There are a lot of things I have eaten and photographed that I should and need to talk about. I’m going to start with nom.

Ever since I learned about Nom., the student run restaurant at Yale, I have wanted to try it.  I finally organized myself and booked a reservation – unbeknownst to me, I booked a reservation for their last open day.

The pop-up restaurant is located in Davenport College’s buttery, and nom. made use of all of the space there was to offer, using both the kitchen and the buttery countertop, and filling all of the remaining space with tables and chairs for customers. I went in a group of four people and we ordered virtually everything on the menu. The dishes are small, tapas-style.

The flavors were great and the ideas were fresh. Although the execution was not always perfect, the food and the restaurant as a whole far exceeded my expectations for what is a student-run restaurant out of a basement. This kind of idea and project is what makes me oh-so proud and happy to be a part of the Yale community. It is also embodies what makes the Yale experience so yummy – a pervasive passion for food.

We started with a bunch of small dishes (think banchan style, the smorgasbord of small dishes that precede a traditional Korean meal). These included:

The kimchi carbonara

The tsukune slider – chicken-mushroom burger, red miso, papaya-daikon slaw

The glazed eggplant

The tom yum tacos – shrimp, coconut tom yum sauce, mushroom soil, lime

The chopped chicken salad

The Cantonese pork belly

And The nom khao (Laotian fried rice ball)

The best were by far the Cantonese pork belly and the nom khao. Although the rice of the pork belly was a bit hard and undercooked, the flavors were spot-on. We ordered more and extra of the nom khao to fill our bellies. The glazed eggplant was also a hit, as were the tsukune sliders. The chopped chicken salad was my least favorite.

For dessert, we all split a hodge podge which consisted of frozen pound cake, mixed berry compote, greek yogurt, coconut, nutella, and more. How could you not like?

We accompanied our meal with yujacha soda, made of Korean citron tea and homemade soda. I loved it, though my dining companions were less keen on it. I grew up with citron tea, however, and already love those flavors.

Overall, my thoughts: nom.