Decora Dinner Show at Eclectic

Decora, The Wailing Wall, and Tiger Saw will be playing a dinnertime show at Eclectic Thursday evening, with cheap and tasty beef, jerk chicken, and vegetarian patties from Pattie Palace available throughout.

Decora features Ben Bernstein '10, Will Brant '10, Ian Staub '10, Josh Koenig '09, Ben Seretan '10, and George Pritzker '10, whose "sonic sculptures meld a kind of domed-out technicality with waves of overpoweringly rich complexity" (AW). They are good.

I don't know The Wailing Wall, but they are apparently folksy and feature Jesse Rifkin with other people. Tiger Saw is also presumably folksy.

According to Ben Bernstein, the music will range from loungey folk to folky lounge, with some gut-busting tidbits in case you have indigestion.

More details at Aural Wes.

Date: Thursday, February 19th
Time: 6:30 pm -9:00 pm
Place: Eclectic Dining Room

O'Rourke's Diner featured on Food Network

We'd known about it for months and had been patiently waiting for the episode to air. Finally, it has!

Middletown favorite O'Rourke's Diner has been featured on The Food Network, on its show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Called "Places You Sent Me," the episode has about eight minutes devoted to the food and history of O'Rourke's, including Brian's unique hash and the local tradition, the steamed cheeseburger.

The show originally aired Dec. 1, but it'll be shown again on Dec. 21 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.

Do not watch this video if you are hungry or do not want to be hungry. Your mouth will be watering for the entire 7 minutes and 49 seconds! Or, well, all right... maybe not for the first 20 seconds or so of the guy in red talking at the beginning. Is that some kind of '90s pop revival?

Thanks to Ed McKeon at The Middletown Eye.

S&C menu for Oct. 29-30

The S&C will be back to its regular dining schedule next week. In the meantime...

Wednesday, Oct. 29
Lunch: Flank steak or roasted tofu with couscous, grilled broccoli, and oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert
Dinner: Green salad, garlicky vin; jerk chicken or tofu with yard-style greens, red beans and vegan rice; banana cake for dessert

Thursday, Oct. 30
Lunch: Penne Bolganese or tofu marinara, baked with mozzarella and parmesan; fresh fruit for dessert
Dinner: Green salad, honey-thyme vin; BBQ chicken or tofu with collard greens, garlic, and poblano mashed potatoes; cinnamon crumble cake for dessert

The Star and Crescent Eating Club is located in Alpha Delta Phi at 185 High Street (on the corner of Church and High).

Senior cookout (bring a cup)

Saeid Vahidi '09 writes:

There will be grills, there will be free hamburgers, there will be free hot dogs, there will be free veggie burgers, there will be fun in the sun. In short, I am inviting all of you, the class of '09, to the Senior BBQ. There will also be lemonade, iced tea, and probably soda. However, this year we're asking you to provide your own cups, so as to cut down on the massive pollution that is often the aftermath of merrymaking in large groups.

If it rains, the cookout will be rescheduled to the following Thursday.

Date: Sunday, Sept. 14
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: Backyards on Pine and Fountain

Wesleyan Farmer's Market: The First Of Many Starts Tomorrow

Come to the first Wesleyan Farmer's Market of the year tomorrow in the Usdan Courtyard from 11-2! This fall, the farmer's markets will be held every other week. Enjoy a wide range of produce, baked goods, soaps, jams, honey, creams, cheese, spices, and bread from local CT farmers and vendors.

Also check out the Farmer's Markets new website.

Date: Wednesday, September 10th
Time: 11-2
Place: Usdan Courtyard

Any questions? Email Sara Rood-Ojalvo '11 at sroodojalvo@wesleyan.edu

Eat food, get academic credit... hooray!

Tressa Eaton '09 writes:

Study food, make food, and eat food. And get a full course credit while doing it!

In this forum, we will learn about food growers and producers in Connecticut. We will take weekly field trips to visit farms, dairies, restaurants, bakeries, and factories to develop an understanding and appreciation of Connecticut-made foods and the processes by which they are produced. There will be readings each week relating to the places we visit and workshops about making bread, cheese, preserved foods, etc. The site visits and workshops will be a practical application of the assigned readings. Participants will also be required to help organize and run the weekly Wesleyan Farmers Market.

Classes will meet on Fridays and will be taught by Ellie Wiener '09 and Tressa Eaton '09. Email Tressa as soon as possible to get an application: teaton@wes.

Mmm...mandatory meal plan

Back in Wesleying’s infancy, one of the first posts was Holly and Xue’s Guide to Eating and Drinking Things at Wesleyan. Then Usdan opened and the whole thing was rendered completely inaccurate. Fear not; the yearlong void has been filled. Without further ado, Wesleying presents the 2008 Guide to Eating and Drinking Things at Wesleyan, made with 10 percent more love than the leading brand.

USDAN MARKETPLACE
Part of our pretty new campus center, the Marketplace has assumed the coveted title of “main campus eatery” from Mocon. It has your basic cafeteria staples—a rotating entrée station (“Classics”), grill, pizza, cereal, a salad bar, ice cream, a self-serve deli thing—as well as the Mongolian Grill (basically a stir-fry station—you choose your veggies and meat), a Belgian waffle station that’s always rendered inoperable when people like me forget to spray, a vegan section, and a Kosher section (formerly its own eatery, the Kosher Kitchen, which was located in the Butt A basement).

There’s also a rotating lunchtime burrito bar/big salad/”Brunch at Lunch” station next to the grill that turns into a pasta station at dinner. In all, it’s a pretty good deal, though if history is any indication, it’s going to turn into the freshman preserve that Mocon was with a handful of sophomores using up their 105 mandatory meals thrown in. (Note also that according to these WSA minutes, hard ice cream may be coming to the Marketplace.

Currently, there is soft-serve ice cream on one side and yogurt on the other; Mocon had an ice cream freezer with eight flavors, which may have caused the push for hard ice cream in Usdan.) The Marketplace is also the new home of late night, which is the only dining option open past 9:00 (other than WeShop) but does not take meals.

For those wondering: Bon Appétit finally established to-go in the Marketplace last spring—though for lunch only. For an additional 50-cent charge, you can get a to-go container (including a disposable cup) from the cashier; you have 10 minutes to fill it up but can take as much as you want.

WEEKDAY HOURS (M-F): Full breakfast 8:00 AM-9:30 AM; limited breakfast 9:30 AM-10:30 AM; lunch 11:00 AM-2:00 PM; “lite lunch” 2:00 PM-3:00 PM; dinner 5:00 PM-8:00 PM.
WEEKEND HOURS (Sat.-Sun.): Brunch 11:00 AM-2:00 PM; dinner 5:00 PM-8:00 PM.
LATE NIGHT HOURS: 10:00 PM-1:30 AM, 7 nights a week.

SUMMERFIELDS
Arguably the best thing about living in the Butts, Summerfields is located in Butt C and was completely renovated in fall 2003. Unlike the Marketplace, Summerfields is more of a restaurant than a cafeteria—each meal features a rotating menu of four entrees, along with soup, a salad bar, and desserts (I believe drinks are also unlimited). This year, Bon Appétit is apparently introducing a new Summerfields menu, which will include “a variety of grill items, quesadillas, wraps, soups and salads” (according to an all-campus e-mail from June), but there don’t seem to be any fundamental changes.

Summerfields served as the home of late night from its reopening in January ’04 (taking over from Davenport) until last year, when it moved to the Marketplace; the WSA has been consistently pushing to have it moved back to Summerfields, but it looks like that’s not happening this fall. Summerfields is the only eatery on campus other than Usdan that takes meals.

(EDIT: Summerfields also does take-out, and for dinner as well as lunch. Thanks, Anon 10:16!)
HOURS: M-F 11:00 AM-2:00 PM, 5:00 PM-8:00 PM; Sat.-Sun. 5:00 PM-8:00 PM.

WESHOP
It’s like an on-campus 7-11, only several times more expensive and open half as long. WeShop is located between WestCo 1 and 2 and actually has a pretty nice selection for a campus mini-mart. Just don’t be one of the jerks that views stealing candy as a way of sticking it to the man. All it does is force the honest among us to pay $6.75 a pound.

HOURS: Sun.-Thurs. noon-midnight; Fri.-Sat. 2:00 PM-6:00 PM. (NOTE: Bon Appétit and the WSA were in talks last year about changing the weekend hours, so be prepared for a change.)

USDAN CAFÉ
A living lesson that attempting to combine three separate floors of dining into a roughly 3’ x 10’ space isn’t the best idea. It took until spring break, but the Café has turned into a reliable, convenient to-go option; it’s also the only place to get dinner to go. In addition to the usual staples—hamburgers, pizza, chicken sandwiches, vegetable lasagna—the Café has an assortment of hot and cold drinks, pre-made sandwiches, pudding/parfaits, and sushi. It’s also the only dining option open all day seven days a week.

HOURS: 8:00 AM-8:00 PM, 7 days a week.

PI CAFÉ
What began as a lunchtime sandwich cart outside SciLi has turned into a lifeline for science majors. Pi has a somewhat smaller sandwich selection than the Usdan Café but compensates with a larger variety of specialty drinks and baked goods. It’s a great spot to stop and get breakfast before class—especially if your first class is in Exley—but if you’re in a rush for lunch between classes, Usdan is probably the better bet (Pi is so small that it isn’t terribly conducive to traffic flow). Still, with the closing of Davenport, Pi is the only dining option in the Exley/PAC/Olin lawn area and is pretty good for a makeshift eatery in the corner of the science center lobby.

HOURS: Mon.-Thurs. 8:00 AM-9:00 PM; Fri. 8:00 AM-5:00 PM; Sat.-Sun. 1:00 PM-6:00 PM.

WESWINGS
Established in 1993 1991 and located in the basement of 156 High St. (right by the intersection of Church and High), WesWings’ menu is based primarily not on wings, but on fried chicken. WesWings tends to be on the pricey side, but it’s well worth it. It’s also the only (on-campus) breakfast option on weekends other than Usdan and is a generally advisable weekend option, since Usdan sucks on weekends. For those of you that live in the Butts and like to kvetch about the location, keep in mind this eatery is literally right in your backyard.

HOURS: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM, 5:30 PM-8:00 PM, 7 days a week.

RED & BLACK CAFÉ
Red & Black is run by the same folks who own WesWings (Ed Thorndike ’89 and his business partner, Karen Kaffen) and is located in Broad Street Books. Like Pi, the menu consists primarily of soups and sandwiches. It’s a bit out of the way but always helpful if you’re in the area.

HOURS: M-F 8:00 AM-8:00 PM; Sat.-Sun. 9:00 AM-5:00 PM.

STAR & CRESCENT
Located in Alpha Delt, S&C has a rotating menu (like Summerfields) and its own chef. The food consistently receives high marks, though S&C only accepts points (but the first three freshmen through the door at dinner eat for free).

HOURS: Mon.-Thurs. 12:00 PM-12:30 PM, 5:00 PM-7:30 PM.

CHIQUE CHAQUE
Here’s all I know about Chique Chaque, courtesy of Holly and Xue’s old guide: “The dining brochure lists Chique Chaque but no one eats there except Psi U brothers.” Sorry. If anyone else has more information, please send.

NEON DELI
It’s not technically campus dining (nor does it accept Middletown Cash), but the Neon Deli probably receives more traffic from Wesleyan in a school year than Wesleyan-operated dining facilities. The owners are super-nice and seem to hire primarily Wesleyan students, and the sandwiches are amazing (and they now have quesadillas!). Neon also has a small grocery section comparable to WeShop (and much cheaper).

Neon is located at 130 Cross St., right by the intersection of Vine and Cross (in back of Fauver/across and a bit up the street from Freeman); notably, the building in which the deli resides is owned by Wesleyan (the abandoned store to the right used to be Club Liquors but closed a few years ago). The university had planned to turn the whole building into an expanded WeShop, but it seems those plans have been shelved for the time being.

HOURS: 6:00 AM-11:00 PM M-W; 6:00 AM-midnight Th-Fri.; 7:00 AM-midnight Sat.; 7:00 AM-10:00 PM Sun.
(These are off the top of my head, but I may be a bit off; please correct me if they are.)


And for good measure, the local grocery stores:

STOP & SHOP:
416 East Main St. (take the “A” bus). Open 6:00 AM-midnight Mon.-Sat. and 7:00 AM-10:00 PM Sunday.
195 West St. (in Cromwell, in the big shopping center with K-Mart—take the “D” bus). Open 6:00 AM-midnight Mon.-Sat. and 7:00 AM-midnight Sunday.

A&P:
820 Washington St. (big shopping center—take the “C” bus). Opens at 7:00 AM Monday and stays open until midnight Sunday morning; open 7:00 AM-9:00 PM Sunday.

RITE-AID:
100 Main St. (across the street from the intersection of Main St. and William St.). Open 8:00 AM-10:00 PM Mon.-Sat. and 9:00 AM-6:00 PM Sunday. (I know it’s not technically a supermarket, but Rite-Aid has a pretty decent selection of foodstuffs, and there’s some sort of Rite-Aid on steroids going up down the street at the intersection of Main and Church.)

Snack Yourself Silly

Benjamin Bernstein '10 has launched a snack food review blog, Snack You Silly, with the ambitious goal of reviewing "every snack in the universe by 2032".

If you've been wondering about the quality of such food products as Burger King's Ketchup and Fries Potato Flavored Snacks, Oatmeal Cream Pies, and Cosmic Brownies, but can't be bothered to sample them yourself, this could be an invaluable source for informing your junk food habits.

Summer Eatinz: Usdan opens June 20th

Shoutbox activity has alerted us to the fact that the Bon Appetit website now has information about summer meals. Don't worry, these wouldn't possibly be the prices for meals next year - just for the summer.

Starting June 20th, the Marketplace will be open for the following hours at the following prices:

Monday – Saturday:

Breakfast 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM - $7.35 per person
Lunch 11:45 AM - 1:15 PM - $10.50 per person
Dinner 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM - $12.70 per person

Sunday:

Brunch 10:00 AM -12:00 PM - $10.50 per person
Dinner 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM - $12.70 per person

Expensive, but easy.

Udupi Bhavan Mother's Day Banquet

When:This Sunday, Which is Mother's Day (Heads up, offsprings!) from 11:30-8ish

Where: Udupi Bhavan (map here if you've never been)

What: All you can eat vegetarian feast. Wesleyan students get it for $10 as opposed to $13

Why: This is unquestionably one of, if not the, most delicious restaurants in mtown. Go support it and feed your belly on the cheap. And don't forget to call your mother.

call your mom!

Second Annual Night Festival

Join us for the 2nd Annual Night Festival as we bring together multiple student groups in an effort to simulate the exciting and chaotic feel of the open markets common within various Asian countries. We will recreate the atmosphere of home by adorning booths with nostalgic decor, cooking delicious "street food," and sharing traditional music, dancing, and games.

The Night Festival will feature a variety of on-campus cultural groups and performances. The proceeds go to charity:

*Cultural Groups*
============
Pinoy (Philippines)
Japan Society
Rojak (Malaysia)
Korean Student Association
Singapore Cultural Club
Taiwanese Cultural Society
Indonesyan (Indonesia)
PadThai (Thailand)
Vietnamese Cultural Society
Shakti (South Asian)
Turath House
German Haus
*
Performances By*
=============
Catastrophic Events
King George and the Royal Family
Wesleyan Lion Dance Troupe
Taiko and Peter (from Prometheus)
*
Proceeds To Go To*
==============
The Indo American Volunteer Network (India)
Books for the Barrios (Philippines)
The Support the Children Foundation (Thailand)

More specifics on the Facebook event page.

What: 2nd Annual Night Festival
When: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Where: Usdan Courtyard
$$$: Purchase tickets for $0.50 at the event | Food prices range from $0.50 to $2.00

Deadly brownies, or poor marketing choice?

Seen at the Usdan Café:Advice for Food Manufacturers: alliteration in the name of your product is not worth it when it signals that your product is deadly.

You Vote What You Eat

According to micro-targeting pollsters with questionable methods, Joanna Dicke '10's food, beverage, and liquor preferences make her an Obama-supporting stereotype:

If there’s butter and white wine in your refrigerator and Fig Newtons in the cookie jar, you’re likely to vote for Hillary Clinton. Prefer olive oil, Bear Naked granola and a latte to go? You probably like Barack Obama too. And if you’re leaning toward John McCain, it’s all about kicking back with a bourbon and a stuffed crust pizza...

Apparently Obama supporters go for Bear Naked cereal, Clinton supporters prefer GoLean. and McCain supporters like FiberOne.

Republican drinks are Dr Pepper, brown liquors like bourbon or scotch, red wine and Fiji water. Democratic drinks are Pepsi-Cola, Sprite, clear liquors like gin and vodka, white wine and Evian water.

When it comes to fried chicken, he said, Democrats prefer Popeyes and Republicans Chick-fil-A.

“Anything organic or more Whole Foods-y skews more Democratic,” Mr. Dowd said. [Wow, who could've guessed]

So what now, campaign events at liquor stores and fried chicken joints? Is Colonel Sanders voting Nader?

Full NYTimes article: What's For Dinner? The Pollster Wants to Know

For the Love of Food

Campus food guru Lauren Rothman '08 is now blogging! http://in-good-taste.blogspot.com
She turns this...
...into this:
'nuff said.

Food stuffs: delicious, free, and open to the public

Turns out it won't take a smooth $250 to get a taste of the Food: Power and Identity event, which is sponsored by the Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns (Ben Kweller or Sly & The Family Stone... take your pick).

Food: Power and Identity
This lecture by Marion Nestle is free and open to the public.

Marion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor in the department of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University. She is the author of the award-winning books Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health and Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism. Her latest book, What to Eat, won the James Beard Foundation award for best reference book. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Date: Friday, April 4
Time: 8:00 PM
Location: Memorial Chapel

Other affiliated events, also open to the public, include:

Screening of Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
A movie with a food reference in its title.

Date: Thursday, April 3
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Goldsmith Family Cinema

Farmers' Market
Organized by the students of Long Lane Farm.

Date: Friday, April 4
Time: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Location: Usdan courtyard (rain site: Beckham Hall)

Food: Power and Identity for just $250

This year the Shasha Seminar on Human Concerns is entitled "Food: Power and Identity." Everyone is welcome to go to the keynote speaker on Friday, April 4, but if you want to go to any of the cooler lectures, you are supposed to register now and you need to shell out $250. Which is really rather unfortunate, since they have cool events ranging from a lecture on "Subversive Food" to a wine-tasting, and since it is being run by the man himself (no, sorry, not Delmar): John Finn, estranged grad. of the the French Culinary Institute who decided to devote himself to the old and noble art of constitutional law. The true John Finn will no doubt make an appearance at this seminar on his first love.

WHEN: April 4-6, all day
WHERE: Wesleyan U.
COST: a mere $250
WHAT: Culinary notables discuss the goofy and fascinating sides of food. Meals will be provided.

Bayit open house and dinner

Eat yummy food, meet current and prospective Bayit residents, and learn all about the best program house on campus!

We want you to live with us next year! Perks include spacious bedrooms, a huge kitchen, lots of cool people, an awesome community, a unique culture, free food all the time, cool programs galore… only at The Bayit™.

Date: Thursday, Feb. 28
Time: 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Location: The Bayit (157 Church St.)

Get crafty, Give love

Valentine's Crafts Night
Thursday, Feb 14 9pm
Usdan Cafe

Calling all people in love or lovesick!
do you like valentine's cards? crafts? candy? come to Valentine's Crafts Night!!!! Come eat lots of FREE candy and valentine's desserts, tea, coffee, and milk while creating cards and other creations for your sweetheart, friend, or secret love!

Hosted by UCAB (Usdan Center Activities Board)

I'm hungry

Bon Appetit has apparently decided to listen to us and make breakfast and lunch "All You Care to Eat." This means that meals will now be usable for lunch and dinner at the Usdan Marketplace. Breakfast will be priced at $5.50, and lunch at $7.50 (Dinner stays at $9.25). This also apparently means that the Cafe downstairs will offer a bit more variety in the way of food.

Also, Bon Appetit is asking everyone to return all of the dishes and silverware we've borrowed throughout the semester in an effort to reduce the quantity of disposable plastic utensils in an event they're calling 'Plate Amnesty Week'. There should be bins scattered around dorm halls and near the entrance to the Marketplace from the 17th to the 21st (right now).

Spring Points Spreadsheet

In the midst of Bon Appetit's "power of the spoon" campaign, I have updated the points spreadsheet for the spring semester.  Suprisingly, I found that it is theoretically possible to eat 14 meals a week at Usdan and not run out of points.  In fact, you'll have a whopping $2.05 per week to spend on late night, cereal for breakfast at weshop, yummy drinks at pi cafe, and other essentials.

A disclaimer: I am a math major, so I've made this rather complicated, but I've tried to also make it super user-friendly.  Please, give me suggestions on how to improve it.

To do the magic 14-meals-at-usdan, you sign up for the 8-meals plan, pay for 7 dinners and 1 brunch a week with meals, and all the other lunches and one brunch with points.  This will require a lot of telling the cashier how you want to pay for your meal, because otherwise you'll spend your meals early in the week on lunch and end up paying for the more expensive dinners with points.  

As far as the spreadsheet, there are quite a few options, not all of which are necessary to use.  The only thing you really have to do is put in your starting number of points in the appropriate cell.  As last semester, the starting point values for each meal plan are listed on the right.  

If you want to get into some fancier calculations, you can tell the spreadsheet that you want to keep spending points at the same rate over spring break (the default is to assume that you don't spend any), or you can tell it how many meals per week you want to buy with points, and it'll tell you how much you can afford to spend on each meal.  If it's halfway through the semester and you want to figure out how to ration your remaining points, just change the date at the top of the spreadsheet.  

At any rate, the only things you should edit are the cells that are outlined in black.  Everything else will adjust itself automagically.  

And yes, I do realize that this is a bit early; I plan on re-posting it next semester.  

PS: It's really gross outside.  See tags.

PPS: already I've encountered a problem.  If you try to adjust the date and don't specify a year, then it assumes that you're talking about 2007, and then acts all weird.  So make sure to put in a year, until 2008 starts, when this will no longer be a problem.