Flavor Boulevard

This is it. My last day at TAMU, at least for a while.

Also my last meal at Sbisa for a while. I’ve eaten here almost every Sunday and used to eat here every dinner my freshman year (I was naïve and got a meal plan then).

They’ve raised the price since then too, so that if you don’t have a meal plan you have to pay about 25-30% more than those who do, but it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet, hence cheap for those with big appetite. With 8.25 you can make your own salad, make your own burger, wait in line for crepes, or do what I usually do: go straight to the main arrays of meats, veggie, rice, potato, rolls, etc. then head to the dessert and grab a cookie or two. Sbisa’s chocolate chip cookies are unrivaled.

They usually have someone cutting barbecued brisket or ribs too, poor guy cuts and cuts, so many students always stand around waiting for him with hawk hungry eyes.

The selection varies every day, but that’s a typical tray I get. You wouldn’t be able to tell, but I try to eat a balanced meal when I can. At least color-balanced: green broccoli and Brussel sprouts soaked with cheese, orangish yellow hush-puppies, red tomato, see? The fried chicken lady handed me 2 pieces when I asked for only 1. The rolls are usually good. It’s nice to make your own salad, I discovered that tomatoes and raisins make a good blend. On the tissue are pumpkin bread and some other bread (I want to say banana, but I’m not so sure). They’re ok. Sweet and mild, a tad gooey, not something I would seek for at a store, but not bad.

Read their blog. I’ll miss the meat abundance here in Texas. Well, really the abundance of everything.

(*): Sbisa, however, doesn’t have buffoons and drunken Germans as far as I’ve seen; some students who act like those, maybe.

Lunch today, at Pie Are Square:

Yes, that was my lunch in its entirety (minus a bite).

Name: I have no idea what kind of muffin it is, although it reminds me of Thanksgiving, with pecan, pumpkin color, and raisins, and some red thing I can’t make out.
Pleasing to the eye: Hmm… Nice color, I’d say.
Taste: First bite: not bad. Second bite: like Thanksgiving, October-November-ish, when all the leaves fall and, well, dry. See what I’m getting at? It tastes like sun-dried leaves. Now where did my water go?
Filling: Yes. After I drank a lot of water.
Satisfaction: Com’on, Pie Are Square, where did your good meals go?
Price: $1.49.

On the other hand, here’s lunch yesterday, at home. And made in home (by little mom, actually):

Name: goi cuon (salad roll).
Pleasing to the eye: what do you expect me to say?
Taste: crunchy lettuce, tender chicken, firm shrimp, soft rice vermicelli, thin and moist rice paper. But really, the taste of a goi cuon comes from the dipping sauce in the little bowl. Meat sauce, in this case, flavoured with garlic, sugar, salt, and onion. Hard to explain, you just have to take a taste for youself. But no worries, you can’t find this sauce anywhere but my mom’s kitchen and my fridge. And you’ll have to step over my dead body to get this out of my fridge.

Not the best shot, but try to take a picture with one hand that isn’t your right hand, when the button is on the right hand side of the camera. Bon appetit!

Is it filling? What do you think?
Satisfaction: Hold on, let me lick my fingers… Ok… Hey, I’m trying to be objective here, please don’t make it any harder.
Price: being a good and obedient child.

In an attempt to minimize contact with the fire pouring sun yesterday, ubercmuc opted for going to lunch at Pie Are Square, across the street from the physics building. It’s not a popular place in the summer. At 11 I could see less than 20 customers sitting in the dining area. Maybe that’s why the choice of food is skim as well. I could choose a sandwich from Pickles Deli, or Mexican food from Olla Roja, but I’ve always gone for Lucky 8 Chinese. Lucky 8 Chinese yesterday, however, didn’t have Chinese. The only dish it offered was spaghetti & meatball. Oh well, noodles are noodles.

Nice lid for the to-go plate. Much better than polysterene box.

I had to eat my dessert first because as I was busy taking picture it started to melt and become lop-sided. A white blob dripped on my white pants and gradually changed to an earthy brown dot. Argh.
The guy fixing my spaghetti let us put parmesan cheese on for ourselves. Normally I don’t put cheese on my spaghetti, but I don’t know why I complied yesterday.

The texture after adding cheese reminds me of jajang myeon I had at Jin’s Cafe. The whole bundle was sour and salty (because of the parmesan), yet rather bland. Did they just use the tomato sauce straight from the can without seasoning it? Soft, tender, juicy meatball, though. And a good grilled-cheese-without-cheese, that made me so thirsty.
The whole set cost me $7.45. I ate about $4.45 of that. It’s filling, but not satisfying. Pie Are Square had done better.