Final Project: A Look At The Food Of Europe And Reflection on Social Media Course

            How is it possible to sum up an entire course of social media in one blog post? The truth is, I am not sure if it is. From gazing into the minds of some of the most academic critics and advocates of social media of our time, reading articles on some of the latest platforms, and discussing everything from creating a collective college memory via Flickr to twitter handles of fake celebrities (I still like Lord Voldemort’s the best), this class has been a journey through the history, relevance, and omnipresent nature of social media.

            Throughout the class, the one thing that has remained constant for me is my food blog. As a lover of all kinds of cuisines, writing, eating, and photography, this blog has been a great medium for me to share my food experiences and memories with the class. ­­I decided that I wanted to share my food memories from study abroad on social media for my final assignment. However, I have nearly 100 pictures that I love relating to food during my four months of travel in Europe. I had only used Flickr once in the past, for our class assignment, but I decided it was worth trying to prove my point (check out my photos on Flickr HERE). After captioning, describing, and tagging almost 100 pictures, I realized that sharing pictures on Flickr itself acted as a catalyst of how I could connect my love of food and blogging to the class in a deeper sense. My collection of photos on Flickr, detailing my entire food journey through Europe, led me to discover some truly critical truths and critiques about some of the literature that we have read for this particular class. Although most of the authors that we have analyzed voice the importance of social media for widespread networks and emphasize the vitality of collective memory, in my opinion, I find my small, specific, and personalized network to be much more meaningful.

            In Jose van Dijck’s journal article “Flickr and the culture of connectivity: Sharing views, experiences, and memories” van Dijck explains how Flickr firmly embeds our culture of connectivity, which is deeply rooted to our daily routines. In this analysis, the author explains how Flickr creates a naturalized, common view of the world. Van Dijck focuses on uploading pictures to Flickr creates a collective memory and shapes how we watch the world. More so, he believes that Flickr is a cultural heritage platform that allows users to view past events in a new form, based on a translated view of past events. In this article, our author also explains Hoskin's view on today’s culture as a culture of connectivity, meaning that perspectives, experiences, and productions are greatly influenced by social media sites. Through this, conscious and sometimes unconscious technological interaction, people’s singular memories become a part of the collective memory. Van Dijck also focuses on the idea of connectivity through examining the idea of a continuous photo stream in addition to the idea that Flickr grants people answers to the ever prominent questions of “what’s happening?” and “what happened? The author explains that the site serves as an image aggregator and experience aggregator, meaning that not only does it bring together visuals, but it also collects memories. This piece is smart, concise, and yet a lot of the information is repetitive and one sided.

Although I don’t disvalue or even necessarily disagree with anything the author communicated in this piece, I think that his main idea is only one side of the argument. Sure, people use sites such as Flickr in order to combine their experiences with others to create a culture of connectivity and collectivity, but not everyone does this, needs to do this, or benefits from doing this. I studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain, from January to May of this year. During my time abroad, I wrote a blog and uploaded Facebook pictures from my travel experiences. However, my blog was only connected to my family and close friends and my Facebook albums were really geared towards a small network of close family and friends rather than the world. For experimentation purposes (and because posting 100 pictures in one blog entry could get annoying), I decided to try using Flickr for my final project in order to share these photos. However, what I noticed is I have no interest showing these pictures to strangers and contributing to some sort of collective memory in our society. I do not mean this in a selfish way, but these pictures represent special, intimate memories with my best friends. You may be reading this and be thinking, “wow Lauren is crazy, how can pictures of random food be special or intimate…that’s a little much”, but in reality these pictures are very personal. They come from times that are near and dear to my heart and as cheesy at it sounds, I am not really concerned with a bunch of strangers connecting to them; I am much more concerned with connecting to my friends, classmates, family, and the people that I shared these experiences with.

When I studied abroad, I made a group of very close friends. I could call any of them at any time when we were abroad and if I needed anything, they were there. My group of friends was about 15 people and dominated by boys, but my core and support system of friends during this experience were my five best girl friends: Gabby, Becca, Brittany, Caroline, and Rachel. Rachel was the only friend I knew in this group before the experience. We quickly became best friends when we studied abroad together in Israel in high school and somewhere across the line we decided that we would study abroad together in college. The other girls and I became best friends very quickly and the rest is history.

Nevertheless, my memories that I posted come from deals backed by personal jokes, profound experiences, and deep chats over countless glasses of wine. Why do I want complete strangers to see all of these pictures? Sure, it may seem fun to brag about 75 different types of pasta it seems like I tried in Italy, or the fresh fish I ate on the coast in Barcelona, but at the end of the day these pictures are for me. These pictures would have the same, if not more meaning, if they were shared in the other ways I have them stored: pictures on my wall, scrapbooks, and private photo albums. Showing these pictures to others do not make them more special to me; I already have a shared, collective memory with my best friends and I do not feel as though I need the same shared, collective, and connective memory with the entire world. To be fair, the reason I shared photos and memories through blog and Facebook when I was abroad was to keep me family and friends at home updated, not to connect to my entire Facebook friend-base. Although I am sure a few other people saw my photos, the intention of any of my social media interactions regarding abroad was to share with my family, friends, and create a collective and connective memory with the small network of people that I met abroad, rather than a large collective and connective memory with the entire world. Nevertheless, for the sake of the project, this is how I am attempting to share my memories, but still with the small network of this class and hopefully not a bunch of random Flickr lovers.

Going back to our studies in class, we also concentrated on DIY culture and convergence. In Amy Spencer’s book, “DIY-The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture”, Spencer talks about Do-It-Yourself culture. Although her examples focus on independent publishing through “zines” and the creation of alternative music forms, I think Spencer’s logic also greatly relates to my point. Although DIY is more punk, more of a social movement backed by the rejection of mainstream culture, I am also rejecting a mainstream concept in my analysis of social media. In an interview with Spencer, she says, “to me, lo-fi culture is a rejection of the idea that you need to be professional about what you do for it to have value. You can record a song on an old tape recorder and I think it can be as great as a song that costs thousands of pounds to produce. You can write your own blog, publish your own zine or newspaper using the resources you have and it can still be a valuable contribution. And it can be more exciting too.” In full honesty, Spencer has a point. Does it really matter if 500 people see my photographs or if five people see my photographs? I would almost rather it be the latter; It is more important to me to have something of my own as my own blog and have it be personalized than to completely engage in a culture of collectivism and creativity with complete strangers. Off of what Spencer discusses, I began to think of what really would define the mainstream in terms of social media. In my opinion, the mainstream idea that I have gathered is that social media allows all of these great or detrimental thinks to happen. 

A good example of this is Jenkin's book that speaks about convergence culture, participatory culture, and collective intelligence. I agree with Jenkins that convergence culture, as he describes it as the cooperation between multiple media industries, is upon us. Many, if not all, things are shared across multiple platforms. However, Jenkins seems to present that convergence and participatory culture is new because of social media. I understand that we are undergoing a “digital revolution”, but when it comes to me sharing my photos of abroad, I would like to argue that I could share it to the same, small network without social media. After re-accessing Jenkins’ ideas on conversion, I would like to respectfully argue that what is happening over the Internet has always happening just in a different way. In my changing media technologies class, we talked a lot about the leggo effect. This means that basically any new technology is a combination of past technologies. In other words, you need pieces from past to build together to create something new. This is how I feel about DIY/convergence culture; I think it has always happened, but now it just happens in a new and different way because of the Internet. If what I am arguing sounds crazy, think of it like this. If I made a scrapbook and captioned each picture and showed it to my family and close friends or bought it in to class and verbally explained this to them, wouldn’t I be accomplishing the same thing that I am trying to accomplish now? I think that I would be, just across a different platform.

Don’t get me wrong: I love social media, or else why would I have taken this class? Part of me is arguing for arguing sake because analyzers of social media seem to think that is has certain implications that reach to everyone. Although I would never disvalue this research, their intelligence, or the truth behind these studies, I do think that there are people who use social media for different reasons that what is considered the majority. Not everybody uses Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all of these other sites for the same reason, which is what I want to clarify. In my research for this assignment, I found many blogs titled “10 reasons to use Flickr” or “why you need to get on Flickr”. Although each of these blogs generally has many of the same suggestions, it ignores one important idea: no one needs to be on any of these media sites (unless it is for a job or class). This is an added bonus to daily life rather than something that has become peoples daily lives without a separation. Kennedy and his co authors discuss in his article how sites such as Flickr add depth and breadth in addition to generating new advantages and challenges. I think that this is true and because of this, I don't think I need to be on Flickr; I think it is an added aid as a student, but I would never refer to it as a necessity. Many of the skilled, intelligent authors that we read and analyzed also framed their ideologies in such a way. Many of these authors feel that you need to do something: you need to join Flickr, you need to be a part of participatory culture, or you need to connect to the virtual community.

Rheingold explains the importance of a virtual community through an entire novel. One of the most important points that I have found he makes is in his introduction when he talks about the importance of virtual communities to ordinary citizens. He discusses the social leverage that can be gained through these communities. Rheingold says, “my direct observations of online behavior around the world over the past ten years have led me to conclude that whenever CMC technology becomes available to people anywhere, they inevitably build virtual communities with it, just as microorganisms inevitably create colonies.” This quote directly shows that virtual communities are just a different way of creating communities; communities existed well before the virtual world. I know that it is different that someone in Tokyo could potentially see what I ate for breakfast nine months ago and that creates a whole new dynamic, but the same idea is still there: people search for communities. With that being said, I still feel that the most important community for me to share my thoughts, pictures, and experiences with is the small, specific community I know. Because of this, I decided to end my final blog post/project with a mini blog entry. My flickr account my have a large amount of cool pictures from this amazing experience, but I decided to reserve the detailed descriptions of my top five favorite meals for my blog so here it goes.

As I said before, but may have not emphasized enough: EUROPE HAS AMAZING CUISINE. In four months I went to nine countries: Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Prague, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and France. Throughout this experience, I met some of the coolest and best people I know, say some of the most beautiful sites in the world, and of course, ate food that I still think is some of the best food that I have ever had. Here are the five best meals I ate while abroad:

#5: ITALY: I am starting this out unconventionally by not sticking exactly to what I said because for Italy, I cannot choose just one meal. Italy as a whole had some of the best food I have ever tasted. The bread and olive oil is simple yet delicious. The pasta is perfectly cooked. The pizza is an amazing consistency (and I am picky about my pizza) and the gelato is so sweet and flavorful, like nothing I had ever experienced before. The ingredients in Italy are fresh, appetizing, and all around amazing. Bellow I have posted some of the best pictures from my time in Italy. Some were shared already via Flicker and some of these are brand new.

Gelato in Cinque Terre

Pesto Pizza in Cinque Terre

Wine Bar in Florence, Italy

Cannoli in Rome, Italy

#4: My Classic Meal from La Rita: I sadly only took one picture at La Rita, so I am relying on Google to help me showcase how amazing this restaurant is! Anyway, as I explained via Flickr, La Rita is my favorite restaurant in Barcelona. It is gourmet, cheap, easy to get to, and delicious. The meal always begins with fresh sourdough bread. On some days (Sunday-Thursday), they would bring you a free appetizer or Sangria. If I went on the weekend, my friends and I would always order house wine. Every time I went to La Rita I ordered the same thing: seared tuna with apples and onions. It is SO good. The tuna is perfect: cooked but seared. The apples are tangy, yet sweet and the onions are delicious. This is one of the best meals ever! Also, as for desserts, I’d recommend the crema catalonia, chocolate cake, apple cake, or cheesecake…my friends and I clearly tried everything.

Interior of La Rita: Courtesy of Google

Crema Catalonia at La Rita: Courtesy of Google

Exterior of La Rita: Courtesy of Google

Tuna with Apple and Onion: Courtesy of Google

#3: La Taberna Coloniales: My friends and I(a group of around 15) waited two hours to eat here and man, it was so worth it. We went to eat here in Sevilla and EVERYONE told us we had to make sure we got in. It was so busy that we ended up sitting down at our table at about 11:45. I remember I ordered two tapas: one was a goat cheese plate with berry preserves and the other was the most amazing eggplant dish I have ever tasted. My friends all got this chicken dish that they loved as well.

Eggplant from Taberna Coloniales: Courtesy of Google

Exterior of La Taberna Coloniales: Courtesy of Google

Goat Cheese and Preserves: Courtesy of Google

#2:  Catalonian Meal: As I discussed on my Flickr slideshow, when my program provider took us on a study journey, we had the most amazing lunch ever. First, we had calcots, which are like large onions, with romanesco sauce and wine out of these huge pitchers. Next. they provided us with a giant plates of meats, which I couldn't eat, but I have a picture anyway. The restaurant was super nice because bought me a vegetarian flat bread with eggplant, goat cheese, zucchini, and other yummy vegetables. This was one of the best meals I had abroad because of the delicious and unique cuisine and the company!

Attempt at drinking Wine at Lunch

Wine Round Two

Calcots and Romesco

Meat Tray

#1: Homestay Meals: It is so hard to think of what the number one meal abroad was. I decided that the number one spot should be a shout out to all the delicious cuisine my senora cooked me. My senora was named Conchita and she was a 59 year old single lady. Needless to say, she was awesome. She cooked my roommate Rachel and I dinner every night. Some of our favorite dishes were simple sunny side up eggs, tilapia, lentil soup, and cream soup. Whenever she made appetizers, she also bought very delicious cheese, made dates stuffed with cream cheese, and other delicious appetizers. Conchita was the best and her food, also amazing!

Conchita's Appetizers Close Up

Table Set For Special Lunch at Conchita's

To conclude, food was an integral part of my abroad experience. When it comes to sharing this experiences, there are many options. For low tech options, I could share it via scrapbook or simply by showing people pictures and verbally explaining my experience. I can also use online platforms such as Facebook, Blogger, or Flickr to share these experiences. What I have learned from this class and through my research and counter analysis of different authors is that there is more than one option when showcasing your experiences via social media platforms. As the person utilizing social media, I have learned that I can reach of to a large virtual community. Through exploring terms such as convergence culture and participatory culture in addition to collectivity and connectivity, I learned that this is the option that seems to be most often written about and analyzed. However, personally, I enjoy reaching out to a small network of individuals I know. I enjoy utilizing the technological platforms; tools such as Blogger and Flickr especially have many interesting features and I believe that aesthetically, my work looks clean, vibrant, and well thought out when conveyed over these platforms. Nevertheless, it is important to me that my experiences are focused towards the people that I care about rather than a community of strangers. At this point in my life, networking and interacting within my smaller community is what is vital to my success.  When looking back at the readings I described regarding social media, I was drawn to a specific quote from Kennedy. He says "the results suggest that community-contributed media and annotation can enhance and improve our access to multimedia resources – and our understanding of the world." I think it important to focus on the idea of improvement through social media. Although my analysis may have seemed pessimistic, I think that it is important to focus on how sites such as Flickr have the potential to "change the world". Maybe, in years to come or even next semester, I will further explore the larger virtual community, connect more so with participatory culture, and connect with collective memory. Furthermore, I truly enjoyed this class and learned so much about social media that will be beneficial to my career experience, and life in general. I hope my small network enjoyed this post and look forward to more posts soon!
-------
Works Cited/Consulted

-Jenkins, H. (2006.) Convergence Culture. New York, NY: New York University Press.

-Jones, Laurie and Lerman, Kristina (2006) Social Browsing on Flickr. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0612047

-Kennedy, Lyndon and Naaman, Mor and Ahern, Shane and Nair, Rahul and Rattenbury, Tye(2007)

How flickr helps us make sense of the world: context and content in community-contributed media collections. New York, NY: ACM.

-Rheingold, H. (2000) "The Virtual Community." Harper Collins. Retrieved from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/

-van Dijck, J. (2010, October 18.) Flickr and the culture of connectivity: sharing views, experiences, memories. Sage Publications.

-Van House, Nancy A. (2007) Flickr and public image-sharing: distant closeness and photo exhibition. Retrieved from http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1240866.1241068.

"Let The Lights 'Dim Sum'"

This title comes from Drake's new album "Take Care" which is amazing and I am obsessed with it, hence the reference. Anyhow, on Saturday, I went out for dim sum for the first time ever for my friends birthday dinner.  To be fair, I had no idea what dim sum even was. My roommate and I had to google it in order to find out that it was kind of like an asian version of tapas(that at least was my take on the description).  Basically,  dim sum is a style of chinese food that is prepared as small, bite-sized portions of food that are served on small plates or in small steamer baskets. Customers also order on a card rather than verbally, which is interesting.I was apprehensive to try it, but tried to go into the meal as optimistic as possible. We went to ping pong dim sum in Chinatown on Saturday evening. Ping Pong, started off in London, but now has two locations in DC, which is pretty cool.

Outside of Restaurant: Image Courtesy of Google

Inside of restaurant: Image Courtesy of Google

Bar: Image Courtesy of Google

The restaurant was elegant, trendy, dark and dimly lit(actually!). Being that it was a birthday celebration of sorts, we quickly perused the drink menu and ordered the coolest drinks we could find. The best finds seemed to be the ping pong(martini and rossi bianco, white wine, shochu, and lychee), the kumquat mojito(appleton estate rum, lime, mint, and kumquat...pictured bellow), and the drink I chose which was strawberries, lemon, and prosecco(so, so good!)

Strawberry, Lemon, and Prosecco

Kumquat Mojito

In all seriousness, I couldn't even tell you everything that we ordered; since it is such small portions for small prices, the entire table ordered tons of food. With my vegetarian dining habits, I couldn't eat most of the food, but I took a photo of the chicken puff, which is a honey roasted puff filled with chicken and topped with pineapple, because it looked so delicious, I knew I needed to mention it.

Chicken Puff(Sorry that it is blurry!)

The food that I did have a chance to try was incredible. The first dish I tried was one of the "nibbers" called chinese spicy nuts. I didn't really like them, but it is okay because the rest of the meal made up for it. The second dish that I tried was definitely another tables order that they brought to us by accident(oops!), but it was amazing. It was a spinach and mushroom griddled dumpling in a whole wheat, flakey, flour pastry. No one else liked it because of the mushrooms, but I thought it was delicious, flavorful, and really interesting. Next, I tried one of the restaurants newest dishes, tofu and vegetable spring roll served with spicy mango sauce. The spring roll was really good, not too greasy, and had really good tofu in it. I liked the mango sauce because it was tangy, but not too spicy. Really great choice! Next, my friend who had been to dim sum many a time, convinced me to order a sticky rice bowl. Basically, the chef cooks vegetables inside rice and wraps it in a leaf wrap, cooking it in a steam box. It was SO cool! It had a little bit of garlic in it, great veggies, and the rice was so good. I was confused originally because I thought you were supposed to eat the leaf(you aren't) and I definitely tried to. Really awkward...

The final dish that I tried was a vegetable puff, which was very similar to chicken puff, only with vegetables, obviously.

Vegetable Puff...YUM!

Needless to say, this dinner was amazing. Anyone reading should try it...I'm going back this Saturday night!

The Ten Best Foods I Had Over Thanksgiving Break

*Disclaimer: I was home for a LONG time, but nevertheless still ate lots of delicious food.

10. Collection of tapas from Tapas Gitana: My mom and I went to this restaurant the day before thanksgiving. As a former Barcelona study abroad student, whenever we go for tapas, I get the honors of ordering. I chose stuffed mushrooms, Garlic Bread with roasted tomato dipping sauce, Patatas Bravas(traditional oven roasted potatoes with spicy and ali-oli sauce...my favorite!), tilapia with vegetables, and crepes stuffed with spinach, apples, and pine nuts. This was a great meal(although our sangria was awful, but you win some you lose some)

9. Luau Salad with seared tuna from Cheesecake Factory: This salad is perfect, I am not even kidding. I substitute chicken for seared tuna(which is spicy and delicious) which is topped on a huge bed of lettuce with green beans, peppers, carrots, crunchy crisps(I actually have no idea what it is but it is so good), and topped with delicious dressing. If you haven't ordered it, you are missing out(aka get it ASAP)

8. Homemade Spinach Artichoke Dip: I cooked my first artichoke dip for this years thanksgiving. I mixed frozen spinach and canned artichokes with mayo, lemon juice, cream cheese, spices, and more. It sounds like a gross combo, but it was delicious, warm, creamy, and a great addition to my stacy's multigrain pita chips.

7. Pad Thai from Stir Crazy: I usually make my own stir fry at this restaurant, but I decided to be 'lame' and get pad thai. This was far from a mistake. The tofu and veggies are perfectly cooked and accompanied by some of the most delicious noodles that I have ever tasted. This dish made me rethink my "usual'; i think I am going to order this more often.

6. Nana's Homemade Kugel: What would a Jewish thanksgiving be without Kugel? Nana obviously has to cook her Kugel for any holiday occasion or really as often as possible. I do not mind this at all because it is sweet, filling, and one of my favorite foods in the entire world.

5. Nana's Homemade Jello: My nana also makes a strawberry-banana cream jello. It is almost the consistency of mousse, but less sweet and more fruity. I need to get the recipe from her(if shell ever share it) because I could live off this jello. She tops it with fresh fruit and it is truly amazing as a side, dessert, breakfast, etc.

4. Homemade Baked Brie: I also cooked my first brie pastry this week. Take a sheet of puff pastry and plase one wheel of brie on it. Then, spread fresh preserves(i chose raspberry) on top of brie. If desired, add toasted almonds and wrap up the pastry. Then, cook for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. You will be amazed!


3. Shawarma from Mizrahi Grill: The best way for me to describe Shawarma is like an Israeli burrito...but better. At Mizrahi, the cook takes fresh laffa bread(which is basically like naan but better in my opinion and thinner too) and adds a mix of lamb and turkey meat in addition to fries, tahina, hummus, and israeli salad. It is so good and a dish everyone should try at any Israeli/Middle Eastern establishment.

2. Mom's Homemade Stuffing: My mom makes stuffing, just like many moms, but hers is special. She uses ritz crackers instead of bread which gives it a different flavor. She used to eat it as a kid and I like it so much better. Another dish I need to learn how to make!

1. Lou Malnati's Spinach and Garlic Deep Dish Pizza: I actually eat this every time I go home. Lou's is one of my favorite deep dish pizza places in my area. Add spinach and garlic to their delicious crust and perfect deep dish creation, and you have one of the best meals ever. Thankfully, they freeze their pizzas and after four years of begging my mom to send me one to make my finals week(s) a little less awful, she finally has agreed to send a few in the upcoming weeks. Needless to say, I cannot wait!

Cuban Cuisine in Ann Arbor

This past weekend, I visited University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I have been a Michigan fan since birth and had never been to campus, so I figured that not was as good of a time as ever to trek to the arctic(well, it wasn't arctic yet, but still really cold) of Michigan and see the campus. Between exploring the town and an amazing football game, we found time to venture to a great cuban restaurant. My best friend Jamie, who goes to Michigan, had never been to Cafe Habana, which is apparently a beloved Cuban restaurant off campus. We had to wait about 45 minutes to sit down, which made me think that they either were really slow or really popular(thankfully, it was that they are really popular). 

We sat down, each ordered our diet cokes per usuals, and scanned the appetizer menu. Immediately, we all voiced our interest in ordered the baked goat cheese with roasted tomatoes and corn tortilla chips. During our wait, we had seen numerous waiters and waitresses walk past with some sort of cool cheese dip, so we figured this must be it. When i say that this was SO GOOD, I am under-exaggerating.  This was probably one of the best appetizers I have ever had. The cheese was perfectly melted with just the right amount of creamy, roasted tomato sauce, with tiny bits of actual tomatoes in it as well. It was delicious.

For my meal, I ordered the mahi-mahi special. I am still confused as to what exactly accompanied it besides potatoes and really cool miscellaneous sauces, but whatever it was, it was delicious.

A Pictures Worth A Thousand Words: Mahi Mahi

I didn't take a picture of my friend Jamie's sandwich because it was boring, but my friend Sammi ordered a really cool dish called Ropas Viejas.

This dish consisted of spicy beef in a tomato sauce with yellow rice and fried plantains. I tasted the plantains and they were really interesting: different from any plantains I had ever tasted before. Nevertheless, they were really good. 

If you are ever in Ann Arbor, check out Cafe Habana for delicious food and a fun time!

 

Another Dining Delight Outside of the District

Last week, I attended a conference in Denver, Colorado, a really cool city that I had never been to before. The conference was great, but the only downside was that I didn't get much time to explore Denver. Luckily, a few other girls on my program and I got the chance to go out for one dinner while we were there. The conference was held at the Sheraton Denver Downtown, which is on a street with many restaurants and bars. We decided it would be a good idea to explore this street to find the best cuisine possible(luckily the friends I made were huge foodies as well, so this was a great use of our time).

After wandering around, we found a restaurant called Appaloosa Grill. The menu looked intriguing so we decided to go. I ordered a black bean burger with truffle garlic fries on the side.

The black bean burger was honestly amazing. You could tell that the veggies were extremely fresh and it was very flavorful; the burger was actually extremely spicy which was a surprise to me. This was probably helpful because many people get altitude sickness in Denver and this meal caused me to drink A LOT of water. 

Although the veggie burger was great, the best part of the meal was definitely the truffle garlic fries. The side was french fried potatoes accompanied by fresh herbs, minced garlic, truffle oil, smoked sea salt, grated parmesan and topped with pepper aioli. They were honestly incredible, so flavorful and so unique!

The meal was only around $11, which is a good deal for the amount of food(so many fries!) I would definitely recommend trying it if you ever go to Denver!

10 Restaurants I Want To Try

Since this week has been crazy and I haven't had time to go out for a  meal, I decided that this week I will post a list of the top ten restaurants that I want to try in DC(not in any particular order). Looking forward to trying these restaurants in weeks to come!

Goodstuff Eatery(Courtesy of Google)

1. Alero- This inexpensive Mexican eatery is supposed to be incredible. After surveying the menu, I decided that I look forward to trying the nacho platter, sopa de lenteja(lentil soup), the spinach enchilada, and of course, my favorite veggie fajitas. Additionally, the peach daquiri sounds incredible.
2. Goodstuff Eatery: This famous burger joint near Capitol Hill is raved about by politicians and GW students alike. It is a Spike Mendelsohn restaurant. Although I don't eat meat, the "Vegetarians are people too 'shroom burger" sounds delightful. Check out the menu for Goodstuff here.
3. Coco Sala: This chocolate boutique in Penn Quarter sounds like the most amazing place....ever! Their bottomless brunch, although pricey, looks delicious. After browsing the menu, I would love to try the 'hotcake obsession', which combines citrus ricotta pancakes with white chocolate lemon cream with berry compote and caramel passion fruit sauce. Additionally, the 'french toast smores' sound great; it is cinnamon brioche stuffed with house-made marshmallow, dark chocolate, & 
   graham shortbread with warm banana compote and milk chocolate mousse...actually incredible sounding! The 'artichoke tart' with creamy hearts of artichoke, tomato confit and truffle & tarragon vinaigrette also sounds great in addition to the 'grown-up grilled cheese' which is truffle-scented brioche, cheddar cheese with roasted tomato soup and cheese fritter(yum!)
4. Burger, Tap, and Shake: This restaurant is on campus, so I must try it soon! I look forward to tasting the sweet potato fries and the adult milkshake called "the evil empire" which is smirnoff vanilla bean vodka, red wing coffee liqueur, and vanilla ice cream
5. Circa: Located right near Burger, Tap, and Shake, Circa is another must visit in my mind. The fried green tomatoes topped with pepper jack cheese, black bean mango relish and a cilantro lime crème fraiche look like a great appetizer option. The wild mushroom ravioli stuffed with wild mushrooms tossed with artichoke hearts, cremini mushrooms and a beurre noisette topped with fresh herbs and goat cheese also sounds incredible. Check out the menu here!
6. Shake Shack: Originally from New York, this fast food joint is famous. I need to try the shakes, veggie burger, and more!
7. District Commons: Also on campus, this restaurant sounds delicious. The flatbread with Roasted Sweet Peppers, Pipe Dream Farms Goat Cheese, Basil Pesto and the flatbread with smoked Salmon, Lemon & Dill Mascarpone, and Appropriate Condiments all sound great! I also would love to try the North Carolina Mountain Trout with Broccolini, Pine Nuts, and Citrus Burnt Butter. Although pricey, this sounds so great and hopefully I will be able to go when my family visits
8. Shophouse: Called the Asian Chipotle, Shophouse, located in Dupont Circle, has gotten great reviews. Many GW students have raved about the restaurant. I look forward to trying it, although I am concerned that it supposed to be spicy(which I'm not too fond of). Well see how it is once I go...
9. Jaleo: I went abroad to Barcelona and consequentially LOVE tapas. Although the entire menu looks absolutely amazing, I cannot wait to try the Trigueros con romesco which is grilled asparagus with romesco sauce. I love romesco sauce after trying it in Catalonia at a traditional, festive meal. Additionally, the paella(veggie of course) sounds great!
10. Blue Duck Tavern: This is definitely a restaurant that I have to go to with my family, but it is frequented by our president, vice president, and many other famous people. It is right by my apartment and I look forward to trying it, especially the Sweet Potato Pasta, Salsify, Brussel Sprouts, Huckleberry and Pumpkin.

I can't wait to try all of these incredible restaurants!

Dining Delight Beyond the District

Last weekend, I went to visit my best friends at University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI.  I spent a lot of time with my friends from study abroad, who I always have the best time with and eat the best food with. My friend Rachel, who attends UW, told us she had wanted to try this cool Middle Eastern restaurant on State Street, which is the main street filled with restaurants, shopping, and more. The restaurant is called Husnus and it is a small store front towards the start of the street. 

When you walk in, you feel as though you are transported to a quaint, culturally stimulating eatery in Turkey(not that I have been, but this is what we imagined). Truly, it led my friends and I to find ourselves saying "it feels like we're not in America anymore." Anyway, Husnus has a cool story/philosophy behind it. It is the first authentic Turkish restaurant in Madison, WI that uses creative innovation in addition to traditional practices. According to their website, Husnu's  Restaurant is "the ideal place to experience not only the delights of a healthy and delicious meal but also the comfort of genuine hospitality." I could not agree with this more. I felt very at home in the establishment and would definitely describe it as an ideal place to seek a generously large and delicious meal.


I ordered a dish called Yogurtlu Patlican which consisted of sliced eggplant seasoned and generously topped with a thick yoghurt sauce. The dish came with a side of rice pilaf with raisins and other dried fruits mixed in as seen bellow:

The eggplant is perfectly grilled and draped with authentic yogurt sauce over a pile of flavorful lettuce. The eggplant itself was delicious, but combined with the interesting fusion of flavors in the rice pilaf, it was transformed from good to extraordinary. If you ever find yourself in Madison, WI, I would greatly recommend trying Husnus. You won't be disappointed!