Please excuse the piss-poor presentation/photography. Well, it sure is nice to be home! Here I am, on Long Island, making my own food again instead of eating dining hall slop.

I haven’t made anything too adventurous yet, but I have been making grilled cheese almost every day. I’m on a kick. For this grilled cheese, I just used cheapo Stop & Shop brand white bread, but I used Vermont Cheddar & Gruyere cheese — MMMMM. The soup is from a box - Trader Joe’s Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup. It’s really good.

So this is the 10 minute meal I’ve been relying on for lazy Sundays, and Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays…….

I need a job.

Ten Ren's Tea Time: College Park, MD

Hey everyone! And we’re back! … Sorry for not updating for so long. Where do the days go anymore anyways? Stay posted for many, many more updates (DC updates that we have drafted in our minds, as well as posts from Cleveland and Long Island) this summer. We will most likely be bored and most definitely eating.

Anyways, since it’s the middle of finals week, I have had to come up with creative ways to get myself to study (which haven’t worked, seeing as I’ve done essentially nothing). One of those motivators has been spending alot of time at Ten Ren’s Tea Time on Route 1 in College Park. Why, do you ask? Because a. they have free wi-fi (woo!), b. they do not ask you to leave after you’ve been milking the same tea for hours, and c. their tea is really good! (not so much the food but more on that later…)

(via www.tenrenusa.com)

Ten Ren’s is an international chain with two locations in Maryland, and various other locations in New York, California, Texas, and Illinois in the US. It is primarily a tea shop, serving many flavors of bubble tea, milk tea, and black, green, and herbal hot teas, and also has loose tea, tea bags, and various Taiwanese goodies for sale, but also serves a variety of meat dishes, noodle bowls, and appetizers and snacks.

(via www.tenrenusa.com)

I would say that Ten Ren’s best-seller would be their bubble tea. With over 50 flavors to choose from - from Iced Tea (both black and green options available), to Milk Tea, to smoothies (again made with just ice or with milk and ice). You can add tapioca bubbles to all of these, as well as fruit jellies. At first, I was turned off by bubble tea because I thought the texture of the bubbles was weird. However, it grew on me and now I get one almost every time I’m here. My favorite flavor is Taro, which is blended with milk and sugar to make it sweet. It tastes like … I cannot describe it any other way … a combination of fruit loops and milk with coffee. It sounds strange but it’s delicious. In the past two days I have also tried Mango Black Tea, which was too sweet for my liking but the mango flavor was very fresh, and Peppermint Black Tea, which was like slightly sweet peppermint iced tea with a chewy component from the bubbles.

(via http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1393/1350916357_8a4a34e37d.jpg?v=0)

Right now, I am drinking one of the better teas I’ve ever had. It’s called Ginger Longon Tea and the menu describes it as having “a brown hue, the aroma of giner, and spicy yet sweet ginger taste and aftertaste.” I am a HUGE proponent of the use of ginger in just about anything, and hot ginger tea sounded incredible. Turns out … it is. The ginger is extracted so strongly that I could swear that they freshly grated it in the kitchen for me. It definitely has a huge kick (think the spice in Ginger Altoids), but is also very sweet. No milk or sugar necessary here: it is perfect as-is.

As far as the food is concerned, I have never had a particularly memorable experience. The appetizers and snacks are reasonably priced and fairly eclectric - ranging from thick toast and bagels with jellies to fish balls to seaweed soup to green tea cookies. I have had the miso soup, which tastes like bouillion and has minimal substance. The edamame provides a nice little snack and is salted and peppered well. The food is mostly noodle and soup bowls, and typical chinese dishes such as kung pao, szechaun, and general tso’s meats. I have had sweet and sour chicken and it was not particuarly noteworthy. The chicken was fried and oily, and the sweet and sour sauce was no different than any other I’ve ever had. The Kung Pao tofu is also greasy, but has a good spicy peanut sauce. In my opinion, you’re better off sticking to teas and heading across the street to Five Guys when you get hungry.

Ten Ren Tea Time: 7418 Baltimore Avenue, College Park, MD. (301) 864-8920

Charm City Cupcakes

Gourmet cupcakes are more in than ever, but is it really worth it to trek into D.C. or Baltimore to buy one? Well guess what…Charm City Cupcakes in Baltimore delivers. To College Park. And the greater Baltimore/Washington D.C. area in general.

I have never had a Charm City Cupcake, but this revelation might change everything.

Here is an example of one of the many fine cupcakes available for delivery order:

Gourmet Turtle
This is the ultimate cupcake for the real chocolate lover! Our almost famous Turtle is a chocolate cupcake filled with rich carmel and topped with our chocolate buttercream and a pecan praline! $2.50 each (Cafe) $1.25 (Mini)

$2.50 might sound steep, but it seems to be the standard “gourmet cupcake” price from what I can tell. It also seems that you can only order a dozen minimum…does anyone want to have a Taste Buds “event”, a.k.a Cupcake Eating Party? Emily and I would be more than pleased to host one.

Website here: http://www.charmcitycupcakes.com

Josh Kowalczyk, an intern with the West Michigan Whitecaps, in Comstock Park, Mich. poses for a photo March 24, 2009. The $20 burger will feature a sesame-seed bun made from a pound of dough, five 1/3-pound beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chili and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips. (AP Photo/The Grand Rapids Press, Rex Larsen)

Is it bad that when I saw this, I thought not “How gluttonous!” or “Gee, it’s really depressing how obesity is affecting our nation,” but rather “Whoa, $20 for all that at a ballpark?! What a deal!”? Welcome to Consumer America, folks. Bib up.

Haagen Dazs: Five Ingredients, One Pure and Perfect Flavor

The other night, I was indulging in some Haagen Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream at my friend’s apartment, and it struck me: Haagen Dazs is so tasty. This is by no means a new assessment, but for some reason at that moment I was completely blown away at how pure the flavors were. I looked at the ingredients on the back, and I realized why. Did you know that Haagen Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream is made with only five ingredients? I would assume that it is the purest form of ice cream on the market, seeing as it’s made with only the ingredients you would use if you were making it yourself: skim milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and pure vanilla extract. I then did a little research and saw that Haagen Dazs has recently introduced an entire product line of ice creams that are made with only five ingredients (pictured above and below). I’ve yet to try them, but can’t wait to get my hands on brown sugar, ginger, and mint!

As a comparison, I looked up what is in other ice creams. I used Turkey Hill as my first reference, because despite the fact that you don’t hear about the brand very often, they make the best chocolate peanut butter ripple ice cream, which is one of my favorite flavors. The ingredients are: MILK, CREAM, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP, WHEY, NONFAT MILK, MONO & DIGLYCERIDES, VANILLA, GUAR GUM, VANILLA BEAN, CARRAGEENAN. I guess the list starts out alright, seeing as you can’t really make ice cream without milk, cream, or sugar, but it really just goes downhill from there. Corn Syrup? Really? As if sugar wasn’t … sweet enough? I had no idea what this last ingredient was so I looked it up on Wikipedia. This was my finding: Carrageenans or carrageenins are a family of linear sulphated polysaccharides extracted from red seaweeds. The name is derived from a type of seaweed that is abundant along the Irish coastline. Gelatinous extracts of the Chondrus crispus seaweed have been used as food additives for hundreds of years, though analysis of carrageenan safety as an additive continues. So yeah, it’s an additive, I guess it could be a worse one, but if you don’t need it why use it? Even Breyers, who prides itself on being “all natural … real ingredients, real simple,” has a surprising ingredients list: MILK, CREAM, SUGAR, NATURAL FLAVOR, NATURAL TARA GUM. “Natural flavor?” Is there a reason they can’t use “vanilla bean?” I learned tara gum is used to increase the viscosity, and has been a huge point of debate regarding Breyers, pissing off a lot of people who aren’t entirely convinced that this is an all-natural ingredient. All in all, ice creams are just like every other food product out there: full of stuff we can’t pronounce, don’t understand, and probably shouldn’t be ingesting in large amounts. That is, unless we’re talking about Haagen Dazs…

Also: Check out Haagen Dazs’ “single-servings!” (pictured above). Cute little mini-containers, with a teeny plastic spoon inside. The perfect amount when you need a little indulgence. They serve them on Amtrak, and are also in most grocery stores and some convenience stores. Perfect for eating ice-cream on the go without the mess.

House Of India Restaurant: Huntington, NY

http://houseofindiarestaurant.com/index.html

Lauren: House of India Restaurant (HOIR) happens to be the birthplace of my Indian-food eating experience. I was but a young lass, 16 and unsure of what to make of the buffet trays of butter chicken and naan before me. I tried each thing separately, and found it all to be underwhelming. It was not until around a year later that I chose to dine at House of India again, this time with a small group of pals. And it clicked. And I have loved it ever since. House of India was rated the Best Indian Restaurant on Long Island by the Long Island Press, and they certainly deserve the title. The décor and the atmosphere are a bit stuffy, but the food is excellent enough to make up for it. Just so you all understand my positive bias, this is probably my favorite restaurant ever.

We decided to order a few appetizers in addition to the pappadam given to you upon seating. Emily and I shared an order of two vegetable samosas. The samosas are mild yet flavorful, and the shell is thick and crisp. We also ordered the chicken pakora; pieces of white meat fried in a delicious, spicy, and bready batter. Some of the pieces were too dry this time, but this has never really been a problem during one of my other 1,284 trips to HOIR, so I’m dismissing it as a fluke.
I ordered the butter chicken as my main dish, as I always do. It is my absolute favorite meal of all time; I crave butter chicken pretty much every day of my life.
Other butter chicken sauces I’ve had are usually a bit watered down or clumpy, resembling more of an Indian version of tomato sauce. But this one is perfectly creamy and bursting with flavor. I usually order mine mild in order to enjoy the flavor of the sauce (and because that’s how I started out ordering it back in the day), but I think it is probably best ordered medium because the flavor is still present without being masked by the spiciness. Yet I think the best part about this dish is that it is cooked with white meat as opposed to dark meat. Dark meat usually has an inconsistent texture and a taste of its own that can be distracting, so I much prefer white meat in dishes like these. The heaping plate of rice that HOIR provides is always perfectly cooked and flavored as well, and the portions are a perfect size. Overall, an excellent experience.

Above: a butter chicken flower

Emily: I was particularly looking forward to stop number two on our Long Island Food Fanfare Extravaganza because we were going to House of India Restaurant in Huntington. Indian is easily one of my favorites, if not my favorite, of all cuisines. I just love the complexity and depth of the flavors and really, anything cooked in a sauce that you can soak up with various starches is a-okay in my book. House of India Restaurant (or HOIR) was unassuming from the outside, but spacious and well decorated inside. The aroma was incredible and induced pretty serious salivation.

To start, I ordered a mango lassi, a yogurt drink made with pureed mango. The drink is sweet and satisfying, not too thick, and a perfect counterbalance to the myriad spices in the rest of the meal. We ordered vegetable samosas and chooza pakora as appetizers to share with the table. The samosas were filled with the traditional combination of potatoes and peas and overall were very tasty. I like samosas that are a bit on the spicy side, and these were quite mild. The chooza pakora (pure white meat chicken tenders breaded in a chickpea flour and spice batter, then deep fried) were perfectly cooked, the chicken still incredibly juicy (for the most part - some of the end pieces were a bit dry, but even that was alright). The breading itself was very thick and flavorful. I dipped both my samosas and chooza pakora in the tamarind sauce that was thick and sweet.

As an entrée, I ordered the chicken tikka masala, a very traditional dish made with a creamy tomato sauce, onions, and peppers. While I was tempted to try different entrées that were more unique (like the mango chicken), I’m always drawn back to my favorite dish when I go to an Indian restaurant I haven’t been to before. I ordered mine with medium spice and a side of garlic naan. The dish was quite spicy, and I could tell that even the mild would have been adequately spicy (even though I enjoyed medium). The onion and pepper flavors were very prominent, and the sauce wasn’t quite as creamy as other chicken tikka masalas I’ve had. The chicken was incredible though – perfect hunks of white meat tandoori chicken. All in all, the dish was good, but definitely not the standout dish of the evening. That title goes to Lauren’s entrée – butter chicken. Butter chicken was everything I wanted in my dish that was just not quite there – a perfectly creamy sauce, the tomato flavors blending together with the other components of the sauce so that nothing was overpowered. The entire dish just melted in your mouth. The garlic naan was both crisp and soft, covered in butter, garlic, and cilantro. The dishes were served with basmati rice, which was full of saffron flavor. The dishes were decently expensive, as most Indian food is, but they were so rich and satisfying that we both left with half of our entrées to enjoy as leftovers the next day … or even later that night.

Natural Cheetos

These are by no means “healthy” (I mean, the bag says right on it “now even cheesier!” but I guess when you start using real cheese as oppossed to “cheese product” they can only get cheesier…), but they are quite delicious. They are still puffy and crunchy and leave that gummy, gluey meal in your mouth for hours afterward, but are now pleasantly tangy and less powdery (because everyone knows its very unsophisticated to have orange cheeto dust hands). And they are “natural” so essentially there are less really long, scary names under the ingredients on the back of the bag. So basically from now on I can look ironically “health-concious” and “eco-friendly” while snacking during business events or something, and still be able to shake peoples’ hands with confidence. Exactly what I need.

European Republic: Huntington, NY

above: ouside European Republic

Emily: Last week, I embarked on a journey that I knew I wouldn’t forget. My first trip to the Long Island. Before we left, we made a to-do list of things we wanted to do while on Lauren’s beloved Lawnguyland, but considering it’s us, it ended up being a to-eat list. Having fulfilled all of goals of visiting all of the destinations, our passion to blog about the food we eat – whether it be dining out in DC or how to improve dining hall slop.

To start off, we’re posting our first stop on Spring Break Food Fest ’09. Huntington’s European Republic is a little place with just a counter to order and just a few tables, but is very well known for its fries which are reminiscent of “Dutch-style” fries, thick cut and perfectly salted. I ordered the combo which came with a full wrap, an order of fries, and a beverage. I ordered the grilled chicken, brie, and honey Dijon wrap, which was both gooey from the warm brie, and flaky from the wrap. I tend to be partial to honey mustard as my favorite condiment and this one was no disappointment: perfectly creamy without being too gluey. What was really the clincher though were the fries. European Republic has over 20 dipping sauces to choose from (the first free and extras for 0.35) from traditional barbeque to the more daring smoked salmon. I opted for peanut, parmesan, and Jamaican curry. I was not huge on peanut – it was too sweet and a bit fake-tasting. However, parmesan was delicious, like a super creamy parmesan peppercorn dressing, as was Jamaican curry which was spicy and cool at the same time. While lunch was modestly priced (the combo is less than $7.00), I was not modestly full. More like waddling for two hours full. It was a very happy full – full of perfect fries and creamy goodness which believe it or not, wasn’t actually very heavy. Stop one: a success.

above: Grilled Chicken Brie Honey Dijon Wrap

Lauren: European Republic has been my favorite lunchtime destination for quite some time now. A $7 combo comes with a full wrap, a regular fry, and your choice of water, soda, or Snapple, so I always leave full to the gills.
The dutch fries for which European Republic is famous are superb; not crisp, but solid. Not greasy, but not dry. Not too thick, not too thin. Perfectly salted, and best eaten with one of European’s 20+ dipping sauces. I generally stick with the European Ketchup, a “special sauce”-like ketchupy mayo concoction. Always satisfying. However, I did try some of Emily’s choices, and the Jamaican Curry was quite excellent as well.

above: European Ketchup

A wrap girl I am not, as they often fall apart on me and make my life difficult. However, the wraps at European Republic are an exception. The actual wrap they use forms a shapely tube around the ingredients, which allows for a much cleaner eating experience. The wrap serves its cohesive purposes without ever getting soggy, which I also appreciate. My favorite wrap here is the Spicy Chicken and Fresh Mozzarella wrap - seasoned strips of grilled chicken and snow white hunks of fresh mozzarella, doused in a delicious green spicy sauce. Perfect.

Above: Fries with Peanut, Jamaican Curry, and Parmesan Dipping Sauces