Welcome to Indiana - Purdue Farmer's Market in West Lafayette, IN

Some scones from the market

My experience with food thus far in West Lafayette has been pretty interesting. Most of my meals are spent in the various dining halls around Purdue, but when the farmer’s market rolled around on Thursday, I knew I had to check it out. As a first year freshman, I find myself running around campus or desperately trying to navigate the swarms of people on my knock off penny board during my cross campus trips to various classes or to study at a library with friends. So in all the hubbub and frenzy of syllabus week, I decided to seek the comfort of the more familiar notion of the Purdue Farmer’s Market.

A+, what about Tofu+??? - Tofu Plus in Cupertino, CA

Hey, June!

Side dishes!!!

With the final grade in the books, in comes dead week: the week for Saint Francis seniors who don't have any finals to relax until they have to report for graduation practice on Friday. And being the foodie I am, I decided to go find places to eat with friends! June is a good friend of mine from  a few classes at school, and (I'm writing this after graduation so I know now) was the salutatorian for our Class of 2017! Needless to say, she's a pretty smart cookie who also happens to know a lot about the best Korean food in the area. Needless to say, I found a time that worked for both of us in order to get a sample of the best Korean spots that I've never been to or heard of.

The Los Altos Food Adventure - Part 2

Dish or Dash?

Sk8tr Gurl

So after we got out of our comfy leather chairs in the bookstore, we decided to head out and grab some dinner – but it was only like 3pm. So like any responsible person, I decided to teach Athena how to ride a skateboard. We headed over to a local elementary school and I steadily guided Athena through a few easy steps on how to skateboard, as I know it. I'm a left foot forward guy, and I like to put my non-pumping foot at the front of the board. For me, the key to skateboarding is to always lean forward, something I learned from wrestling (where Coach would slap my face in different directions, telling me "your body goes where your head goes!"). So to start off our afternoon I watched as Athena clumsily skated laps around the blacktop of my local elementary school.

The Los Altos Food Adventure - Part 1

Another day, another food adventure

Athena!

So one of my latest food adventures is actually a make up for one that was supposed to happen on
Senior Ditch Day – I had tentatively planned to hang around Los Altos with Athena for the day, but when another group of friends decided to go to San Francisco to eat and drink boba, I had to jump on that train. But today I redeemed myself by making it up to Athena; we spent the entire goddamn day eating food – that’s right, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Athena and I could’ve gone around the entire Silicon Valley eating food and spending money, but we were limited by one very interesting thing: her car. According to Athena (I have yet to bear witness to this) the car is fairly unreliable, and even her dad was scared it would break down if we went too far. Lucky for us, there is an abundance of high-quality food in the Los Altos-Mountain View area, so let’s just jump right to it!

Ditch Day! Let's go get some boba, guys! - San Francisco, CA

Classic

BOBA!!!

Every year, around 400 Saint Francis seniors are blessed with an official "Ditch Day" where they go off to the beach to have fun or fish at a nearby lake. But because I run a food blog, I went to eat food in San Francisco. Our plan was for the South Bay people to meet up at the Mountain View station and head up to San Francisco by Caltrain (with Jennifer, the lone East Bay person, heading up by BART), but things kind of went wrong as soon as we started. Our great friend William woke up an hour after we got on the train, so we decided to check the the Museum of Modern Art without him. One of the main purposes of this trip was to get Jennifer some more photos for her Instagram, but the other big one was to check out some great bubble tea. The boba shop we decided to go to was Boba Guys - regarded as one of the best in the city. I just knew I had to check it out.

Indian Pizza! - Tasty Subs and Pizzas in Sunnyvale, CA

Nice and spicy

Have your friends ever agreed to meet up at a place then decide to pull out and move the entire group to another place? Well, that's how this food adventure started out. I was out with my friends after watching Alien: Covenant (spoiler alert: it's scary) and Paras, Athena and I were literally about to order at Teanado (maybe I'll write an article about this place sometime) when Shlok gives me a call and tries to convince me to go get pizza instead of some good bento. I had never heard of "Indian pizza" before, and I wasn't too keen on getting my mouth burned because of how spicy it was, but I decided to trust him and we went off to the next plaza. Just a word of caution: parking in the plaza is pretty rough. It took a slightly shady parking lot move for us to get a spot for Shlok and Nihar but it did the trick (Please note that this blog does not endorse the use of shady parking lot tricks).

Big Burger - Gordan Ramsay Burger in Las Vega, NV // Vegas III

Erika ready to chow down!

Heavenly burger

So after finding our next dinner spot, Erika led the way and got us lost. Luckily, she regained her bearings before we lost too much time. Long story short, we made our way through the sea of people between the MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood where we saw everything from strippers to people biking for charity on the sidewalk. Yeah, it was quite a classic “Vegas” night. The wonderful thing about Vegas is that after you get through the smell of weed and look around you, all the different people really contrast against each other. The city really becomes quite a diverse selection of people, with suited businessmen sauntering in the summer heat alongside scantily clad ladies with nothing covering their upper body except for two strategically placed stickers. There are the men on the bridges playing music and the tourist groups filling the bridge, with reflections of major brand signs on the glass walls around you. Luckily, there wasn’t this many people in line for Gordon Ramsay Burger, where we queued for about a half hour before making our way into the eating space.

Iron Sushi - Morimoto in Las Vegas // Vegas II

Erika!

So after a while, I finally got to hang out with my friend Erika again! You may remember Erika from Get Baked Episode 2, where we went to Mr. Holmes Bakery, Tropiseuno SF, and Lemonade. Well now we're in Erika's home turf - Las Vegas, Nevada. Erika knows the area pretty well, and we decided to take some photos before hitting our main destination: Morimoto Las Vegas.

Grill Talk - Sumika Grill in Los Altos, CA

Miles P. Olson (2017, color)

Smoky

Actually, before we move on to the next parts of Vegas, I have to write about a stellar dining experience I had in my hometown Los Altos, CA. This place is better known as "Steve Job's Hometown", or even "small town next to Mountain View", but the downtown has some restaurants that can definitely hold its own. I'm here this time with Miles P. Olson at Sumika Grill, one of the higher rated restaurants in the town. Miles and I talk often on Snapchat and Messenger, but we only really make the commute to hang out when someone is visiting from outside of the Bay Area. That being said, I was really excited to see Miles again, since we had quite a bit to catch up on since our last time out for food.

Gotta Eat Em All - Poke Bar in Mountain View, CA

Pass on this

I had Poke once before on the East Coast - it was at this place called PokeStop, and I remember being extremely tired while poking through a bowl of rice covered with some seaweed and fish and thinking that it was kind of like chirashi. Light flowed through the busy shop as hungry New Yorkers flowed in and out of the shop, some giving me the stank eye as I sat in a coveted spot - forcing them to seek a spot elsewhere.

Stacks on Stacks - The Original Pancake House in Los Altos, CA

Nostalgic comfort food at 6:30 am

Carter looking dramatic

The Original Pancake House has been around in my hometown, Los Altos, for a long time - like Tom's Depot, it's a staple of Los Altos life and history. I remember my dad dragging me there at some early hour when I was like five in order to get a good spot in line! It used to be packed with people every morning - especially Saturday mornings - trying to get a taste of some of the best pancakes in town. It's kind of like when baby boomers look back on "good old days" - things are different these days. More specifically, there was no wait to get in to the famed Original Pancake House in Los Altos this morning when I came in for breakfast with my friend Carter Fox.

Going Psycho - Psycho Donuts and Pho with @winnie.fried

Thought I was going psycho for a second there

Once again, we are back with Winnie (follow her here) and are more determined than ever to experience the food wonders of Downtown San Jose. I usually don't head down to San Jose, but Winnie's robotics lab is in the middle of it, so I arranged for a lunch at Pho 69. Downtown San Jose is a pretty funky place, mostly because of its location and the very, very, very popular convention center. Lots of things go on in there, ranging from volleyball tournaments to even a minor Blizzcon if I remember correctly. Anyway, this weekend was no different, with a bunch of costumed people waiting around.

Cutest Crepes Everrrr - SF Day Trip Part 2 with @winnie.fried

These crepes are belly good

So after a much needed sugar boost from Mr. Holmes, Winnie (follow her at @winnie.fried),Jenny and I marched on to our next destination: Belly Good Bakery. As we walked, we were stopped by a nice elderly gentleman who saw us taking some photos in front of the wall across the street from Mr. Holmes, who gently informed us that there are many awesome walls in San Francisco. This included the whale, naked people, and bee walls, all which were found pretty close to each other. I don't know why you're reading this article - I may have forced you to, or you're looking for some food suggestions in San Francisco - but spots in San Francisco suitable for some hipster-ish photos are abundant. Make kissy faces with the fish, or stand near the enormous whale for some cute photos.

I Got Baked in San Francisco - SF Day Trip Part 1 with @winnie.fried

Future employers please disregard title

Winnie and I got baked in San Francisco

This past Monday, I went on a trip to San Francisco with my friends Winnie and Jenny - Winnie also has a food-focused Instagram page, you can follow her at @winnie.fried. So beforehand, we made a plan to visit two bakeries/cafes - Mr. Holmes and Belly Good - and left the lunch option open. Like Miles and Lia, Winnie and Jenny are friends from my time at the Carleton Summer Computer Science Institute, and this is the first time we've met since the trip despite living in the same area. So anyway, our first stop was at Mr. Holmes, which had a deceptively long line. The actual area for customers is small, possibly to force them out into the cold (just kidding), and even though we got there bright and early at 10am, it seemed that their stock of cruffins had either been depleted or not even made yet (you can check this on their website).

Bonchon: The Real K(orean)FC - San Mateo, CA

Lia!!!

A little back story on some of my friends - most of my friends that live outside of California I met during a summer program at Carleton College. It was their Summer Computer Science Institute summer program, and I spent three weeks stuck in the middle of nowhere (Northfield, MN) with a bunch of other teenagers. Here, I met some of the best friends of I've ever made (hanging out 24/7 around someone will do that), and every so often one of them will come visit California BECAUSE WE'RE THE BEST STATE YEAH.