It is no secret that I am a coffee fiend. When I’m lying on my deathbed, feeble, and gray, someone may as well hook me up to an IV that would send espresso into my veins. I’ll be the happiest camper.

My friends and I have been on the hunt for the perfect coffee shop in Philadelphia. Sadly, my only attempts have landed me in Starbucks (ew, The Man) and Saxby’s (which is good, slightly over-priced, and still on campus). Other than these two, I have tried one place that is truly delightful, Mugshots.

I first heard of Mugshots from our dear friend and Messiah Alum, Pete Corning.  He works there. So of course we had to visit him.

Mugshots is located on 21^st and Fairmount, right across the street from the state penitentiary (hence the clever name). The atmosphere is sophisticated, and overall vibe is conducive to getting work done. You can go to do homework, or simply enjoy good coffee and company. It is all fair trade coffee, organic and locally made products. It is a little pricey, but totally worth it. My personal recommendation is the “Iced Mint Chip Latte.” So good! If you want something warm to counteract this rainy weather we’ve been having, I tried a sip of Laura’s “Crème Brule Latte.” Sultry.

Until I find something a little closer to MCPC, and if I can afford it, I might become a regular at Mugshots.

“We live on coffee and flowers.” – Conversation 16 by The National.

Sincerely,

Sarah Hawkins.



This week is ending, and I am not as excited as I should be, mainly because I have a huge Art History test on Monday that I need to be studying for, but that is beside the point. I would like to take this blog post to showcase Philadelphia’s Phabulous Phood options.

This Tuesday for my Messiah class, Andy Coval, the worldviews professor, took his whole class out to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. I have only gone to those Vietnamese/Chinese hybrid places before, so this was a new thing for me. So Tuesday night, we all piled into the 15 passenger Messiah van, and drove to Andy’s house, called St. John’s house. It used to house Catholic nuns, but now Andy lives in it with other men as an intentional community. It was really interesting to look through the house, there was a chapel on one of the floors, a water fountain on another, and the attic still had all of the nun’s old linens. After getting the grand tour, we drove into east Philly and went to Thang Long Noodle.

Walking down the street we were of course haggled and asked random questions by the local natives, but that did not sway our determination to arrive at our destination and eat some delicious noodle soup. The place is really nice inside, and we were warmly welcomed by the employees. Vietnamese restaurants are famous for their Pho soup. I ordered the chicken Pho, and seasoned it with Hoisin sauce and bean sprouts. The soup is basically thin clear noodles, pieces of chicken, greens, all in a delicious broth. It was amazing, and I ate the whole thing, of course. I was a little nervous walking down the street because the area was a somewhat run down, but Thang Long was very nicely decorated and clean. Sometimes the best places to eat are the ones you don’t expect.

Victoria

Every day I see something in philly that I realize I will miss. Most of the time its when I’m jay walking across Broad on a clear day. The city-scape, mainly the figure of William Penn in the distance, gets me every time and I’ve come to realize that about a week or two after I am home, I’ll think back and reminisce.

Photo Courtesy of Laura Deeney

In the meantime, I’ll just think back over the week that was, or the weekend in particular. My weekends always start on a Thursday night. This weekend was great because I had a little bit of homework to do and when Friday rolled around, I put the little I had left off til Sunday. Come Friday afternoon, setup for the garden party was in full swing and I set up the sound system that would drive the evening.

Photo Courtesy of Kelsey Schwartz

After dinner and a short concert, I hit the power to the colored disco balls and the strobe. It took a while until the dance floor filled up. The evening wound down close to midnight, a great success.

Photo Courtesy of Kelsey Schwartz

We even got a few looks from the frat next door. Saturday morning came early as a small group traveled over to the Uber street gardens of Urban Tree Connection. Some students weeded a few beds while I helped to finish the rain shelter. Others unloaded coffee grounds, and one student even found a small snake.

Photo Courtesy of Laura Deeney

That afternoon, I was supposed to go to Penn Relays to see Usain Bolt run his 8.79 split in the US vs. the World 4×100m relay, but as all ill laid plans, it fell through. A few students went to the zoo and came back quite satisfied after seeing rhinos, peacocks, giraffes zebras and all kinds of monkeys.

Photo Courtesy of Laura Deeney

Celebration weekend continued as small groups went out to various restaurants. Laura, Laurie, Josh, BA and I went to the Ethio Café. If you have never eaten Ethiopian before, the food is great. There are a bunch of different flavors and even some spicy peppers. Ask Jacob. He’s never had a pepper that hot before. Even better, it’s pretty inexpensive. For a little over 30 bucks, we fed five people. Not bad. Following dinner, the group devoured various cakes and watched a little Bill Cosby.

Photo Courtesy of Laura Deeney

Celebration weekend continues some next weekend, and next Monday in particular with Celebration Chapel.

LOVE. PHILLY.

Derek

Every day I get up and go down to the caf and grab breakfast before I head out to class. The cost to my back pocket: $ 0. About noon, I head over to J & H or the Sac and use my card to buy a meal, but it still doesn’t cost me anything (unless you count student loans for the next decade). Then, about 6 every evening, Irby brings over dinner to the caf. Once again, it costs me nothing but the effort to get off my lazy butt and get it.

One of my first Sunday’s at Epiphany, Pastor Eric brought up one of the best points I have heard in my last three years in college. The term “poor college student” is a misnomer. For most students, and all students at MCPC, we are housed and fed.  We have two of the most important things in life, and then we have a bonus, “free” wireless. God forbid we not have plentiful and reliable wireless internet access.

Photo Courtesy of Google Images

This weekend, a few students at MCPC had an event for “Hunger and Homelessness Month.” Not having any other plans, and choosing not to do homework, I tagged along on the first event on Friday evening. We were each given $ 2 to buy dinner for ourselves. This was in an effort to represent only having a minimum amount of cash to buy our meal for the day. Some of us ended up in a variety of fast food places. This helped me to realize a few things.

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Baranik

First, there is so very little that you can get for $ 2. Second, what you can get doesn’t normally constitute a real meal. And finally, if you went the way I did and got a fast food meal, the available choices tend to be unhealthy when compared to what I would prefer to eat.

The weekend continued with a screening of the Soloist, 24 hours of prayer, and donations of meals from wealthy Temple Id cards.

I choose not to participate in the donation of meals and what’s more, I was treated to a luxurious dinner at Parc, a Steven Starr restaurant near Rittenhouse Square. The meal was very good; however it could have provided me with a daily McDonalds’ dollar meal through May. It’s quite a juxtaposition.

Photo Courtesy of Visitphilly.com

As I have said before, I don’t think that a huge healthcare plan is the answer. I can’t prove it, but it would seem that making healthy and cost efficient food available to everyone would be a better idea. The benefits of local urban greening programs and farmer’s markets have been proven though. Just something to think about until next week, until then…

LOVE. PHILLY.

Derek

This afternoon, after my 100 level American history lecture, I went to lunch with my friend Nadia, as we do every Tuesday and Thursday after class.
We walked into the SAC and there was a live jazz band playing where the student DJ is usually set up playing loud hip-pop hits. It was the SAC’s Valentines Day gift to the students. How cute!
Next to the band were a few tables of vendors selling “jewelry” and other “Valentine’s Day” things to throw out, I mean stuffed animals holding hearts. Tis the season!
Anyway, Nadia and I ate our burritos upstairs while listening to a long rendition of “My Favorite Things” (from the Sound of Music). It did not seem holiday appropriate, but it certainly grew on me. That is why I have been singing it (jazz style) out loud all afternoon…

Happy V Day,
D

If I had to pick my favorite aspect of Philly, it would definitely be the FOOD. Seriously, I would pick eating food over touring historical landmarks or going to a Phillies game any day.

The best part about food in Philadelphia is that eating here is no joke. Philadelphians are serious about eating, which is nice because as I said, it is my favorite past time. Another nice thing in regards to this subject is that on the first day of orientation, we at MCPC have the opportunity to go to various ethnic restaurants around the city. Since this is my second semester, through this opportunity I have been to an Indian Restaurant in West Philly, and also an Ethiopian Restaurant. Both were different yet delicious experiences.

This weekend I ventured to South Philly for some authentic Mexican Cuisine. Sure, a Qdoba may have been put in recently on Temple’s campus, but I was in the mood for the real thing. I am so glad that I did not let my laziness take me to the Qdoba alternative, as Taqueria La Veracruzana on Washington Ave. turned out to be so incredibly good.

I ordered a burrito, thinking it would be small. So, I also ordered a side of rice and beans. Well, the burrito turned out to be bigger than my head and the rice and beans could have fed a small army. I didn’t let this stop me from eating it all, though. (Note: don’t force yourself to eat everything you order. I just happen to be very into eating, as stated earlier).

What was so nice about Taqueria La Veracruzana is that they also carry an assortment of authentic Mexican beverages which are imported. These include a delicious juice called “Boing!” I tried the mango, and it was amazing. My friend ordered a bottle of imported Coca-Cola. They also carry domestic coke, but it’s more fun to drink it out of the tall, skinny, glass bottle. And the writing is in Spanish. It’s like a fiesta in a bottle, seriously. Also, the restaurant has its own white, milky beverage which the waitress said was the equivalent of “rice milk” in English. However, after consulting a friend, I was told that the beverage is actually more of a sweet sugary milky substance and is quite tasty.

While you may find yourself wanting to go to Qdoba, or even across the street to McDonald’s, I urge you to try new things while in Philadelphia. If you’re as serious about eating as I am, then you’ll learn that the city has endless options when it comes to eating. Avoid the chain restaurants, but if you can’t resist, I’d recommend Applebee’s on 15th and Sansom, as they have half-price appetizers after 9. Yum.