Pork U BBQ

Truly, I was porked. Food trucks are fun, BBQ meat is fun, so it seemed so nice. The owner even responded to my inquiry about nut allergens (there are no nuts, just mustard)! But alas, the food was not fun, the service was slow and really awkward (is this a haircut I'm getting?) and I got sooooo sick after eating. I got mac and cheese with BBQ pork on it, and it was very very very oily/greasy/wet, yet not very cheesy, and the meat was also really wet - but not with BBQ sauce, just with fat. It needed way more BBQ sauce, cheese, flavor in general, and way less oil/water. Woe.



Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 4/10

Sushi Sumo

Despite being in a random strip mall, I think this place looks really nice inside. It's quiet and classy and chill. It's also just Japanese food (no Chinese fusion here), which is an upside for us nut-allergy sufferers. Sure, I can't eat the sushi or the soup or anything else, but I can eat the chicken yaki udon, which is basically chicken lo mein but with thick (udon) noodles. It's great and has great chicken pieces, little onion/carrot/celery bits, and randomly 2 orange slices. Only like 12 dollars, a filling amount, and very tasty. They also do takeout! Downside: you shamefully must ask for a fork if you can't use chopsticks (like me). Also, don't use the hot towel on your face.

The plum fuku wine is really sweet, but also unique and fun!

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 8/10

Country Archer Beef Jerky - Mango Habanero

Mmm, OK! So, the positives: the packaging doesn't say anything sexist about manbuns this time, which is great. It's also only ~160 calories for a filling feeling meaty snack. I also enjoyed the flavor waaay more than the other one I tried. This one was spicy but not too spicy, and a tiny bit sweet but not at all in a gross or bad way. I mostly tasted spice with a wee bit of mango and beef. That was nice.

The negative here is the texture. It's so mealy and chewy and hard all at once somehow. This is definitely the worst texture of jerky I've had. I wish it were either softer/MORE chewy, or firmer/MORE crunchy. but it's truly the worst of both worlds, texture-wise. The bag also doesn't reseal, but it's not very big so that's OK. So I didn't hate it, but i wouldn't get it again because of the texture (unless it was SUPER cheap I guess).

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

The White Dog Café

My friend Janey took me here after classes ended at Haverford, and it was in walking distance from the college (and her apartment). Who knew! This is a really nice place, with pictures of dogs everywhere, which no one can resist. It was pretty crowded, but not with students, and seemed to have a lot of regulars. We sat at the bar, and they had a solid happy hour, with 4-10$ food and 5$ drinks. I got red sangria, which was good even though the only fruit it had was orange and lime. 2 got me a little tipsy, even! For snacks we got deviled eggs and tater tots. The tots were actually large orbs, 5 or 6 of them, but otherwise normal fried potato. The eggs had 2 with caviar, 2 with bacon jam, and 2 with sweet potato crumble?? Kind of weird, but I asked about nuts and they put "no nuts" on the receipt, so I guess that's fine. I didn't go for the caviar eggs, but the bacon jam ones were really good, and the crumble ones were fine. The egg filling was all mustard, no mayo, but that's healthy so it's fine. Overall it was a nice atmosphere and good company and a solid price, and the bartender did a good job. I hope I have occasion to come back!

PORK TENDERLOIN: My bud Adam came to Haverford to give a talk, so we went here for dinner! It was nice, actually I didn't realise how ~fancy~ this place was. But the pork was good, it was 6-7 small medallions on a bed of brussels sprouts (tastes like cabbage), bacon, sweet potato, apples, and that's it. Not too big, not too small. The pot pie also looked good. 7/10

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Marie Callender's Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

I love pasta so it's hard for even a terrible pasta to be bad (you know, like most people say about pizza)! This was decent, then. It had firm noodles and was a little bit cheesy somehow. I like that it comes with bread; it's good garlicy buttery bread. I don't love the meat bits in the sauce (they're sausagey/itchy) but it is a filling and hearty meal.




Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

Angie's Boom Chicka Pop Real Butter Popcorn

Mmm...butter. I liked this popcorn, even though it's not quite as satisfying as pop-at-home popcorn (or movie popcorn), it's only 100-200 calories, and it tastes really buttery. So it's a nice treat, especially in a single-serve bag. I also like the stylish design and the fact that there's no nuts. Not much else to say here - fine popcorn, fine butter flavor.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Ben & Jerry's Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake Truffles

Every word in the name of the ice cream is something I find delicious, so I was pretty pumped for this one. And, you know, it was good (but not great). I liked the cheesecakey caramel ice cream, it tastes like cream cheese and is very sweet and decadent. I also like the chocolate cookie (read: oreo) swirl throughout. But the truffles aren't as good as I hoped; they're covered in graham cracker bits (should be chocolate!!) and are basically low-fat cream cheese balls, no sugar (or so they taste). I know the rest of the ice cream is super sweet, but much like the coffee one, I want the truffles to be the highlight here and they simply are not. More like a jello single-serve lunch treat mixed with ice cream.


Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 7/10