Eating Ann Arbor, Part 1

Without a meal plan for the first time in four years, most weeks I fend for myself for twenty out of twenty-one meals. Meal number twenty-one is usually a shared meal after church. About once every other week, though, I’ve eaten out at one of the numerous restaurants in Ann Arbor. Similar to Ithaca, you can get a wide variety of cuisines in Ann Arbor, ranging in quality from late night drunk food to unaffordable on my stipend. The following is my rating¹ for every restaurant I’ve eaten at so far. Keep in mind that I’ll eat almost anything, I’ve probably had a sandwich for lunch for about 170 of my 180 days in Ann Arbor so far, and I don’t mind eating the same thing for dinner for a week straight.­ I also tend to rate everything starting at a 3 and move up or down as necessary.

1. Bewon (Korean) – After (yet another) homework session, a couple friends and I went out for dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year. I had the bibimbap, which was served with warm (purple) rice and mostly cold vegetables, including cucumber, bean sprouts, carrots, and spinach. The overall portion was large, but it was a little short on meat (beef) and it got cold by the time I finished. Still, it was good, and the rating gets increased a bit because they served us a variety of sides and tea that had taste.
Rating: 3.5/5

2. Cardamom (Indian) – For whatever reason, Ithaca has at least three Indian buffet places, two of them next to each other, and I’ve eaten at all three. At Cardamom, there wasn’t a buffet, but I enjoyed my meal there nonetheless. It’s pretty standard Indian food. They do have a naan that’s filled with nuts and other things that was really good.
Rating: 3.5/5

3. Evergreen (Chinese) – I’ve been to this restaurant twice. The first time we went for a quick meal and ordered off the lunch special menu, which was like every other Chinese lunch special menu ever.² The second time I went with a larger group of people and we ordered family style. Surprisingly, the food was not drowning in sauce, salt, or oil, and we left satisfied with the quality, quantity, and cost of the food. They also have the honor of making the first eggplant dish that I’ve liked.
Rating: 3/5 (lunch special menu), 4/5 (traditional menu)

4. Frita Batidos (Cuban) – Be forewarned this is not where you go if you want a light meal. That said, the frita part of the name comes from Cuban-inspired burgers made from chorizo. The batido is a milkshake . . . and you can add rum to it. So we did. We had a passion fruit milkshake with rum, then for dessert we got churros. It’s something different from standard pasta/burgers/sandwiches, and worth trying at least once. (By the way, Google Translate tells me the name together means “fried batter.” Like I said, not light fare.)
Rating: 4/5 (because alcoholic milkshakes and churros)

5. Kang’s (Korean) – Basic Korean restaurant, decent food. I ordered the spicy beef and it could have come with more vegetables, but otherwise the taste was fine. This is probably the only place on this half of the list I wouldn’t go to if I wanted a nicer dinner, and it’s starting to push the top of my price range for lunch, but it’s another option for Asian food.
Rating: 2.5/5

6. Madras Marsala (Indian) – Another Indian restaurant. I had the chicken biryani, which I might have ordered a little spicier than I should have. I know authentic biryani involves over a dozen spices (meanwhile, the entirety of my spice rack (okay, it’s a box) in my apartment is eight spices, and that number includes salt and pepper), but it turned out over-flavored. It would have been okay if I’d been eating it with other dishes, but by itself it was a bit much.
Rating: 3/5

7. Neopapalis (pizza) – Average pizza place with the option to choose your own toppings or order pre-set pizzas. The pizza we ordered was a bit oily but tasty. (Cornell dining makes surprisingly good pizza, precisely because it tends to be on the drier side, though they sometimes solve their “crap, these vegetables need to be used up” problems with the pizzas. And giant bins of shredded carrots in the salad bar. And carrot cake, heavy on the carrots.)
Rating: 3/5

¹My ratings can be described as follows:
0 – Don’t eat here unless someone pays you a significant fraction of your annual income.
1 – If it was free, it would still be a toss up whether I ate it or not.
2 – Food is edible, but I wouldn’t choose to eat here if there were better options.
3 – Solid choice, would voluntarily go back.
4 – Very good food, would definitely recommend to other people.
5 – Best meal of any given month.

²My cooking goal is to be able to make subpar knock-off versions of any dish you’d find on a Chinese lunch special menu. So far I’ve made orange chicken, teriyaki chicken with pineapple, General Tso’s chicken, kung pao chicken, and beef and broccoli. And also tacos, but those aren’t Chinese unless you add soy sauce. I basically make the same sauce base for every single one of these dishes and add one or two different ingredients.