Simple is Best

I recently joined the Karma Bhangra team here at Emory, and I knew that it would be tough to learn all of the complex dances, but what I did underestimate was how physically tolling three, two hour practices a week would be on my feet. My feet are swollen and blistered and the last thing I want to do is walk more than I need to, which includes walking to Emory Village for food, especially when I have options near by; however, last week, a couple of my friends and I decided to celebrate my birthday by eating dinner at a place other than the DUC. This required me walking to Emory Village but because it was my birthday and they wanted to do something different to celebrate, I decided I would suck up the pain and make the journey.

            One of my friends is from Cleveland, Ohio, and when he found out that there was a Dave’s Cosmic Subs in the Village, which originated in Cleveland, he was more than excited. He praised it and tried to convince us to eat there the whole walk down, so we chose to reward his persistence by eating there. It is a sub place and in my mind, subs are just subs. They can only be so good because they are just sandwiches, but we decided to try it out anyway. This place is a relatively small place with plastic windows and only outdoor seating under a canopy. Luckily, it was nice weather, unlike the 95-degree weather we had at the beginning of the school year, so it was not a problem sitting outside.

            At this point, I am thinking about the birthday tradition that my friends and I exhibit back home. We usually take the birthday boy to a restaurant and pay for his meal, so I told Hersh and Jon about this tradition that I have back home. They caught on to my hint and offered to pay for my meal, which made it that much more tasty.

            I am also a fan of spicy food. I think it adds a lot of flavor to the sandwich, so I ordered the Dave’s Far Out Chicken, made with Dave’s famous sauce, jalapenos, chicken and other vegetables. We finally got our subs after about a 10 minute wait, and were starving, so we dug right in. The first thing I noticed though after opening the wrapper was the grease that was dripping off of the paper. I had to get a napkin immediately to clean up the mess. Then I took a bite out of the sandwich. Hersh, my friend from Cleveland, was watching me the whole time, because he wanted to know if I liked the food that he put his name on the line for. As soon as I finished the bite, I gave him that reassuring nod that he had made a good decision. The sandwich was amazing. It was better than any sub place that I have eaten at thus far. The chicken was made perfectly, but even better was the sauce and flavor that complemented the chicken. I cannot even tell you what the sauce tasted like, but the combination of the sauce, chicken and jalapenos was like nothing I have tasted before in a sub. I also got my dose of spiciness that I was looking for. I will admit that I had to drink a few cups of water during the meal, but it was an extremely tasty, spicy sub. Not only that, it was free!

            I thoroughly enjoyed the meal, and gave Hersh the kudos he deserved for picking the place. It was also really nice to be able to spend some quality time with my two best friends on my birthday. It was simple and informal, but that was exactly what I wanted for my birthday celebration. 

Dinner While Dancing

Last week, I spent any free time I had practicing for the Karma Bhangra dance team tryout. This was not something I thought I would be doing at Emory, but when I saw this dance team perform at the “Best in Show” during orientation week, it was something that I had to try.  A friend of mine and I went to the information session to learn the tryout routine, and we were surprised to see how many other people chose to do what we did. Before I came here, one of my friends, who has graduated, told me that the Karma Bhangra dance team was one of the best and very fun and entertaining to watch, but when I saw how many people had heard the same evident truth, I realized that this would not be an easy feat.

After meeting the members of the current Karma team, I knew this was a group that I wanted to be a part of, so many hours between the day of the information session and the tryout were spent practicing the tryout routine to, at least, make sure that I would not make a fool out of myself. The day of the tryout finally arrived, and after seeing that over 50 people had signed up to tryout for just seven spots, to say that I was intimidated is an understatement. 

As soon as the tryout was over, which lasted all of five minutes, the hoping begun. The next day though, the hard work had paid off. I got a call from the captain of the team with news that I made it onto the team and that our first practice would be the next Tuesday. When we arrived on Tuesday, we did not have practice; instead, they took us out to dinner for our first Karma Bhangra team bonding experience.

For dinner, they took us to a fairly nice restaurant called Brick Store Pub that served what would be classified as “American” food, which includes burgers, sandwiches, and other food of this sort. The restaurant itself was not a typical restaurant. It almost seemed like it was taken out of the Lord of the Rings. Even the door handle appeared as if a giant tree branch had been glued to the door. I was told that they were known for their Chicken Pot Pie, so I decided to try it out. I knew it was a good decision when the waitress looked at me with a smile and said it was one her favorite dishes. The dish looked very good when it came. The crust, on top, was perfectly cooked so that it was slightly brown and had a nice crumble when eaten. Under this well baked crust were pieces of juicy chicken breast, mushrooms, and a very tasty creamy sauce. All of these ingredients put together made for a bite that had a lot of taste and variety of flavor. Normally, I do not like mushrooms, but in this dish, it went very well with the rest of the Chicken Pot Pie.

Along with this being the first restaurant that I have been able to go to off campus, the atmosphere around me was what made this dinner so enjoyable. I was around people who I will be spending a lot of time around for the rest of the year and hopefully for the rest of my college years. The food was great, the service was good, and our first dinner together went very well. 

Recycled Pizza

With all the boxes that I brought to Emory, I did not think I would find them in the DUC cafeteria under a warming lamp, when I was finished unpacking all of my belongings; however, when I had my first bite of the DUC pizza, that was exactly my first thought. I realized that instead of recycling the boxes, I might as well have sprinkled some cheese on them, warmed them up in the microwave, cut them up into eight slices and eaten it, because that was what I was tasting my first day of the cafeteria food that I was supposed to eat three times a day, everyday, for the next nine months.

I was aware that the pizza I would have at the DUC would not be from a nice Italian restaurant or even from Dominoes or Pizza Hut but I did wrongfully assume that the pizza would be edible. I do not eat pork so a pepperoni pizza does not appeal to me. A normal cheese pizza would be ideal; however I have several problems with the cheese pizza that the DUC serves. First of all, it has no crust. Where the crust should be, there is just a thin layer of crusty burnt bread that practically crumbles into ash as soon as it hits the tongue. Having the crust slightly burned is desirable to some people, but this crust has no flavor to it at all and is basically black in appearance.

 Secondly, the “cheese” pizza is not really cheese pizza. I was brought up to think that cheese pizza only had cheese on it, pepperoni pizza had pepperonis on it, jalapeno pizza had jalapenos on it and so forth. Apparently, cheese pizza now has a new definition. Cheese Pizza: a pizza that has cheese, and any other vegetables the kitchen has lying around, thrown on top. Everyday I walk past the pizza section, hoping that a normal slice of cheese pizza will be sitting, waiting for me to pick it up, but unfortunately that is never the case. What is sitting there though, is a “cheese” pizza, with a few pieces of broccoli thrown on, and a couple of artichokes squished in, and the finishing touch, the awkwardly large pieces of tomato. Then, under the strangest combination of vegetables, there lies the heart of the dish, the cheese. The cheese may look normal, but it is actually just play-doh. I feel like my seven-year-old version who does not know any better and eats the play-doh that mother then has to pull out of the back of my throat.  

As bad as the cheese pizza may look, the pepperoni pizza seems like the complete opposite. It is a normal pizza, with nicely cooked crust and no vegetables cooked in. If only they had a cheese pizza version of that, I would not be so irritated. One day though, I saw exactly what I was looking for. I only saw one person with the perfect plate of pizza. Considering that only one person seemed to have a normal cheese pizza on his plate, it is very possible that this could have been a mirage, but regardless, it gave me hope. When I walk into the DUC, I just hope to see what my mind had concocted as a normal cheese pizza. Everyday though, I look through all of the busy bodies at the pizza station, and everyday all I ever leave that pizza line with is disappointment.