THE TASTE BUDS JOURNEY THROUGH

The Day Edition

We’ll take you to the tastiest local spots for a scrumptious meal, following the journey of breakfast, late lunch, and dinner!

CJ Chen ‘24, Lucy Karn ‘24 Reporter, Contributor

Each of the set of three restaurants in this edition is rated out of five stars, which averages the overall ratings for each item ordered. Additional criteria include taste, environment, and Bang for your Buck-ness, which indicates how reasonable the price is for the product.

Occasionally Yours

Location: 8 minutes from SHHS at 10 Park Ave, Swarthmore

Hours of operation: Closed Mondays. Sunday, TuesdaySaturday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

Specialty: Breakfast and lunc

Rating: HHHH alking into this establishment, I not only saw fellow classmates, but adults and college students enjoying a nice breakfast, lunch, and both. This created a welcoming environment that seemed very open and inviting. The restaurant was small, which made the experience very intimate, but if one desired more room, they also provided outdoor seating.

While the idea of brunch and late lunch tends to be associated with an older generation, Occasionally Yours has a younger appeal too. Displaying Swarthmore pride, they had a cap and gown in their front window in honor of the college’s graduating class. In addition, I spotted three fellow Strath Haven students eating there and two more working in this establishment.

I got the Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich. The sandwich itself was good and came in a toasted French bread roll, which was the perfect choice of bread, in my opinion. This was labeled a hot sandwich, and although I did eat half of it when it was freshly made, I had the other half later in the day when it got cold. Even when it was cold, I still found it appetizing and delicious. However, the sandwich was on the smaller side, and the meat and bread were stacked very thickly, making it hard to bite and eat without dismantling it.

The Traditional Breakfast sandwich was exactly what you would expect, scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese between two halves of a bagel. The bacon had the perfect crispness, making it not overly crunchy but easy to bite when eating the sandwich. In addition, the cheese was perfectly melted onto the bacon, further adding to the perfection of the sandwich. However, I found the serving of eggs a bit too much, making the sandwich consumption more difficult and messy. This sandwich also came with their breakfast potatoes which, in my potato-loving opinion, were delightful and are the ideal side for this classic breakfast sandwich.

The Traditional Breakfast Sandwich was great but can be purchased at any establishment serving morning meals. The price was twelve dollars, which is reasonable because the sandwich was excellent and filling. The Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich was sixteen dollars and tasty but difficult to eat. This sandwich is unique to Ocasionally Yours and demonstrates the restaurant’s personality. Overall, the bang for your buckness is okay but not great, as one can expect when going out for a nice morning meal.

I would eat here again, but would want to try one of their salads or soups. I suggest this place to anyone wanting to enjoy breakfast or lunch with friends or family because it has a welcoming feel and plenty of dishes that convey its comforting taste.

Coco Thai Bistro

Location: 32 minutes from SHHS at 231 Haverford Ave, Narberth

Hours of operation: Mon. CLOSED; Sun., Tues. - Thurs. 12 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.; Fri. - Sat. 12 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Specialty: Thai Cuisine

Fellini Cafe Of Media

Location: 9 minutes from SHHS at 106 West State St., Media

Hours of operation: Sun. - Thurs. 11:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Fri. - Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Specialty: Italian Cuisine

Rating: HHHH

The neatly nestled Coco Thai Bistro lies at the heart of Haverford Avenue, which mirrored the quaint small businesses lined in rows of State Street in media. Walking in, it was logically on the emptier side for a 4 p.m. Sunday meal.

WImmediately, the plant-centric nature of the decor was noticeably filling every open spot in the restaurant. The houseplants draped and dangled, covering the walls, windows, and counters. This two-story restaurant featured a secluded upstairs dining area with even more plants growing on shelves framed by flickering electric candles under wicker baskets.

The environmentally conscious message of the restaurant was evident in its lack of paper menus or take-home boxes. Instead, QR codes were stuck to each table to be scanned for the digital menu. On the site, each dish was customizable for a type of protein, starch, and spice level. The digital menu was a slight inconvenience to use and order from, with no ability to compare dishes in different sections in a side-byside manner. The phone had to be passed from person to person to complete each customization and to be added to the digital cart.

After ordering from the house specials, the Thai Pumpkin Red Curry with glass noodles cost $23.95. This dish had a strong creamy taste, with the soft pumpkin melting on the tongue with each forkful. The flavors blended nicely, although there was no varied texture, making it a slightly more boring meal than it could have been; an element of crunch would have been appreciated. The portion size was very large, and due to the higher spice level (which can be customized), the dish was ultimately packed up in a to-go box at the end, which cost an extra fee.

Coco Thai Basil with chicken fulfilled all the taste expectations for a quality Thai restaurant. At $25.95, the fresh vegetables and perfectly cooked chicken with curry sauce were a delicious and filling meal.

The Pan Seared Striped Bass had a crispy exterior and tender meat inside. The rich flavors of the coconut rice also came through strong, although the hot ginger sauce needed to be more, and more was needed. The better choice of sauce to pair with this dish would be one of the curry sauces offered on the customization slide. This dish cost nearly thirty dollars, the most expensive of the three meals ordered from Coco Thai Bistro.

Looking at only the food, Coco Thai Bistro does well in the flavor and quality of its dishes but does not fall favorably on the Bang for Your Buck-ness scale. The restaurant was very pricey; however, the beautiful environment and nice location can justify its high cost.

Coco Thai is the spot for you if you’re looking for a dreamy, nature-filled restaurant experience and are willing to spend and travel a bit more.

Rating: HHHH

This restaurant was a bustling hot spot for dinner, even on a weekday evening. The table reservation scheduled for 7 p.m. still had us waiting for fifteen minutes. Once seated, the dimmed ambiance of the candle-lit environment gave off a homely feeling. Some strangely arranged illustratory paintings of chickens, pigeons, and other birds were scattered upon the warm-colored walls. The menus contained an assortment of grain and meat-centric dishes. The variety of pasta available page after page was paired with a choice of seafood and hearty cuts of meat. After ordering, an opera singer serenaded a table nearby with her rendition of Happy Birthday. Sitting in the opera room for special performances throughout the night is an additional perk available for an extra fee every Monday evening at the Fellini Cafe of Media.

Complimentary bread topped with chopped tomatoes was brought out for us to snack on before the dishes arrived.

The Penne Primavera dish contained zucchini, mushrooms, artichokes, tomatoes, onion, and olive oil over pasta. The only flavor in this dish was in the mushrooms; everything else was coated in a layer of olive oil, which was not an especially fragrant oil, making the texture of everything wet and slick, and the dish difficult to finish. An oil pool left in the plate made me question why such a large amount was added. The price point of eighteen dollars was not a great Bang for you Buck, especially due to the unsatisfying taste.

The Chicken Piccata was served with a lemon butter sauce, capers, tomatoes, and a side of the day’s vegetables, broccoli, and rice. The sauce was perfect, except it was everywhere but on the chicken. However, the mixture of rice and broccoli with the sauce was delicious. This mixture of rice, broccoli, and sauce was the best part of the dish, and I easily finished it first. The chicken was thick and did not have much sauce on it or near it, making it bland and not worthy of being the main part of this dish. This dish was good but not worth the twenty-two dollars spent. *

Ridley Creek State Park Park office at 351 Gradyville Road, Newtown Square

Open daily until dusk. Volunteer monthly on the first Saturdays of the month, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m., with Friends of Ridley Creek State Park.

Ididn’t think that taking a hike was all too interesting. Not until I met Gary Stolz, DCNR (Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) education guide, parting through trails and identifying bird calls by ear.

A friendly sign is posted near all main locations of this 2,606-acre park, listing free upcoming nature hikes and educational programs. You might’ve been here before, but the park reveals itself in a new light when you’re in a program led by Gary Stolz. The naturalist-led bird walks, wild plant identification programs, (and more!) are also all listed on the park website. Each program starts with the obligatory mention of the amazingly vocal birds in the Hunting Hill mansion parking lot and a description of which migratory birds you’ll most likely see in the current season. If you’re part of a walk or hike program, you’ll be taken through a trail, and the most common invasive plants will be identified to you, with a brief history of the downfalls in park ranger programs in the 1960s that encouraged said invasive plants in public parks.

I cannot recommend spending your time in this park enough. There is so much to see in this enormous park, (almost) too many birds, and historical landmarks scattered throughout. Trails are open from dawn till dusk. Upcoming events include but are not limited to:

• Saturday, June 3 (9 a.m. - 12 p.m.) Guided Nature Hike with DCNR Naturalist

• Sunday, June 18 (10 a.m. - 2 p.m.) National Pollinators Week Exhibit

• Tuesday, July 4 (10 a.m. - 2 p.m.) Pennsylvania Fish for Free Day with Local Fishing Experts

Tyler Arboretum Park office at 515 Painter Road, Media

Open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends. Adults $18, Ages 3-17 $10

This 650-acre arboretum requires a fee to enter, but with the nonmember registration fee to any of the upcoming programs, you also receive that day’s admission. With its welllabeled horticultural displays, there is lots to learn. It contains seven trails and numerous well-tended gardens to visit.

Tyler Arboretum is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.

I attended the weekly bird walk over spring break. This morning bird walk group was so large and filled with excited birders that the three guides had to split the group. On this foggy morning, the birds were shying away and quite difficult to spot to the untrained viewer. Nevertheless, the guide, who had an enormous birding telescope, captured clean views of the Northern Flicker (my favorite bird), numerous woodpeckers, and many other spring migrators. The guides and regular attendees of the program were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about teaching bird calls and spotting all sorts of interesting-looking fungi. . Upcoming events include but are not limited to:

• Saturday, June 10 (1 p.m. - 3 p.m.) Weekly Saturday Wildflower Walk

• Wednesday, July 12 (8 a.m. - 10 a.m.) Weekly Bird Walk

• Sunday, June 18 (1 p.m. - 2 p.m.) Bluebird Nesting Box Tour

• Thursday, July 13 & 27 (10 a.m. - 12 p.m.) Richard’s Rambles: Nature walks with Dr. Richard Brenner with a unique theme