Brunch Spot: Zabby and Elf's Stone Soup

Since the weekend is near, I'll provide you with a brunch spot suggestion. At the beginning of the year, my friend and Burlington local Greta introduced me to heaven on earth, also known to some as Zabby and Elf's Stone Soup. The restaurant, which only serves locally grown food, is located right off of Church St. and serves soups, salads, hot beverages and has a full bar of warm goodness to offer. If you're lucky, you can get a seat on the veranda and people-watch.

Eating Animals / The Food Project

Every year, SMC assigns a book as summer reading to all incoming freshman in order to unite all students on at least one common topic and stimulate debate. This year's book is Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, who has also written the critically-acclaimed- book-turn-critically-acclaimed-film Everything is Illuminated. This book mainly deals with Foer's quest to find out where the meat on his plate came from (it's not an easy process to stomach) and how he sees society incorporating ethics into our diet choices. My fellow blogger and "knight", Sarah, has written all about her experience with the reading here. You can also read more about a previous summer reading assignment on the blog of recent SMC graduate Dan Ozimek here.

Every First Year Seminar will complete a project or discussion based on the summer reading. For my First Year Seminar, I'll be joining the honors section in the "Living Digital" class taught by Prof Kimberly Sultze. As part of our summer assignment, we were asked to document our own eating habits through 10-15 photographs (as a response to the reading). Here are some snaps I've taken over the summer...

Sampling Garrett's popcorn in Chicago - it's coated in cheddar cheese

A regular breakfast at the LSE residence in London

One of our London student pig-out nights, complete with Domino's pizza, soda, beer and Ben & Jerry's

Finally at home in Geneva and able to enjoy my father's brilliant cooking!

A British Affair: Dining in London

Do you know what London's most popular dish is? It's not bangers and mash or shepard's pie, but in fact chicken tikka masala! This really represents the diversity of ethnicities and cultures in London; the city is jam-packed with ethnic restaurants and it's very common not to understand the languages being spoken on the streets.


Some easy dining options that you will find all over town include Prêt à Manger, Eat and Costa, which all have a variety of fresh sandwiches, soups, wraps and salads to go. Some ethnic chains include Wasabi (Japanese) and Nero Café (Italian). Then, if you're willing to sacrifice your health, there are always the global comforts that are Starbucks, Burger King and McDonald's (though ironically enough, McDo owns Prêt which prides itself on the freshness of its food). I also eat quite a lot at Café 54, which offers a wonderful hommous and yogurt salad and is conveniently located inside the LSE's New Academic Building (where I have all my lectures and seminars). There's a nice picnic space behind the NAB, so students normally pick up food to eat on the concrete tables or the steps, and it's great to hang about there when you've only got an hour between the lecture and the seminar. Another one of my favourite restaurants near both the residence and the campus is Belgo, which is Belgian and known for "moules, frites, bières" (mussels, fries, beers) - if you go on week days, you can get a lunch special and nab a delicious meal and a decent price.

Dining out does get quite pricey though - especially in London - so my friends and I make use of our resident kitchens to cook and hang about, eating and arguing about whatever strikes our fancy (with lots and lots of hand gestures, since my main gang of friends are Italian). We get all our ingredients from the Sainsbury's down the street so dinner doesn't normally cost us more than two pounds each - a bargain, considering that we normally average out at about fifteen pounds each when dining out. In the photo, we're cooking chicken and vegetable curry with couscous - the specialty of the night's cook, Lodovica (centre photo) and we've also made lots of pasta on previous evenings. This Wednesday, I'll be serving up some Thai dishes for our gang - wish me luck ;)