Reunited and it tastes so good...

As fun as it was to see everyone last weekend for our 5th Reunion at Yale, it was almost as fun to revisit all our favorite food haunts. Food played such an integral role in our college lives, from spending a lazy Sunday brunch in the dining hall doing crossword puzzles and recounting our weekends, to making late night runs for pan fried dumplings at the Ivy Noodle or clogging our arteries with fried donuts from the Yankee Doodle. And, surprisingly, New Haven has great food for a town its size.

Sadly, the weekend wasn't long enough, and there weren't enough meals in the day, to hit all our favorite spots. But here's a photo tour of the places we did manage to hit:

Friday Night Dinner and Drinks - Mory's

Mory's... the food is mediocre and way overpriced, but where else can you drink mysterious colored libations from giant trophy cups? Full of tradition, ceremony, and singing, it's a quintessential Yale experience.


1am Snack - Yorkside Pizza

Our go-to snack at 1am was usually the Ivy Noodle, but unfortunately, the Ivy Noodle was on summer hours, meaning they closed at 12am, so instead, we went to Yorkside, another late night mainstay. Some people like Yorkside's pizza, but I don't. There's much better pizza in New Haven. Their calzones, however, are unbeatable.

These baked monstrosities might not seem like much from the outside, but these doughy vessels hide a cheesy goodness that oozes forth when you slice them open. Though I used to polish these off single-handedly, that night Van and Mel helped me out (we had, after all, just had dinner).

The deliciousness you see here is the mixture of ricotta, mozzarella, meatballs and mushrooms that fill the calzone. The creaminess of the ricotta and the chewiness of the mozzarella complement each other perfectly. These calzones are still a regular craving of mine that, sadly, cannot be satisfied anywhere but New Haven.

Saturday Lunch - Thai Taste

For lunch Saturday, a large group of us went to Thai Taste, a Thai restaurant underneath a hotel on Chapel St. This was the first place I had ever had Thai food, and it's a good one. I had the drunken noodles, which were generously portioned and deliciously chewy.

Morse Dining Hall

We didn't eat there, but the door was unlocked so we did get to go inside and check out the dining hall where we spent so much of our time procrastinating with 2 hour meals. They got an impressive new Morse banner that livens the place up a bit.

Class Dinner - Yale Commons

We had our class dinner at the grandiose Commons dining hall (which doubles for a library in the new Indiana Jones movie). This was definitely the best meal I have ever had at Commons (not a high bar to meet). But the steak was surprisingly delicious.


Midnight Snack - Ivy Noodle

We managed to just make it to the Ivy Noodle in time to grab some food to go before their 12am summer closing time. My favorite things at the Noodle are the pan fried dumplings and the scallion pancakes. Their roast pork on rice and chow fun are also good. But don't get the fried rice... they don't actually fry it (and as Van found out, if you ask them to, you just end up with no peas).

Though we managed to hit most of the places that were at the top of my list of favorites, other favorites that I missed out on:
Nirvana - now called Zaroka, but it'll always be Nirvana to us. The best of the many Indian places around campus.
Louie's Lunch - supposedly the birthplace of the hamburger. Their burgers are tasty, and so is their potato salad.
The Educated Burgher - great burgers and breakfast food at great prices.

But, the most tragic of all the places that I didn't get to eat at... the Yankee Doodle. The Doodle was a mainstay on the Yale campus for generations, yet it was forced to close because of financial problems.

It's a travesty that such a Yale institution was allowed to go under. Who else would be able to make such great use of such a tiny space (their one-counter restaurant was almost as small as my dorm room). Their greasy burgers, fried donuts and old school atmosphere are greatly missed.