Tag Archives: rice

college, Food, friends, L.A. Life, student life, USC

Three Best Eats at the USC Village

March 15, 2022 Shelly Hacco

By Connor Brown

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[3 minute read]

The USC Village is home to many restaurants and retail stores, and offers enough variety to suit anyone’s taste. The Village is an incredibly convenient location for USC students given its proximity to campus, and is one of the best spots to grab lunch in the immediate area. It isn’t just the dining hall, dorms, and Target, but a bunch of good eats too! Here are my top three favorite eateries in the Village:

Cava

Cava has been my most frequented Village location (besides Trader Joe’s) since I arrived on campus three years ago. It offers big bowls of Mediterranean food at a relatively decent price in a build-it-yourself style that offers complete customization. You can think of it as Chipotle for Mediterranean food, though I think this chain is much better than Chipotle. I usually go for a rice bowl with some lettuce, then load it up with hummus, kalamata olives, pickled onions, and cucumbers. There are many different protein options, and I tend to go with either the harissa honey chicken or the falafel. Suitable for a wide variety of diets, Cava is a great place to grab a meal between classes or meet with friends and chow down. It’s always fun to meet a friend there, order your bowl, and head on over to the Great Lawn to chat and eat on the grass, enjoying the California sun and afternoon vibes.

Il Giardino

Hungry for pasta? This is the place for you! Il Giardino is the home of Italian food at the Village, and offers a number of different types of pasta and sandwiches. Whether you like to keep it simple and roll with spaghetti with tomato sauce, prefer a hearty bolognese, or want a pasta and fish dish, Il Giardino has got you covered. I’ve yet to try their sandwiches, given my affinity for pasta, but I have heard nothing but good things. They have fun Italian sodas as well, their fridge always holding a number of different flavors of San Pellegrino, which pair well with whatever entree you get. If you’re craving Italian food and don’t want to have to go far to find something good, Il Giardino is a solid spot.

City Tacos

When I heard Trejo’s Tacos in the Village was closing, I thought it would be missed. While there are an abundance of tacos spots around LA and near USC, having a tasty taco joint in the Village was wonderfully convenient. City Tacos opened a couple months ago in the same storefront where Trejo’s used to be, and I’ve been impressed with my first couple of visits there. They have a lot of tacos. I mean — a lot. Whether you’re looking for breakfast tacos, fish tacos, carne asada, chicken, al pastor, or something else, City Tacos will probably have what you’re looking for. They even do California-style burritos that come with french fries inside, which as a native Californian, my definitely totally completely unbiased opinion strongly approves of. I’m looking forward to trying more from City Tacos, and recommend you give it a try as well!

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college, Food, lifestyle, student life

My Favorite foods to cook in College

November 9, 2021 Shelly Hacco

By Tiffany Mays

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[3 minute read]

Over the years, cooking has been a form of catharsis for me. Between class and work, cooking is one of the easiest ways for me to take time out of my schedule for myself. Amongst the highs and the lows of everyday life, preparing food allows me to express myself in ways beyond words. It helps me remember who I am and put aside my worries and insecurities if just for a minute. Each food has a signature scent that I often associate with a moment in my life. Filling the room with aromatic smells of crispy, savory, spicy, or citrusy meals, it’s often hard to pick just one dish. In spite of the array of options available, I always seem to cook exactly what I want. These dishes not only smell delicious, but also help me reminisce on my past, think about the present, and look towards the future as well.

Food is like an art form, and as the artist I feel it is up to me to create something beautiful whenever I step into the kitchen. Without a doubt, cooking is an art that requires hours of practice, repetition, discipline, and patience. The intricacies of cooking go far beyond simply combining ingredients together, but knowing what flavors, textures, and aromas go together to form the perfect dish. To be an artist in the kitchen is harder than it looks, and trust me I’ve tried. After watching a few Food Network shows, it might seem easy, but chef’s spend years perfecting their craft. While I cannot say that I am there yet, I hope to be in the near future.

The joy of cooking is such an easy thing to incorporate into your life, but many don’t know what dishes they might like to cook. Here’s a few of my favorite dishes to cook in the kitchen for inspiration:

Dinner

Jerk chicken, rice and peas, and fried plantains

Growing up in a West Indian household, my mom used to make this quite often for our family. Making it now really reminds me of home, and the comfort I felt at that time.

Chicken or shrimp empanadas and yellow rice

One of my favorite restaurants in New York City is a Cuban restaurant that served this exact dish at their establishment. While simple, this dish is always a staple in my diet, and easy to make from scratch.

Chicken Parmesan

Inspired by some of the food I used to get in Little Italy, I like to make this dish once per week. One of my favorite pasta sauce’s to pair it with is Rao’s Marinera Sauce.

Chicken Lo Mein

Whether I use udon noodles or regular spaghetti noodles for this dish, it always tastes good. I prefer to use bok choy, broccoli, carrots, and green onions for my vegetables, but it’s really up to you what you would like to include.

Appetizers

Fried Chicken Wings

After marinating the chicken overnight in a mixture of spices, you can’t go wrong with fried chicken wings. It’s a quick and easy meal that everyone loves to eat.

Shrimp Calamari

This dish is one of my favorite things to get when I go back home, and is super easy to make at home!

Dessert

Beignets

These French pastries pair really nicely with a cup of hot chocolate or coffee in the morning.

Coconut Cupcakes

Cupcakes are super easy to make from scratch, and by adding a little bit of vanilla and almond extract they taste even better! The coconut adds a fun new flavor that you don’t often see in cupcakes.

I hope this list gave you some ideas for dishes you would like to cook. If you want to start cooking regularly but are still having trouble planning out your meals, I recommend making a list of dishes you know you like and referencing this before you go to the grocery store so you will know what ingredients you need to get for the week!

Featured Image by Abbey Houston on Unsplash

Tiffany is a Master’s Student from New York City studying Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Her Bachelor’s degree is from USC in Human Biology on the Applied Physiology track with a Minor in Health Care Studies. She hopes to pursue a MD-PhD in the near future. She has conducted molecular biology, stem cell biology, and cancer biology research at UPC, HSC, and CHLA. On campus, she participated in many student organizations such as GlobeMed at USC and the Marching Band where she played flute. In her free time, she likes baking, exploring LA, trying new food, and hanging out with friends.

L.A. Life

Los Angeles = Foodie City

April 6, 2015 Shelly Hacco

By Skye Kriger

Food is a huge part of my life.

I know what you’re thinking. Of course it is, food is essential to life. It tastes good, and it gives you energy to get through the day.

But it’s more than that to me. Growing up both American and Japenese, my mother made it a point to make sure I was exposed to a wide range of foods. I experienced all kinds of cultural foods from a young age and quickly developed a refined palate (for my age, at least) and a love for exploration and experimentation with cuisine.

One of my favorite things about being well-versed in food, aside consumption of the food itself, is that nearly anyone can talk about it,and everyone has a different experience to share. We all grow up eating different things, passed on to us by our parents, depending on their own upbringing and cultural backgrounds. Just like celebrating culture-specific holidays, the type of meal you eat for breakfast (in my case, cereal on American days and rice, fish, and soup on Japanese days) can shape your childhood and, by extension, your appreciation for other foreign food in adulthood.