The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/category/dining/food-events/)
An explosion of aromas rattle your senses upon arrival at the Ithaca Farmers Market. If you’re on a limited lunch budget, it’s hard to choose the perfect stand. However, hidden amongst a jungle of ranging delicacies are not only some of the best dishes in Ithaca, but the best deals.
As I approached the commons, the harmonic melody of a violin welcomed me to the Commons entrance. This was just the beginning of the 39th annual Apple Harvest Festival, running in the Ithaca Commons from Friday, Oct.1 to Sunday, Oct.3 this year. All over the Commons, the smell of apple crumble, kettle popcorn and fried food permeated through the air and mixed with the damp rain. This was my first experience at Apple Fest, and it only enticed me to visit every booth to check out the apple treats and local goods that merchants brought. The main area of the Commons was focused solely on apple products like the famous homemade apple crumble, apple cider donuts and local apple cider.
Apple picking in upstate New York is a must-do for every Cornellian. Delicious apples aside, the crisp orange, yellow and red leaves, fresh air and fragrance of an apple orchard make the experience one to remember. I can guarantee a trip to the orchard will make one forget all about prelims and upcoming assignments; all stress will disappear. The best farm to visit is Indian Creek Farm — a 40-acre farm with over 100 fruits and vegetables available for “U-Pick.”
I visited the farm after Applefest weekend, so my go-to honey crisp apple was all cleaned out. However, I still picked a basket full of apples, without duplicating any variety.
I showed up at Daniel Jones’ ’22 house expecting to have a one-hour interview while trying some different foods. Little did I know that my short interview would turn into a two-day behind-the-scenes tour of 2 Stay 2 Go LLC. Daniel Jones, a 21-year-old in the School of Hotel Administration, is a truly remarkable individual. Wanting to create an innovative hospitality brand that was bigger than himself, he founded 2 Stay 2 Go in October 2020. The original concept behind the restaurant was having customers vote with their dollars on which items would stay on a rotating menu.
It’s that time of year again, where a full moon rises in a clear night sky and families gather around to eat delicious mooncakes. When I was living at home, I always knew when the Mid-Autumn Festival was around the corner because my grandma would come home from the Asian supermarket with fancy looking tins of packaged mooncakes. I would hungrily search through the tin, wondering which cakes had my favorite fillings, ready to dig in.
The mooncake (月饼) is a traditional pastry served during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节). For over three thousand years, this holiday has celebrated the moon, the moon goddess Chang’e and the bountiful autumn harvest that she brings. Occurring on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese Lunar calendar, it will fall on Tuesday, Sept.
Ren’s Mart, which opened last November, is one of the finest Asian supermarkets in central New York. They have an impressive variety of products for any and all Asian dishes, and also are one of the few groceries that sell whole butchered or live fish.
Finding reasonably priced, authentic Middle Eastern food is not always the easiest task in Ithaca. However, with the recent opening of Trader Joe’s, there are now a number of suitable options for most needs.
2 Stay 2 Go, the entirely student-run restaurant that made their debut last semester, is back up and running. With an expanded staff, the business has grown to include more community service, meal donations to help end food insecurity in Ithaca and a catering program.
With fall coming to a quick close and snow flurries blanketing campus, winter has finally arrived. If you are like me, you have already begun preparing for an annual hibernation, stocking up on Swiss Miss and holiday cheer. Along with us are the unsung heroes of our global food and environmental sustainability: the honey bees. Every winter, honey bee colonies prepare for the cold by forming tight clusters within the hive and slowly eating away the honey they worked so hard to produce all year long. Beekeepers find themselves busy insulating the hives and, most importantly, harvesting the excess honey from the fall flower blooms.
The process of harvesting honey is a simple, yet fascinating one.
At the end of September, I sat in a stranger’s kitchen, listening as another stranger told me his plans to open a restaurant with the help of a group of Hotelies. And, that it was going to be done in the middle of a pandemic.
In the middle of November, I sat at a table in a restaurant listening to that same group of now familiar faces look back on the craziest and most rewarding six weeks of their lives. And, it was all done in the middle of a pandemic. Six weeks after I sat inside of 2 Stay 2 Go for their opening night, I joined them the afternoon before their last dinner service. Founder Daniel Jones ’22, Executive Chefs Bobby Dandliker ’22 and Noah Horns ’22 and President Samay Bansal ’21 reflected on the past six weeks and their goals for the future.
After their first weekend in October, they saw great success (so great in fact that the Southern Fried Chicken Sandwich was a staple on the menu every week).
A Salvadoran-American Perspective
For the first time in almost four years, many Americans feel tentatively proud of their country. Tireless encouragement to vote has helped prove that community support can unite a country divided and reestablish American values of truth, integrity and respect. As such, it seemed appropriate to take a look at the new meanings Thanksgiving may hold this year; Samai Navas, a recent Salvadoran-American immigrant and close family friend, shares what her All (Salvadoran) American Thanksgiving has come to represent over the years.
It’s worth noting that the typical modern Thanksgiving symbolizes and commemorates an ideal that only existed for a very short time. While there is some truth behind the story of a peaceful feast between European settlers and the Wampanoag people in 1621, this calm did not last. Between the years of 1630 and 1642, plague tore through Native communities, resulting in the death of more than half of all Native Americans living at the time.