Hey EWBers!
I wouldn’t consider myself a food connoisseur, but after watching the entirety of Cake Boss (twice) during my summer between second and third grade, I think I know a thing or two about fondant and cannolis. Let’s just say I was ecstatic when they added a location to the Mall of America, an annual excursion for us Northern Minnesotans, and I have since tried every cannoli. News Flash: they’re all amazing.
So, with my Netflix-based expertise, I will be reviewing the food from our EWB meetings/get-togethers this semester.
Papa John’s
First off, we have the pizza from our GIS workshop (special thanks to Daniel Gonzalez for hosting us!!!). Cosima and I picked up some good ole Papa Johns, and the whiffs of pizza sauce reminded me of middle school robotics practices where we would stuff our faces with Dominoes and drink water from a large, obnoxiously bright red ceramic fish that we called the “gurgle pot.” I still have no idea whether or not that’s the actual name, but it is now an urban legend for the
4228 Legendary Legos (FLL for life <3).
The pot in question.
Now for Papa John’s. As Cosima and I walked up Science Hill, my mouth was watering. After locating the GIS workshop space (Marx Library, a hidden gem of Yale University), we dug in. The majority of the EWB board is vegetarian, so that cheese pizza went down QUICK. Truthfully, I don’t remember much about the taste, but it was definitely what I needed at the time. I’d give it a 9/10, better than Pauli Murray, but not quite like Yorkside. If you have not been to Yorkside, I highly recommend their ‘za, mozzarella sticks, and, if you’re 21, a pitcher of whatever is on tap.
The Olmo Bagelry
Everybody loves bagels, correctly pronounced “bĀg-uls” (my Minnesotan and Canadian friends understand), and the Olmo-ry is arguably the best bagel spot in New Haven. For our latest Survey Day/Study Break, our lovely president Matilda brought in some bagels and some bomb cream cheese (it had onions or chives or something, I don’t know, but it was amaze-balls).
Was this Survey Day productive? Not really. Was it a good time? Heck yeah. I’d take an afternoon with Olmo and EWB people any weekend.
In regards to our surveys, Cosima is killing it! The health team has been working hard to compile data about our project in Tanzania through our water sampling data, GIS data, and the household surveys themselves. More information to come once the surveys are complete!
Steamed
Vegetarians REPRESENT! After we handed out some of our left over pepperoni pizza to some fellow CEID go-ers, we came to the consensus that the majority of EWB is vegetarian or pescatarian, so we nixed meat from our event menus. At our CAD workshop last week, we had veggie dumplings and scallion pancakes (let’s just say that I ate my fair share and more).
Our queens Matilda and Cosima
chowing some scallion pancakes
Our Program Engineer, Dave, led our CAD workshop, specializing in AutoCAD, which I had never used before. He showed us how in our previous projects in Tanzania and Cameroon, we used tools to collect topographical data of the area to enhance public domain SRTM data and make 3D models of the landscape. SRTM data points are roughly 90 meters apart, and the elevation data doesn’t take into account that these plot points could land on trees or buildings, so it’s not necessarily the most accurate. Sooooo we need something a little more concrete, and Dave showed us how to do it!
Got the goods…(zoomin)
Now, the food. We went to a place called Steamed, which is right next to Timothy Dwight College. It was in this cute little house with another restaurant upstairs, and overall, I thought it was pretty cool. The veggie dumplings were okay. I ended up with spinach in my teeth, which is always entertaining (side-note: on my first date ever, I got spinach stuck between my two front teeth like in a sit-com… so embarrassing).
But THE PANCAKES. Like I said, I ate more than my fair share. They were crunchy and had the slightest bite to them, and they just made your mouth water. I would definitely get these again, any day.
Like I said, I am no food connoisseur, but I hope you enjoyed my EWB food reviews and the many tangents that came with them!
Anna Oehlerking