Poor Hungry Engineers

There are a lot of things we poor college students will do when hungry - eat cheap ramen, eat bagels, eat anything that is less than $1.00, bum off friends, find free food events on campus, eat samples. Doing these things are common place, and not taboo. One of the greatest feelings as a college student is the feeling of eating free food. YUM! Free Chinese food? Yes, please!

Have you ever eaten a random person's box of leftover Chinese food without asking them? Now, "random person" is a little loaded - this person was not random, but we also did not ask for permission to eat his Chinese food when he left for the night. We took his leave as his way of saying he abandoned his food. This all happened at one of the Engineering building's computer labs recently, and suffice it to say...we probably would do it again.

Free Samples = Dinner

Amuse-Bouche: Fresh Pickled Vegetables

Soup: Maria's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Entrée: Rice Crackers with Assorted Dips

Cheese: Stella Fontinella, Two Sisters Dutch Gouda

Dessert: Peanut Butter and Jelly on Toast Points

Poor College Students Support Other Poor College Students

Did you forget it was Mother's Day? Why not buy your mom some Mimi Truffles? Handmade by our fellow friends Poor College Students Megan and Melissa, these truffles come in delicious flavors like Hazelnut, Blueberry Muffin and Red Velvet. At 3 for $4, these are a steal! Place an order online through their website or buy them in person at Westside Market on 110th and Broadway!

Cheap Drinks at Starbucks

Mmm, coffee. The sustenance for most college students. It's not uncommon to hear your friend, classmate, professor, TA...or anyone on campus really saying "I need coffee." We live off caffeine...but for the most part, it costs money.

Now, if you like brand name (and in my opinion, not so great) Starbucks coffee, you can spend nearly $4 dollars on an iced latte. Imagine getting 3 or 4 lattes a day during study week! That's a lot of caffeine! That's even more money!

For full disclosure, this may or may not work at all Starbucks. Some of the baristas know of the following trick, but if it works...score!

When it's your time to order, say "I'd like n shots of espresso poured over a tall/grande/vente cup of ice, thanks" and after receiving said cup, go to the napkin/straw/sugar/milk area and fill your cup with milk! Each shot of espresso is approximately 55 cents, and if you want a flavored latte, each flavor shot is 55 cents too! Talk about reasonably priced!

Another Starbucks pointer - there is another size of drinks called "short." It's on the register, so you're not making it up when you ask for it. It's an 8 ounce cup that is 1/3 less expensive than the tall! If you are looking for flavor over caffeine, this option saves you money and calories!

Next time you go to Starbucks, try these tips out!

(Author's note: I fully support smaller coffee shops and chains, such as Oren's and Joe the Art of coffee, so you should just buy their drinks. Also, they know the iced latte trick, and probably won't let you get away with it - and for good reason! Their coffee tastes GOOD.)

How to win at Maoz

Not too long ago, a new Maoz opened up near campus. In case you haven't discovered it or heard about yet, Maoz is a vegetarian restaurant chain that serves extremely delicious falafel sandwiches.

Now, I know plenty of vegetarians, but I know more omnivores who will say "Wait, what?? Only vegetables?? I can't get full from only eating vegetables!"
Omnivores, fear not. I will teach you how to win at Maoz.

There are a few "meal deals" at Maoz: a Maoz sandwich, fries, and a drink; a Junior Maoz sandwich (half the size of a regular Maoz sandwich), fries, and a drink; a salad and a juice. These cost $7 or $8 but are nice deals because the salad bar is free and you can keep going back for more. This is key!
However, the other great thing about the salad bar is that you don't have to order a salad to utilize it- if you get a sandwich you can stuff the top with salad bar vegetables too, which, by the way, are varied and plentiful.

Seven or eight dollars isn't too bad, but what if you don't care for fries or a drink and want to spend under $5? That happens, right?

This is what you do.

1. Order to stay in. This is key! You'll see why.
2. Order a full sandwich. You could get a half sandwich, but a full one only costs 70 more cents!
3. Receive your sandwich.
4. Take a fork, and eat the sandwich filling (falafel, etc), leaving the pita bread more or less intact. This is key! You'll see why.
5. Take the pita bread and return to the salad bar.
6. Stuff the bread with salad bar food (Chickpeas, eggplant, carrots, broccoli, etc... they may sound boring here but they are cooked fantastically!! ), using the bread as a salad bowl.
7. Eat the renewed sandwich filling with your fork. (Or fingers, whatever)
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until satisfied.
9. Return to salad bar and drench pita bread in dressing of choice (eg. yogurt sauce, garlic sauce, tahini sauce, white sauce)
10. Eat pita bread.

See? See how much food you can get out of that? What's more, it was totally flavorful every step of the way. Omnivores, even those of you so devoted to eating meat will forget your carnivorous inclinations when you've taken these ten (or more) easy steps.

Try it!!

You are welcome.