Cascadeli @ Willard Straight Hall

Lunch

• Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich (marinated chicken breast, lettuce, ham, Swiss cheese, tomato, mayo on white roll.)
• Kiwi Strawberry Snapple
• Candy Corn

This is probably the best sandwich shop on campus. Conveniently located in Willard Straight Hall, it's a great place just to have a quick lunch. You can either take one of their "grab and go" sandwiches or wraps, order one of their hot sandwiches or customize your own made to order sandwich. You just stand in line and wait for the order pad to come from the front, write down what you want and your name, and then give them the slip and the money when you get to the front.

Here's the outdoor porch behind Willard Straight. It's the coolest place to have lunch because you can see the whole town and the lake from here, just beyond the railing and the twenty plus feet drop. The white paint on the heavy chairs and tables was crusted, revealing the rusted-covered metal below. It was Halloween so they were giving out free candy corn.

This sandwich is my favorite one here. It has so many different ingredients in it, all served hot in a toasted white roll. The weather was pretty cold, so it was great to bite into a piping hot sandwich.

Each ingredient went so well with one another. The ham and cheese offered a zingy breakfast taste, which contrasted well with the marinated chicken, mayo and salad-y elements. It was like eating brunch in a sandwich. The mildly marinated patty wasn't dry and grainy like regular chicken breast, but supple yet still firm and chewy, locking in the moisture in the meat. I had to open my jaw quite a height to take a full bite. Even after eating one every week, I haven't really gotten tired of this sandwich. I still haven't been able to figure out what they marinate the chicken with. It's so mild, yet tastes so good. The mayo adds a nice soft touch, making the sandwich more palatable and easier to swallow.

And washing it all down with Snapple was just perfect. My Snapple bottle cap? "'Real Fact' #110: Frogs never drink".

Total cost: US$4.60 (sandwich) + 1.43 (Snapple) + tax
Rating: aaaaa

Vietnam Restaurant @ Collegetown

Dinner

• Sliced Beef and Meatball Rice Noodles
• Spring Roll

I thought I was so lucky when I first got to know of this place, thinking that I could actually get some decent beef 'pho' here in Ithaca, in the middle of nowhere. Sadly, I was wrong.

The first sign that tipped me off was the fact that the moment I walked in there, I heard the waiters speaking Cantonese. Granted Vietnam is near southern China, and some of my relatives have told me that Vietnamese does sound like Cantonese (so does Thai), but it was Cantonese - true blue Cantonese, not the gibberish of an entirely foreign language. I ordered the beef and meatball noodle, wanting to try both and just with a glimmer of hope in my stomach that it won't be as bad as I guessed. I also shared a plate of vegetarian spring rolls with the others.

It took a long time for the food to come. The spring rolls came first. It was the unfried kind, with the soft translucent rice paper skin. It came with a small dipping bowl of the dark maroon Vietnamese sweet sauce, which had shreds of carrot, grounded peanuts and a blotch of chili sauce "floating" on top of the thick sauce. I picked up a roll with my chopsticks and dipped it into the bowl of sauce, maneuvering it carefully so as to avoid the chili. It was mediocre, though I can't say it was bad. It had carrots, lettuce, rice noodles, cucumber and a lot of other vegetables wrapped inside - bland on its own, but sweetly tasty after dipping it into the sauce, which was the only element that distinguished it as "Vietnamese".

The noodles were brought to us next in bowls that were too small to contain all the piping hot soup. The beef was slightly raw and I pushed this under the surface to make sure it would be cooked. American beef is just so much more delicious than Australian beef. It beats the latter in texture and taste hands down. I think it has something to do with the fact that there's a higher fat content.

The noodle bowl was horrible. Notice that I have tried my best to avoid the word 'pho' because I don't think this meal deserved to be called that. 'Pho' refers to the thinly and finely sliced rice noodles; what I got was regular 'hor fun' type rice noodles, clearly Chinese and not Vietnamese. They did attempt to make the soup base (by far the most important element in any soup noodle recipe) resemble the real thing, but it was an insufficient. I'm not sure if they got all the ingredients, because I didn't really taste any star aniseeds. The wedge of lime wasn't actually lime, but part of a green unripe lemon. And who puts the lime and bean sprouts inside the soup? It's always served separately on another dish, so they won't get cooked in the hot soup until you want them to. Sure, on paper, it might read like a Vietnamese bowl of beef noodles, but when you see and taste it, it's just too far from the real thing.

Upon closer inspection of their take-out menus and business cards, I found out that this place was opened by the people who ran the Chinese restaurant next door (or rather down the street), which would explain a lot. I'm not saying that Chinese can't cook; in fact, as a Chinese myself (by ethnicity), I am rather proud of the fact that Chinese cuisine is one of the most accomplished and multifaceted in the world, up there with the other great cuisines of the world. But why can't we just stick to what we're good at? I just don't know what was going through their heads when they decided to start a pseudo-Vietnamese restaurant.

One thing I am certain of though - having your menus spelt out in Vietnamese and using Viet ingredients and sauces to cook does not constitute a Vietnamese restaurant if you can't make the food taste Vietnamese. I wish 'Pho Hao' would start a franchise in Collegetown.

Total cost: US$12 (including tip)
Rating: aaaaa

Arby's @ Pyramid Mall

Dinner

• Beef 'n Cheddar Roast Beef Sandwich
• Curly Fries
• Regular Pink Lemonade

I used to wonder why Americans were so hooked on to fastfood, leading to all those problems such as obesity and heart diseases. I watched Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" with a bit of doubt, because I didn't really like fastfood. Not until I came here, that is. The explanation entails two words: cheap and good. Once back in the US, I've come to realize just how sucky the fastfood overseas is.

Compared to a full meal in a restaurant, $5.29 is actually very reasonable. In fact, I haven't really calculated, but it might even be cheaper than buying the groceries and cooking them at home. And the taste is just irresistible. Yeah, I know with every fat-laden bite, I'm bringing myself nearer to a premature death, but I'll swim it off - somehow.

Today was really cold (it's 45F/7C now!), but at least it wasn't shitty wet like yesterday. The rain here is really random. And to think the beginning of the week was so hot. I was with Kyle and Ben at Pyramid Mall to get a hair cut and pick up some supplies at Target (- I got six pairs of socks and some Wrigley's Spearmint). So we walked in to the food court at the center of the mall at around six o'clock when our stomachs started growling. I've noticed that we really eat dinner early here. Back at home, I'd only have it at like 7 or 8pm, but here, it's like around 5 or 6pm. Maybe it's because the dining halls open at 5:30pm and the people on the floor want to rush before it gets crowded.

Arby's is famous for its roast beef sandwiches. They slice it real thin and long and put the pinkish strips of meat on a bun, and whip some of their special sauce on it. It really just goes well with anything, like you can put vegies or cheese on it. I got the Beef 'n Cheese sandwich, which is just roast beef smothered in melted nacho cheese on an onion bun, and curly fries to go with the combo. I got some of their "Horsey" (horseradish) sauce to dip the fries into. And they actually had Brisk pink lemonade here. It's not many a place you get pink lemonade. I love pink lemonade...

The burger was soft when bit into, but when you reach the beef, it gets a bit chewy. The beef is just perfect, medium, tender and sliced thin so it's actually softly flaky. The cheddar gave it a creamy zest, and oozed out the other side of the sandwich as I worked my way down. The beef was slightly soft, and would've been better if it were rougher, but the unique taste of the Arby's sauce (a tangy smoked barbecue sauce, but sweeter) made up for it.

Total cost: US$5.29
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.arbys.com/

Sidebar: On a sidenote, this meal grossly lacked any form of fiber. And it wasn't really filling either - but maybe the cold has something to do with that.