A Month in Food I Paid For

Over the last thirty days I've traveled around Central New York, to Memphis, Manhattan, and back to Philadelphia for a very short/surprise visit. In addition to visiting favorite people and places, I also discovered new ones! People and places.

At the end of January my cast went to Courtland and went to one of their favorite places: Pita Gourmet. It's perfect for crisp, fresh, healthy Middle Eastern food. Here I tried something called maple candy. The texture was almost like fine wet sand. I hate to describe it that way, I promise it was delicious. With each bite I kept asking "What is this?" to no one in particular.

We then walked down the block to Indulge. I got a latte, but Scott and Katie bought a magic bar. I had a piece of it and oh my God you need to somehow get your hands on this. It's brownie, gram crackers, chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, and coconut and I was actually upset when it was over.

When we took our tour to schools around Hamilton we went to 22 Utica Street Cafe. They have a seemingly endless list of paninis and salads, and a shelf of desserts that will kill you. They also have a large variety of syrups for your coffee. When we went the cafe was decked out with red and silver balls hanging from the ceiling for Valentine's Day.

feeling 22

This was across the street and I like it so here.

There has never been a time where I said, "Wow I really enjoyed that carrot cake I wish there was more," until I went to Barado's Cafe in Brewerton. This. Carrot cake. Like. I'm going to have it at my wedding or belated half-birthday. And I had their eggplant parm and veggie salad with chickpeas, courgettes, and carrots, and that was also good, but I can't stop thinking about the carrot cake. Also you can write on their chalkboard bathroom walls.

A week later my friends and I went to Memphis for a theatre conference, and that Saturday night/Sunday morning after callbacks we were all starving, but it was 1AM and we needed to find something substantial. Thank God for Westy's. When I went to the conference last year I snuck away and went here by myself for cheesecake and free wifi, but it was nice to go with a large group of friends and people I had just met that day. If you're ever in Memphis for some reason and you plan on going here I suggest you look at the menu in advance because there is so much to choose from. The wild rice dishes are always a good choice. If you have room, you can order "the Ultimate Hot Fudge Pie," which is an ice cream/brownie dessert bigger than your face. Do not attempt to eat this alone. I ordered cheese cake and ate other people's ice cream.

After returning from Memphis my tour was traveling through Cicero and we found Murphy's All Fed Up. Here is their menu. If you're wondering through Central New York and you love bacon you must go here. I don't really eat ham anymore because one time my family thought about getting a pet pig, but Scott had a pumpkin bacon soup with pumpkin sour cream and I tried some and it was so good that I didn't even feel bad. The staff is the most chill and super conversational. Also, all of the decorations in the deli are for sale.

I had a week off in the middle of the month, so I went to Manhattan to visit some friends and to go to some open calls. On my first night there my friend Devin and I went to Thai Market right around the Columbia campus. I hadn't had Thai food since that time I went on this extra credit field trip to Penn's campus to discuss architecture for AP Human Geography in 2009, so I didn't really know what to expect, but the Green Curry with chicken looked good so I got it. I don't know which part of it was the bamboo shoot or the eggplant, and there was coconut milk in there somewhere but it all just tasted amazing so I'll probably get anything with those ingredients next time I get Thai food.

I went back to Philly to surprise my parents and see a few friends from school. Michael and I met at Parc in Rittenhouse, which I guess some people would say is basic because it's a Stephen Starr restaurant and I need to support small businesses, but it's always good food and the last time I was there I was incredibly hungover from my 21st birthday so I was just trying not to throw up on the streets of the nice part of town and also his name is Stephen with a "ph" so he has points. So I got the chicken salad and contemplated dessert but remembered that I was meeting my "One of the Guys" cast later and probably getting froyo so I refrained. But everything on their menu is great, they have pinup ladies over the urinals, and we had a seat looking out onto the square and it made me feel really fancy and that's what's most important.

And yesterday we said goodbye to February by traveling to Geneva. We went to the Water St. Cafe for sandwiches and coffee, and it was more of a diner atmosphere, but the muffins and cakes were backed fresh daily so we can pretend it's a cafe. The owner told us that the pies were bought at Wegmans because she's not good with pies, and it was very honest that she was upfront about not making the pies, and everybody loves Wegmans so no one is going to point fingers of nastiness. I honestly don't know how to word what I'm trying to say.
After this we went to (whisper) chocolate. I bought an ounce of white chocolate cranberry pecan bark and ate sometime between when we got back to the van and when Scott started up the engine. I asked Eliza, the chocolatier, how the name of their store came about, and she said the mother/daughter team was thinking along the lines of "whisper sweet nothings" which turned into (whisper) chocolate. Aside from all the assortments of bark, truffles, and chocolate covered things, (whisper) chocolate sells custom handcrafted sipping chocolate cups. Lent is coming up so I didn't buy one.

Outside of both of these shops is the view of Seneca Lake. Scott, Katie, and I have seen nothing but frozen lake water and snow for the last few months, but yesterday we saw blue peaks. Spring is coming.