Tag Archive: Food

  1. Cheese truck challenge claims another winner

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    Pedestrians passing by the Caseus Cheese Truck parked on York Street this afternoon gave Peter Kelly GRD ’15 a wide berth, and understandably so — they saw him demolishing 10 tomato and grilled cheese sandwiches with a look on his face of stern determination and considerable nausea.

    The folding table and mere two onlookers were not indicative of the historical event that was taking place: Kelly became the third person ever to succeed at the Caseus Cheese Truck Challenge by eating 10 tomato grilled cheeses in under an hour.

    [ydn-legacy-photo-inline id=”464″ ]

    “I was hungry, so the first five were pretty good. Six, seven, eight—not so good. Ten was pretty painful,” said Kelly, who succeeded by stuffing the last quarter-sandwich in his mouth with about two minutes left, before promptly throwing up over the Jonathan Edwards College wall once he was declared champion.

    Those who succeed in eating a classic grilled cheese with at least one topping of choice get their sandwich named after them on the side of the truck. Winners can also get their namesake sandwich free of charge for life.

    It’s not a task to be taken on lightly: the Caseus Cheese Truck website warns that losers must pay for the sandwiches they eat and “get nothing but full of cheese sandwiches.”

    Kelly strategically chose tomato as the topping for his classic grilled cheese (which comes standard with provolone, swiss, comte, gruyere, gouda, sharp cheddar “and more” on sourdough) because he thought meat like applewood bacon or Berkshire pulled pork would be significantly heavier.

    He named the combo the “Barberis and Kelly (2012),” a citation-like ode to his advisor, SOM Finance Professor Nicholas Barberis. Kelly and his friends also considered the name “Barbaric Barberis” pretty seriously.

    It remains to be seen how much desire Kelly will have for his free lunch after consuming 10 so rapidly. According to the Cheese Truck staff, of the two previous winners, Etkin Tekin ’12 has only returned twice to claim his bacon and guacamole grilled cheese, the “TEKIN,” and the second champion has yet to come back for more.

    Correction 10.6.12

    An earlier version of this article misspelled Etkin Tekin.

  2. Wenzel photo contest returns for a second year

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    We all know what you’d do for a $7 Wenzel: You’d stagger three blocks in a half-drunken stupor — braving traffic and peer judgment — from Toad’s to Alpha Delta Pizza.

    But what would you do for just one free Wenzel? What would you do for an entire school year’s worth of free Wenzels?

    For the second consecutive year, the Yale College Council has partnered with Alpha Delta Pizza to hold a “What Would You Do For a Wenzel” photo contest, which invites current Yalies to upload photos showing the absurd, dangerous or otherwise hilarious lengths they would go for a school year’s worth of Wenzels. (For the uninitiated: the Wenzel grinder — named after Eric Wenzel ’04 — is basically a glorified buffalo chicken sub.)

    According to a YCC email bulletin, entrants can submit their photographs — which must, somewhere in the image, include a Wenzel sandwich — to Trumbull College Representative Paul Parell ’15 between Oct. 7-14. After all of the photographs are collected, students will be encouraged to vote for their favorites on the YCC’s Facebook page.

    The photograph with the most “likes” will win the competition, and the genius behind its creation will receive one “Free Wenzel” coupon for each week remaining in the school year.

    Last year, Matthew Breuer ’14, Andrew Winter ’14 and David Crosson ’14 collaborated to win the competition; their photo staged a reenactment of the iconic scene from Showtime’s Dexter, in which a serial killer slices limbs off a dead body.

    “We taped a big plastic sheet — true to the TV show — down to a table, and taped Andrew [Winter] down to the table,” Bruer said. “And then, with lots of fake blood everywhere, we had me beginning to kill him because he had a Wenzel in his possession.”

    Potential entrants should expect an equally tough crowd this year. When asked whether he would participate again, Breuer said he “absolutely” plans to defend his title this year.

    “I’ve realized there’s a very strong chance that one day, I’ll have to tell my kids that I was best known at Yale for dressing up as a serial killer to win unhealthy sandwiches,” he said. “And if that’s the case, it will at least make it better to have been a repeat champion, right?”

    We are inclined to agree.

  3. Alpha Delta workers wearing new pinnies

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    Workers at Alpha Delta Pizza have a new uniform, and you can too!

    The wenzel wizzes on Elm Street are now sporting new pinnies that read “Alpha Delta Pizza” on the front, joined by the greek letters alpha, delta and pi. The back features the expressions “wenzel” and “1 button.”

    Interested patrons can purchase a pinnie of one’s own at onebuttonwenzel.com — the pinnes are listed under the toppings and are available in small, medium, large and XL. They cost $5 each.

  4. Insomnia Cookies opens on Chapel Street

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    Night owls, rejoice — Insomnia Cookies is ready to fill your every gluttonous late-night desire.

    The delivery chain started at the University of Pennsylvania opened its Chapel Street store last Wednesday. It sells a variety of desserts — nine types of cookies, three jumbo deluxe cookies, cookie cakes, brownies, chocolate milk (yum), ice cream and ice cream cookie sandwiches — and is open until 3 a.m. If winter ever comes and makes the walk to Chapel Street way too hard, Insomnia can deliver within a three mile radius through 2 a.m. Store manager Cedric Emery said they’ll provide discounts if you order online.

    Emery said Insomnia is already baking between 300 and 400 cookies during the day. It will hold a grand opening celebration this Tuesday, at which customers will receive a free cookie.

  5. Ay! Salsa empties out High Street location

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    Has a food cart won Battle Arepa?

    ¡Ay! Salsa, a beloved Latin restaurant at 25 High St., appears to have closed its doors. The restaurant’s space was emptied of all equipment, furniture and decoration as of Sunday afternoon, and a phone call to ¡Ay! Salsa’s number went unanswered.

    A construction worker inside ¡Ay! Salsa’s former space said that the restaurant had left and that another business would be taking its place, but he said he was uncertain if ¡Ay! Salsa had moved elsewhere, or what might replace it.

    Brothers Ernesto Garcia and Franco Gonzales, along with Gonzales’ wife Yani Acosta, opened the High Street location of ¡Ay! Salsa in June 2009. A month later, Gonzales returned home to Oaxaca, Mexico, leaving Acosta and Garcia in charge of ¡Ay! Salsa. Shortly after Gonzales’ return to Mexico, he and his wife divorced. Garcia opened Ay! Arepa on his own in the fall of 2010, and Acosta replaced him with a new head chef, Jason Thorp.

    Check back for more updates.

  6. Dining’s new ‘Fast Track’

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    Want to get away from crowded dining halls? Check your iPhone.

    Yale Dining has released a free iPhone app called “Fast Track” that tells students the menus, locations, and current occupancies of Yale’s dining halls. Fast Track also allows students to add Eli Bucks to their dining accounts and reserve a 2Go Order, which consists of a sack lunch or late plate to take out. The idea for the app came from three Yale sophomores — Michael Discala, Jhamat Mahbubani and Robert Davies — and was developed by Yale Dining.

    “Our original idea was just to record how full the dining halls were and show their menus,” Mahbubani said. “When we approached Yale Dining with our idea, they had some other ideas for a Yale Dining App, such as a map and the ability to add Eli Bucks, so we combined the two.”

    While the app may help to alleviate recent overcrowding in dining halls, Pedro Tello, a Yale Dining coordinator who worked with the project, said that the app was simply made to be a convenient tool for students.

    The sophomores originally came to Yale Dining in February, and SNP Technologies, who manages Yale’s dining website, began coding Fast Track in May. Four months later, the app was released on Yale Dining’s website and the iTunes store.

    While there is currently no Blackberry or Android app, the dining hall occupancy can also be found on Yale Dining’s website, along with menus and locations.

    According to Tello, the next release of the app will be available on the Blackberry and Android platforms, and other features to be added include nutritional information and real-time feedback on menu items.

  7. Reeses Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Special K Red Berries win at ‘bowl’

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    As of Friday, Yale’s breakfast buffs won’t have to go without their favorite grains any longer.

    From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. yesterday, students from around the Yale community flocked to Commons to participate in the Yale Cereal Bowl, a taste-testing competition organized by the Yale College Council and Yale Dining used to determine three new cereals that will be added to dining halls around the campus in the coming weeks. For three hours, students sampled and voted on various flakes and crisps to a background of pounding pop rock music that didn’t quite seem to gel with the activities at hand.

    Sweet cereals Reeses Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch took an early lead in the competition and held it throughout, finishing solidly in the top three with Special K Red Berries bringing home the bronze. Clearly, healthy choices pale in comparison to lots and lots of chocolate and sugar.

    Though most Yalies seem to have a major sweet tooth, more grounded and (likely) cavity-free students disagree.

    “As long as they have either bran flakes, corn flakes or Rice Chex, I’ll be fine,” said Sarah Flintgruber ’15.

    Tony the Tiger declined to comment.

  8. Fall Festival furnishes foreign flavors

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    The Yale College Council, in collaboration with Yale Dining, sponsored the annual Fall Festival on Old Campus. The event, held rom 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, allowed students to sample a variety of dishes from other cultures — such as “Traditional roast beef with Merlot sauce” from “Northern Europe.” Student bands such as The Black Marias provided live music at the event.

  9. Is it chicken tenders day question answered in new website

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    Yale’s single greatest accomplishment has now been honored with a new website.

    Yes, the succulent and savory residential college dining hall chicken tender can now boast its own home online: http://isitchickentendersday.com. The website is simple enough. A blue “yes” stands on a white background with “Get your chicken tenders on” written in gray underneath. The website went live today, which is, in fact, chicken tender day in the dining halls, so it remains to be seen what the website will show on regular, boring days.

    As many non-vegetarians recognize, “chicken tender day” is the best reason to come to Yale, meriting its own Facebook page, and even sometimes announcements on the News’ website.

    Bay Gross ’13 built the online homage to the tender. He told the News that he created the site because “I almost missed chicken tender Thursday today.”

    There are myriad ways to savor tenders day, and now one more way to learn about that magical occasion (the News’ daily buzz also lists dining hall offerings).

  10. Students bake cupcakes for charity

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    Cupcakes are now for a cause. Cupcakes with a Heart, an organization started this summer by Yalies Alyssa Bilinski ’13 and Stacey Chen ’13, donates proceeds from cupcake sales to charity. The group’s first charity partner is New Haven Reads, an organization that promotes literacy in the New Haven community.

    “Our short term goals are to have a strong campus presence and to possibly cater events,” Bilinski said, adding that they also hope to raise awareness for their partner organizations. They plan to work with other New Haven and Dwight Hall charities and potentially national groups as well.

    Topped with a generous amount of frosting animals, letters, and hearts, their made-from-scratch cupcakes will make their way to the Calhoun College buttery Tuesday night, where hungry students can purchase a study break snack.

  11. Sign above old Labyrinth advertises froyo

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    Froyo World competition? There is a new sign over what used to be the door to Labyrinth Books on York Street for “Flavors” advertising “frozen yogurt + fresh fruit + fun treats.” A worker in the space said it went up about an hour ago.