Loading on Carb in Adams House

A lot of times, I find myself noshing on carb in the dining hall because protein entrees are either too dry or too fatty. I tackled the salad bar last night with three different types of mixed grain salad, romaine lettuce, and green beans.

The nutritionist would be disappointed if this was all I had so I put a heaping bowl of cottage cheese as well as some fettucini in white wine clam sauce. The dining hall worker accidentally brought the fettucini without the sauce, so when we asked, "Why is there just noodle?" he said, "Oops, I forgot the sauce!" haha. The pasta must have been cooked just before because it was hot and not dry. I wished there had been more bits of clams. I drizzled some hot sauce for extra spices because it was a little bit on the bland side.

I loved the chunks of squash, sweet potato, and other cubes of vegetables in the quinoa. I am not quite sure what sauce it was tossed in, but it wasn't too rich--just the way I like it.

My roommate had a complete kid's meal, plus a little bit of vegetables. She sure was excited about the french fries. Personally, I have never liked french fries even when I was little. If anything, I prefer sweet potato frieds, but I don't really liked fried starch in general.

Pizza and hoagies. Everyone's dream kid's meal, but as a slightly lactose-intolerant person, I can't really enjoy pizza without feeling bloated afterwards.

One of my other friends complained about the lack of good entree, so he ordered a grilled cheese from the grill. He added eggs inside as well. The last time I had grilled cheese (again, not very often since I don't eat cheese), the bread was smothered in butter so it was way too greasy.

A big bite of the grilled cheese and egg. I love the crispy surface of the grilled bread. The pasta in the background, by the way, looks exceedingly dry. That's the thing about HUDS: it's so unpredictably inconsistent!

Enjoy Together, Pizza Hut

In the United States, Pizza Hut is just a typical, regular chain restaurant with mediocre pizza. On the other hand, PIzza Hut is an exported good in Korea where people go to celebrate their birthdays, anniversaries, or other special occasions.

To "celebrate" the end of a long (3 hours) hair make over, Mom and I went to Pizza Hut for lunch. We ordered the lunch special, which included a choice pasta, mini personal pizza, and a salad bar for two. The main reason we went to Pizza Hut is for its salad bar because I absolutely love the yellow kabocha squash salad!

It's a small salad bar, but it has everything I like, including fresh fruits (orange, lychee, apples, and these funky passion fruits I have never had before), a yogurt bar (plain yogurt with blueberry sauce, cereal, raisins, and jellies), kiwi dressing, fresh greens, cucumber, garlic bread, carrots, and a variety of mayo-smothered salad (potato, sweet potato, kabocha squash, peanut chicken , imitation crab, fusili pasta, etc.). The new salad bar menu also featured mussels in tomato broth.

While we gorged on the salad, the pasta and the pizza came out. We had the shrimp arabata pasta (spicy tomato sauce) and a bulgogi pizza with cheese crust. I only had a little bit of the pasta because it tasted like it had been precooked before the order. Well, I am sure the pasta itself is incomparable to other delicious pasta I had in the past. The noodle was cooked too much and there needed to be a bit more sauce. It wasn't spicy enough for my liking, despite the name, so we added a bit more chili pepper.

I had a slice of the pizza but had to wipe the greasy before from the cheese. It was too doughy. I usually like the crust, but not this one because of the cheese as well as the dough itself, which tasted very bland. Maybe I have had too many good slices of pizza from NYC to California. Also Korean pizza in general is very sweet as opposed to savory, but the biggest disappointment was still the crust/dough that tasted too bland.

A Delicious Affair: VIPS, Korea's No. 1 Steakhouse

I am going to start a new "column" in my blog: A Delicious Affair! The series will chronicle some of the highlights of Korean cuisine...that is, yummy restaurants in this wonderful country that I visit during my stay here this summer. The first restaurant to be featured is VIPS, Korea's No. 1 Steakhouse (or so they say_. Ironically, when Mom and I visited VIPS this afternoon, we didn't order steak. Instead we took advantage of its healthy, fresh all-you-can-eat salad bar.

Now, let's make it clear that I absolutely detest buffet because I always end up with an awful stomachache. Besides, the quality of food at buffets are typically inferior to that at regular restaurants. Nonetheless, VIPS is known for its fresh food and I've always wanted to come here again since my first visit in 2009.

Because Mom and I had to come up to Seoul for a doctor's visit, we decided to eat lunch at VIPS. This is the entrance to the restaurant. We walked from the hospital to VIPS because the traffic was awful and we figured it'd be almost as fast to walk than take the bus.

This was our first dish. As you can see, it's very green (spinach, broccoli, smoked salmon, mango, and, of course, my favorite food of all time, SQUASH!

The salad bar & buffet line was well-kept and fresh.

Dessert time! I loved the frozen yogurt (plain and green tea), but the cake pieces were unfortunately very dry.

This reminded me of Annenberg and how often it used to serve squash. Bahahaha

French fries covered in some sweet sugary syrup. I was confused whether to eat it for dessert or with a meal. Definitely got the sweet and salty going on.

This was a delicious concoction of tofu, greens, Korean radish, and fish roe. Yum :)

Tomato & Cream sauce pasta that we ordered. The waitress cooked it behind the counter in the kitchen and brought them to our table. The pasta sauce was a bit spicy, while the cream sauce was a bit too...creamy. We only had a few bites of the pasta because we were full, and Mom talked about how she felt awful wasting food when there are people in North Korea starving. This discussion got us talking about how Kim Jong Il is a horrible, selfish leader.


VIPS (Very Important People's Society), Korea's No. 1 Steakhouse. I would highly recommend its salad bar. Yummy in my tummy! :)