Blue Fin Bistro

Whenever I head over to the clubs across the bridge in Lafayette, I always pass by Blue Fin Bistro, a swanky looking restaurant with large windows looking out onto south 4th street. I can always see the neatly arranged tables with the well arranged cutlery and good looking waiters through them.

I was always curious what they served there.

One day, lucky me! My friend's parents came into town and wanted to treat us to a meal. At Blue Fin!! Oh Happy Day!!

The decor inside was classy without being overwhelming or intimidating. It was one of those places that had mulitple forks and spoons. I had no idea which utensil was for which dish, neither did the anyone else at the table. So we winged it (and asked for chopsticks).

We ordered calamari, scallops, sushi and steak. Everything was AWESOME!!! Easily the best meal I have ever had in Purdue. In addition to that, the service was impeccable and the waiter was extremely attentive.

The first dish was the calamri. It was good, lightly fried, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside with none of that bad, overcooked, rubbery stuff. It came with a few dipping sauce too. This was finished within minutes of landing on the table.

The next dish, scallops, came in a set of 8 per plate, nestled on a thick and firm slice of tomato floating in a sea of creamy sauce. The scallops were very well prepared considering that we were in the midwest and that the seafood tend to be of the frozen variety. The scallops did not have that fishy taste the scallops in the dinid halls have. The creamy sauce also complimented the soft scallop very well.

Then came the sushi. They were all EXCELLENT. The proportion of the rice and ingredients were perfect and the sushi was of a reasonable size. Way better than Maru and Ah Z. There was a perfect amount of sauce on the sushi and each different roll was like a whole different experience for the tongue. We ordered the Volcano Roll, Red Spider Roll, Dragon Roll, Diablo Roll, Las Vegas Roll and the Caterpillar Roll.

Last but not least, the steak. Oh... that was so good. The steak at Wiley Hall is not anywhere near that level. We had it at medium rare. It was cooked just right and when you eat it with the fat of the steak, gosh, words escape me.

The meal being excellent, also comes with an excellent price. The sushi costs a slight bit more than the average restaurant around Purdue University. It is an ideal place to bring your next date to.

p.s. They have a sushi buffet. US$25. =DD

which includes a pound of delicious snow crabs per customer

Kibu

After returning from our spring break trip in San Francisco, my friends and I were feeling fat and lazy as we had gorged ourselves during the 3 day 2 night visit. We had excellent japanese sushi, ramen, In&Out Burgers and cheese cake factory.

So we decided to walk down to Kibu Cafe (as exercise), a Korean/Japanese restaurant past Chauncey Hill, next to the River Side appartements at 111. South River Road. It is right at at the end of the decline of the slope past chauncey hill.

Kibu has a very clean, homely feel to it and has a wide range of korean and japanese staples available. On the wall next to the counter, there is a sort of mural of the most popular foods they serve.

We had the Soon Tofu Soup (hot soup with tofu, seafood and vegetables)

Bulgoki Don (marinated beef stir-fried with vegetables on rice)

Dol Sot Bi Bim Bop (seasoned beef stir-fried with vegetables and egg on rice in hot stone ware).

All the dishes come with a free bowl of soup and the dishes without rice comes with a bowl of rice as a side. The soup is always egg drop soup with tofu and vegetable. It is delicious but be forewarned, it contains a lot of monosodium glutamate. The dishes usually take a while to come out, so try not to drink to much soup or you won't be able to finish your main dish.

Out of all the dishes, Soon Tofu Soup was the best. I liked it so much I ordered one extra for myself. However, when the dish came, I was serverely disappointed. They had watered the soup down. It was obvious as the taste of the soup was much weaker than the first one my friend ordered. I think they did so because they ran out of soup and didn't have enough time to cook more.

The overall experience was alright and despite the bad service, I will still go there as the food they serve is way better than what is serve at Maru's.

p.s. Kibu does not serve sushi.

Laser Tag in Lafayette

I first heard about this place in my COM 114 class. A member of my class was picked to do the presentation for that topic. I was busy day dreaming so the information did not fully register in my mind. Only when I walked past it on my way to Lafayette's Jo-ann Fabrics' did I remember.

I thought it would be a great alternative to partying and organized a group outing on Facebook on the Friday before Spring Break to have some fun.

We organized a car pool with 3 cars bringing 12 of us to the game.

The place looked like a shady militaty operation base from the outside. It was dimly lit and had had no windows. But on the inside, the place had a 90's feel.

The place was mainly a roller skating ring. We had a large group of 12 people at that time so after some negotiation, we managed to get 4 games for only US$10, EACH! which was a steal as compared to their previous US$15 for 4 games stated on their website.

There were 8 jackets, so we decided to play it tournament style, 4-on-4-on-4. The place was like any other lazer tag arena, dark and with a whole lot of obstacles. The maze was not well-designed though, as one team's home base was right smack in the middle of the maze, making them an easy target for others and one team (yellow) had no base, so they were at a huge advantage. Meaning that the base was not well designed.

After a few rounds, some of us got really tired so we changed from a 4-on-4 play to a 1-on-1-on-1 play which was even more intense because you have to constantly watch your back.

The group had a whole lot of fun and was pleased with the experience. After the game, we hung out a little longer, playing with the arcade games (the ones that will regurgitate tickets you can exchange for a prize) and eating ice-cream. That night, we all felt like a kid again.

If you are planning on going to play lazer tag, remember to bring
-at least US$15 cash
-running shoes
-dark clothing
-friends

ENJOY!