What does one consider when they choose to consume something? It seems that taste buds no longer play the same role in our decision making process as they did for our predecessors.As new studies continuously unveil hidden truths about our foods and the affects they have on our bodies and environments, it seems the flavor of our food has begun to take the backseat to these other factors. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but at what point does our obsession with what is in our food become unhealthy?
I find it interesting how society continues to produce growing concerns and repeated warnings about eating disorders during adolescence, but rarely ever touches on the issue of disordered eating. Very few people even know what disordered eating is, and while the rearrangement of words and added past particle may appear to imply similar meaning; they are actually two very different things, worthy of equal caution. I’ve witnessed the affects of both. I watched helplessly as my sister suffered from anorexia for years, while I myself experienced the implications of disordered eating last winter. Eating disorders can be life threatening, while disordered eating can consume one’s entire life. So why is it that disordered eating is not worthy of the same attention?
Anorexics share the determination to eat as little and as rarely as possible, while the life of a disordered eater varies depending on the person. For me, food became my top priority in life. I spent hours researching the nutritional content of everything and anything I would ever consider eating. I became a human encyclopedia of caloric values, fat count, and sugar percentages. What began a healthy diet transgressed into an obsession with health. Ironically, strangers, parents, and even doctors commended me for my incredible physical condition and self-determination. However, beyond a certain point my mental health began deteriorating with each additional pound lost. I was too engulfed in all of the benefits resulting from my obsession to notice what was happening to me, and had plenty of excuses to justify the loss of many of my friends. My elders all advised me to dismiss criticism from peers as jealousy. My grades and self-confidence were at an all-time high, and since I was never technically “too thin”, only my friends could see how truly unhealthy I’d become. I had a mental tally of the number of calories I’d consumed throughout each day. However, after every meal I made sure to double check all of these approximations with calorie counting programs I’d downloaded to my desktop, so as to establish how much I was “allowed” to eat for the remainder of the day. These programs required me to know serving sizes in order to receive accurate estimations. So, I began measuring my food with measuring cups. I measured out the fat-free sugar-free creamer I would put in my coffee, and the occasional juice I allowed myself as a treat. I refused to eat past 8:00 PM (unless I was on the verge of tears, in which case I would have an apple), causing me to go to bed hungry often and never fully get a good night of sleep. I would awaken easily at about 5:00 am each morning from hunger pains, and so, I would begin my day early, giving me more time to spend on my studies. I stepped on the scale at least five times a day, and became a prisoner of my mind.
It’s scary to think that this was my reality.Reflecting on the days when I thought a rice cake was too many empty calories I realize why people called me crazy. So, while it actually has made me a much healthier, wiser, and more informed person today, it cost me my sanity last year.
Borsch, Borshch or Borsht is one of the few truly national completely Ukrainian foods. I hate when people think that Borsch originated in Russia because we already have so many dishes in common with them. The Borsch is beets soup, which must have some main ingredients to be called a real Ukrainian Borsch and not a Russian or Lithuanian Borsch. The main ingredients are: potatoes, cabbage, onions, garlic, dill, sour cream and of course beets. Borsch can be served and cold but it tastes way better when it’s warm and has a spoon of cold sour cream floating on top of it. The beets give Borsch the amazing red color and the sour cream may be mixed in to make up a lighter red. Borsch is the first thing I eat every time I come back to Ukraine and nothing makes me feel more at home. There is a saying in Ukraine which articulates that every household has it’s own Borsch, I completely agree with this statement. My mother’s Borsch is a whole lot different then the Borsch they serve at restaurants and it is even different from my grandpas Borsch even thought he is the one who taught her how to cook it. My mothers Borsch s of course my favorite. Her special ingredients are: potatoes, beef cut in large pieces, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, dill and some called sour cream on top. Nowadays you can find borsch in instant packs that can be made in 3 minutes just like the Rammen noodles. I brought some of these packs to Kent and when I was cooking them people would come up to me and they would tell me that they know what Borsch is. I think it’s amazing that some people in the US know the National Ukrainian food. The next time you decide to stop by Ukraine make sure you try a plate of delicious Borsch.
Have you ever wanted to gain 7 pounds in just 7 days? With cell tech hardcore I have gained at least 30 kilos of muscle, that is why I love my cell tech hardcore pro series. The delicious taste of the fruit punch cools me down after a long hot day as I feel it increasing the size of everything it moves through even my stomach. I also love my cell tech because it is scientifically shown to build 26x more rock-hard mass then creatine while delivering explosive strength to my muscles. This amazing drink has been designed by 44 of the best researchers in the world to deliver a muscle building formula that I can use to destroy freshmen in the gym. With beach season coming my cell tech hardcore pro series is all I need to be the best looking thing on the beach including all the girls swarming around me. If I forget to take my cell tech I start to look like Beavers. Don’t you want to look like me? If so, go to the gym and treat yourself to my favorite drink; cell tech hardcore pro series. Some people think that creatine and cell tech are bad for you and that all it does is fills your muscles with water in order to increase in mass. This, my friends, is not true because sometimes I eat the powder of the cell tech with no water and I can feel myself get bigger with every bite. How are my muscles filling with water if I don’t drink any? This cell tech formula is so delicious sometimes I even sprinkle the cell tech on my food in the dining hall to make it taste better. Cell tech really makes my life better and it is my favorite thing in the world.
When eating at restaurants, everyone has a “go-to” meal which they choose if they cannot find anything more appealing on the menu. This is not to say that this meal is a last resort by any means, but rather that it is so satisfying that you literally cannot choose another option unless you are absolutely craving something else. I would even go so far as to say that you feel psychological remorse when you ignore your instincts and choose something new in attempt to be “adventurous” or “different,” when deep down you know you wish you had listened to your “gut,” both literally and figuratively. I am not advocating limiting your choices, especially in the presence of top notch culinary excellence (wherever you may find it), but the next time your friend or parent says, “Hey, you always get that, how about trying something different for a change?” remember that you chose your go-to food for good reasons. Remind the nay-sayer that everyone has a dish that they are particularly comfortable with and they should not be ashamed in coming back to it frequently. After all, eating is synonymous with happiness; do not let insecurity get in the way. My go-to meal is a chicken parmesan sub. The “Eating Well” food blog calls it a “neighborhood-deli classic” and I cannot think of a better way to describe its classification, mainly because throughout my childhood to this day I still order chicken parm subs from the same people at the neighborhood deli. Other than its ever-enticing juicy, greasy, meaty, and saucy components, the reason this sandwich has become my go-to meal is that, wherever I order one, it still reminds me of that small town deli that I grew up ordering from. I do not know if the chickens or any other ingredients they use are organic, but the amount of care that I continuously see the people behind the counter put into a sandwich as simple as chicken parm makes me feel blessed that I can eat food that is prepared this carefully, and it ignites a spark of hope in me that someday soon all will be able to eat food which is prepared in this way. That is why the chicken parm sub is my go-to meal.
With summer approaching I get the most excited for BBQ’s at home. My dad always makes a fire and my mom will prepare the food. My favorite things to eat are the typical BBQ food. I love cheese burgers, hot dogs, and pasta and potato salads. I enjoy BBQ’s not just because of the food, but because of the fact that it brings my family together in the summer time and we can always eat and hang out with Friends outside. The smell of a BBQ stands out in the summer time. When going through my neighborhood you can always smell someone cooking outside with their family and friends and I love the feeling it gives me. When I was young; the one thing I remember about the foods I ate was when I would BBQ outside with my friends and family. BBQ’s brought my family closer and gave us time to spend with each other. My favorite part about them is the macaroni salad my mom makes, she uses the little elbow noodles and adds carrots mayonnaise and herbs…I grew up eating this and it continues to be one of my favorite foods.
Growing up, the weeks filled up easily. Between sports practices, homework, play dates, and school, my family and I were always on different schedules. Sunday was family day, a day where we catch up and spend quality time together. The day always started by waking up to the sweet smell of freshly baked Pillsbury cinnamon buns. Breathing in the sweet smell of freshly baked Pillsbury cinnamon buns, immediately perks me up as I lye in bed. Being lazy on a Sunday morning is impossible when the warm sweet smell of cinnamon buns enters my body. The cinnamon buns are coming right out of the oven, which means I have to beat my brother to the kitchen. As I run down the stairs into the kitchen my mom hands me the small clear container of vanilla icing to smear on top of the cinnamon buns. The small tablespoon amount of icing immediately begins to melt on top of the golden brown cinnamon pastries. My brother comes down and we immediately fight over the biggest cinnamon bun. Even though they’re all the same, we fought over which one has the most icing, or which one seems to look the biggest. Usually I loose in the game of rock paper scissor shot, so I take my pick from the seven other cinnamon buns on the tray. The soft dough easily morphs around my fingertips. The dough is soft and chewy. A hint of cinnamon and the sweet taste of vanilla take over my taste buds. It is impossible not to want another bite. My brother and I devour each cinnamon bun in a matter of minutes. My mom and dad have to quickly swoop in before my brother and I eat them all. With our mouths covered in vanilla icing and fingertips sticky from the cinnamon, we sit around the kitchen table in our pajamas laughing and enjoying the calm moment in our chaotic lives. Even though my family and I don’t make the cinnamon buns from scratch, the ready made Pillsbury cinnamon buns bake in ten minutes and taste like they were made from scratch. Instead of choosing to spend the time baking the cinnamon buns from scratch, we spend our quality time sitting around the kitchen table enjoying each other’s company, and eating pastries that were baked in a mere matter of minutes.
There is nothing more satisfying than eggplant on the grill. The dark violet color of the eggplants untouched skin glows against any other vegetable. Eggplants can be sliced and cooked into a simple gourmet side dish in less than ten minutes. When I come home from school it is the first thing I ask for as well as the last before I go back… My Dad has a simple recipe. He first thinly slices the eggplant into slices about a fifth of an inch thick. He then moves the slices to a bowl where he marinates them in a little concoction of things like olive oil and salt and some herbs. From there he takes the bowl straight to the grill, which has been on for a little while now. He dips his tongs into the mixture and places the eggplant straight onto the grill. He does the repeatedly until the grill is blanketed in shiny yellow white seedy pieces of eggplant. Because they are sliced so thinly you can see the coals glowing under the grill bars and see the black lines of the grill being branded into the sides facing the grill. At about 4 minutes or less my dad will go around and flip them. He will then wait for them to be cooked about evenly on both sides and then take them off the grill and serves them on a simple white platter. I love the way the eggplants have so many different textures with in them. The skin becomes crispy and dark while the inside is still warm and moist. Although eggplants are no delicacy, I treat them like one; it has always been my favorite vegetable to come home to and always will be.
Crème brûlée is one of the most famous desserts known world-wide. You can taste it everywhere around the world. Crème brûlée means for ‘burnt cream’ in French. It usually has two layers: the bottom layer is a sweet custard cream and the top layer is caramel burnt using a torch. I am sure that many people who like to eat sweets will enjoy this dessert. It can be found easily in many restaurants world-wide. Usually, they are found in restaurants that serve French or European food. What I enjoy most when eating Crème brûlée is cracking the top caramel part with my little dessert spoon. A scoop of the Crème brûlée, a little bit of the top caramel with the bottom custard, will attract everyone to try it after their meal. Crème brûlée goes very well with coffee, and in fact, I love to eat them with a cup of Americano. The best Crème brûlée I had was in a buffet in Seoul, Korea. My family goes to the buffet once or twice every month and my final dish is always a cup of Crème brûlée and a cup of coffee. Crème brûlées are usually served in small cups or dishes. One cup is enough to give a finale to the wonderful dinner I just had. There are many variations to Crème brûlées. The base custard is usually made with vanilla, but there are places that alter the vanilla to lemon, orange, rosemary, chocolate, coffee, fruits, and liqueurs. My favorite is the classic Crème brûlée, the vanilla base custard plus the butane torch burnt caramel. When a scoop goes into my mouth, the feeling of the soft custard and the melting of the caramel form such good combinations that it gives, is almost impossible to explain the sensation. The fastest way to learn about this feeling is to actually eat them.
Kimchi is one of the main traditional food of Korea. It is popular among the world and is best known for its strong flavor. Many grandmothers or old people who used to live in times of poor era have special sauce for Kimchi. It is because only the women had to prepare all the food and its ferementating process is wholly done by them. The ferementaiton and process of making kimchi is pretty similar to that of making pickles. Instead of cucumbers, cabbages are mixed with salt and the water flows out by the osmosis. Kimchi is considered as healthy food. Because it is ferementated for some time, it has similar effects as yogurt or cheese. Especially, kimchi prevents cancers. When there was not much stuffs to eat in earlier days, people could survive and sustain least nutrients through kimchi. Kimuchi is a fake one. Japanese has copied kimchi and pretend as if it is their own. The hot spicy flavor that represents Korea is not in Kimuchi, instead the Japanese’ imitation consists nothing much of flavor but almost rare cabbage. Kimchi can get along with any food. This is important factor that it suits well with other food. Because of its fresh taste, kimchi shows up almost every meal. For example, sweet potatoes and pizza are two things that Koreans like to eat along with kimchi. There are several types of kimchi such as white kimchi, ggak du gi, cucumber kimchi, chong gak kimchi, dong chi mi. Among those, in summer many people seek dongchimi, which is white kimchi with sweet and sour flavor. However, my favorite is ggak du gi, which is made not of cabbage but from reddish. There is kimchi museum in Seoul which demonstrates the history and the process of making kimchi. As proud traditional food of Korea, it is pleasing to see kimchi spreading out to many other places.
Today’s blog post will be about chocolate croissants. Chocolate croissants can be found in many places such as bakeries, restaurants, and cafes. There are so many types of croissants: chocolate, cheese, butter, custard cream, strawberry cream cheese, blueberry and more. Croissants are made by putting a lot of layers of very thin bread on top of each other, and then rolling them. After they are rolled, they have a diamond-like shape or rectangular shape. After they are baked in the oven, they get a rich gold color. They are crispy but as you chew them, they feel very soft. It is the numerous layers that make this crispy soft feeling possible. One of my favorite croissants is the chocolate croissant from Au Bon Pain. They have one of the best croissants in the world. Their chocolate croissants are just amazing. The sweetness of the chocolate and the soft bread go together so well. Another recommendation for croissants is the Kent Coffee, in the town of Kent, Connecticut. Their chocolate croissants are pretty decent. However, their cranberry cream cheese croissants are just incredible. I have never tried a croissant other than chocolate or almond, and when I took a bite of that cranberry cream cheese croissant, it took me to a whole different world. I never thought that cranberry and cream cheeses are such great couples. My final recommendation for croissants is the chocolate croissant at the Student Center of Kent School. The croissants come in once a week, either Tuesdays or Wednesdays. They come in very small quantity and once they are in, it is most likely that they become sold out at the day. When I go check out the snack bar and they have the chocolate croissants, I buy 5 or 6 of them at once. The croissants, like the crème brulee from my previous blog posts, go very well with coffee, the one and only beverage I drink after a meal.
How good does a warm fried flat flab of dough covered in cinnamon sugar sound? It sounds pretty amazing and tastes ten times better. Beavertails is a chain food stand that is run in Canada. While they also sell hotdogs and soft drinks, their main attraction is the beavertail. I first indulged into this crispy warm dessert when in Mont Tremblant over winter weekend. After a long day of skiing, I wasn’t sure if the advertisement picture of the fried dough in front of me was real or a mirage. Beavertails come in an assortment of flavors, and of course in beaver tail shaped form. You can add hazelnut chocolate spread on top with Reese’s candies, chopped cinnamon apples, strawberries with whip cream, s’mores toppings, powdered sugar or just plain as it is! I was only in Mont Tremblant for a few days so I could not experience the amount of beavertails I was hoping to, considering the calorie count is quite high in these life changing desserts. There were so many tails in so little time!!! I had to make wise choices so I ordered a beavertail with hazelnut chocolate spread and powdered sugar on top. By the last bite, I had chocolate lip liner and powdered sugar all over my ski suit. It was kind of embarrassing but it did not stop me from risking frost bite again to eat another one. The beavertail company has yet to master eating their dessert with ski gloves on… President Obama made a visit to a market in Ottawa to try the famously known beavertail. In honor of him trying one, they named his choice of flavor the “Obama Tail”. Here is the recipe if you’re interesting in baking one. Ingredients: ½ cup warm water 5 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 pinch of white sugar 1 cup of warm milk 1/3 cup of white sugar 1 ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 eggs 1/3 cup vegetable oil 5 cups whole wheat flour 1 quart of oil for frying 2 cups white sugar touch of cinnamon
Hogfish Working at a fish store, I have been introduced to many different kinds of fish. Some of these include Mahi Mahi, Tuna, Grouper, Flounder, Salmon, and Cobia. One specific fish that has also sparked an interest in my mind is Hogfish. After hearing customers rave about the fish, I decided to take some home and treat my family. In addition, it’s also very wise to taste each fish, so that you know what you’re selling. From the look of the fish, I was extremely skeptical. The hogfish’s long snout and pointy teeth give it the actual look of a hog. Kids often pose for pictures with the fish as it is so strange looking. However, looks are not everything as this fish was the most delicious thing I’ve ever brought home. Since then my mouth waters when I think of the warm rich taste of Hogfish in my mouth. Hogfish are a tropical fish, they tend to live around Florida, and migrate up the coast towards North Carolina as the water gets warmer. This type of fish lives on the bottom of the ocean and feeds off small crabs and lobsters. In result, the white flaky fillet also tastes like lobster. Because of this rich taste, the fish is perfect with out any seasoning besides lemon, salt and pepper, and basil. Hogfish is perfect on the grill because of the thickness of the fish. The fish should be grilled with the scaled side down so that the meat does not become overcooked.
My day started out with a debate. In my A-block English class, we were asked to argue over whether ice cream or original cake is better. And there was one name that kept coming back into the conversation- Betty Crocker. We know that most people don’t actually make their cakes from scratch (including myself). They usually are cooking with a Betty Crocker mixture, eggs, vegetable oil, and/or water. I started to think about Betty Crocker, one of the most famous female names in the cooking industry, and I wondered who is she? So it turns out, there is no actual Betty Crocker. Sad, I know. The house wife that we all envisioned mixing ingredients in her old decorative kitchen is just a figment of our imagination and an idea created by a cooking company. There was no Betty Crocker that was a famous cook who inspired companies to cook like her. No, she is a made up character similar to the Pillsbury Dough Boy. She was created by Marjorie Child Husted, who was not a cook but a home economist and businesswoman. Originally, Betty Crocker was a pen named, created in 1921, used to answer cooking questions sent to Washburn Crosby Company. The name Betty Crocker was expanded into a cooking icon by Washburn Crosby Company (another food processing company), which eventually merged with other companies to form General Mills. Betty Crocker’s image was created in 1936. She is a middle aged woman, with short brown hair. She is always seen in a red sweater with a white shirt underneath. She has changed slightly over the year with a few variations of style and wrinkles to match the new generation’s preferences. She is meant to symbolize trust, warmth, and the perfect housewife. I’m not the biggest fan of false advertisement. I was very disappointed (and still am) to figure out that there was no real Betty Crocker. And the comforting, family oriented idea that Betty Crocker cooking is trying to create is a lie because Betty Crocker isn’t real.
Cakes are such a versatile dessert; they can be made in many different shapes and sizes, different flavors and different icings and decorations, making them perfect for anyone. They can range from an enormously tall and elaborate wedding cake to a small homemade cake for someone’s birthday. Cakes are very often the go to dessert for celebrations of any kind because they can quite easily feed large groups of people. From my younger days I remember that the cake of choice for kid birthday parties would be the chocolate caterpillar cake. This was a like a long Swiss roll cake which was completely covered in chocolate and it had eyes and feet and even m&ms for colorful spots on its back. This was always the most exciting part about going to birthday parties. Carrot cake is a great cake which is less used for parties and celebrations but more just as a general dessert. Some people find it strange that a cake would have carrot in it but I find carrot cake delicious. Cream cheese is usually used in carrot cake instead of frosting with a little whipped cream on the top. The cake also usually contains some fruit such as sultanas or even orange which gives it a sweeter fruity flavor. There is also a bit of spice to the cake which comes from the cinnamon or other spices used. This cake can also be quite healthy as shown in this recipe from http://www.eatingwell.com/.
Cake 1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple 2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour, (see Ingredient Note) 2 teaspoons baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3 large eggs 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 3/4 cup nonfat buttermilk, (see Tip) 1/2 cup canola oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups grated carrots, (4-6 medium) 1/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (see Tip) Frosting 12 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, (Neufchâtel), softened 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 tablespoons coconut chips, (see Ingredient Note) or flaked coconut, toasted
Preparation To prepare cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Drain pineapple in a sieve set over a bowl, pressing on the solids. Reserve the drained pineapple and 1/4 cup of the juice. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and the 1/4 cup pineapple juice in a large bowl until blended. Stir in pineapple, carrots and 1/4 cup coconut. Add the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula just until blended. Stir in the nuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake the cake until the top springs back when touched lightly and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. To prepare frosting and finish cake: Beat cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.
What is the best meal and most satisfying to make? Well, that would be chicken or veal parmigiana. I always looked forward to cooking chicken or veal parmigiana with my father. The process that is involved along with the final outcome is a successful and enjoying result. This is my father’s specialty, and he has taught me how to make it. Place two bowls side by side. In one you dump the breadcrumbs that will soon cover the meat. In the other bowl you break eggs (as many as you see fit) and pour a small amount of milk. You whisk the eggs until the egg/milk combination is silky smooth. You tear open the veal and chicken packages that you bought and wash the meat under the luke warm water. The washed meat is placed into the bowl containing the milk/egg mixture. You are ready to go. Now there is always a process. Like a factory, one step before the other. As the oil is placed into the grill, a small lake of oil in the bottom of the pan, as it bubbles, you place a piece of meat into the breadcrumbs. This is the best part, covering the meat with the breadcrumbs, making sure that no meat is shown, just breadcrumbs. I used to play games when covering the meat. I tried to hide the meat under the breadcrumbs, make it look like there was no meat there at all. I would then move on to the second piece, to later find that first one still hidden under the mound of crumbs. Once each piece of meat has been cooked in the oil, to a golden brown color, they are laid on paper towel on a plate, to help soak some of the oil out. Once every piece of meat has been soaked, crumbed, and cooked, it was time to prepare the meal. Spaghetti is a necessity. You cannot have chicken parmigiana without the spaghetti. As the spaghetti cooks in the pan, you must prepare the main dish. Pour Prego, it has to be Prego marinara sauce into the bottom of a dish. Then place the grilled chicken or veal (it is a better idea to separate the two in different pans) in the marinara sauce. Then of course, pour cheese on top. Then place the dish, or two dishes, into the oven to cook until the cheese is golden brown. Once it is done, you have made your meal. I have learned to cook this meal from my father. And my entire family and friends agree that it is his best. I have been taught from the chicken/veal parmigiana master. Making this meal and knowing that everyone has enjoyed it, satisfies the cook.
I am sad to be writing my last blog for morning munchies. But, all things must come to an end at some point, such as my math career and teenage mood swings. The other day in my A block English class, we were debating about Ice cream cake. I don’t care much for ice cream cake, but whatever blows wind up your quilt. Although ice cream cake doesn’t tickle my fancy, I do think that ice cream is one of the most brilliant inventions to grace our polluted earth. Ice cream is like the lover who plays hard to get. It is so cold and distant. Ice cream doesn’t have an inviting home. The moment you open the front door, a gust of cold wind comes from the freezer.
“ What did I do to you…… my love?” you say turning to the ice cream. The ice cream gives you the cold shoulder; yet you continue your advances, ignoring the advice your loyal friends have given you.
“ He will make you go from a two to an eight.” Exclaims Sue Bop “ You know your mother would be happier if you were with Asparagus.” Says Auntie Agnes shaking her head.
“ That guy from the block; Apple Pie is much sweeter.” Viva Veronica reminds me.
Yet the advice is ignored because nothing can keep true lovers apart. And no matter what people say….. you will always sneak out at night. Tip toeing down the stairs ( making sure not to wake the parents) and telling your dog not to bark as you make your way to the baron freezer.
The moment the door opens you feel the tension. The cold air makes little hills appear all over your body and you lose your voice. There he stands. Tall brave and broad around the shoulders. You grab him first and take the top off.
“ What would my parents say?” your mind screams.
There is a plastic protective layer under the top and you take that off to, because you cant truly enjoy ice cream with all those unnecessary layers.
The well tanned skin of the ice cream appears.
“ Chocolate peanut butter……. My favorite!” you think.
You open wide and the cold sends a shock up your teeth.
“ Why are you always doing this to me!” you ask angrily looking down at your ice cream.
But, then a delightful taste arouses your taste buds. Rich, bitter dark chocolate, mixed with sweet and playful peanut butter. You keep asking for more….. more…. MORE! You grab a sharp spoon and you hack away at the ice cream, till the carton is left empty.
You embrace the harsh treatment, the stand offish attitude. Because, he is everything you wanted. You have been waiting your whole life for this experience. And you wont ever replace your favorite midnight snack.
The food at hand today is the strawberry. A perfect blend of sweet, sour, juicy, not to mention healthy all in one, strawberries seem to be the universal likable fruit. It was the first fruit that I ate willingly post-baby food and I have yet to encounter someone whom, when served strawberries, said, “Do you have anything else?” They come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes you get small ones, no bigger than a raspberry, as can be found in my mother’s garden. I have found that home grown strawberries tend to be more tart (maybe from less pesticides or the fact that they are not genetically enhanced, who knows?) so if you are like me and enjoy the intense sour rush, try planting some in the summer. But if you go to a supermarket you may find the bigger, redder, more commercial-esque strawberries which are great and soothing on a hot day. Most of the strawberries you get in boxes have the normal cone shape, but occasionally you get some “three pointers” which are very fat with three tips so it looks like three strawberries were molded into one. Although I personally enjoy eating strawberries in their true form the best, a most crucial factor is their versatility. For birthdays, how about strawberry short cake? Or in mid-August why not puree some strawberries, add some sugar, syrup, and lemon juice, and make strawberry sorbet to combat the heat? Or my personal favorite: ice cold strawberry daiquiris (virgin, of course) on spring break. The options are almost endless and can be applied to more than just deserts or vacation drinks. The strawberry almond salad, a dish I came across recently, made me realize that strawberries could be used in even more ways than I had originally speculated. The strawberries add a sweet touch to the oil dressing, and combined with the almonds and cheese it is a truly sensational appetizer. Although admittedly I have come across some pretty interesting ways to apply fruits such as oranges, melons, and raspberries in a variety of ways, but in terms of taste and versatility strawberries are nearly unmatched in the fruit food group. http://www.photographyblogger.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Strawberries.jpg
As I enter the sprawling mud covered terrain, I am overwhelmed by different sounds, smells, and structures drawing my attention in every direction. It was my first visit to New Orleans, LA and I couldn’t wait to immerse myself in the immense culture that I’d heard so much about. Luckily, my revisit day to Tulane University (where I plan on spending my next four years) coincided with New Orleans’ famous annual Jazz and Heritage festival. When I set out for the festival, I was expecting to just roam the grounds for a few hours and take advantage of the various artists performing; however, within minutes of first entering the grounds, I realized that this would be nothing like what I’d anticipated. A heavy storm had just passed, leaving the fair grounds thick in mud more similar to glue. Each step required enough physical exertion to leave my calves sore for days, ruining my shoes and splattering manure-scented grime onto my legs in the process.However, despite the repugnant smell and filth surrounding me, my appetite remained unaffected and eager to indulge. Nearly a hundred miniature cabin-like structures extended across the fairgrounds, each one offering their own unique variation of NOLA’s renowned southern cooking, rooted with Caribbean features.Cajun and Creole staples were widespread, and if you looked hard enough you could even find a few Japanese and Mexican offerings as well. However, I opted to try some of the more locale dishes. My first prey was the deep fried green tomato.Clothed in a sumptuous salty fried batter, the added crunch and burst of flavor provided the perfect contrast to the unripe tang of the savory tomatoes.Although I had hoped to eat healthily in preparation for my upcoming prom, after having such a joyous experience with the friend green tomatoes, I just couldn’t stop. Everywhere I looked I saw signs for some sort of crawfish delicacy. Offered as a bisque, in a batter, or simply the main ingredient in a New Orleans’ signature “Po-Boy” sandwich, you could find crawfish in virtually any form. However, after a fellow patron walked past holding a massive container of the cockroach-like creatures in their natural form, I was determined find them boiled. Forty-five minutes and a few miles of wandering later, I arrived at my destination: the boiled crawfish stand. I exchanged eight dollars for about twenty-five miniature lobsters infused with a mixture of spices: paprika, salt, cayenne pepper, thyme, and a bountiful amount of garlic and onion powder. Numbed by flavor and covered in the intestines of my many victims, I decided to head back to my hotel early and wash up for dinner. In NOLA, it’s as if I created a few new compartments within my body capable of storing anything and everything I desired, making it easy for me to say that my eyes most defiantly are not bigger than my stomach.
I already talked once in my blog about some Peruvian dishes. In reality there are so many of them that it is impossible to talk about all of them in one post. The most popular one is of course the Ceviche but it is not the most edible one because it is so citric that it is bad for the body if it is consumed in large quantities. The Peruvians say that the Ceviche should be eaten only once a week.
There are many other national dishes in Peru that are very popular among the common people. My favorite Peruvian dish other then the Ceviche is the Anticuchos, which is, grilled brochettes of beef heart. The beef is mixed with hot pepper and vinegar before it is grilled. It is usually served in small portions as an appetizer. Another great dish is the Causa Rellena. This dish is very easy to cook and it always looks very appetizing. Causa is basically a roll of yellow Peruvian mashed potatoes with lime and Aji (hot pepper) and filled with either tuna or chicken. I would say the most common dish of the lower class is the Tacu-Tacu. Tacu-Tacu is basically a sticky mixture of rice and beans with Aji (hot pepper). Sometimes the Tacu-Tacu comes with some stake inside. This dish might sound very simple but like all the other Peruvian dishes is very tasteful. One of the weirdest and most disgusting dishes is the Cuy. Before I explain what it is I have to say that I never tried it but all the Peruvians say that it is fantastic. Cuy is basically a whole grilled Guinea Pig. The legs and the head are not cut off so you can actually see that you’re eating something very similar to a rat. The Cuy is sometimes served with some potatoes and rice and as any other dish in Peru is seasoned with some Aji.
I can’t wait to go back to Peru and eat once again all these delicious dishes.
Source for picture: http://www.adondevamos.pe/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/causa-rellena1.jpg
In the 1890s a scientist named Ivan Pavlov classically conditioned Dogs to salivate at the sound of the tone. For those who are not in psychology class or are unfamiliar with Pavlov’s work, Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning in which an uncontrolled stimulus (dog food in Pavlov’s experiment) leads to an uncontrolled response (dog salivation in Pavlov’s experiment) which changes to a controlled stimulus (bell tone in Pavlov’s experiment) which leads to a controlled response (dog salivation in Pavlov’s experiment). To perform this experiment Pavlov understood that dogs salivated at the sight of dog food, he started to ring a bell directly before giving the dogs their food. The dogs began to associate the tone with their food. Eventually, the dogs began to salivate at the sound of the bell. This experimental design is very famous and has been used by many different scientists to teach different associations. The first time I found out about this experiment was when I was watching the NBC television show “The Office”. The laid back, well-liked character, named Jim, trained the clown character, Dwight, to salivate at the sound of Jim’s computer starting up by giving Dwight a mint every time Jim turned on his computer. I began to wonder, could I classically condition myself to like foods that I normally dislike? Or could I make my diet healthier with this experiment? I decided that making my diet healthier is more important (and easier) than trying to get myself to like different foods. I tried to figure out what I should change and I came to the conclusion that I crave chocolate in the early afternoon. I had to figure out what my uncontrolled stimulus (US), uncontrolled response (UR), controlled stimulus (CS), and controlled response (CR) were going to be. My uncontrolled stimulus would be the afternoon salivation/desire for chocolate and my uncontrolled response would be eating some chocolate in the afternoon. I wanted to pair this desire for chocolate with a desire for an apple. In the afternoon, when I began to have my sweet craving, I grabbed a piece of chocolate along with a few apple slices. Each afternoon, I would take less chocolate and more apple slices. Finally, I took all the chocolate out of my kitchen and replaced it with apples. My cravings for chocolate started to fade and I began craving apples in the afternoon. I was so proud of my great success and personal use of psychology. Even if it wasn’t exactly a perfect classical conditioning experiment, I credited Pavlov for the idea. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention something psychologists call “extinction”. My psychology book (Myers, Psychology) defines extinction as “the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical condition when the unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS)”. For Pavlov’s dogs the tone (CS) no longer signaled food (US) so the dogs stopped salivated when they heard the tone because no food was given after the bell rung. Upon returning to school, my craving for chocolate returned and I fell back into my unhealthy routine. Maybe it had something to do with the environment, maybe it was because there are no apples in my room, or maybe I am genetically predisposed to crave chocolate. I guess what they say is true, old habits really do die hard.
Within the Kent School community, quite a few things are vital for our survival. Headmaster’s Holidays are a huge relief after all the pain and suffering during the marking period. Hockey games are the pride and joy of the school during the winter months and crew during the spring. On a dreary Thursday evening, after spending a half hour in chapel singing our favorite hymns, we eat a meal of canned turkey with canned sauce, or chicken burgers with sliced cheese. Life at boarding school couldn’t be better. A few kids meander around senior grass gossiping and a couple of kids hit the library to start studying for AP exams. But, then you will notice a group of students heading towards the Deans quaint white house, on top of a charming hill. “ Why are twenty students heading to the Deans house?” asks an onlooker “ Perhaps they are storming the manor demanding less Tariff?” ponders a pilgrim adjusting his blouse. Yes, it seems strange for dozens of students to be walking up to the dean’s house at this hour of night. But, they are going there on pleasant terms, thanks to the kind heart of the senior form dean. This event attracts students from all around the 1,000 acre Kent Campus, from the isolated corner of Case to the Rocky Hills of Field. “ Cookie Night” is a legend and it is something taken very seriously by the senior class. Cookie Night happens every Thursday evening after Formal dinner and ends before check in. It takes place in the Deans house and she provides all the food and beverages. When you walk through the inviting little door you will see children frolicking in the kitchen. A boy will put popcorn in the microwave and take a seat on the bench wiping sweat off of his brow ( The popcorn maker is a serious and very important job). He will wait two minutes and thirty seconds, then open the popcorn bag. Seeing that none of the kernels have burnt, an expression of relief appears on his youthful face and he cracks a smile, while pouring the little yellow wonders into a brown bowl. In The meantime, a few pupils have been working on the main course……. Cookies. There are tubs of chocolate chip cookie dough in the deans house. One of them usually lasts a few nights. About a dozen dough balls are arranged on the cookie sheet and put carefully in the oven. After ten minutes of anxiously waiting, the senior cookiateer and the cookieateer sous chef gently take the cookies out. They are soft and have reached the prime of their youth and are ready to graduate to the comfort of our stomachs. Hands of all different shapes and sizes reach for a cookie and finish it in less than four bites. “ Mmmmmm.” The seniors say. About four or five batches of cookies go in and out of the oven during the course of the feast. Bellies loose their muscle tone, bottoms get squishier and chins get more siblings. But, it doesn’t matter, because everyone is happy. Happy to have great cookies, fine friends and a swell dean, who hosts a bunch of teenagers every Thursday just to be nice.
Since I was a toddler my family has been going to the same ice cream stand. Within walking distance of my house, the stand is located on a farm that dates back to 1798. Hanging around the farm is the noticeable smell of cow manure. Some may say it is gross, but I have come to think of it as a smell of my childhood. Walking to the farm, we pass animals of all sorts, fields of vegetables, and tractors galore. Although the atmosphere is great, nothing can match up tot heir homemade ice cream. People wait in line for up to thirty minutes just to get a delicious taste of this creamy heaven. Deciding what flavor to pick is always stressful. The board next to the ordering window lists flavors of all kinds. After heavy debate with myself, I always pick chocolate with rainbow sprinkles on a sugar cone. The perfectly creamy delight piles high on your cone with stray drops falling on your fingers in the summer heat. My dad is usually more adventurous trying the different flavors available. A favorite of his will always be the Black Cherry Chocolate Chip. Personally, I am not a fan of black cherry ice cream. However, this specific ice cream reigns above all cherry competitors, such as Cherry Garcia. My brother, on the other hand always picks a mint chocolate chip milkshake. This choice can make me extremely envious, but I become more content when my cone extends out of the sliding window. Often, ice cream works well with different toppings such as sprinkles, gummy bears, whip cream, or chocolate sauce. This ice cream, however, is delicious all by itself. The generous portions keep customers returning to the family run farm for years to come.
Living in New York City you wouldn’t expect to find a restaurant that makes you feel as if you’re in a small town. Located on the Upper West Side is a small restaurant lined with a white picket fence and country feel to it, Good Enough to Eat. Good Enough to Eat is a small eatery serving brunch and dinner. Although it is located in a big city, the combination of the aura and service makes it feel like a small town restaurant. The small white picket fence lining the outside tables is hard to miss on the concrete sidewalks of Manhattan. Passing by the stainless steel tables and chairs outside you immediately feel as if you’ve walked into a barn. The dark wooden walls and small knick- knacks of cows, chickens and other farm animals line the walls, giving the restaurant a country feel. The bar and the wooden tables are separated by a white picket fence. By the bar, a larger woman with big brown curly hair, dark blue jeans and a dark t-shirt always sits watching a baseball, soccer, or football game. This woman is the hostess. As she spots you out of the corner of her eyes, she immediately warms you with a big smile. Her deep booming voice says, “Hi , How ya doin today … how many?” If you’ve ever seen Mr. Deeds, she is very similar to the character Jan, played by Conchata Ferrell. Jan is the owner of a pizzeria; she is a larger woman who cares more about her close friends and locals then her looks. Along with a friendly hostess is the comfort food. With a menu full of different burgers, fries, turkey dinners and more, my favorite meal is the meatloaf. Meatloaf is not a meal that can be eaten everyday. However, meatloaf at Good Enough to Eat is worth ordering. Served on a blue plate with mashed potatoes, green beans, and a side of gravy, this meal is anything but simple. Pouring the dark brown gravy over the meat and potatoes gives a salty and flavorful taste to the meal. As I take the first bite, I love the taste of mixing potatoes and meatloaf. The smooth creamy potatoes soften my palette before the meat enters. The meatloaf is perfectly cooked with crisp dark brown edges. The combination of potato, gravy, and meatloaf is one that is not forgettable. The green beans are cooked perfectly and as you take a crisp bite, your mouth begins to water. Bite after bite, the meatloaf quickly disappears. As the hostess comes back to ask how your meal was, it is hard to resist her big smile when she promises you that the dessert menu is worth looking at. Boy is she right! Warm pies, cookies, brownies, and cakes, are hard to resist. A warm slice of apple pie and large glass of milk is one dessert choice you’ll never want to pass up. Good Enough to Eat is a small town restaurant placed in a big city. The food, the service, and the atmosphere is anything but average and your first visit will not be your last.
Most convenient stores today are lined with candy ranging from snickers, three musketeer bars, skittles, twizzlers, and a wide variety of gum brands and flavors. Looking at the array of assorted candy bars makes me reminisce about the candy dating back to the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. I developed a taste for old goodies at a small little shop in Viking Village on Long Beach Island called the Sugar shack. The Sugar Shack is nestled in the center of Viking Village. The contrast between the Dark brown wooden shack and bright yellow and white striped awning makes the bold Black letters, Sugar Shack, hard to miss. Hanging from the bright yellow owning is a wind chime. As the cool wind blows off the bay, the soft sound of a slow ding fills into the air. Leading into the sugar shack is a tiny brick path lined with large rainbow pinwheels. The pinwheels slowly turn in the wind. The bright colors catch the eye of both children and adults. Entering the sugar shack I am overwhelmed by the various varieties of candy dating as far back as the 1920s. Fruit slices, licorice wheels, Mary Janes, Nik-L-Nips, Atomic Fire Balls, rock candy, Bazooka bubble gum, and many more. My top choices were candy cigarettes and candy buttons. I loved looking at the different brand titles and pictures on the boxes of candy cigarettes. I wasn’t choosing from actual cigarette brands like Marlboro Reds, Camel, and Parliaments. Candy cigarettes had their own companies with names like, Stallion candy, Target candy, and Kings candy. My favorite pack of cigarette candy was the Lucky Lights candy. The bright horseshoe on the box and green clover looked so glamorous to me. Walking around the neighborhood on a warm summer night was a bond my dad and I shared. I would pretend to smoke my candy cigarette as my Dad smoked his cigar. I loved pretending to blow imaginary rings of smoke into the air. Every bite of the sugar stick was pure satisfaction. No artificial sweeteners involved, just pure sweet sugar cane. Along with candy cigarettes, I found a love for candy buttons. Candy buttons are small dots of colored sugar lined across in threes on paper Tape. I loved looking at the rows of yellow, blue, and pink candy dots. Every time my mom would buy me candy buttons, I knew it meant one thing; she wanted to keep me preoccupied while she went shopping. As I would wait for my mom to browse through Viking village looking at the different types of knick-knacks and buying fresh fish, I would carefully peel off the candy buttons. Looking back on my experience now, I realize that candy buttons really had no taste to them at all. The paper tape would also always get stuck to the back of the buttons. The taste of food dye and paper was a delicacy to me at age seven. The sugar shack is a small shack that holds candies dated all the way back to the 1920s. The sugar shack exemplifies that even as time goes on, some of the oldies are worth keeping around.
As a kid, I was fortunate enough to assume I would have a home cooked meal every night. My mom has always enjoyed cooking and has always enforced sit down dinners every night. When I would be picked up at the bus stop, the farmer's market or grocery store would be a stop before we arrived at home. While my mom would be cooking, my family and I would usually sit around the kitchen and keep her company. My dad would be more consistent with this, but my brothers and I on tended to do this on occasion. We would usually be getting a start on our homework. The aroma of the meal being cooked downstairs would find its way to my bedroom and make me anxious for dinner. I would run down and ask, “When is dinner going to be ready?!” and notice the steak or chicken has not been grilled yet. The most typical response would be from my mother, “Once your dad puts the meat on the grill, dinner will be ready in a half hour.” I would then have to relay that message to my dad who would be sitting in the living room playing guitar or reading the newspaper. A half an hour later, my brothers and I would be called down for dinner. Around 8:00 p.m. dinner was served. To this day, we serve our selves from the pots still on the oven top or the pasta in the strainer in the sink, buffet style. My dad is always the last to be seated so we all wait for him to begin our meal. My dog, Riley, drools from the minute he smells the steak grilling until the lasts of it are in the garbage can. He unfortunately has a slow metabolism or maybe I offer him too many treats, so he has to watch his weight and sometimes has to miss out on the extra scraps of meat. His bad habit of begging is quite annoying. Since I am the only one in the family who disobeys the “don’t feed the dog at the table” rule, Riley waits at my feet for food to accidentally drop. Sitting down as a family almost every night really made me appreciate family time and good food. My brothers are now off working in the real world and it is not often we are all eating dinner together anymore. When we are reunited, though, my mom makes sure the five of us eat together. This is a tradition I will hope to bring to my family in the future.
Being a big fan of sweet foods makes me love chocolate chip cookies. My favorites are tollhouse right out of the oven. I can remember when I was young I used to make cookies every Thursday night with my mom’s good friend. The process of making them is pretty repetitive. I would eat so much dough that when the cookies came out I was already full. Now that I have some self control, when taking the cookies out of the oven, you have to let them sit and crisp over. This makes the outside crunchy and the inside is doughy. They may not seem done when you take them out but as long as they sit for awhile it will be well worth the wait. Tollhouse is my favorite, but that doesn’t mean there the only kind I like. Usually I am not a big fan of store bought cookies but chips ahoy are surprisingly good. They are pretty crunchy throughout and I think it’s the chocolate that makes them better than the rest. I will always love my mom home cooked chocolate and oatmeal cookies. The homemade dough is always the best to eat before its put in the oven and I always could get a couple scoops in my fingers before my mom catches on. Once she gets them in the oven I can’t wait long enough until they are fully cooked. Sometimes I even took a spoon and scooped out one of the perfectly rolled cookies to eat while my mom was out of the room. Chocolate chip cookies like most things are sometimes good and sometimes bad. If they are cooked just right they are my favorite dessert, along with some vanilla ice cream. Tollhouse, chips ahoy and my mom’s homemade are my favorites. They all have a different type of cookie that I can always be in the mood for.
I head towards the chips section of the IGA. I look for that shiny aqua colored bag with the red and white lighthouse on the front. I search for the chips that I know will make me the happiest. The Kettle- Cooked CAPE COD potato chips have become my biggest weakness. What kind may you ask? They are sea salt and vinegar. They are yellow with a brown tint; you know they are cooked well. They are all natural, and they are absolutely delicious. They are made of Potatoes, Canola Oil, Maltodextrin, Vinegar Solids, Sodium Diacetate, Salt and Sea Salt, a small list of ingredients to make one of the best things on earth. Since I was a child sea salt and vinegar chips have always been my favorite. I often recall the days when my friend Madeleine and I would go to the store just for salt and vinegar chips. We shared a bag, and on our five minute walk back home, the bag was empty. These were our treat. Regular, BBQ, French Onion, are nothing compared to them. Lays Chips, their salt and vinegar are tasty, but are too light and fluffy. I was looking for something crisper and rough. Cape Cod was my answer. Every time I open a new $3.49 bag of these chips my mouth starts to water, and once the bag is open it is most likely to be finished that day. My mouth waters as I place the first flavored chip into my mouth. The watering continues, and I begin to crave them more. Each bite makes a loud crunch, and you can taste the combination of sea salt and vinegar. Not too much sea salt and not too much vinegar, the perfect amount. With each chip you add a layer of flavoring to your fingers. The more you eat and the more you succumb to your wants the thicker that layer gets on your fingertips. The best part is licking your fingers dry. Scratching the sea salt/ vinegar off your fingers, like scratching dried paint off of an easel. This action makes you want more. Your lips then start to tingle with the want for more. And then when you finally divulge and place your hand in the bag again the whole process repeats itself. It is a never ending process (until the bag is done). Cape Cod sea salt and vinegar chips are my weakness. Ever since I discovered this brand Lays has never looked the same. Anytime a bag of Cape Cod chips are in front of me, and they are not sea salt in vinegar I turn the other way. They MUST be sea salt and vinegar. Anytime the bag is near, my mouth waters and I must comply with the wants of my mouth. It wants this fatting treat, and each time I eat them I don’t think about the calories or the fat they are made of, but only how delicious they are, and how they put a smile on my face. They will forever be my weakness.
picture from http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/02/06/85/16/0002068516810_215X215.jpg
I never used to be a huge fan of coffee when I was younger. I would always drink hot chocolate or tea if my parents were ever having a coffee so that I could feel more grown up like them, but I just never had the taste for coffee. I still like to drink tea but I guess since I have grown up my tastes have too and I now love drinking coffee and it is sometimes a necessity for me to get through a day, especially to keep me awake during exam week. My favorite thing about coffee is its smell. This smell is deep and dark, yet smooth and can be strongly smelt throughout a house or down a street when it is being brewed. The delicious aroma of strong black coffee is enough to drag me out of my bed in the morning or to draw me into a Starbucks or café as I walk down the street. Although the smell of black coffee is exquisite, I still cannot drink straight black coffee because I find it much too bitter and strong. Coffee needs, at the very least, some milk, or cream, and two sugars to make it perfect. However, on cold days in the winter my favorite coffee drinks would be vanilla or caramel latte or café mocha, to add the taste of chocolate to the coffee. If you are looking for a refreshing coffee drink though an iced coffee is amazing. All the delicious taste, and even smell, of coffee but after drinking it you are refreshed as well as energized.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Dessert is my favorite part of a meal. Whether its ice cream, cookies, chocolate, candy, cake, pie or Italian ice, I have made dessert a consistent part of my meals. Dessert could always put a smile on my face growing up. When holidays come around my grandma always surprises my cousins and me with a malt ball pie. Otherwise known as the candy “whoppers”, they blend perfectly with whipped cream, chocolate mousse and a gram cracker mixture. The cake throughout is a soft fluffy texture. Topped with whipped cream, the inside is made up of crushed up malt balls, and chocolate mousse. The crust consists of crushed up gram crackers and vanilla round cookies to make the ending even sweeter. With such a smooth pie the last crunch when you’re chewing makes all the difference in this tasty pie. Malt Ball pie is just another example of the best things being the fattiest for you. On holidays I like to treat myself but this is not something I would like to eat all the time. Throughout the season, I switch around what I like for desserts. In the summer I love to have ice pops or Italian ice. In the winter I usually have some hot chocolate with some cake or ice cream. At home we have an Italian ice place on the beach that I love to go to with my friends. Desserts are the best part of every meal. It got me through the veggies when I was younger knowing that there was something sweet to come at the end.
After being in Kent for 3 years I learned that food could make you depressed. Kent School dinning hall didn’t only change my way of eating but also my way of thinking about food. Every time when I am about to eat something in the dinning hall I have to stop for a second to think if what I am about to eat is good for me. Most of the food in the dinning hall is unhealthy and bad for the students. I am not blaming the staff that cooks the food; I am blaming the companies who deliver unhealthy food for Kent. We barely get any fresh fruits, most fruits we get are in a can. The salad bar consists mostly of vegetables which been there for the past day or two. The hot food line sometimes serves vegetables but they are usually cooked which makes them loose all their vitamins. The healthiest is always to eat a sandwich because it is combination of proteins from the meat and vitamins from the vegetables. At least once a day I cook myself a sandwich and I have been doing this for all my 3 years in Kent. The products available for the sandwich have always been the same.It is very annoying to be going to the dinning hall every day knowing that you are going to eat the same chicken sandwich.
Sometimes, especially during the winter, it is tough to eat the same food over and over. All the food just starts to taste the same way and the fact that we get all our food delivered by the same company every year makes it so much worse.
Another thing that should be changed are the drinks in the dinning hall. It seems like we have a big variety of juices to choose from but in reality they can’t be called juices. The orange juice is more like an orange drink; it tastes like citric solution with lots of sugar.
It is obvious that these “juices” have no vitamins in them whatsoever.
The good news is that I found a way to survive in an environment like that. Every day I try to eat different food even if I don’t like the taste and every day I try to get either a bowl of salad or fruit even though it’s almost impossible to eat. It is also good to order some food once in a while or to go to town for lunch or dinner on the weekend.
My family is very strict when it comes to time. My father has been at least five minutes early to every event ever! So over my seventeen years of life I have become conditioned to be on time or else I get serious anxiety. But, this weekend I went to my friend’s house and his parents are the complete opposite from mine. They were at least twenty minutes late to everything. Tonight we were supposed to eat dinner at six o’clock and we ended up eating at seven thirty. So this weekend everything was late. And that is my terrible excuse for why this post is so late. But it is also an example of my weekend in opposition. I went to visit one of my friends in Ridgefield, Connecticut this weekend and his lifestyle is the reverse of my normal lifestyle. My friend has three, younger siblings (twelve year old triplets… yikes!) and their house is very chaotic compared to my boring house (consisting of my father, my mother, and myself). I get an average of six hours of sleep a night at school and this weekend I slept for almost thirteen hours. My parents are so strict about time that I get nervous even looking at a clock and this weekend not once did time cross my mind. True, most of my friend’s houses are different than mine; they have larger families, their houses are chaotic, they sleep more than I do, and their parents are not psychotic when it comes to being on time (well, most are not). But what made this house so unique and distinctly different from my friend’s houses was the food. My parents attempt to be healthy eaters but they gave up on my diet a long time ago. Every time I go home, I bake. Cupcakes, brownies, corn bread, you name it. And I usually eat what I bake, not all of it but a good proportion of my unhealthy, carbohydrate rich, calories filled baked goods. My unique (a.k.a. picky) tastes disable me from eating a wide variety of food and I’m very lazy when it comes to searching for new foods. So my food section in my kitchen consists of instant oatmeal, tuna cans, broccoli, bread, apples, chicken, bow tie pasta, movie theater buttered popcorn, American cheese, yogurt (only vanilla), baked goods, chocolate bars, and candy. So naturally, when I arrived at my friend’s house Saturday afternoon, I decided to make myself a quick lunch. First, I checked the pantry only to find whole wheat chips, whole wheat bread, pirates’ booty, smart food popcorn, and other nutritious snacks. Then I searched the fridge only to be disappointed with my selection of every fruit and vegetable known to mankind, packs of thin sliced organic meats, juicy juices, smart butter, and low fat yogurts in every flavor. Confused with the abundance of health food and lack of junk, I went on a frantic hunt for something unhealthy. But all I could find, in that kitchen besides health food, were some BPA (Bisphenol A- a chemical harmful to humans) free water bottles and a carbon monoxide detector. I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, Todo. My friend, who is repulsed by my diet, made all my meals for me this weekend. For lunch, he made himself a plate of chopped peppers, carrots, ham slices, chicken slices, yogurt with granola, and onion dip. He also grabbed some pirates’ booty and sun chips out of the pantry. Well aware of my particular tastes, he gave me some carrots and told me to try the onion dip (which I quickly fell in love with). I also ate the pirates’ booty and sun chips. For dinner that night, we ordered sushi. I had avocado/cucumber rolls and he ate California rolls and chicken. On Sunday we went out to lunch and he took me to a restaurant with a limited menu so again, I was forced to eat something healthy. I chose arugula salad, because I was either unfamiliar with, or disliked, all the other options. For dinner tonight my friend’s mother made steamed mussels and Cesar salad. She bought me some chicken because she believes I am in desperate need of protein (and she also knows I hate most seafood). When I finished my dinner I looked down at my empty plate and thought to myself this isn’t so bad, I could be healthy. Maybe it is time for a change.
Nothing beats waking up in the morning and chowin’ down on a nice hearty and wholesome breakfast. One has many choices for breakfast from the most unnatural captain crunch to the most organic half a grapefruit. My favorite breakfast combination of all time is an egg white omelet, 3 pieces of French toast and a large glass of tomato juice. In my omelet I like egg whites to try to keep it on the healthy side with ham spinach and tomatoes. My omelet is occasionally accompanied with some hot sauce and catch up depending on my mood. The French toast is made best on Long Island where I am from because they make it with Challah bread. Challah is primarily Hebrew bread eaten on their high holy days. It works so well with a French toast recipe because it is so soft and absorbent that it is just extremely rich in flavor. These slices of bread are of course thoroughly coated in melted butter and fresh from Canada maple syrup. Aunt Jemima’s or Kraft’s maple syrup will not suffice and ruin the whole experience. The most disregarded part of your breakfast if your beverage of choice. Most will either drink coffee, tea or orange juice but I have always enjoyed a large glass of tomato juice. It is an acquired taste for most or just simply flat out disgust but with me it’s almost heaven. A shot or two of pepper and a squeeze of a lemon makes this drink a perfect kicker to an already amazing breakfast. This is the most rounded and flavorful breakfast one can eat. You get so many nutrients from the juice and the veggies in the omelet you get your necessary carbs and sugars from the French toast. But yet again who cares about those facts it’s the tastiness that’s most important. You will never find a better breakfast; I highly recommend you try it.
After a long day of classes and afternoon activities at Kent School, I go back to my room and relax watching some videos on my laptop. This is the best part of the day for me because in addition of getting some rest I also have my protein shake. I take two different shakes every night. The first is called Muscle Milk and the second is called Syntha-6. Muscle Milk is very tasty and it is also very good for my big muscles. It makes me recover from a hard day in the gym, makes my muscles grow even more and tastes delicious. I usually put two scoops of muscle milk in 600 Ml of milk or water. If I am really thirsty I usually put water and if I am not I put milk that I take from The Kent dining hall every day. With milk the shake tastes much better but It also has more calories and I have to be really careful on how many calories I eat per day because I have to make sure my eight pack is lean and perfect. A Muscles Milk shake contains 300 calories and 19 per cent of it is fat, so it is not too bad. The protein composed the 64 per cent of the shake. I really like drinking my shake every night because it makes me big but it also tastes delicious.
One of the biggest differences that I have noticed about the food here in the US compared to my food at home in Scotland is the chocolate. I love chocolate, just as most people do but I can never bring myself to eat a bar of Hershey’s just because it is so different. Hershey’s has a slightly sour taste to me and it leaves you with a bad aftertaste, almost like the chocolate actually went off a while ago. Although I am not a fan of American chocolate at all I do like a trip to Kent coffee in town where the chocolate is just as good as at home. The chocolate here is smooth and creamy and melts beautifully in your mouth. My favorite chocolate when I am home is Galaxy and their Cookie Crumble kind is amazing. Whenever I get to go home for breaks my suitcase will be weighed down on the way back by lots of bars of Galaxy chocolate for me and my roommate. It is also always very exciting when I get a package at school from my parents because there is always a bar or two of galaxy in there. Even though I love the chocolate that I get at home, it is by no means the best. The chocolate in European countries such as Switzerland, Austria and France is incredible. One of the best generic brands of chocolate in Europe is Milka, it is so creamy and milky and is just delicious. However, if you are looking for the best chocolate the best place to go would be a small chocolate shop in a town in Switzerland or another European country, this just make the experience of the chocolate so much more authentic and it is guaranteed to be amazing chocolate.
When we imagine a typical family dinner, we might envision a large, plump, roasted chicken surrounded by bowls of various cooked vegetables, or maybe a juicy steak lathered in onions with whipped or mashed potatoes on the side, with butter slowly melting in the middle. Enticing as these meals sound, the dinner which my parents and I worship is much simpler: black beans, sticky rice, with corn on top. During our travels to countries such as Costa Rica, when our hosts served us they would often say, “We are sorry that we could not get you something fancier and tastier than black beans, rice, and corn,” but we tirelessly explain that these are our staple foods and we know no better meal in the world. So what is it that makes this traditional Spanish dish so appealing? I have already mentioned its simplicity multiple times, but I think that is one of the dish’s key attributes. The pure substance of the rice combined with the smooth, mushy texture of the beans and the hint of sweetness in the corn gives it a plain but unbelievably satisfying taste that makes me want to eat as much of it as possible, strikingly similar to the “Once you pop, the fun don’t stop” slogan in the Pringles commercials. Like black beans and rice, chips generally do not have any strong flavors, yet they are extremely addictive. However, if you are the adventurous type and feel the need to add some more flavor, there are certainly some great ways you can do that. If you are like my mom who likes to drown everything in hot sauce (“mom, I wouldn’t put Tabasco on your corn flakes”), you might want to consider a more subtle approach to black beans and rice. My personal favorite is a few squeezes of lime to be mixed in thoroughly. Since none of the ingredients provide any overwhelmingly strong flavors, the hint of lime adds a good, subtle yet noticeable sourness to compliment the straightforwardness of the beans. Better yet, if you can get your hands on some decently fresh plantains (rarely possible for me living in the northeast United States, but we get lucky sometimes), mixing those in adds a similar subtle tartness as lime does, but with the same creamy, chewy texture as the main dish. This dish tastes good and it is good for you. As a heavy meat eater, I rarely find much satisfaction in a salad without chicken in it or a taco salad without it most of it filled with ground beef, but this is a vegetarian dish I could live on for eternity.
Naked Juice wisely chooses their motto as “Nothing to hide”. As far as the ingredients go, they really do have absolutely nothing to hide. These smoothies are made with no added sugar or preservatives and are loaded with antioxidants. The Naked Juice Company also admits there is a pound of fruit in every bottle. These smoothies are so delicious considering they come in a plastic bottle. I truly think it would be hard to whip up a better mango smoothie than the one Naked Juice offers…and a human is probably not even making it; a massive machine is! I have always enjoyed making smoothies as a kid and would dream of having my own smoothie parlor in a mall…weird, but it was kind of an obsession. I even named my smoothies; for instance my blueberry and blackberry smoothie was named “The Blue Whale”, etc. I always kept them plain and simple. I had over a dozen smoothie recipe books but would blow off any recipe that was too exotic…which was about every recipe. Ice, OJ, fruits, yogurt and that’s it. Naked Juice follows the same strict rules I did, which is why I am so in love with these drinks. On the side of each bottle, they tell you how much of each fruit is in each bottle. I nearly choked when I read there were one and a half oranges, one and a half apples, a half of a mango and a hint of banana in one bottle. I drink these smoothies pretty darn fast so it is quite interesting to know I can consume that much fruit in less than 2-3 minutes. There are dozens of flavors, but my favorite is the orange mango. They have recently come out with a smoothie with fewer calories, which may appeal to some since these drinks are somewhat high in the calorie count. Coconut water is used in those low calorie smoothies. I just drank both the new pomegranate guava and orange mango smoothies and I am definitely aware I just O.D.’ed on antioxidants. Lucky for all of you Kent residents reading this, they sell Naked Juice at the Kent snack bar, so go grab yourself a smoothie that tastes so homemade it could be straight out of your own blender.
Pizza is a food that can be dressed up or down just like a simple black dress. There are endless choices and combinations of toppings, making this dish an extremely versatile meal. Personally, I prefer a simple pizza topped with mozzarella and arugula. I consider this to be in the fancier pizza family. Some of my friends enjoy pineapple as a topping to their pizza. This eclectic choice sometimes reflects a person’s individuality. Others prefer the classic margarita pizza reflects one’s simple yet defined taste in food. Someone who enjoys an “everything” thick crusted pizza is one who likes to indulge and generally not really think about or enjoy all the different flavors on their plate. The most random pizza I have ever encountered must be the “Casino” pizza. This pizza has clams and bacon on it. Although I never tried it, it was the restaurant’s specialty and I sure could smell the salty bacon and the fishy clams. Then there is the classic decision between thin or thick crusted pizza. This decision is typically made for one while deciding on the restaurant because there is not ever the choice on a menu between the two. Thin crusted pizza is the more sophisticated way to make pizza in the states and it is typically found in better Italian restaurants. Thick crusted pizza is of higher availability to one while dining on the road or at your home, it is served in any generic pizza parlor in America. No matter the size of the crust, any pizza will always be my go to meal, just like my little black dress being my go to outfit.
Love can sometimes be a murky, bitter potion. The more you let the magic seep in…… the more you want it. This is what coffee is for me. I tried to refuse coffee’s advances for years, denying the love I really felt for it. I played hard to get, I would give it a cold, hard stare as the brown liquid lay unsipped in a mug. “ You will never touch my lips” I whispered, turning my head away. The first time I tried coffee, I thought that it tasted vile. It is bitter and abusive to your mouth and brown and murky in color. As a child I thought it looked like the water in our small pond. I soon imagined that coffee was infested with snakes and frogs. And no one in their right mind would let pond water into their mouth, so I kept my lips sealed. As I grew older my curiosity and passion increased dramatically. Sometimes, when we went to Starbucks, I would find myself eying coffee, the forbidden fruit of my life. My friends encouraged my negative attitude towards coffee. “ You shouldn’t let coffee near you.” Said Bernadette “ It wouldn’t be healthy considering you’re so hyper….” Said Eloise “ It will increase your heartbeat.” Declared Edna I listened for a little while. But, I had a great deal of trouble. I would walk around a lonely, street corner and there coffee would be…….just yearning for my love. Soon I was sent away and I forgot all about coffee. I went on with my life, diligently doing my work and socializing, I had all but forgotten about coffee. Then one day fate embraced me. In a quaint New England town I happened upon…. There was coffee. I walked in with a few dear friends of mine. There was the faint smell of Magnolia trees in the air and daffodils and Tulips were spouting about everywhere you turned. My two friends saw their boyfriends and said that they would catch up with me later. I went into the local chocolate shop for a cookie and that’s when I saw Coffee again. I ordered a peanut butter cookie and the nice lady at the register asked if there was anything else that she could bring me. I turned a faint shade of pink. Then I asked. “ An iced coffee please? With plenty of room for cream.” ( I wanted to take things slowly, and I knew that eventually my love for coffee would be so strong that I wouldn’t need any cream or sugar.) I now had coffee in my hand. It was icy and cold to the touch. I let a good amount of cream trickle in to the plastic cup, making the coffee almost seem more beautiful, as the white mixed in with the dark brown. I was a little nervous as I held coffee to my lips. The bitter, creamy liquid seeped into my mouth and I embraced it. I knew from that moment on that I was in love.
A Sweet Secret Have you ever been sitting outside in the warm weather, and craved something cold and sweet? Maybe you want something a little sweeter than coffee, but you need that caffeine kick? If so, I have the perfect remedy to satisfy your cravings. If made right, there can be nothing better than a big glass of iced tea. Anyone can take the easy road, and buy a jug of Arizona Iced Tea, but it takes a special recipe to make a good homemade iced tea. There are a few secrets to know before you attempt to make this iced summer beverage. First, you should start with a pitcher of hot, almost boiling, water. Careful if using a glass pitcher, as the boiling water can crack the glass. Add 5-6 caffeinated or decaffeinated tea bags to your pitcher, you want a strong tea so it won’t taste diluted from the ice cubes. Next, you should add a few tablespoons of sugar or honey when the tea is hot, so that it blends into the tea and doesn’t just fall to the bottom. Mix well. The next secret is to add 2-3 cups of lemonade or orange juice. Lemonade will give your tea a sweeter taste, but orange juice will add a tangy citrus flavor. You can add this juice to taste, I prefer about 2/3 tea and 1/3 juice. To serve, put 5-7 ice cubes in each glass. Pour the tea over the ice and garnish with a sliced lemon. If desired, add a few mint leaves to give it a little extra flavor. If you don’t drink the whole pitcher, put the rest in the refrigerator for another hot day. The tea will keep for 2-3 weeks.
Getting a summer job is easy to do when you live in the small town of Kent, CT. What are your options? You can work as a counselor at Emory Park, in retail, or at one of the many restaurants in town. For my summer job of ’08 I worked at Docs Trattoria. Docs had just moved locations and this was their first summer since opening. Their new restaurant had tripled in size and staff. They were taking on a huge new project. It was going to be a new Italian restaurant, more furnished and pricey then the other restaurants in town. Mrs. Pizzo, the owner’s wife, had offered me a job, and I gladly accepted. I didn’t know what working in a restaurant would be like, but that summer I found out.
I always worked the lunch shift, never once did I work dinner. Kent School gets out earlier for summer than the local public schools, allowing me and a few other prep school students to work the day shift. Black shirt, black pants, black shoes, no jewelry (at first) and hair had to be up, that was the dress code. You had to show up early for work to wash windows, dust the floorboards, sweep, set the tables, get the bread out, and make sure everything is ready for that first customer. I was not a waitress, but a bus girl. I asked the customer what water they would like to drink, brought them bread, cleared plates, made desserts, reset the tables, and did anything else the customer asked. It wasn’t a bad job, Mr. Pizzo (the owner) and I always discussed sports, soccer in particular, and my fellow workers were entertaining. Mr. Pizzo was constantly making sure you were doing something, and doing it right. Standing around was unacceptable, and if you did the order of the powders on one of the desserts wrong, you got yelled at. I can’t tell you the multiple times I had to ask the order of the powders and toppings for the various desserts, to make sure I was doing it correctly. The worst part by far was resetting the tables. Clearing off everything, to set everything up again and when you are the only person busing tables and there are customers waiting, you better hurry.
While working at Docs, I looked forward to three things: knowing I was going to get paid; secretly eating the bread in the back, and the food that they would make for the workers after the lunch shift was over.The cook’s would make special lunches for us. For those who have gone to Docs know that their food is amazing, to say the least. Every bite has an eruption of flavor in your mouth. As much care as they put into their meals for their customers they put into the meals for their workers. Their pizza is thin crusted and cooked until the cheese is golden brown. Their BLT pizza is to die for, bacon lettuce and tomato with Cesar dressing is one that not many will try. But if you want your taste buds to explore something new, this is the pizza to eat. We received pizza on special days the meal was usually pasta. And if we were extremely lucky they would make us sandwiches with homemade chips. The chips are crispy, salty, and oily, a present to your mouth. Their best lunches were their pastas, mixing various sauces and flavors together to make a new creation. You are allowed to take as many helpings as you would like, along with refilling your glass as fast as you drink it. I specifically remember the pasta made of multiple cheeses, marinara sauce with large pieces of tomato, peas, and a couple meats, this pasta set off a bomb in my mouth. It was not on the menu, making it a special treat. I hate peas but with this pasta they added to the flavor. I went back for seconds. Everyone eats together in the back sun room. The family style environment adds to the closeness of Docs Restaurant. I never went home from work tired; I had a full stomach and was always ready to go.
The best thing at Docs by far is their bread. Their bread is made there, along with almost everything else. You watch them roll out the bread, weigh it and roll it into perfect cone shaped loaves. It then goes into the oven, and once it has fully risen it is taken out and put into a bin, on top of the stove, to stay warm. The bus girls/boys, after a customer has ordered their meal, will then place a loaf on the cutting table and slice it into a basket. Place the oil and garlic cup into the bread basket and deliver it to the table. Now, since this bread is so divine, we secretly indulge in eating it in the back room. There is a separate loaf for the workers, and sometimes two or three loaves go by during the lunch period. If you are caught eating the bread you are asked to move on to another activity. Mr. Pizzo looks down upon eating while working, and if you have a drink, you may only drink it in the kitchen, never in the dining room. But how can one obey such an order? To be honest, we didn’t, we continued to eat our secret loaf. It is the best bread in town, and the customers are constantly asking for their bread basket to be refilled.
Overall, Mr. Pizzo takes pride in the appearance of his restaurant. Everything must be clean and presentable. Even though some workers are lazy and not as responsive, the food makes up for this small negativity. The food from the heavily bread to the delicious deserts is a meal that one cannot miss out on. My summer busing tables was an experience. I learned how a restaurant works, and how fast you must set tables when customers are waiting for their table. Docs takes pride in their food and makes sure everything is done in the correct order, all the way from the cooks down to the bus girls who make the desserts.
