Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. It is not just a holiday to be thankful (which I very much am), but a holiday to eat some of my favorite foods. Since this is a food blog, I’ll talk about the food, not the thankful part!

I try not to eat Thanksgiving-like foods to preserve the sanctity of how much this holiday means to me. It means a lot to have traditional foods on Thanksgiving.

We begin to cook early and there’s a selection dishes that I deem necessary to having a successful Thanksgiving:

• Turkey
• Green Bean Casserole
• Mashed Potatoes
• Candied Yams
• Stuffing
• Gravy
• Cranberry Sauce

Now, if these requirements are satisfied, I personally don’t even require anything else. Not even dessert. I know, surprising for someone who has a sweet tooth. Although, if I were to pick my dessert of choice it’d definitely be pumpkin pie.

This year’s Thanksgiving is going to be a little different. On the actual holiday, I’m not cooking (very disappointing), BUT, I will be helping a friend make a meal on Saturday (hooray!). So when it all boils down, I will get my Thanksgiving after all. Even if it is Turkeyless. Now it’s time to hunt down some recipes and collect myself before the big day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Pita Kabob Grill is located on the corner of S. State Street and E. William Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My favorite is the Chicken Schwarma w/ hummous and tahini mixed all together. The cool thing about the Chicken Schwarma is that it has french fries wrapped inside! It’s cheap for a huge meal and makes me incredibly happy. Check if out if you’re ever on campus!

The Roadhouse Mac & Cheese at Zingerman’s Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan was labelled as “America’s Best Comfort Food” by Food Network a few months ago, and since then many people have been trekking out to the Roadhouse to try this special dish.

While good, I sadly have a problem with this dish. It’s $9.50 for that plate in the photo. Is it just me, or is that serving TINY for a single portion? Also, the presentation is lacking since it looks incredibly wonderful on TV. Although good, I don’t know if I’d order it again. They need to make their famous dish a little better!

We also ordered entrees. I ordered the 2-piece buttermilk chicken plate w/ mashed potatoes and cole slaw. The pieces of chicken were HUGE. Very juicy and tender. Mashed potatoes were addicting and I finished off the cole slaw. I actually ended up taking a whole piece of chicken home that felt like the size of a cornish hen. (The last photo in the gallery is of the piece in a take out container… it takes up the whole cotnainer!).

Ngoc and James ordered the mushroom soup (not pictured) and the 5 burger sampler plate. Included a huge serving of twice-fried fries, plus burgers with various cheeses.

Chia ordered the New Mexico Sandwich, which was GIGANTIC and came with sweet potato fries ($1 more). The fries were awesome and the sandwich looked good.

I’d definitely return to Zingerman’s Roadhouse. There were plenty of awesome options on the menu and everything looked and smelled tasty.

 Ti penso sempre (I always think of you)

To me, Italy is the country of my dreams and Rome is heaven. I should place a disclaimer on my comment with the fact that I have only been to Rome in Italy, so this opinion may change one day when I get the chance to travel all over Italy, but for now: Roma is Amore.

The title of this post is “Roma Amor.” Roma is the Italian spelling of Rome, and Amor is “love.” Technically “love” is “amore” in Italian, but I always thought it was cute that Roma backwards is “amor.” So close, yet so far away.

My trip to Europe changed my taste for food forever, but the pinnacle of my trip was Rome. I went with the advice of “eat as much gelato as possible.” Now I take advice like that seriously, so what else did I do but eat a lot of gelato? Day 1 consisted of a lot of walking in the sweltering heat, but we found gelato and indulged like it was the best thing we’ve ever had. Here is a chart outlining our gelato consumption over the 3.5 days we were in Rome:

Day	# of Cones
Day 1	2
Day 2	3
Day 3	2
Day 4	1

I am surprised that we did not die from overconsumption of gelato. We went to several famous places including: Cremeria Monteforte, Il Gelato di San Crispino, Gelateria Della Palma, and Giolitti which were all near the Pantheon.

Come sei bella (How beautiful you are)

The ingredients found in Italy are so simple that it’s a wonder how they create such wonderful tasting food. There’s nothing artificial about anything we ate there. The best place to see what fresh food is like was at the Campo de’ Fiori, an open air marketplace. Nearby we ate extremely large servings of salads filled with fresh ingredients. I loved how artichokes, cherry tomatoes and mozzerella could be so delicious despite its simplicity.

Some of the best “old world” cooking can be found in Roma, but if you’re in Italy, what must you have? Pasta and pizza! So after a CRAZY day that nearly ended in us losing all of our belongings inside the Vatican (long story, short: we almost missed the closing time of the coat/bag check at the front of the museum), we ended up dragging ourselves to Pizzeria la Montecarlo di Roma. There we had an amazing pesto pasta and the most beautiful pizza I have ever seen. It was not perfectly round, or did not seem manufactured. In fact, it was a perfectly thin crusted pizza with toppings so lovely

Although Montecarlo takes the cake for best pizza, Antica Taverna wins for the best pasta on our trip. We indulged in mussels and amazing pasta in a simple outdoor cafe. We were in the streets of Rome and nothing could get us down.

Cara mia, ti voglio bene (My darling, I love you)

I dream of returning to Italy again in the near future. Perhaps indulge in La Dolce Vita again and drink another €6.50 iced latte at Café de Paris on Via Veneto. But most of all, to indulge in more gelato and eat everything in sight!

Mi manchi (I miss you)

One of my favorite food experiences has been traveling up Highway 1 from San Francisco to Marshall, California, or home of Hog Island Oyster Company. Located on the shores of the Tomales Bay is an oyster farm outfitted with picnic tables and grills so that you can eat as many oysters to your hearts desires.

So, I didn’t eat 50 oysters… that actually might be kind of gross… but I did eat a significant amount. 5 of us headed up there and ordered 50 of the medium oysters and then we chowed down. Lemon and/or tabasco and we slurped those things down. Of course, part of the experience is shucking them ourselves. We had a quick demonstration. First you put the oyster shell on the table and stick the shucking knife in and lift up until you hear a crack. Then you lift away the shell to reveal the oyster. Then stick the shucking knife under the oyster to cut through the muscle holding it to the shell. After that, it’s fair game to add your condiment and slurp.

In New York, there are several places to get wonderful oysters. The most famous being the Grand Central Oyster Bar. Located in the lower concourse, it’s been revered as one of best places to get fresh oysters. Another, much lesser known, favorite of mine is Fish, which is located in the West Village. Fish has a great special $8 for 6 oysters and a glass of wine or beer. One crazy night – a Sunday nonetheless – a friend and I went there and had 3 of these specials at 10pm. It was probably not such a great idea since we both had to work the next day.

If you haven’t tried raw oysters, I’d highly suggest going for the highest quality experience first. Don’t ruin your taste for oysters before you have had truly fresh ones!

Tbsp, or better known as Spoon, is a humble brunch place with a big menu! Large portions of yummy brunch dishes. The wait isn’t so bad either – 10 min max. The other dish is potato pancakes & smoked salmon!

JK Rowling didn’t write a recipe book, so authenticity is always up for debate when tht hought of recreating any of the food from the Harry Potter novels. There are plenty of websites out there with recipe interpretations of all the foods described in the books. One includes the Top 10 Harry Potter Related Recipes at YumSugar. Even better, the Harry Potter Lexicon provides an extensive list of all the food mentioned in the books.

One particular food item, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans was recreated by the Jelly Belly company. They are currently called “BeanBoozled” (my assumption is that they lost some sort of licensing agreement). The flavour names have changed as well. Originally there was “sardine, pepper, grass, horseradish, vomit, booger, earwax, and dirt (via HP Lexicon).” I did buy one of these boxes and yes I did eat them. The vomit one nearly made me vomit. I recall putting it in my mouth and then blindly reaching my arms out searching for a trash can. It was not pretty. But the best part was offering the vomit flavoured bean to someone else. I love pranking people!

Ever since the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Orlando opened this past year, I have been dying to go and try other items. One in particular includes Butterbeer. After reading through all seven books and still not connecting what butterbeer actually is, I’m clearing up the confusion right now. According to an interview in Bon Appetit magazine in 2002, JK Rowling states “I imagine it to taste a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch.” So my assumption is that it could be recreated in two eithers, non-alcoholic with some sort of melted butterscotch, or alcoholic with butterscotch schnapps? MuggleNet tries to replicate Butterbeer with cream soda and butterscotch ice cream topping. I’m not sure if that sounds good or really kind of gross?

There’s even a whole blog dedicated to replicating the food. Perhaps it’ll be time to throw a Harry Potter themed party?

For newcomers to New York seeking a perfect brunch, my mind always goes directly to the Clinton St. Baking Company. Located in the Lower East Side, it’s popularity has grown so much that waits can be as long as 3 hours (and yes, I have waited 3 hours before to get a table). My go-to order is always the Banana Walnut Pancakes. They are apparently more well-known for their Blueberry Pancake (as evidence from the throwdown they had versus Bobby Flay). My absolute favorite time to go is during pancake month – February. They have a rotating menu of different types of pancakes.

The other items there are also very good. The biscuit w/ homemade raspberry jam is particularly well known. I highly suggest going during a weekday after 1pm. The lines aren’t that bad (20 minute wait), and you can sit much longer without feeling the pressure to leave.

Clinton St. Baking Company Cookbook is now available at Amazon.com.

Check out my Yelp Review here.

It is 1am and I am hungry. Solution? Tweet/blog about all the things I want to eat.

Jerusalem Garden is a fantastic Middle Eastern place on S. Fifth and Liberty Street. I didn’t discover this place until after I moved away from Ann Arbor (for shame!) but since then, every time I return I always go there to have their “Fattoush & Chicken” Plate. Described as…

Fattoush & Chicken

Diced vegetables, lemon salt and vinegar served with broiled marinated chicken breast and pita chips. $7.49

With rice pilaf $7.99

Shawarma Sauce add $0.50

This dish is AMAZING. It is very garlicky, so hope you don’t mind having garlic breath for a day, but otherwise, totally worth it. You can read my review on Yelp! (Where I also mention a cute guy that works here… don’t mind me…)

The other place I always go to is Pita Kabob Grill. I’ll talk about it later, because that’s definitely the top place I go to – ALWAYS.