NYU Local Goes Food Tripping

Have you ever tried grapefruit and absolutely hated it? Well we’ve found a solution, temporarily at least. And no, you don’t have to be 65 years old. Apparently there’s a real fruit called Synsepalum Dulcificum which naturally turns sour foods sweet. The effect is due to miraculin, which is used as a sugar substitute in the food industry. Sadly, we couldn’t get the fruit, but we got the next best thing. It’s a tablet called Miracle Frooties, that when dissolved onto your tongue, inverts the taste-buds from sour to sweet. As in, It takes sour things and makes them taste like the sweetest candy you’ve ever had. We tried various foods and flavors to give you a hands-on report to their flavor profiles when under the effects. Surprisingly, it’s not as disgusting as you might think.

 

Lemons-  It tasted exactly like the sweetest, freshest lemon-aid you’ve ever had. Beware, if you take too big of a bite, your body will squirm from the effects your body normal feels from sour foods. The only thing that changes is your taste-buds, not your body’s reaction to it. Your taste-buds may be tell you it’s sweet, but your body will not. Read more…


Gorge Yourself For Finals

Finals are upon us. Thus, we are giving you a free pass to gorge yourself for “fuel” purposes. As the upcoming week is filled with opportunities to stress eat your way to straight A’s, what better way than to do so for free? Check out the following events and this Twitter throughout the week for scrumdiddlyumptious updates.

Breakfast for Dinner

Date: Monday, May 13

Time: 7 PM—9 PM

Location: Kimmel Center

Check out Kimmel for some good ol’ gastro-reverse breakfast for dinner. It’s free and THERE ARE PRIZES.

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Dojo Is Closing

Sad news for fans of cheap eats around NYU: Dojo, the venerable West 4th Street eatery, will be shutting up shop soon. According to Vanishing NY, rising rents will force the cheap and healthy eatery to close sometime this summer and “reopen as something entirely different.”

Dojo, described once by this blogger’s waiter as “a sort of Japanese diner,” has been serving healthy, fresh foods at reasonable prices since 1991. Their location at Mercer and West 4th Streets has made them a favorite among NYU students for as long as most of us have been alive.

No hard date is set for Dojo’s closing, and a bartender yesterday told us that “Nothing is finalized, yet.” But Vanishing NY says they’ll be gone this summer, so best go take advantage of their cheap eats while you can. Seriously, their food is absurdly cheap: $6.95 for an enormous plate of nachos, $7.25 for a soy burger and salad and Japanese favorites like ramen and tempura.

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Sick Of Your Same Old Lunch Spots? A New NYU Food Blog Can Help You With That

Whether you’re a first-year student, unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the city, or a senior, jaded after years of eating at the same handful of places, every NYU student needs a little help deciding where to grab lunch from time to time. Luckily for us, a group of NYU students just launched NYU Spoon, a blog that “gives NYU students an all access guide to food in a place where the dining scene is so extensive and interesting,” according to Editor In Chief Skyler Bouchard.

NYU Spoon covers dining halls, places where dining dollars and campus cash are accepted, various off-campus restaurants near Washington Square and in many other New York City neighborhoods, as well as offering a slew of recipes. Inspired by and modeled after Northwestern University’s NU Spoon, the blog currently has a small staff of all NYU students, but it plans on expanding.

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Local Eats Local At Our Local CSAs

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a farm-to-table food distribution model in which individuals support a particular farm, or network of farms. Subscribers pay at the onset of the growing season for a share of the anticipated harvest. Items in each pickup change weekly and are determined by the farmer according to what is in season. Typically, members pay for one season’s worth of vegetables and fruit, but some shares include herbs, flowers, honey, eggs, dairy products and meat. Members pay the seasonal rate and are asked to volunteer at the distribution sites—usually a very small commitment. The group organizes trips to the farm and discounts are often given to low-income households. Proving that you’re a broke student usually works.

CSAs also force you to get creative with your cooking. NYU has a great program and downtown NYC has numerous options. Since most CSAs require payment before the harvest season, you have to sign up pretty far in advance, so if you’re staying in the city this summer, now is the time to sign up. Here’s a list of three options for NYU students and some fast facts:

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Ultimate Indian Food Showdown: Flashing Lights And Bumpin’ Bollywood

Walking on First Avenue between Fifth and Sixth Streets, it’s hard to miss the sights, smells, and sounds emanating from the glowing Indian cornucopia on the western side of the street. And, even if you do somehow miss this brightly lit chaos, one of the owners will probably heckle you until — enticed by the mysterious pumping music and radiant red glow — you apprehensively make your way up the rickety iron stairs.

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Is My NYU Meal Plan Worth It?

Enter the NYU mean plan. Though considered a rite of passage (albiet compulsory) by first-year college students living on campus, having a pricey NYU dining plan can be frustrating while living near thousands of non-NYU network restaurants. Let’s think logically through this.

With sophomore year, on-campus students can choose to opt out of a dining plan. Not surprisingly, parents often meet such a decision with a slew of questions: Will you actually save money? Isn’t it easier to just go to the dining hall? How much is a meal plan truly worth? Lucky for you, right-brained folks at NYU Local struggled through math to compare the value of NYU’s priciest meal plan to eating out. (Yes, it was a struggle, so appreciate the following breakdown.)

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Choza Taqueria Adds Mexican Flair to MacDougal Street Melting Pot

You walk through the streets of a sleepy Mexican village on a Sunday morning, the ground beneath you is a mixture of haphazardly laid cement and dirt. The village begins to gather in their Sunday best for church, the main social event of the week. Once mass is let out the townspeople are flanked with vendors, taking this opportunity to sell their goods to the townspeople: balloons, toys, CDs, crucifixes, clothes, and most importantly, food. The food is of utmost importance—aguas frescas, elotes and of course, tacos.

The tacos deserve special attention: the most authentic tacos are actually incredibly simple, meat on top of a double layer of small tortillas. The double tortillas are essential, as the juices from the meat make the tortillas prone to rip apart, so a second layer of tortillas helps protect from that, as well as making sure you are satiated from the tiny morsel of food. The taco is served plain, however a plethora of condiments and salsas are on a table next to the vendor, allowing you to fully customize.

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Artichoke Pizza Owners Open New Sandwich Shop Chubby Mary’s

For all those fans of Artichoke Pizza out there (and who isn’t a fan, really?), owners Francis Garcia and Sal Basille are branching out from pizza, opening their new sandwich shop Chubby Mary’s last weekend next to their 14th Street Artichoke location.

The sandwich shop, located at 328 East 14th Street where sweet shop Led Zeppole used to be, advertises itself as having the “best heros in town,” and specializes in meat-heavy heros. The menu currently features eleven sandwiches that include meatball, sausage, and eggplant options. As we here at NYU Local can attest, the subs are excellent (we recommend the sausage and brocoli combo or meatball and provolone), but they are also heart-stopping in their size, so make sure to come with a good appetite.

The shop definitely feels like a shout-out to Philadelphian sandwich fans, with boxing gloves and a large Rocky mural donning one of the walls. Although there is no seating inside Chubby Marys, Artichoke has plenty of seats next door for you to use. And all the sandwiches are under $8, ordered on a hero or small roll, so it looks like it will be a great new drunk munchy option.

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Behind The Harvest Table At Chobani Soho

In July, Chobani yogurt opened a retail store in SoHo on West Broadway and Prince Street. The company that broadcasted its grass roots to millions during the 2012 Olympics now markets itself to a new – and let’s say more fiscally predictable – crowd. The store is designed like an Apple store but with more wood, and the yogurt is served in take-home glass jars (but if you give it back they give you a 25 cent gift card). The cashiers are set up with handheld devices, and when I asked if I could move behind the counter to watch them make my order, I was corrected—it’s not a counter; it’s a harvest table. Duh. The glass behind the harvest table revealed three yogurt creators dressed as cooks, toiling away over my hard-earned snack.

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