful, although not hot and gooey (the glaze had dried and the doughnut was cold).

Later, we noticed the sign on the door that said that it was National Doughnut Day. However, we walked by at least 4 Dunkin' Donuts, and I saw no free doughnuts there.

For a cold doughnut, I was surprised at how easily it melted in my mouth. I think it had to do with the glaze; without it, the doughnut would've been more oily bread-like (read: plain and tasteless) rather than taste "fatty". It was a good doughnut. The glaze stuck an accent on everything. TJ and I sat at a table next to the doughnut factory part of the store, and we saw the doughnuts on the conveyer belt being smothered with icing. It was glorious, of course, but so terrible at the same time! I find it pretty cool I got a free doughnut, and of course, it's an advertising tool because I'm now blogging about it, but I don't think I'd make it a task to go to Krispy Kreme to solely buy a doughnut. It's not worth the effort; the doughnuts are good, but not phenomenal. I think I'm just trying to compare any doughnut I eat with the ones I had when I was 5 at Penrith Plaza in Australia, but that's probably more just for the nostalgia rather than the taste-receptor-induced response.

This just made me laugh. I suppose doughnuts do fit the average person's lifestyle. Fat and sugar! FTW! FTS - Fat, Tomatoes, and Sugar. I think I read that tomatoes are the most widely consumed vegetable in the U.S. (ketchup, sauce, and soup being the main players).

I also found it really surprising that there is organic oatmeal at Krispy Kreme. Who would go to Krispy Kreme to buy oatmeal?! That's like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet to drink coffee! Or like going to Whole Foods to buy Nestle Evaporated Milk in a can!

Also, the last line makes me laugh too: "Contents shown represent three servings".

Oh, at least it's three servings of whole grains.

So I've decided to list the physical address and weblink of places I go for food.

Krispy Kreme, 16th and Chestnut St., Philadelphia.

Taste of Penn Part V: Lundberg Family Farms

This is part of the series about the Taste of Penn.

At the Taste of Penn, I have to say that the most delicious food came from the rice products at Lundberg Family Farms. The rice salad was phenomenal; it was textured, fresh, and the representative could list off all the ingredients when I asked for them.

The barbecue rice chips were also amazing. They don't taste extremely ricey (like rice crackers), but you can definitely tell that they aren't made from corn or potato. There is a ton of spice, which beats anything made by Pirate's Booty, and it's also really crunchy.

The flavours that they have are also ridiculously unique; Sesame and Seaweed, and Honey Dijon are flavours that I HAVE TO try one day (seaweed chips are rare out of Asia)!!

Lundberg Family Farms claims to be sustainable and family owned, and I asked where the farm is based. The representative said "California", which is a rather large carbon footprint (transportation) if you want to ship rice over to Penn Dining in Pennsylvania, every week/month. I mean, the Carolinas have rice farms too, and if they supplied rice for Penn, it'd be much more environmentally friendly. I voiced this concern, and the representative did go on about how they contribute to sustainability/eco-friendly behaviours, and that, yeah, transportation will always be an issue.

And, although Penn dining does boast the same things over and over (they make soup from scratch, they use local stuff, within 150 miles), all of it is pretty gilded when you consider that this rice will end up being from California (if they choose this vendor), fruit comes from all over the world, and the oyster crackers, ice cream, peanut butter, and sprinkles all come from U.S. food oligarchies with farms factories that are definitely not within a 150-mile radius. Oh, and the vegetarian soup has been vegetarian chili for the whole spring semester.

I'm eating a lot of peanut butter right now.

Trustees Dinner

Alright, I have to admit that food draws me to places. Greedy, right? For every student, whether in high school or college or even kindergarten, [and, okay, maybe the workplace but I wouldn't know], food is a motivator.

It's a good motivator too, because otherwise, I probably wouldn't have met the Trustees of UPenn, which was pretty cool because they're pretty accomplished people. Although they state that they don't get paid to do anything, I kind of doubt it ... because would they truly fly over [from Hong Kong! London!] to Penn 3x a year [or more] to just... meet up? Do their loyalties really lie that deeply with Penn? Then again, I'm just a first year student, so I probably haven't gotten to the point where I simply adore UPenn.

There was a lot of leftover food and a lot of the stuff was actually vegan. Vegan orange vinaigrette dressing [which I really... didn't like], vegan asparagus [well, duh.], amazingly crispy roasted roots/tubers, vegetarian lasagne, and "seasonal" fruit, which included the most unseasonal fruits ever for February: blueberries, strawberries, and pineapple.

This was catered by Bon Appetit although TJ refused to believe it since the food was "so good". I think the food was quite nice and my picture is terrible.

It's kind of funny how context changes how "delicious" food is perceived; in a dining hall, the same cooked asparagus appears much less savoury than a nice metal tray of perfectly organised asparagus on a heating block. Fruit that's usually in a metal canister plopped on ice appears much less "exotic" [I guess?] compared to fruit that's thinly sliced on a tray.

That's the theory of plating, anyway, but I don't think I believe in it. My brother does though, so he always reprimands me for not plating my food whenever I cook. Really, why does plating matter so much? Is it really necessary to have a small 5cm^3 chunk of lasagne, cut perfectly, on a 24-cm diameter white plate, with exactly 3 sprigs of parsley as garnish? Does that really taste better than a lump of badly cut lasagne splattered onto a plastic plate that's also filled with carrots and salad and other stuff that make a meal [save plates!! Save dishwashing liquid!! Save water!]? I think I prefer the latter...

Another reason I went to this dinner was that they were giving out scarves and shirts. The really sad part was that for the class of 2014, there were T-shirts, not scarves. These weren't even new shirts; they were the ones we got during Orientation! They were leftovers! The scarves were leftovers too, but they only had the class of 2011/12/13.

The smart thing to do, of course, was to take a 2011 scarf and using thread to sew the 1 into a 4.

Which I did later, and it looks alright from far way. TJ has decided just to wear a 2011 scarf. It's not everyday we can be seniors, after all.

Sammich!

Yes, I actually cooked today.

YES I ACTUALLY BAKED TODAY. [First time I stuck something in the oven since...lasagne in the summer?]

But what I'm baking is currently in the oven, and, besides, I want to wait it out because I'm going to make two more of them... so I'll make a cheesy [harhar!! punny hint!] blog post about them on...Sunday, most likely, because Saturday's post will be about JM's Christmas party.

Instead, I'm going to post about a meal I had about three Sundays ago, and it was quite cool because it was individually tailored!

I was at Commons, with the take-out box because I really needed to study so I couldn't eat in the cafeteria, and I decided to have a sandwich. Commons always has this really crust bread at the sandwich-making place, so I asked the dude whether I could have a sandwich made out of that kind of bread.

"This? It's been sitting here for a few weeks now... I don't really recommend it. But tell you what, let me check out the back to see whether we have any fresh bread like this."

So he goes to the back and comes back with a baguette.

AMAZING!

So, this is why Commons DOES NOT SUCK! This is evidence stating that Penn's food is not bad! This is in retaliation to people who call the dining hall servers annoying or anything negative! This dude was awesome! Instead of square wheat bread, he gave me a fresh half of a baguette!

As a side note, Commons recently decided to add a nacho bar to the dining hall, so we have a pizza place, a dessert place, a fruit bar, a salad bar, a grill, a comfort foods place, the hot and cold drinks...and a nacho bar. Sweet. Or should I say, zesty!

PennFest! 3 Sept

Pennfest is this event in which retailers try to sell their products to unsuspecting frosh. Since I'm not really advertising the companies that I don't love, I'm just going to refer to them as "this company". This company gave out free cups with a ping pong ball nestled inside. I honestly spent a whole week pondering why they would give us a ping pong ball... and yesterday evening, as TL, JX and I walked back from dinner, it finally hit me. The ping pong ball and the cup was for beer pong. DUH!

Way to advertise alcohol to us...

Cupcakes from Insomnia Cookies... didn't take them.

Anyway, Pennfest had a lot of companies selling dorm stuff, selling "online-food-ordering" services, and plenty of "ohh get a discount if you come to our store!" I ended up consuming a taco from Chipotle, an amazing coconut pecan cookie from Insomnia Cookies [very famous on college campuses, apparently] and some mango water ice. There was also popcorn and candy floss but I wasn't actually that hungry. In all honesty, I think my hypothyroidism is kicking in [Yeah, apparently my hyperthyroidism has been lowered way too much, so I have to cut the meds again]

All my pictures are blurry because it was 11pm and I was walking around while taking pictures. This is actually a huge problem; I can't take a picture without getting ominous stares from strangers.

Penn Picnic and Reception - 2nd Sept

Penn NSO started on the 2nd of September, and we all got up at 5:30am to drive to PA by 9am. As usual, it took 90 minutes to get into Philly, but half an hour to actually end up at the specific street on which we stopped. I'm not disclosing where I live, although one could probably figure it out... since I don't have a cafeteria at my dorm house, unfortunately.

Anyway, after unpacking and all, there was a Penn Family Picnic for all we families and kids. It was actually very similar to the food at the Penn Frosh Picnic in my area on the 19th of August. There were wraps and cookies, but there was also some punch and iced tea and lemonade, which helped, since it was really hot that day.
Firstly, I'd like to say that I fell for the cookie trip again. Last time, I ate a chocolate cookie that was way too hard for my liking. This time, I made the same mistake. I need to learn!! I'm not particularily fond of hard/crunchy cookies. I like the moist cakey ones more, such as the raisin one. It's good to know that Penn has consistency though, concerning its cookie production. The wraps were really good though, with the mozzarella cheese and vegetables, although it was a tad oily.
After the President made a speech, there was a reception, and it was quite a sight watching 3000+ people swarming around taking food... There was this amazing mashed white bean thing, some caramelised onions [the first I've ever had] and a smokey-chipotleish spiced [I'm guessing?] eggplant thing.
There were also tons of cookies. They were the hard kind.
The vegetable station was ridiculous. I wonder what they did to the half heads of cauliflower, the whole peppers and the corn. Surely it's not solely for display? If it was, that'd be a waste of vegetables...
Whole heads of broccolis! Whole rutabagas! Utterly ridiculous!

Excess. Superfluous. Extravagant. Luxurious. I don't know; so much for this being the "year of water". Think about all the water used to produce these crops...they better use them.

Penn Frosh Dinner!"

Today at 6:30pm, the UPenn alumni club made a Class of 2014 picnic thing. During the picnic, we all introduced ourselves and said "one interesting thing" about ourselves. I totally could've said that I'm a runner... I like pie... I'm a vegetarian... I like stale cornflakes?

Instead, I said that I blog about food, which is why I was waving my phone around, taking pictures of my food [I honestly felt awkward doing it this time]... although the quality is compromised, my phone camera is the most useful function on my phone [oh the irony.] and it deserves a ton of credit.

I wasn't too fond of the pasta, which was very oily, although I liked the olives and sun-dried tomatoes, and the fact that there was no salami pieces or anything inside. In fact, I was surprised at the lack of animal pieces in this picnic/dinner. There were platters of wraps, including tuna, cow, and pig pieces wraps... and there was also plain vegetable wraps! In fact, they were really good wraps; the eggplant in it was nicely grilled, with some balsamic marinade which didn't taste too strong [I don't really like strong balsamic flavoured stuff] and the green flatbread was quite textured [and also toasted]. It lacked the empty-carby-taste that comes with so many white breads and it was definitely not stale.The salad was basically lettuce with some sharp cheese and croutons, which were nicely toasted although quite oily.

We also had these mini waxy chocolate candies that were basically dots of waxy [read: not chocolate, but chocolate FLAVOURED] candy coated in some crunchy candy shell. For some reason, I could taste a peanutty flavour, but that could totally be my imagination. Note the colour choices in this whole picnic/dinner.

A chocolate chip cookie.

And... that's a wrap for today :P

My first meal at Penn

I know that I should've updated this a LONG time ago [read: April] but I was so caught up in school and stuff... plus, the quality isn't great, due to the fact that I was using my camera phone, which does not have flash. On the other hand, my camera phone has served me really well, and is the most useful function on my phone. Honest. [I don't use text messaging]. So, for the Penn Preview Day, we all had lunch at the 1925 Commons place. I'm definitely going to be blogging about this cafeteria a LOT during the next... wow... four years [unless I get expelled or drop out or something...] so this post technically shouldn't be a big deal. It was a Friday, and the garlic bread/toast was really crunchy.

These are vegan wraps, filled with lettuce, tomato, onion, and tofu. The grilled tofu wasn't that great in my opinion, and the wrap itself was really dry. And bland. I suppose this is the cliche "diet" or "vegetarian" dish. It was sorta mediocre... I don't mind eating it, but its lack of flavour is rather disappointing.

The chocolate cookie was dry. I like chewy, soft cookies, so I can't really vouch for them... I suppose those who like dry, crispy cookies would like these, though. I also learned that I don't like pretzel Goldfish crackers. The tortilla chips, were very crunchy and aesthetically pleasing. I wonder if they actually make these from scratch?

Okay. The marshmallow and rice cereal square is amazing! As you have noticed...I ate at least three of them. [I actually ate more than that. This reminds me of a day two summers ago, when I ate at least 10 packets of Kellogg's Rice Krispie Treats. In one day. Yes, I was obsessed that one day. I've yet to do such a thing again...] They were soft and gooey, and NOT stale, even though they'd been sitting there for ages...[trust me, stale marshmallow squares, like the ones at Borders, are dry. And not sticky. And lack the marshmallow texture]. These ones were really moist and I could literally "sink" my teeth into them and have them stuck there perpetually... except that sugar is polar and my saliva is polar.

I don't think anyone knows what I'm talking about when I mention the pizza crust from the Pizza Hut pizza [mini, cut into 4 pieces] at Penrith Plaza in 1999, or 2000. However, if you consume the pizza crust at 1920 Commons... you get a nearly identical taste. And texture. And smell. Oh nostalgia...This would be the only reason I'm going to be consuming pizza at Penn. Well, the topping was nice, too :), but the crust was a reminder of childhood. Which is ironic, since I haven't had "American" Pizza Hut pizza, ever.