I’ll Study Here for the Food

Yo, dudes. Peace in. I’m still alive and cool, thank you very much for those who have been asking . I’m sorry I haven’t had the chance to update, but I got back home pretty late Thursday and Friday night. Basically, I was having too much fun to be able to blog. No hard feeling!

Anyway, I’ve been having the most wonderful time with my cousin Clara and aunt. I haven’t seen them in more than 3 years, but the minute we met, we hugged and chatted like we were school friends. I guess you can’t fool blood ties! The minute I arrived in the San Leandro Bart Station, we headed off to the cinema to catch Harry Potter 6. Holy cow. It was a brilliant movie. Did anyone watch it yet?

The next day, we went to Berkeley to visit UC-Berkeley, my cousin’s dream school. She claims it’s the most beautiful and the most spectacular campus, but then it’s the only university she’s visited, and she’s never seen USC’s campus xp.
Okay, fine, so it wasn’t a bad-looking campus; the buildings were sort of Gothic, and rather quaint and charming, and the campus was embraced by lots of beautiful tall trees. But in my most unbiased opinion, it still takes second place to my own college campus (oh, Snap!).

But to give it credit, its food-scene seriously whups USC’s ass. Oh my Lord. For just one university campus serves a whole town of great restaurants and cafes and ice-cream parlors. The best thing is, I don’t see a single McDonald’s or Burger King in sight within a 2-mile radius.

Our first stop, for lunch:
Tomatina, a small Italian restaurant with jazzy and stylish interior design.

My cousin Clara, admiring the chic decos.
Clara and my aunt ordered the lunch special to share, which comes with a bowl of soup and a choice of salad:
 Spaghettini: Shredded roasted chicken breast, fresh spinach, red onion tomato broth and parmesan cheese cooked with thin spaghetti strands
 Roasted tomato soup:
And “Antipasto Style” Salad:
 Salami, mozzarella cheese, olives, pepporoncini peppers, tomato, garbanzo beans, red onion in creamy balsamic vinaigrette
I ordered the Pasta con Crema Gorgonzola:
 Gnocchi with gorgonzola cream sauce, fresh basil, garlic and toasted pine nuts, served on fresh tomato sauce

Every single dish was great. I mean, the pictures speak for themselves. Tomatina was aptly named because I don’t think I have ever tasted better tomato sauce than the one in my dish.
The sauce was vibrant, sweet and tangy, and absolutely bleeding with fresh flavor. Out goes my prejudice that a simple spaghetti with tomato sauce can be boring! If you really know how to make good tomato sauce with fresh ingredients, wow…It just makes the whole dish pop.
The only problem was the gnocchi itself. For some reason it was rather dense and grainy in my mouth. I think it was undercooked, but the gorgonzola cream with the tomato sauce saved the dish from being a disaster.

After our satisfying lunch, we went to shop along Telegraph Avenue, which is a little street with many more hole-in-the-wall restaurants, interesting gift and thrift shops, and street vendors selling eccentric, home-made jewelry.

After a few hours, our feet were killing us, so we stopped at this freaking incredible place for a short break:
 Yogurtland! Anyone been to this place? This place takes the cake over all other froyo shops…It’s self-serve, has about 10 different kinds of flavors, and all these toppings you can pile on yourself! It is charged by weight, and is only 30 cents per ounce!

Here’s mine:
A mix of pistachio, peanut butter, taro, and mango froyo with mochi bites and blueberries
 Here’s Clara’s on the left:
A mix of pistachio, Madagascar vanilla, and original froyo with strawberries, bananas, kiwi, crushed heath bar, gummy worm, and Nilla wafer.

Notice how mine is piled with froyo with minimal toppings, and hers is piled with more toppings than froyo? How do you like your froyo?

To be honest, I really didn’t want to have the froyo. Okay, scratch that, I did want the froyo, but I wasn’t hungry, and I was worried about the upcoming dinner. I became anxious that I might not have enough room in my stomach for dinner, but then I looked at my cousin, digging into the froyo without any qualms or hesitation, and suddenly I just wanted to be the same as her, carefree and liberated. So I threw all caution into the air and dug into my own bowl of froyo with fervor.

After that we lazed in the sun for awhile, then did a bit more shopping around the area. Neither of us were very hungry come dinnertime, but we had to eat, so we stopped by this place:
 Smart Alec’s, another popular “healthy” fast food restaurant.

Clara ordered the Sesame Chicken Salad:
 Romaine and red leaf lettuces, red cabbage, cucumber, crispy rice noodles. topped with our marinated chicken. Tossed in homemade sesame dressing. With a side of moist cornbread:
My aunt got the Avocado Burger Combo:
 Beef patty, special sauce, melted jack cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato & red onion on wheat bun. With a side of air-baked fries and soda.

I got the Roasted Turkey Sandwich Combo:
 Fresh roasted turkey with cranberry mayo, lettuce, tomato & red onion. With a side of air-baked garlic fries and soda.
 Oo. Eem Gii! Freaking awesome, and it was big and fat!
The cranberry mayo was the star, of course. So creamy, rich, and tart and sweet at the same time!
The fries came with fresh-minced garlic and cilantro(?) on top. I can’t believe it’s air-baked, because it tasted rather greasy to me.

Well, there you have it. UC-Berkeley and its dining scene. Hm, future grad-school perhaps? I’ll move here just for the great food!

Right. Today, I’ll be off with my cousin and aunt to San Francisco’s Mission District. And can I just say, I am loving not knowing and planning all my meals beforehand, and eating and enjoying good food with good company without any guilt or anxieties! Fear food? Huh? What the hell is that?

TTYL my homies!