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Thursday, September 2, 2010

What College Students Eat


I moved back to Berkeley about two weeks ago, excited to be back in the city, to see friends, and to actually have an apartment with a kitchen rather than just a dorm room with a microwave.
You may think college student food = ramen and microwavable macaroni and we will undoubtedly be consuming some similar foods over the year.  However, our meals so far have exceeded expectations.  For example, we started out the year with homemade wontons.  My roommate's parents really deserve all the credit, but we did help out a little.  That is, we attempted to learn how to stuff and wrap them as Frank's mother and father cranked out professional status ones at a much faster pace.  Still, in a matter of time, wontons were piling up on platters everywhere, spread over our small kitchen table.  They were cooked, boiled, and devoured a few minutes later.  Yum.

The first Sunday the four of us were together and all moved in, we decided to have friends over for pancakes.  For me, at least, Sunday pancakes is practically a tradition.  At home my dad would wake us up on Sunday mornings by telling us that blueberry or banana pancakes were on the table.  Aside from maybe yelling "fire!" I can't think of many better ways to get someone out of bed.
Having friends come together at the breakfast table made me feel like I was back at home again with my family.  It was a nice way to reunite with friends some of us hadn't seen in several months and to share summer stories.  Better yet, we had some awesome pancakes. Okay, maybe we used pancake mix, but it's what we added to them that made the difference.  My friend Airi, who I blame for first introducing me to Tastespotting and other food porn sites, found a pancake recipe with peaches and rosemary.  Since she had the ingredients, we decided to try them out.  Dylan added peaches to the pancake batter and then after they cooked, we topped them with fresh, thinly sliced peach slivers and sprinkles of rosemary.  After drizzling a little maple syrup, they were ready to eat.  It was my first time with peach pancakes but I'd definitely be down to have them again.  The rosemary was an interesting addition, but I really liked it and am now curious as to how it would taste mixed into the batter rather than just used as a garnish.
We have had several other nice meals but I think I'll save them for later posts just in case we do start to live off of canned beans and peanut butter sandwiches, leaving me with no pretty pictures.  Stasa, one of my other roommates who happens to be able to flip crepes like a pro and invent dishes on the spot, is planning a pasta carbonara dinner this Friday so I think we should be continuing to eat well for a while.  I will need to devote a post to her creations sometime soon.  Now, I'm off to class.