Over April break my family and I went to Hershey Park, but more importantly, Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia, we went to Reading Terminal Market and Franklin Fountain. In Reading Terminal Market, there are so many places you can get food, from all different places in the country and the world. Of course, I had to get a Philly cheese steak since we were in Philly. I had never had a cheese steak before so I knew if I was going to get the best I might get it. It was the best cheese steak I ever had (seeing as though I had never had one before. Then, we went to Franklin Fountain, which is a famous old-time ice cream parlor featured on Man vs. Food. We got the Mount Vesuvius, which is 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream with brownie chunks topped with whipped cream, hot fudge, and malt powder. It was the best ice cream I ever have.

Nicole O Food at UCONN Whenever I visit my sister at college one of my favorite things is going to the café. My sister goes to the University of Connecticut and the dorm that she is in just got a new café last year and it is seriously amazing. Most of the other cafes are just like your usual high school cafeteria but this one is different. This new one really focuses on international food so there’s so much exotic and different foods than your average college student would usually have. One of my favorites that they had there was the Chinese food, but that is probably just because I love Chinese food. All the food was cooked there so it was so fresh and delicious. One time I was there in the morning and my sister and I went to the omelet bar. The omelet bar is just like a salad bar but for omelets. First you get a little cup and fill it up with everything that you want in your omelet such as vegetables or meats, then you chose your type of cheese that you want. Next, you give your cup to one of the chiefs and tell them if you want an egg white or whole egg omelet and they make it right in front of you! The omelet that I had there was seriously the best omelet I’ve ever had! Another food you can get is flat bread pizza. There is a big pizza oven right in the middle of the dining hall so you can actually watch the pizza being made if you want to. There is always regular cheese pizza and then a special of the day. When I got pizza from there the special was pizza with mozzarella cheese and spinach and it was amazing! Overall, I would highly recommend eating at that dining hall if you are ever at UCONN. I don’t know the exact name of it but it is right in the middle of campus and it is seriously worth the trip up to UCONN. You won’t regret it I promise!

Over Spring Break, me and my family went to Las Vegas. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. We stayed in the strip, in the MGM Grand Hotel. It was such a beautiful, and fun experience to see all the different sights there. We ate out every single day at a different spot each time. I remember one of my favorite places called Blizz. It was a cute little froyo place that served froyo, and yummy breakfast foods. Me my mom and Riley all got mouthwatering crepes. I got the classic banana nutella crepe, my mom got the banana strawberry nutella crepe, and Riley got the apple crepe. This was hands down one of the best breakfast's I've ever had in my life, and the best part about it is that I can easily make it myself! Jurnee M

Gustavo Porto Mrs. Hoagland April 30, 2013 Culinary Blog 5 Restaurant Food Critic Weekends These past two weekends have been fun in terms of food. This weekend we went to a burger joint called 5 Napkin in NYC and last weekend, we went to an Italian restaurant in Long Island called Ragazzi. Both restaurants had amazing food and we had a great food and we had a great time eating there The first restaurant we went to was the Italian Ragazzi. Ragazzi is a small/medium sized Italian restaurant in Long Island, Ney York. What impressed me the most about this restaurant was the décor. They had great decorations and the bar they had was also very fancy with a great amount of drinks. The tables were all set up nicely and the service provided from the workers was great as well. The only thing that didn’t impress me was the menu they had. The menu had your stereotypical Italian food; nothing like you haven’t seen before. And there also weren’t many choices to pick from. The menu had only about 7 things to choose from. That could’ve been because it was prepaid from the party but still not very impressive. I feel that a fancy Italian restaurant should have more, and better choices to choose from when you go. But overall, the restaurant was a great place to eat and the food and service was great. I recommend going to Ragazzi when visiting Long Island to have some great food. This weekend, we went to NYC with a few friends and we stopped at a burger joint called 5 Napkin. 5 Napkin is a lot like the restaurant 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. The restaurant was mostly based off of burgers than anything else but they also had other dishes that were great as well. They had a bar in it too which made it even more interesting and their menu was amazing. They had a wide spread of options of burgers and many other dishes. They had so many choices it was hard to pick one! Their desserts and beverages were amazing too. I had a brownie lava cake and it was amazing. All of the food there was great. I highly recommend stopping by for lunch when visiting NYC. Probably one of the best burger joints I’ve been to. Both the restaurants were great and had great foods. I recommend any reader reading this to consider eating at one of these two places for a great time. You will not be disappointed. -G.P.

ever since I was little my dad has been bringing home all delicious kinds of BBQ foods all from the same restaurant; that is The Dinosaur BBQ restaurant. as i got older I began to see the restaurant all on different magazines and on TV. i always wanted to go and get the whole experience being there. I found out they had a location in Harlem, NY and in Syracuse, NY. finally i got my opportunity to go because my family and i were headed to syracuse to visit the college. the first thing we did when we arrived is we went to the restaurant. the restaurant itself was very small and it had all the name carvings in the tables and walls on who has been there also it was covered in old fashioned rock bands and signs. once the food came out it was amazing. i got the pulled pork platter. it came with corn bread,brisket, pulled pork, coleslaw, and corn. it was amazing and the restaurant lived up to what it was hyped to be. -jack c.

I really liked how the grilled pizza we did in class was different from your typical baked pizza, and wanted to do at home. Even more importantly, my parents haven't had in recent memory any freshly made pesto. Nothing about that sentence was right. I made it a must to make some to try, and we might as well make some pizza to go with it. The dough was made quickly enough, though we bought the sauce. Sue me. We also picked up some fresh mushrooms to top it with, which added some nice meatyness (No, I don't know if that's a word. No, I'm not going to check). We used a gas bbq grill, which made putting the stretchy, thin, freshly oiled dough a little tricky to work with. Small pizzas, we found, are a lot easier when thin. Once those were one, the pesto was proccessed quickly, maybethrowing in a little salt here, cheese there. Easy. Off came the dough, on went toppings, grill it a bit more to melt it all. It was delicious with each piece topped with a healthy smattering of pesto, and everyone assured me so. My favorite thing about it was how simple and quick it was. There was no fussing, nothing to figure out, just assemble and do. I think we're going to make pizza again together for a while to come. Drew Szarke

Sadly I have not had too many fun experiences with food in the past couple weeks, but good news! I AM STARTING A DIET. Now don't give me the typical, "Oh, you don't need to lose weight." This is not a diet to lose weight but to manage what foods and drinks I intake on a daily basis. I noticed that I drink a lot of chocolate milk and soda, and eat a lot of chocolate, sugar-filled foods, and Five Guys burgers AND fries. That's just not cutting it. I realized that I needed to incorporate more fruits, vegetables, healthier meat, and juices. To start off this new diet I packed an entire lunch for the next day of school. It consisted of 3 different drinks. 1: Water to flush out any toxins from previous junk food. 2: Apple juice to provide healthy sugars and nutrition for my body. 3: Cranberry-Grape juice to also provide healthy sugars and nutrition for my body. For food I packed a banana for potassium and nutrition, an apple because "An apple a day keeps the doctor away", strawberries for vitamin c, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for carbs, and a poptart in the morning because I'm addicted. I also put together a salad consisting of lettuce, tomatoes, turkey, and cheese. I may have also eaten some chocolate during the day...IT WAS SO TEMPTING.

-Alex Hassinger