Ever since I've been around campus this summer, I've been doing my best to eat some old favorites around Berkeley. Lot of changes have occurred, but some of the late-night, early-morning, haven't-been-to-bed-yet places are still going strong.

Since I haven't had much time to dally, I've been eating a lot at the Free Speech Cafe on campus. The food is a little bit better than I remember for campus food - tuna melt is not bad - but perhaps the institutional modernist decor and biodegradable utensils have swayed me.

Michelle's Ice Cream is right next to Unit three, tucked under the Channing Durant Parking Garage. I used to come here a lot when this place first opened. Always, I'd order a scoop of Bud's cookies and cream on a cone, with a handful of green sour strips in a bag. Not the best ice cream I've ever had, but nostalgic, definitely. Everything gleams like brand new and the same Korean gentleman still stands behind the counter. Surprisingly, he claims to remember me, which gives me the only warm fuzzy feeling I've experienced during this blast to the past.

I went to Crepe Maker in Los Altos on a tip and I'll never go back. Soggy, greasy, gluey, stringy and bland despite the feta and pesto and vegetables and cheese. What a mess. Crepes A-Go-Go, however, on University and Shattuck, gets it right every time. Crispy, thin and glossy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, stuffed simply with spinach, cheese, and sauted mushrooms. Juicy, but not overly runny. A golden fan that holds up as you stroll, but doesn't fight you with each bite.

La Cascada always felt like a rich man's poor fascimile of La Burrita, with it's salsa bar and fancy tiles, and I verified that after ordering one taco filled with very little meat and a lot of bean juice. The flavor was fine but the tortilla turned into a paper towel and all the liquid poured out from the back end of the foil. Not a trickle. A virtual la cascada of gush. Like a water balloon. I'm a messy eater but I'm not That bad, and I object to paying mas mucho for something I can get better, cheaper, and in greater quantities from taco trucks doing brisk business at the Contra Costa DMV. Now I know why the tables are sticky, the floors are sticky, and I'm heading to La Burrita cause I'm still hungry.

Where the brightly colored shack of Brazil Cafe stands sentry at the parking lot of Walnut and University, eating out in the hot reflective sun is the way to order. Plate versions of the caper, green olive, tri tip steak special sandwhiches taste just as good, but the soft roll bread doesn't disintegrate in the bag.

The old gyro place in Durant Square changed owners and added a shiny new deli case. The new menu offers a fresher lighter tasting chicken plate with a big pile of salad and toasted pita breads smeared with tomato sauce over white rice. I suppose most people will be happier with the new arrangement, but me, I prefer the Meesha's original chicken plate, with the yogurt-ed dark meat, that big dollop of red garlic sauce, the vinaigrette sprigs of lettuce and tomato, with the more potent hummus. I know, I'm a curmudgeon.

Top Dog - Looks just the same. Reliably great sausages as usual.

Blondie's - Looks just the same. Surprisingly good, to my memory, pizza as usual.

However, I went to Pie in the Sky for a week straight once I'd caught on. The Sky and Mea Coppa are probably my favorite slices. The dough is crispy but not brittle on the bottom, thin, with a little tooth, and glistens with what seems like a bare sheen of tomato sauce under the cheese (depending on the order). Foldable, forkable, but never a landslide. For 1 or 1.5 slices with an unfiltered apple juice, the total is 6 and change.