Author Archives: Alexis Fitts

I once announced to a room full of people that I had found the ultimate secret to a budget-friendly night out in New York City: the illustrious $7 buzz. The room was silent. One girl gasped. What was my trick? What magical $7 open bar special had I found hidden in the city of $10 »

There’s an unspoken rule among restaurant critics about the scheme for reviewing a new place: good timing is half the battle. Get in there too late and a review is old news; get in there too early and, well, let’s just say no matter how good a new restaurant is, the first few weeks are »

Aniket Shah ’09 should be more intimidating than he is. First, there’s his book, “Club Expat: A Teenager’s Guide to Moving Overseas,” co-written with his brother and published before Shah had even finished high school. Then there’s his job, as the youngest member (by over a decade) of the eighteen-person executive board of Amnesty International. »

January 1st is doomsday for foodies. After the long string of gluttony accompanying the period between Christmas and New Year’s, January 1st hits like a brick to the stomach. The “Before New Year’s” mentality is all excess, all the time: “Why certainly I’d like more eggnog, and please pass the roast while you’re at it.” »

Who doesn’t like cheese? That’s not a rhetorical question. Find me someone who doesn’t like cheese, and I’ll show you someone who’s missing out. Just ask my mother, whose cooking philosophy is that anything can be saved with cheese. Bland mashed potatoes? Melt on a little cheddar. Burnt quiche? Nothing a generous sprinkle of parmesan »

Dictionary.com defines a gourmet as “a connoisseur of fine food and drink” (in contrast to the French gourmand who only enjoys food and wine in excess). Seems simple enough, but the lifestyle of the gourmet only gets more complicated from there. The gourmet, apparently, must express an affinity for ‘exotic ingredients,’ possess copious amounts of »

“Do not try to eat in the grad ghetto,” pleads a friend, when I tell him of my desire to venture up State Street. “You will find nothing, and probably die.” But with spring on the horizon, and adventure in our bellies, the insurmountable seems possible. Thus we begin at the beginning of our tale… »

After a week of dining hall duds, it’s time to face the facts — spring break is over, and home-cooked food is but a distant memory. But with more then a month to go until break, it takes more then the occasional Atticus bread run to satiate a epicure’s palate while maintaining a student’s wallet. »

I’ve always imagined the invention of cuisine following the invention of fire in close succession. A caveman experimenting with sticks creates the first blaze, unto which his wife immediately throws a chunk of boar and voila — a culinary trajectory you can trace right to pot roast! But Ahimsa, New Haven’s new raw-food vegetarian restaurant, »

Sometimes it seems like a snarky Simon Cowell leading us in second-rate Whitney Houston covers is the best the U.K. has to offer. After all, it’s been a long time since David Bowie made a good album, and nearly half a century since the British Invasion. But South London-raised Bloc Party is everything envious Anglophiles »