The Girl Who Ate Everything

I liked to plan out where I'm going before I actually go anywhere to make sure I don't stray and eat ...everything.

inside Sullivan Diner

Well, that didn't work! I was planning to try the Washington Square Diner on West 4th Street since it's close to school and I didn't leave my dorm until pretty late (later than when most places would be serving breakfast) but I ended up going to Sullivan Diner (169 Sullivan Street). I had passed it a few times before but I found out it had just opened last week. Luckily for me, they serve breakfast until 4 PM! Or rather, they serve breakfast food until 4 PM, which is closer to dinner time than breakfast time.

Dutch pancake with lemon, butter, and sugar

Today is my reading day before finals. So did I wake up early to study and do studious things all day? God no. I took a 35 minute-ish walk to the restaurant, had a lovely Dutch pancake with sugar, butter and lemon and ran into my food communications teacher and her agent. She has a new book coming out. I don't really cook so I guess it's not something I'd be interested in getting, but my mum bought one of her books and she's even less of a cook than I am, if possible. It was a very strange matter of perfect timing that I ran into her as I barely know anyone in NYC to being with (considering how many people are here) and I rarely run into people.

kitchen

Anyway, back to the restaurant. It's very small but stylish, clean, and comfortable. There's a seating area with stools for single people to sit at by the entrance but I sat at one of the two-people tables. The counter/drink area and kitchen are in the center of the room so if you sit in the right spot you can see the chef cooking. I could somewhat see my pancake being made and my first thought was "Holy crap, that is a huge pan." A dutch pancake is a very thin pancake and...it's good. Obviously. Confectioners sugar, butter, and slice of lemon were a nice change from my regular maple syrup (on thick rounds of American style pancakes). They also offer regular pancakes so when I go back (and I shall!), I'll try those. All for the good of the pancake-eating NYC public, yes? Yes. (I need to keep track of the pancake places I've gone to, along with the chocolate chip cookies I've eaten.)

chewy walnut strip

While the pancake was delicious, I was still hungry (hey, it was probably a millimeter in depth). I took a short walk to Amy's Bread on Bleeker; damn, that place is good. It's a little pricier compared to other places but bakeries are in general still cheaper than going anywhere else. The cupcakes looked yummy as well as the huge cakes (I must try those someday) but I settled on a chewy walnut strip and a chocolate chip cookie (the cookie for testing purposes...!). The chewy walnut strip tasted exactly what it sounds like: very chewy, and extremely walnut-y. IT WAS SO GOOD. I love chewy things, even if they make my teeth hurt. It's not a bad chewy though, it's...um, the good kind. For $1.75 I thought it was a good deal. Oh, they also have "strip" versions of a bunch of their bread loaves if you want to try the bread but not be forced to eat a pound of it. I MUST TRY THOSE, yes.

Amy's Bread's chocolate chip cookie

The cookie! The cookie. Sadly, this was not a soft cookie. And like all the cookies I've had so far, it was different from all the others. Good points: lots of chocolate chips (almost like layers from the cross section) and the cookie didn't leave a fat stain on my napkin. It also didn't crumble easily (a good thing in my opinion). The bad point was that it wasn't soft and chewy. It wasn't hard and crunchy either but it didn't have that nice chewiness. Ahh! It wasn't a bad cookie by far but City Bakery and Donut Pub still reign in the chocolate chip cookie world.

I went to the student center to get some studying done and lo and behold, MORE FREE FOOD. Not ice cream this time but lots of food in bar form and coffees and teas. Basically, it was all stuff I "never" eat but I tried a peanut butter granola bar thing for the first time in my life. I forgot the brand but it was probably by Nabisco or something like that. Peanut isn't my favorite flavor but it was pretty good for...something sweet. I like chewy granola bars and this was rather crunchy. Ah, whatever, it was free and probably made of crap ingredients (hooray for high fructose corn syrup). I also made a chai tea out of a powdered mix and even though it was overly sweet (methinks making chai tea out of POWDER is not such a good idea), it was yummy. I'd prefer it over hot chocolate at least. YOU CAN'T BE PICKY WITH FREE FOOD!

snowballs

By this time in the day, I had eaten quite a lot of food (also had a navel orange for breakfast). I wasn't necessarily hungry but I went to Dean & Deluca on Prince Street for the first time to get a snowball per a recommendation. Holy. Shit. I had only been to two other D&Ds before and they were tiny compared to this place (the one on University Place gives student discounts though, so I'm best off going there, AND it has a large seating area). I didn't take many photos inside because it's just too darn big and it's beautiful. Really. It's not like Whole Foods beautiful, more like...I have no idea. I guess if I went there more often I'd get bored of it but on first sight it's pretty much like "Oh there's some produce over there and HOLY CRAP, what's with all this cake? HOLY CRAP, BREAD!" Yeah, the bread section is VERY enticing and they have free samples! I sampled my way around the bread counter, oh yes. The bread is actually reasonably priced in my opinion so I'll have to try a loaf someday (which will require planning to make sure I don't buy anything else).

snowball innards

So I got a white snowball. It came out to...almost $4. I wish they'd just tell you the price including the tax, or next to the $3.25 on the sign they could write "JUST KIDDIN'!" Was it worth $4? If they used good ingredients, probably. (Looking at my photos, I found out that the snowballs are from Sage American Kitchen and according to their menu, the snowballs cost $1! Now I feel TOTALLY RIPPED! God dammit! That's a pretty big difference. D&D also sells Doughtnut Plant doughnuts for more than at the shop, which is usually around $2, but not by a whole lot more...maybe.) I've never had a snowball in any confectionary form before (actually, that's a lie; i had some yummy raw junk food "snowballs" before) and I was very happy with my first sugary coconut snowball experience. I have no complaints, so I'll just tell you what I liked: the cake, the coconut, and the sugary icing. That's basically the components of the entire thing. Oh, it went by a little too fast since it was yummy. Damn. I liked it better than a slice of cake since this was more cupcake-like as a single cake serving and it was completely covered in coconut shavings. Oh, and there was a splodge of icing in the center. Man, I could go for another one.

inside the bahn mi

I ate something before the snowball, actually (I ate it when I got back to my dorm). My first banh mi experience from that place on Broome Street by Bowery last year was uneventful as I got a wussy vegetable bahn mi. This time I got the first choice, which was...well, something with meat in it. I could SMELL it when the woman gave it to me wrapped in wax paper in a stapled paper bag. I SMELLED IT! AND IT SMELLED GOOD. And it was good. If it smells good, it's probably good. If it smells good covered in wrapping as soon as its handed to you, it must be good. I don't hate meat but it's not something I think about eating every day. But I would eat this sandwich every day, seeing as it costs $3 and it's kinda huge (I cut it in half and ate it over a 45 minute period. In Robyn's life, that's a pretty long lifespan for food.

I ate way too much today. I can feel it in my organs, which are going "Robyn, you pig" right now. If you're wondering why I'm not obese, I can't really tell you, but I'm pretty sure on my way to obesity at the rate I'm going. If you don't know the backstory, I probably weight 25 pounds more right now than I did a year ago. This weight seems to have collected itself in my WOMB (no, I'm not preggers) or ...god knows. I try to walk a few miles a day (today I must've done at least four?) but that hasn't made a noticable impact on my physique. However, it has made a big impact on my shoes, which I had gotten less than a month ago but are already wearing away (the upside: they are quite comfy). I had to buy a new pair beacause my last pair was more than 2 years old and completely worn. However, I didn't walk nearly as much as I am now. I'd daresay that I've walked more in the past month that I did last year. ...okay, maybe not that much but a round trip to school is about 4 miles. ABOUT. That's all the damn exercise I get so I can't live much closer than 2 miles to school.

The problem with my eating habits is that yes, it makes me really happy. Until it makes me feel so guilty that I shut myself off from the world and feel like killing myself. The upside is that I know I'll feel better at some point but I go through that at least once a month. It's not really a good idea. I tried to cap my expenses at $10 each day (I think I did that yesterday) but I spent about $15 today. Sure, it's not that bad but I can definitely do under $10! If I hadn't bought, you know, so much food.