The Pita Pit, Worcester DC, Amherst, MA

I haven't had good experience with this restaurant so far, so I decided to give it one last try before giving it the old heave-ho into the restaurant and food graveyard. It's problematic. It's open so late, and only three steps from my dorm, and uses YCMP, which means I don't have to dig into my bank account, but the quality has just been so low.

First time I went, I ordered a falafel pita, no vegetables, with extra hummus and tahini, and received little more than a crumbly pita folded over falafel "spread," and it was cold and mushy and quite disgusting and stale. I took a bite and threw it out.

The second time I went to order a chicken sandwich with fries, only to discover that there were no fries, and even though they were open until 1 AM, they shut off the grill at 11:45, for no reason at all. So I left empty-handed.

I went one last time, only as a last resort, and my roommate came with me, paying for my meal since I've used up all my swipes on the Massive Glutwich- another post, I promise. It's only the most delicious sandwich I've ever had. So I went and ordered the chicken combo meal- a buffalo chicken sandwich with fries and a drink. I expected Wings quality because that's the standard by which all chicken is judged now, and went to eat my meal.

Well, they shut off the fryer at 11:45 and it was 11:46. In fact, I saw the guy try to put some fries in but was chastised by the manager. Two or three minutes later, especially when customers are willing to pay, is rather unreasonable to simply shut off the entire operation. So, no fries. The chicken sandwich was grilled rather than fried, which is healthy, but not nearly as satisfying as the saucy, crunchy Wings chicken. Another point off. The chicken was soft and tender, though, and covered the entirety of the bun, which was fluffy and fell apart rather easily. The buffalo sauce was nothing spectacular, but it was spicy and tasty.

Overall, my experience was average. Roomba got a hummus pita, which she said was satisfying, but not the best thing she's ever had. Too hummus heavy. It's not enough to make me rush out and go back, and it certainly didn't satiate my hunger, but it was all right for the time being and definitely satisfied my need for a hot meal at midnight.

6/10- AVERAGE

The Pita Pit
Worcester Dining Commons, UMass Amherst
Amherst, MA, 01003

Andiamo Restaurant, Amherst, MA

I was absolutely starving when I got back from practice tonight. Turns out my roommate was, too, so we decided to try this restaurant whose menu had recently been slipped under our door. They're a modern Italian place, with panini and salads, and with free delivery, it was hard to pass up!

Delivery took almost no time at all, which was great, and our sandwiches were hot when we got them. I ordered the Levante, which is a baguette pressed with chicken breast, fresh mozzarella, pesto, and sundried tomato aioli inside.

The overall sandwich is about a footlong. Compare this to Subway, though, and it's about $8, total. A good price for good, fresh ingredients as opposed to Subway's more mass produced stuff. The baguette is crisp, but not as crisp as I'd like it. It's a chewier baguette, and when I eat my panini, I like them to be crispy and buttery on the outside. It does have grill marks, though.

The sandwich is really good and soft, the fillings, that is. I'm always worried when I order a sandwich with grilled chicken that there will be one, tough breast piece that will slide out and fall away. This prevents that. There are neat little strips in it that melt along with everything and taste awesome. The chicken is perfectly cooked. The mozzarella isn't as noticeable as I'd like. I like fresh mozzarella to be gooey and prominent in a sandwich, and it's unfortunately overshadowed by the sauces. It's a little odd, the distribution. On one side, there's the pesto, which is good and basily and salty, and the sundried tomato aioli on the other. I don't know what to make of the aioli. On one hand, I was relieved that there weren't any chunks of sundried tomato, which nauseate me as much as mushrooms, but on the other hand, the definition of "aioli" was used rather loosely, more for pretension than actual literal ingredients.

By definition, an aioli is a sauce made with garlic and olive oil. This seemed to be a mayonnaise if anything else, and had a sharp and vinegary taste that left a bitter flavor and also overpowered some of the sandwich's other aspects. You can order chips with your sandwich, too. I find it a bit of a cop-out, because they charge $1.89 for a small bag of Kettle Chips, where I'd much rather have fries or another complementing side.

Italian, this is. Perfect, it's not. Go with simplicity and order the Levante without the aioli. It will taste better. And ask them to grill it extra.

6/10- GOOD

Roomba ordered the Andiamo salad without portabella mushrooms, but it came with the mushrooms. She describes it as the fancy poor man's salad, and that the addition of ranch dressing to a salad with bitter greens, arugula, and avocado really took away the beauty of the fancy salad. And picking out the mushrooms was just awful- to quote Up, our new favorite film, "We do not like the mushrooms of shame."

6/10- OKAY

Andiamo Restaurant
485 West Street
Amherst, MA, 01003

Flamin' Hot Cheetos

Sometimes I just need a spicy snack to get me through a long rehearsal. The nice thing about spicy foods is the chemistry behind them. They irritate the trigenimal nerve, which is responsible for facial sensation, and endorphins are them released to help soothe it. So they keep me happy and relatively sedated, especially in times of tension. And they wake my mouth up, too!

So these Cheetos are awesome. The packaging is different from the other bags- Chester has flames shooting out of his mouth, and there's a little Element flame critter running across the bag. As far as taste goes, these are like the crunchy reincarnation of Frank's Hot Sauce. They're a nuclear orange color. They're still crunchy and, oddly enough, have about 1/3 of the residue that normal Cheetos have. There might be more oil, but less powder. I'm not sure why aside from that, but it sure is nice.

Taste-wise, these are mild. At first. Eat one or two, you'll get a tiny burn, but keep eating them, which you will do, as they are addictive, and you'll get a full-on burn in the back of your throat, front of your mouth- everywhere. There's no cheesy flavor. No barbecue. Just pure hot, and it's awesome. There's a slight aftertaste of lemon or lime, or something like that, which leads me to believe that Cheetos Limon might have just been these, or the other way around. Awesome, awesome, awesome- but potentially too hot for some.

8/10- SPICY GOOD

Twix PB

I first saw these on a commercial in maybe, 2000, 2001, where a guy took peanut butter and put it in a CD player and instead of screwing up the internal circuitry, the boom box played awesome, legume inspired tunage. I figured they were a limited edition snack and were then gone forever, but lo and behold, I found them in a local convenience store and had to try them.

These are the reincarnation of a far better snack, folks. Yes, I'm referring to the Reese's Crunchy Cookie Cup. Probably one of the best Reese's snacks, it was discontinued in 2000, never to be seen again. But in a more compact form, this is it. It's got the salty and oddly textured peanut butter that we all love, milk chocolate, and a crunchy cookie base. The cookie itself is an almost bitter chocolate that I like, reminiscent of Nabisco Famous Wafers. It cuts the saccharine sweetness of the chocolate. With normal Twix, I find that the cookie gets soggy with the caramel and doesn't crisp as much as I'd like it to.

With this bar, you get a lot more peanut butter than I would have expected, which is good. There's a certain portability that makes this better than the CCC. If Twix keeps this around, I'll be buying it again. It's really delicious and excellent for nut and cookie lovers.

Oh, and I'm back to using my own photos again!

9/10- NUTTY

New layout and improvements...

Finally, someone sent me an email regarding the site's content and personal issues that they have with the site. Although this person did mention that they will not be returning to the website for a few reasons, I have some announcements to make for all my other readers.

1. I am looking into getting my own domain, www.foodette-reviews.com, and have a donation button up for raising money to purchase it until I can get it myself, and will be doing some of the layout design myself to avoid using all the default stuff. I might need some help with this as I am very busy, but you can expect to see this up by this summer.

2. I am also changing up the rating system. The scales will still be out of ten, but will be similar to Gigi's format, with an image and rating corresponding to the scale. For now, I realize the fraction is pedantic, but it will stay until the new one comes up.

3. I have taken off the OpenID/sign in format for commenting, and I expect it to be followed and not abused. I had the settings on from another personal blog and never took them off, but now realize what a hassle it is to comment especially if you're only interested in saying a few words. Too many bells and whistles. But with great power comes great responsibility. Don't fuck around in the comments, minions!

That's it for now. Expect more photos, more reviews, and more fun!

Foodette

Arizona Mango Iced Tea (Half and Half)

I drank this on a 14-hour work day to see how well it would hydrate and sustain me while doing hard manual labor in a scene shop, as I am in an upcoming production of Sweeney Todd.

The result? A really tasty drink that carries the best of both specific beverages- Arizona's regular iced tea and their mango juice- without the bad stuff.

The best part of the mango juice is the nectar-like texture that goes down your throat, almost a thicker, lassi-like depth to it, but sometimes gets sticky in the back of the throat and all the sugar tends to dry you out. The syrupy texture is cut by the tea's watery texture, and the bitterness of the tea is sweetened by the mango. It's a really perfect drink.

8/10- LOVELY

Doritos Smokin' Cheddar BBQ

I cannot be the only one who is absolutely delighted that these are back! I thought they'd disappeared forever, going back to the realms of guacamole and X-13D. These were a promotion a while back, butting heads with the less tasty White Cheddar. For a while, they left, and are now back under another promotion, the likes of which I cannot ascertain.

They're really spicy for a cheese and BBQ flavor. The flavor is overwhelmingly barbecue-based but has a really nice spice at the end, like a cayenne flavor to it. And the heat definitely lingers! The cheese is definitely less felt, but gives a creamy and rounded flavor to the chip as a whole. I'm not sure I'd be able to distinguish a particularly "cheddar-y" flavor, though.

All the chips in my bag were whole and unbroken and were really crunchy and fresh. There is a healthy dose of powder on each chip, as opposed to some of the regular flavors. Frito-Lay has gotten really lazy with those. But these pop in my mouth and are really tasty. An excellent snack. I'd love to make nachos with these or eat them with pulled pork. They seem really versatile for other flavors, too.

9/10- AWESOME