MIT is not exactly known for our dining. Well, even if it was, I’m sure that it’s known (derogatory) rather than known (complimentary); unfortunately for now, I’m not here to say any saving graces. ⁠01 aside from maybe like, our dining halls are better than Annenberg if you're considering the school down the road If you want an honest review of MIT dining hall food, sponsored by my lovely compulsory meal plan friends,⁠02 i live in Burton-Conner and thus am free from the shackles of a meal plan YIPPEE unlike the majority of my friends. but also lowkey MIT dining is not like that bad and I had a 60 meal plan last semester you’ll have to wait.

I ate a LOT of good food over Winter break. ⁠03 in Toronto specifically… I didn’t research or travel far enough to go to the good food places in NY :( I’m happy to say that both my Beli ⁠04 one of the new apps in town that lets you rate all the restaurants you've been to, and yes the spelling is an intentional pun and my wallet were satisfied; however, given that eating out never satisfies your wallet that much, I’ve decided to monetize my hours spent gushing on all my Beli reviews. I also fully admit that the last time I did something like this I trolled pretty hard⁠05 and here I will also defend myself by saying 'iT wAs a cHaLleNgE' with a post that was neither a full week nor about food that much, so I’m here for my compensation arc. Here’s all the good (and bad) food I’ve eaten over the past like three weeks, ⁠06 approximated to the nearest week; maybe I need to stop jumping through loopholes in my annotations along with a true week of my authentic (and half-assed) cooking over IAP. I’m pretty sure ~3 + 1 = 4 weeks = basically a month, so here goes!

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Week 1: New York and Toronto

I did not have many nice things to say about New York, and yes it was my fault but I’m still going to hate on the food I had there. I’m just going to link my Beli reviews. 

kinda tourist trappy? the price was reasonable and service was quick, but for my tantan the pork was cubed rather than like authentic mince which made me sad. the ramen was flavourful if not on the saltier side, and the chicken karaage was a little dry but overall fine. it was just like fine food and i was tired after trolling by taking the wrong train so 🤷‍♀️

vegetarian and kosher. the base was thin and crunchy, and i really liked the eggplant trio and vodka sauce one; it was also nice that it was vegetarian. i shouldn’t have gotten the buffalo tofu one, it was way too oily and the tofu was a sorry excuse for an attempt at chicken. i was already full by the time i got to the buffalo chicken too, so there wasn’t a big point?? pretty pricey for the pizzas too, so i probably wouldn’t go again— if i did i would just get the pizzas who are confident in their vegetarian identity

maybe i’m just not a fan of these thick rice vermicelli but the flavour was just not there. the beef was a cheap cut which threw me off, the bokchoy was undercooked. the broth tasted like ready made chicken broth boosted with msg and it’s like ?? 

a good bowl of beef noodle soup is hard to come by. i fear that you’ve just gotta invest in a good bowl or go to china because 💀 this was sad. maybe i should stick to stirfrys which are harder to do badly

so i also got this chicken kebab and hotdog (and my friend Nicole got a philly cheesesteak) for lunch one day. not sure what my brain was thinking but i was clearly making the wrong decisions because why did i choose a food truck right next to times square ☠️ anyway paid the idiot tax which was uh… *checks wallet* $54 for 3 items. not the most wise financial decision i’ve made in my life and it sure does keep me up at night sometimes. if not for the price the food was pretty good and i also didn’t actually get food poisoning which is a huge plus 

god saw my suffering and gave me a christmas miracle — a meal that i enjoyed during my disastrous new york trip?? crazy!! anyway this was pretty good even if the wait was like 30 mins. huge fan of the lox filling. the bursts of saltiness from the capers are just so balanced out by the creaminess of the scallion cream cheese, and then the unique taste of smoked salmon pads it all out to be this rich undertone of smoky goodness… anyway huge fan. the bagel itself was pretty cold for some reason though, i’m sad they didn’t toast it up more. my fault for getting the rainbow bagel instead of the everything bagel. new york you’re redeemable i will be back 

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I landed in Toronto on the 27th, and started off with a meal that captured the quintessential suburbia brunch experience. 

SO YUMMY the angus beef burger was juicy and the bbq chicken was so flavourful. considering that they’re sandwiches it can’t be that complex but i thought that all the ingredients were good and pretty fresh. chicken was slightly on the drier side but still reasonably tender, and the portion was SO GOOD (or maybe i’ve just been traumatised by boston/NY prices and spoiled by exchange rates) for the price.

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Hands down, best meal experience I’ve had in a long time. The company was great, the service was impeccable, and the broth was SO flavourful without being overpowering. Also, for the price? Boston could never. 

my actual review (can you imagine that this was also abridged): 

incredible place. there’s almost always a line but it’s worth the wait; the servers and cashiers are SO NICE and the food is so cheap and pretty high quality too!! would come back to toronto literally just so i can come back to this place 💞

they do it by weight but you can ask to weigh your pot in between getting more ingredients so you can keep the price reasonable. 

the soup bone broth was sooo good i highly recommend getting that one and then customising your own spice level with their free toppings like chilli oil and stuff. they also did free refill for my friend because his soup ran out!! 

the servers were so attentive – they gave us aprons and hairties and gloves and sanitizer wipes and refilled our water and gave us extra bowls all SO quickly. they were watching all the tables like a HAWK

oh my god the free ice cream at the end was also SO GOOD man it was peak vanilla ice cream. after a spicy oily meal? peak experience. 

[removed my notes on what ingredients would be good to have in the broth… this is subjected to personal taste and also otherwise i’d actually be exposed for how long i raved about this place for. this is hands down my favorite restaurant so far thanks Patti for the rec <3]

Oh and because I didn’t have enough ice cream that day, we walked over to get a second round of ice cream. Worth it though.

server was very charismatic and fun. let us try a lot of ice cream flavours and was super easy going. lovedddd all the flavours we got but here’s my personal ranking lol

1. matcha cookies and cream (new concept!! matcha was done well. clean and so yummy)
2. butter pecan bourbon (so rich, felt kinda unique too? nice bourbon notes too hehe)
3. strawberry shortcake (very tangy but strong cheesecake authenticity)
4. s’mores (very gooey; super true to the flavour (hella marshmallows and everything) but i’m not a big fan of hersheys chocolate sauce)
5. viet coffee (very coffee forward. useful for waking up, but mostly just like solidified coffee. authentic tho)
   

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Good day for my stomach and social life; less good for my wallet… 

the reviews are as follows: 

tacos: shrimp and steak tacos were quite good. i liked the steak over the shrimp one but i would get both again. corn was a highlight and charred well; i think overall enjoyable experience, portions were a little small but honestly filling enough, and also smth smth weak CAD makes for this to be pretty cheap anyway. ambience was really nice

desserts @ bloom cafe: so cuteeee i also loved the food. would not get the pudding again but it was worth a try, it was very light and sweet and well done but i just don’t like earl grey and peach that much. maybe same with matcha yuzu. i would try the sundae again and maybe get one of their mochi bc they looked so good — this place feels like food is generally higher quality so worth trying out a variety

matcha latte: matcha latte did not disappoint! excellent ambiance. would go again and try different lattes. good place to yap, the pink mood lighting was sooo cosy. apparently stripe press is hosted here?? also a bonus

rice @ twilight cafe: technically a board game cafe but the food is good and we just yapped. very good portions and it’s just like good classic hongkong style gamer cafe food LOL pretty authentic. the gyudon was a little too fatty but it was fine. we also got chicken and cabbage dumplings to share which was definitely too much but still pretty standard. lighting was a bit too bright and jarring though and didn’t feel cosy, but whatever we had a really good time overall

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Week 2: Toronto

i tried these really delicious bengali desserts courtesy of Dron’s parents!⁠07 my friend who i stayed with for a few days over break! They’re all condensed milk based and involve rice and syrup. I’m not actually the biggest fan of millk but the flavors here were well balanced and not too sweet, and I loved the soft/cakey texture of the sweets. 

this was a good new year’s eve dinner at a fancier place: behold probably the second longest review I wrote right after the hotpot review.

entree bread

• very soft, a little oily but it’s yummy bread. very spongey and cakey. olive oil wasn’t necessary but was fun 

baked brie

• came on reasonably quickly 
• sooo soft and creamy! the phyllo wrapping was crunchy and made the brie feel reminiscent of salmon. very flavourful 
• the bread was very crunchy. not enjoyable by itself
• i also tried the brie with entree bread and it was fine but i saw the value of the crunchy bread 
• good bite: tomato sauce then cheese then the bread. smalll piece

carne pizza

• banana peppers were a nice touch. crust was crunchy and thin, maybe could’ve been more chewy
• cheese pull was good
• housemade sausage was a highlight and the salami you couldn’t really tell was there
• still i think it’s pretty stock standard good pizza. pizza has a low ceiling imo in terms of flavour so this is about as good as it gets 

12 hour braised short rib

• the meat was very tender; fell apart with a very slight tease of the knife. with the sweet carrot it’s very rich
• you can taste the faintest notes of red wine tbh i would’ve liked it to be stronger 
• cabbage is unnecessary and maybe slightly undercooked. not a fan 
• white bean ragout was ok? idk tbh i feel like it plays along with the dense and heavy flavour of the beef, which is okay but i would’ve preferred something like asparagus or something maybe lighter to complement the short rib. the marinara sauce style thing was just v italian lol
• short rib is a relatively cheap cut but they braised it very well such that the fatty bits were enjoyable and not too gamey

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Here’s an arbitrary double divider for the new year! I celebrated the new year with a bunch of friends, and we braved through the rain (and a couple who refused to let everyone else see the view for half the fireworks show) to watch the Toronto fireworks at the harborfront. Honestly, I do prefer the Boston fireworks I watched last year, but I think the friends do make it all worth it. Shoutout to the friends who spent new years with me <3 

After the fireworks, four of us split off to hunt for burgers and poutine because why not. Great meal to start off the year with: indulgent and extremely unhealthy, but fun. 

We also dragged ourselves up in the morning again to visit the Niagara falls. I am a huge fan of Big Water Falling Down, but unfortunately was not a fan of the Wendy’s burger that I tried. Behold, my most popular Beli review:  

where was the sauce. meat was dense and underseasoned

That was it. I think I understand hater culture now… pensive

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I hung out with one of my dear friends Aileen the next day! Props to her for all the excellent photography.

We also went to visit two friends after and ate some good fruit and cheese (not pictured!) we made some very cute clay keychains though. Thank you to Flora and Ben for hosting us :)

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At some point I got too sick of writing food reviews so I gave up. I explored Toronto a little by myself today and had a DELICIOUS bowl of beef noodles. noodles were THICK and HANDMADE, beef was TENDER, the soup was FLAVORFUL. silky kitchen is sulking in the kitchen right now. also a great matcha latte from a different location of the same shop that Aileen took me to yesterday but the mug and the cold from yesterday made that one better I think

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I’m pretty sure this was the day where Dron’s parents COOKED. There was just a lot of good food that I didn’t have time to take photos of; if the family was a restaurant i think i would’ve probably ranked this first place. huge fan. I also haven’t really had Bengali cuisine before, and the flavour profile and base was so fresh! None of it was too spicy for me (thankfully), and I’m a huge fan of the aromatic base (onion, garlic and tumeric, if I recall correctly). The roast that lasted a few hours infused so much flavor into the mutton, and watching the meat fall apart at the fork was great. It was also really nice to have the cooking explained starting from a cultural basis; I learned more about Dron’s parents’ Bengali upbringings too, which really gives the food experience an unparalleled layer of depth. Parents (especially immigrants who have travelled between different cultural contexts) can seriously have the most interesting stories.

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I also stayed over at Miranda’s (a fellow ‘27! <3) and she made this delicious crepe cake which basically rivalled Lady M’s (AND there was no added sugar, so +100 for helth). Miranda’s parents also made the best Chinese food I’ve had since leaving home so that was very heartwarming (and stomach warming… the FLAVORS i cannot explain it all in words) 

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Week 3: Toronto & San Francisco

woke up to some of the best congee i’ve ever had. i think this congee had a chicken soup base because it was so rich, and it had the right amount of tanginess from fermented vegetables and ginger. there was also seaweed i think which gave it SUCH a good sense of umami. great dish but incredible given that it was breakfast for a chilly monday morning 

I actually didn’t like this tofu stew that much. I fear my palate was spoiled by the other good food I ate, but this tofu stew just didn’t have as much depth of flavour as I would’ve liked. Always a huge fan of barley tea though, and the side dishes definitely helped the light broth up a little.

This hot chocolate was good. I learned my lesson and stopped having caffeinated matcha lattes (no matter how good they are) in the afternoon ☠️also a huge fan of the ambience of this cafe, although maybe it was a little too cozy…

This is one of Miranda’s fav cafes! The menu looked suspiciously well designed to me, ⁠08 </span>i still stand by the opinion that if you put too much effort into designing the menu/have too many items i find it harder to trust that you have good food because like... why do you have so many items huh. how did you spend your effort on all of these dishes but the food was actually so good. I had this ochazuke which was very fun (you had to pour hot tea on it to cook the dish, by which I mean Miranda poured it because I was not sure how to pour it without burning myself). The flavours of this were much more well balanced. It was savoury and had the lightest hints of tea even though we poured the whole jug over it; there was also a sweetness that I couldn’t quite pinpoint. The rice also had a texture like congee rather than being soggy, which is great. For dessert we shared a mango sago; it was fruity and fresh, not much else to say.

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After saying bye to Miranda and Laura (who came to visit) over some delicious bao buns, I went to visit the Royal Ontario Museum with Crystal! She had just landed from Panama, but I was very glad to have caught her. We had these mid parmesan fries and sweet pie, and I’ve decided that I enjoy custard and jam, and want something less sharp and more melty when it comes to cheese on fries.  

Dron joined us for dinner (sometimes it’s a very small world!) and we had an interesting experience at this Thai place — our conclusion at the end was that “the max rating of dishes across all three of us would be very good, and the min rating of the dishes across all three of us would be very bad.” 

my subjective personal rating (the other two differed based on personal preference): 

tom yum soup

• very spicy. chill is were unfortunate 
• flavourful and sour and sweet notes came through
• shrimp was good 

khao soi

• crispy noodles a huge plus; i like the oily like taste 
• curry taste not too spicy and a relief after the soup. rich with the turmeric taste. creamy 
• noodles were chewy and tender 
• beef on the tougher side but still flavorful

rice mix

• very hot 
• shrimp is too sweet
• anchovy is nice texture and salty burst 
• chicken is soft and flavorful 

krad pa krao

• beans first hit. very savoury and i love these types of beans so this was great 
• good mix; egg + chicken + rice was good bite 
• i really like the rice it’s not sticky or undercooked and balances out the savory spicy kick 

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For my tragically final day in Toronto, I masqueraded as a UofT ⁠09 </span>university of toronto, as the natives call it student and tried out the dining halls! It was actually a really good experience. Huge fan of the dining hall and how pretty it looked, and the food was way cheaper than MIT’s, and also quite good (even if you had to pay for individual dishes and dessert seperately lol). The salad bar is pay by weight so that’s unfortunate, but I don’t think it’s priced too badly?⁠10 </span>unlike brother's marketplace in kendall... definitely not speaking from personal experience here The food is also made in smaller portions compared to MIT, which I think makes for better seasoning control. The ingredient freshness is marginally better. Anyway, shoutout Toronto for keeping it real with all the good food and great company, and I will most definitely be back. 

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When I landed in San Francisco, Devansh and Claire ⁠11 a fellow '27 </span>who you might remember from my hack blog! kindly picked me up and told me that we had to make a stop at In-N-Out. The burger was great; I didn’t actually like their fries (why are they so papery?) but overall a very good time, especially with some of the best yappers I know <3

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A group of our friends also hosted a cooking competition, except unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) we were only allowed to cook vegan dishes along with some other metrics. My team and I cooked a smashed cucumber salad (a favorite!), potato eggplant, and a peppers mushroom tofu stirfry. I like to think that the flavors were reasonably balanced, and the cucumber salad was especially fresh and bright, but we did marinate the eggplants in salt for a bit too long, and the stirfry did get a little cold. It’s fine, because the true prize were the friends we made along the way ⁠12 which is like 90% true and 10% cope but i dissent and also enjoyed some cakes (celebrated a few friends’ birthdays that day too)!

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The sourdough was nicely toasted here; I didn’t like how the texture of the baked egg white almost congealed, and how the dish looked like it was swimming in oil. The flavours of the sausage and tomato base were good and I’m always a fan of a jammy yolk, so this was like a mid spinoff version (?) of a Shakshuka (don’t quote me on that one). Wouldn’t have again, but I don’t regret it. 

I also made dinner with Helen W. ‘24 this day because I was crashing with her :’) we also bought some very yummy Trader Joes snacks. The snacks were to excuse our lateness to one of her friends’ board game nights, which was a very very wholesome house of board game nerds! We watched a scary game of Fish (which maybe wasn’t that scary, but I have an awful memory and so am terrified whenever Fish is played), and then played a game of Terraforming Mars. Helen and I almost won which is pretty cool considering that I was basically half-asleep the whole time (oops); I did actually enjoy the game a lot though, considering how it tickled my little monkey brain with all the shiny cubes and fun little gathering and counting up points that we were doing. 

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Had a typical more mid suburbia brunch on my last day in SF. None of this felt standout, it was all a little bland, and I didn’t really like the decision to deconstruct the burger (reconstructing it is MESSY. you’re supposed to give ME the satisfaction of taking it apart). However, the ingredients were reasonably fresh, we had some good chats over the food, and I didn’t pay for it so really I’m not complaining!

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Week 4: Back in Boston

This week is hopefully somewhat more realistic for a week of my food habits in IAP, which also happens to be an exposure of how lazy I am when it comes to cooking! 

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once i landed, i’m pretty sure i just made instant noodles + kimchi once i landed. girl was a little exhausted from a painfully long flight what can i say

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on the first proper day i was back, i woke up to go to trader joes and INDULGE. grocery stores are a guilty pleasure where i go in with no list and just let my inspiration take me. they had a full aisle of eggs (SF could never)!! can you imagine?? anyway i had a very joyous lunch where i tried the chicken soup dumplings which were pretty yummy, along with a grilled kimcheese (i know i’m an innovator with that name) and a jelly. 

for dinner i made some instant noodles with MORE kimchi (yes i’m obsessed whatever) and fried up an egg and some trader joes pork dumplings. very good 

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the next day, i went to trader joes for the second time in two days (obsessed what can i say) and fried up some scallion pancakes, dumpling and eggs for lunch and garnished with kimchi and mayo. oh and i forgot that i bought kimbap which was very yummy. i also noticed that i felt a little off (spoiler alert…) so i had an orange and randomly bought a probiotic pineapple juice shot 

for dinner i fried up some fish that had been in my freezer FOREVER,⁠13 like, i don’t want to tell you when i bought it kind of forever stirfried some onion and egg, and also some potato and eggplant. had it with rice with friends Espen S. ’27 and Roshni P-M ’27. it was very good even if it took me two hours; peeling potatoes and reducing the water from the eggplant down is SO time intensive. 

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so something in the world didn’t want me going to trader joes a third time because i woke up today and felt SO off. i had some honey ginger tea and fried up some dumplings + egg + leftover eggplant & potato, and also had an orange; this unfortunately couldn’t save me as i proceeded to nap and wake up with an awful fever and massive headache.

i didn’t eat anything else that day because i was so exhausted but i drank a LOT of water (like three brita filters’ worth throughout the whole night). it was awful but seriously sleep and drink lots of fluid if you’re sick; i may have been absolutely knocked out, but since i had slept for like 20 hours intermittently and drank so much water, the next day my fever had already broken. locking in for recovery definitely helps.

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so the fun life update was that…

~✨ i caught the flu ✨~

i still felt fatigued today and certified that in fact yes i had caught The Flu, but i pulled together a lazy-ish meal because i knew i had to eat. you basically dice up an onion, and then throw it in some oil with a box of ground beef, box of tofu, and half a bag of peas (or whatever the pan will fit — i would’ve put more peas if i could). this is relatively quick to throw together (20 mins??) and tastes quite good. i had mine with rice for lunch and some of the last remaining potato eggplant stirfry for dinner (i made a lot what can i say). i also ate grapes that day because i feel like i have been underrating the value of fruit in my life. 

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today was surprisingly not slay all things considered; i couldn’t bring myself to do anything, so i proceeded to make my favourite comfort food (which is unfortunately a little higher effort): congee! i hate following recipes so i literally just filled up a pot with water, grabbed some scoops of rice (i couldn’t find a cup and i was too tired to ask around), threw the rice in when the water came to a boil, and then just sat around until the rice got mashed pretty easily by my spoon. i forget to track the time very often, so i really prefer heuristics-based cooking. i then literally just threw in some seaweed, corn, eggs that i beat up, and sesame oil and soy sauce and voila i have yummy congee. this may have been my only meal for the day but it was a good meal what can i say 

that brings us to today (the 19th)! i’m currently still kinda tired but i’m basically fully recovered, which is pretty cool. i just ate a bowl of my leftover congee mixed with my beef stirfry from two days ago, ⁠14 parents if you’re reading this please trust that i understand food safety which is pretty good. this blog is gonna get out before dinner ⁠15 oops so you’ll never know what i have next i suppose

anyway, not quite sure what the moral of the story here is. i originally intended for this to just be a fun post where i flex all the yummy food i got to eat on rare occasion, but i guess i had to get karma’ed and expose myself for my more sus food consumption habits (especially when i’m sick and lazy and also don’t want to order food because it’s overpriced). ⁠16 so </span>i don't like ordering food when i'm sick also because often times they flavor it more intensely and make it quite unhealthy with oils and all, and it's much more easy for me to control what goes into my food and what i want. it <b>is</b> easier though so no shame if you do order food because you're actually too tired to cook; i just recommend getting lighter things like soup and congee rather than stirfry. maybe i'll actually make a post about what to eat/cook when sick i guess as a sickness connoisseur

hmmm maybe the moral is to GET YOUR FLU SHOTS KIDS IT’S FLU SEASON AND IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO PROTECT YOURSELF!! i fully admit that one reason i probably did get this sick was because i forgot to get the flu shot last year when MIT Health hosted free flu shots, and then proceeded to procrastinate and forget to get it again. i regret this a lot. i hope you don’t regret it the same way i did 👍 in freshman year i may have gotten quite sick a few times, but i did get the flu shot that year and then i think i at least got sick one less time during IAP than i counterfactually would have. please please please get all your vaccinations and things in order for both yourself and others; you’ll never know when it might come in handy to have a flu vaccination ☠️

also! i think a really important moral is that having kind friends is really cool because it means that even if you’re an international and going home is painful and arduous, you can still sometimes travel around and visit friends and have a really good time that way :) shoutout to everyone who kindly hosted me for so long!! especially Dron, Miranda and Crystal <3 huge fan of the canadians in my life who live up to the kindness stereotype 

oh and final moral of the story is probably to not sign yourself up for a monster of a 5.3k word blog while you’re still sick and procrastinate so that you finish it at the last minute. oops

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like a bear who has stocked up on food stores from the plentiful fall, i too shall go hibernate in my cave for the winter. see y’all later