Monthly Archives: January 2014

First passion blog – FOOD REVIEW 2014

So for this semester I decided to write my passion blog about something I’m both passionate about and something that I actually have first hand experience with. The problem with last semester’s passion blog wasn’t so much that I disliked writing about it, it was more so that I didn’t have first hand experience with most of the places that I wrote about which made it difficult to write about. But, one thing I did enjoy was writing about the food for different locations across the world, which is why i choose to write my passion blogs specifically on cuisine around state college.

So without further adieu, welcome to my passion “food” blog

WARNING, NOT INTENDED TO BE READ ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

The first sample of food products that we will be looking at today is….our lovely, lovely food commons. While there are many out there, each food common has it’s own pros and cons (emphasis on the cons). There’s obviously a negative connotation in our minds when it comes to the Pennstate dining halls, but to be honest, they’re actually not as terrible as we make them out to be…well at least not all the commons.

Depending who you are, where you live and most importantly, how far you want to walk, there are 5 food commons on campus that students can go to. These include, the East commons (Finlay commons), the north food district, the Pollock dining commons, the south food district and the west food district. Each of these dining commons offer all you can eat meal options (though some have pay for what you eat sections too). The meals at each common, despite what some may say be better than others, are all similar if not exactly alike. Lets be honest now, you really think the food at east is honestly going to be that much worst than what you can find at Pollock? It’s all on one campus and it’s all the same food, calm down. To get more specific, the food at each common ranges daily and the options are actually quite varied. Fish, chicken, steak and veggies are all on the menu, most places also have individual pizza, pasta or salad options. Honestly we have it pretty nice compare to what some of my friends at other colleges get.

At the same time, I’m most certainly not putting Penn state food commons at the top of my list when it comes to culinary delights. The food is dry and taste weirdly…..all the same. More often than not, the piece of chicken I eat during dinner does a great impression of the Sahara Dessert and for some odd reason, the pork fillet and the beef ribs taste 100% the same. The fish has a off putting taste and the salad bar has a great selection of rapidly wilting vegetables. But still, it’s around 4$ for a meal that’s all you can eat depending on where and when, a great deal if you ask me.

Now comes the problem of which food common is the best. This concern would be different between everyone on campus, but here is my personal opinion.

1st place – Pollock food commons – The dining hall is really nice! There’s actually image002an attempt at making everything look nice. The meals are still the same but goodness, there’s SO much more options. Also, the non buffet options are actually really awesome when you consider there’s touch screen ordering.

2nd place – South food district –Edomae

The options are far less than Pollock, but the non-buffet options range from friend food to sushi with some pan fried noodles mixed in. Plus the coffee place at south has a really cute barista.

3rd place – West food district – Waring-Square-logo

Much like Pollock, the options are intense, and the cookies aren’t kidding around. I sort of made a fool out of myself first semester at west so I can now no longer go there, but you guys should still take advantage of it.

4th place – North food district – This is my house…and I hate it. Well…let’s just 1call it tempered love. It’s there when I need it and it hasn’t failed me that much yet. The food is bland, there’s no options but its quaint and cute. We can compare North to one of those ma and pa diners that your family goes to purely for tradition.

5th place – East food district – No comment, do not want, does not advise, stay away, danger danger danger.SoldeCobre_2

This has been a first attempt at getting back in to blogging. Let me know what you thought of it, too long? too short? idk…

introduction – Passion Blog

For this semester I wish to change my passion blog idea to something more relatable to me. My passion blog idea for last semester was to write something like a travel blog, the only problem was that some of the places that I was writing about, I have never been. More than anything else it was frustrating and difficult to write about.

However I am still debating the matter of what my passion blog should be about. One idea that I am particularly keen to is to write about how a college GUY should take care of himself. This idea would pretty much pertain to what he wears to how he takes care of himself in public setting. The only issue is, I am definitely not the best person in the world to discuss about what a man should act like because for one thing, everyone is different and I don’t want to end up being GQ magazine.

The other idea that I had was to write a food blog about specific meals or restaurants around campus. This would be simple to write about and sounds extremely delicious. The only fallacy being that it also sounds costly.

It would be great if I could get feed back about which passion blog idea the readers are more keen to.

Introduction – Civic Issue

My civic issue for this semester will be on the topic of higher education. The topic of education in of itself is extremely broad and often times the diversity of “education” creates unspecific conversations about the topic. I am choosing to only focus on one specific level of education, and most certainly one that pertains to me on a more personal level.

In our society today, the idea of higher education has not only gotten more popular compared to a few decades ago, but it has become so vital that I find it hard to imagine a person being successful without higher education. The increasing competitiveness of the world on a global scale requires those who wish to excel in his or her career to have a bachelors degree, or a masters degree, or PhD and so on and so forth. However, the civic issue of higher education is often times overlooked and casually approached in our global society. To be able to bring to light such an important issue will be my goal for my civic issues blog for this semester.