Vegas Baby!!! - Bellagio Buffet in Las Vegas, NV

Piles of shrimp!

At first I was pretty confused - why should I be going to Las Vegas for my spring break? Shouldn't I be hanging out with friends, or maybe relaxing by an ocean in Hawaii? Why Las Vegas of all places - I'm not even 18 which means I can't drink, gamble, or do anything in Las Vegas!

Well, I can eat.

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.

Sorry, Vegan Cheese Doesn't Taste Like Cheese - Veggie Grill in Saratoga, CA

Vegan Cheese is bad

Winnie!!!

Once upon a time, this young man was a vegetarian. That's right. From fifth through 8th grade, I thought that vegetarianism was really cool! But starting in freshman year, I decided that I wanted some more protein in the form of meat so I reverted to the good old omnivore lifestyle. I've never considered going vegan though - in fact, being vegetarian was a pretty big hassle in and of itself! But the point is, I've eaten quite a bit of vegetarian foods in the past. And a lot of substitutes, including the all famous Tofurkey which can taste a bit like actual turkey! In my past experiences with substitutes, if it's good and I forget that I'm eating a substitute, then I won't notice a difference. Well Veggie Grill has earned my respect for creating a few Vegan dishes that I ate without noticing the fact that they were Vegan. So a gold star to the salad with bacon substitute and the Koreatown tacos, but a frowny face (like the one your physics teacher puts by a question when you make a mistake) to the nachos.

This Dog is my Sous Chef - Baking with Dogs

Don't be alarmed by the title

Left to Right: Kristi, Nikki, Ellie

For the past few weeks, I've been baking on Fridays with my friends Nikki, Ellie, and Kristi at Nikki's house. They're a pretty fun group of people to hang out with, and one of the best parts of baking is that there's often a dog in the house! Nikki actually fosters dogs for dpsrescue.org, and the latest little puppy to come through the program is Porter. Porter is rescued from (no joke) a dog meat factory in Asia, and I met him the first day he got stateside and he was extremely scared of humans. Literally no one could touch him(and it's still hard to get him to touch you) and when you looked at him he would just run away. Interestingly enough, I was able to look at him through a camera, probably because he didn't recognize that is people looking at him. Anyway, Porter is very much like a cat: even now he's licking himself clean, and if you're interested in adopting a loving dog who has been listening to A LOT of Shakira lately, check out Porter at the Palo Alto Food Express on Saturday March 4th from 1-4pm and Sunday March 5th 1-3pm.

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.

We Died Today - Spiciest Ramen Challenge

I think I almost died today

Confident Kristi, the cook

Sometimes you have good ideas with friends. We have fun together, see cool things, do fun things. Sometimes you make wrong decisions. The right wrong decisions. We make mistakes. But these mistakes bring us closer as friends as we realize our mistakes.

Three months ago, my friend Kristi persuaded me to eat the world's spiciest instant noodles.

I Got Baked in San Francisco - The Sequel

So is it habit forming?

Erika!!!

So Erika lets the Carleton GroupSnap (is that a thing) know that she's going to be in San Francisco on January 28th, so guess what happened: Miles and I roll out through BART and CalTrain and meet up with her at Montgomery. So Erika, Miles and I were pretty close friends during the SCSI, and the main thing that brought us together was our shared love of music. Miles likes more underground and new artists, so when he played music off his phone it was always an adventure for me (and probably Erika, I don't really know). But anyway, we're all good friends, and of course Miles and I agree to go to Erika's top choice location: Mr. Holmes Bakehouse. That's right folks, we're back. Let's get baked in San Francisco