Quest for the best burger

So does everyone remember how awesome my A1 burger from BenchWarmers was? Incase you forgot let me just reiterate…IT. WAS. AWESOME. I haven’t been able to find a place in Ithaca that makes better burgers than BenchWarmers…until now! I’m sure for everyone that’s been down Elmira Road you’ve noticed the new Five Guys restaurant. Have you eaten there yet? If you said “no” to that question I want you to drop everything you’re doing and go. Ok fine, you don’t have to go NOW, but you do have to go eventually!

I don’t eat burgers entirely too often, but when I have a craving for one, not any ole’ burger will suffice! When I have cravings my body has expectations. If I want a burger I want the BEST burger around. I do NOT want a crappy  half-ass burger like the ones in the dining halls. I have recently discovered that when you go to Five Guys you are guaranteed to have one of the best burgers of your life….every time!

 

The inside of Five Guys

 

 

Five Guys has dedicated its entire franchise to burgers. BURGERS BURGERS BURGERS. When a restaurant specializes in one type of food, you know it has to be good! Five Guys is no exception. I am not  telling you about this restaurant because it has the ability to make you dream about burgers, but also because the atmosphere fulfills social needs at the same time. Five Guys is a hoppin’ place (yes there’s that word again…HOPPIN’). The line is almost always out the door (though it wasn’t when I went Sunday around 6pm) and it is always packed (we must have just missed the line because there were almost no available seats).

It’s basically a fast food restaurant with places to sit…like McDonalds but without a drive-thru and bad rep. It’s appropriate for someone who just got done with a workout to go and mingle with buddies but also appropriate for someone who wants to show off their new outfit (ahem ladies). Go with a big group of people and eat peanuts and drink your fountain drink while you wait for your food.

Some of you may be wondering “should I get the fries?” The answer is YES. Five Guys cook their fries in peanut oil which make them have a unique/delicious taste. I suggest splitting a thing of fries with the people you go with (one thing of fries for 2/3 people), especially if you get a regular sized burger (2 meat patties) because they give you SO many fries.

Conclusion of this post…CHECK OUT FIVE GUYS! If you’re a burger person and you haven’t been there yet I feel embarrassed for you.

Until next time,

Ginny

Having trouble finding any of the places we’ve talked about?

Hey everyone!

So we’ve been referencing a lot of places you and your friends can go around Ithaca and it just recently occurred to us that maybe you all don’t know where these places are. Cinemapolis, Bench Warmers, Urban Outiftters, New Delhi Diamonds…ok so sure, we told you they were in the commons, but maybe you don’t have all day to walk around and try to find EXACTLY where their locations are. Don’t worry though! Emily and I have made this cute little map that gives you the address of the places we reference in our blog and pictures of each place. So now there is no excuse as to why your social life is not up to par

View Larger Map

Staying in Tonight?

Since I’ve gotten a job at the State Diner, I haven’t had much opportunity to go out much on the weekends. (I have to work early both Saturday and Sunday… yuck!) A friend of mine also doesn’t go out much on weekends, so the two of us decided to deviate from our now-standard movie and junk food nights. We headed to the mall and bought knitting supplies!

Now, if you’ve never done anything like this before, my friend Becca bought a “getting started” kit for about $12– it includes two pairs of needles, some funny looking plastic doodads that I’m sure will come in handy, and a book that helps you to get started. The knit-kit includes instructions on how to knit three different items: in this case, a scarf, an afghan, and a shawl.

For a knitting expert, like me, (and I use the term expert extremely lightly — my grandmother taught me how to knit years ago. She’s actually taught me several times, I just keep forgetting!) a pair of knitting needles costs about $5 at A.C. Moore, depending on the size of the needles. And yes, the needle size does count — the smaller the needles, the more tightly knit your final result will be.

With a quick pit stop at Borders (I bought the new Backstreet Boys CD… yeah, they’re still coming out with stuff, and yeah, I did actually spend money on it. I’m just sweet like that.) we left the mall and headed back to my room. For the rest of the night, we sat on my bed, trying desperately to figure out how on earth these two little needles could make something as intricate as a sweater, or even as simple as a scarf. There was laughter, there was frustration, there was the musical stylings of the Backstreet Boys… we only got a few rows done each by the end of the night, but we had a ton of fun trying to figure it all out.

So spend a few bucks on some supplies, grab some friends, and learn a new skill. Be it knitting, crocheting, drawing, or scrapbooking; who cares? Not everything in your social life needs to be done outside the home, and this way, you get a tangible memento of your hobby, even if it is just a knobbly scarf you wouldn’t wear in public if your life depended on it… Because really, guys, knitting’s “knot” as easy as you might think…

We Want To Hear From You!

Hey everyone! So I hope everyone’s week has been going well. Ithaca College has fall break this week so we get two extra days to our weekend. Oh what to do. Well Where The Wild Things Are came out today….I’m going and I’m excited! I’ll let you all know how that goes.

But what this post is really about is all of YOU. Emily and I want to know what you all like to do for fun. We’ve written about festivals, movies, shopping, and food….but what interests all of you? What would you like to add to your social life to spice it up even more? Tell us and we’ll expand on it. We’ll let you know places you can go and add our quirky comments.

Oh and don’t think you’re not going to hear more about Halloween activities you can do! I have more October fun you and your friends can partake in.

Until next time,

~Ginny

Zombieland and Halloween

How has everyone’s social life been treating them? I hope awesome! If not, I’m here to help.

I love October. Reasons why:

1) The trees are turning colors, it’s not too cold yet…perfect autumn weather.

2) and it’s the month of Halloween! The entire month of October is basically themed around Halloween, from restaurant decorations to department store products to movies being played.

So how can you and your freinds embrace the Halloween spirit like I know you all want to? Go see Zombieland! For real, it will not dissapoint you.

The gore is hilarious and unnecessary. The movie is about a teenage kid, they call him Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg, so cute!) who meets up with “Tallahassee” (played by Woody Harrelson, so funny!). These guys are two of the only humans left in the United States that aren’t zombies. Later they meet up with “Wichita” and “Little Rock” (played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) and the movie is then about these four characters carpooling together, Wichita and Little Rock going to an amusement park, and Tallahassee and Columbus just tagging a long. There are so many laugh out loud moments in this movie! Think Superbad meets 28 Days Later…pretty hilarious. Watch the trailer.

So what is everyone being for Halloween? Wait you haven’t put much thought into it? THAT’S CRAZY! Plan ahead and it will save you money and last minute stress. It’s a good thing I’ve been planning ahead and scoping out the best Halloween stores because now I can tell you where to go.

There’s a Halloween shop on Dryden Road in CollegeTown. Don’t go there. Everything is hardcore over priced. For real, a slutty costume for a girl that involves as little material as possible costs $80. I suggest checking out the Ithaca mall. There are two Halloween stores right across from the food court. One of them is called The Costume Place (such an original name) and I don’t remember the name of the other store…but it is literally right next to The Costume Place. The store with the name I don’t remember is pretty expensive, same slutty outfit for $80. However, The Costume Place is relatively cheap. The same costumes that are in the other stores are $40 instead of $80 (STILL SO EXPENSIVE RIGHT?). The store’s accessories are extra cheap though, so I suggest to everyone that you make/use your own clothes for the clothing aspect of your outfit (if it’s simple) and buy all the accessories at The Costume Place.

You could literally wear anything related to your costume theme and buy cheap accessories to complement it. Ok so what’s cheap? I bought a cop hat for $4.99 at The Costume Place. At both the other stores, the exact same hat was $14.99. I bought a cop badge for $1.99 and typical cop aviator shades for $2.99. They have SOOOO much other stuff too though! My friend almost got some sweet Spock ears for $4.99 that were $10 at the other places (she ended up not getting them because she doesn’t know what she wants to be…she just really likes Star Trek)

So maybe you don’t know what you want to be yet? Go Halloween shopping anyways and just call it more browsing than shopping. There is such an array of items that you will more than likely end up leaving the store knowing what you want to be. So take your friends to see Zombieland, then hit up some costume shops (I suggest The Costume Place) and get your costume creative minds working. Embrace the month of October!

~Ginny

Applefest, Part Two!

Okay everyone, there’s one more day of Applefest left, and if you haven’t gone yet, you should definitely check it out. As I sit at my desk right now, I am surrounded by a bag of kettlecorn (there are two stands for kettlecorn at Applefest, and one is cheaper than the other, so shop around.), a bag of fresh concord grapes, a new bracelet, and a delicious caramel apple. (Again, shop around. There’s one stand that tries to sell them for a whopping $5.00 each! Mine was $3.00, and looks absolutely scrumptious.)

If you haven’t noticed yet from my previous posts and parenthetical comments, I’m a pretty hardcore bargain shopper. And as I mentioned above, it’s a good idea to shop around at Applefest to get the best deals. For example, some stands sell Apple Crisp sundaes for $3.00, and others go for $4.50. Caramel apples run anywhere from $2.00 to $5.00, and I saw water bottles on sale for as low as $0.75 and as high as $2.00. The Commons really aren’t that big, so it’s definitely worth it to walk around and figure out prices and where everything is instead of digging in and shopping right away.

Here's me enjoying a tasty caramel apple. Note the bag of kettlecorn in my hands, too. Yum yum yum, food is my favorite part of any festival!

Some things I recommend? There’s a stand right in the center of the Commons, next to where the t-shirts are sold, where they offer Apple-pear cider. It’s DELICIOUS. And only $1.00 a cup, either hot or cold. (In this newly brisk weather, I suggest hot.) They also sell jugs of it, but those are a little more pricey. As for the apple crisp, I bought an apple crisp sundae from a New York Giants tent near the center of the Commons for $3.00, and it was like a little piece of heaven. The apple crisp is warm, and the ice cream is great. It’s one of those things that you just have to have at some point. Down near the Seneca St. bus station, there’s a big purple stand selling pierogies with all sorts of toppings and such. I would be putting my extremely Polish family to shame if I didn’t mention this vendor. I didn’t try the regular pierogies, because I generally don’t eat them unless they are homemade by my mother and my aunt (I’m a pierogi snob, go ahead, say it. I know you were thinking it.) but they invented an Apple Pierogi, and I tried a sample of it. It’s like apple pie in a pierogi! Warm spiced apples in a pierogi shell, drizzled with warm caramel on top… mmmm. I think I’ll head back tomorrow and buy some.

As for the non-appley items, try the Concord grapes being sold at the very end of the Commons, by Cayuga St. They’re $1.50 a bunch, delicious, and healthy for you, too! And the roasted corn on the cob in front of Maté Factor is the among the best I have ever tried. And coming from a corn-fed country girl such as myself, that is saying something, believe me. Let’s not mention the amount of food I have consumed this weekend, please. I’m trying not to think about it, especially since I’ll be going back tomorrow…

Applefest has really got something for everyone. A lot of the items for sale are more then a little pricey, but how often do you get to pig out on carnival food, anyway, right? It’s all about the experience!

So go, go, go! And check out Applefest tomorrow! It begins at 10am and ends at 6:30pm. Maybe I’ll see you around. I’ll be the one with an armful of junkfood and a wallet emptied of cash.

Bubble Tea!

So how’s everyone’s social life been lately? I really hope you all are going to apple fest this weekend! Seriously, GO TO APPLE FEST! Anyways…I’m not going to be talking about apple fest. I have a feeling you all guessed what I was going to be talking about if you read the title of the blog…bubble tea!

This week I ventured over to The Old Tea House in CollegeTown. I figured it was finally time to try some bubble tea!  Ithaca is swarming with places that sell bubble tea and I went an entire year without even attempting to try it.

There it is...The Old Tea House

Without having ever seen bubble tea my initial thought process was, “Oh it must be tea with like carbonation or lots of foam on the top or something.” The idea of bubble tea being tea with huge balls of tapioca in it never crossed my mind.

Let me start with my experience with The Old Tea House before I ramble on about how I feel about bubble tea. So my friend and I go into The Old Tea House. The place is small and cozy. Two televisions were on, one if which was playing Bring It On (the one with Hayden Panettiere…I don’t know what one that is…Bring It On Four maybe?) anyways….there’s comfy couch chairs and dim lighting and a strong smell of what I would describe as pudding.

The first thing we notice is the huge sign that says CASH ONLY. Oh snap! Of course we wouldn’t have cash! So we venture off in college town looking for an ATM. We can’t access any of the  ATM’s that are inside the banks because the doors are locked. When we’re just about to give up my friend sees an ATM in Green Cafe. Woot!

So we’re back in The Old Tea House looking at the MANY MANY MANY options of bubble tea that we can get. The menu is split into six sections, Green Tea, Black Tea, Blizzards, Black Tea with milk, Green Tea with milk, and an Icee section. What does this all mean?? We looked at the menu cluelessly for about 10 minutes until I decided that it was time to ask what everything was. The woman behind the counter was actually extremely sweet and helpful. So I am going to pass on the information that she gave me so all of you will not have to ask what everything means.

1) So there’s plain Black Tea and Green Tea (with a whole bunch of flavors) and Black Tea and Green Tea with milk (which according to the woman behind the counter is the most popular).

2) You can get whole milk and skim milk put into the tea (she also suggested that for your first time you get whole milk instead of skim milk because it will taste better).

3) The blizzards are like milkshake/smoothie things. They have ice cream in them (no tea).

4) The icee’s also have no tea.

5) Everything comes with tapioca balls at the bottom but you can order drinks without them in it (however then it won’t be bubble tea, just regular tea).

6) Mango, coconut, and almond are the most popular flavors (there were so many flavors to choose from that I felt inclined to ask what she recommended).

7) She also told me that black tea is better than green tea.

So I ended up getting coconut black tea with whole milk and my friend got a strawberry icee without tapioca balls in them. Each one cost $3.50, not a bad price if I do say so myself.

The thing about bubble tea is you shouldn’t drink it if you’re thirsty because with each sip about three big balls of tapioca get sucked through the straw and you have to take the time and chew them, etc. I enjoyed my first four sips or so, but after that I felt sick. There was just too many tapioca balls and i wasn’t feeling the coconut flavor.

My coconut bubble tea is on the left (those black dots on the bottom are the tapioca)...On the right is my friend's strawberry Icee

I told one of the girls I work with about my bubble tea experience (she LOVES the stuff!) and she said she felt the same way the first four times she had it, but now she’s addicted. I promised her that I would not give up on bubble tea just yet. Next week I’m going to venture off and try mango, then maybe strawberry, then pineapple? maybe apple, raspberry banana….ahh SO many flavors to choose from!

So…the next time your bored, instead of just laying around and doing nothing…hit up The Old Tea House in College Town and let me know about your bubble tea experience!

~Ginny