A Formal Goodbye to the Foodies Blogs

Dear Foodies.

I write this post on Christmas Eve (in Singapore) to formally wish you all a fond farewell and to announce the ending of our foodie blogs. These blogs won't be taken offline; rather, I'll keep them online for the sake of memory and archive purposes, at least for another year or two. But let me explain my reasons for officially ending the blogs here:

There's nothing sadder than a blog that purports to still be alive and kicking, but in actuality is dead. I don't want the same fate to befall our blogs--to have people post very, very occasionally and to have nobody comment or no other posts follow.

Think of this as a metaphorical "pulling the plug" on a comatose blog, and then preserving the blog in a bottle full of formaldehyde. But without the same problematic ethical issues which would arise if the blog were a human being.

I've enjoyed being part of this blog very much, and have enjoyed reading all the posts and comments you've all contributed to this online community!

Without further ado, I bid you all farewell and Happy Christmas!

Sincerely,

Dr. Tiff

break with sandwich

Dr. Tiff, you are right. Now, the blog becomes really quiet, just like dorm. I am the only person in my room. Most of my friends have already left. Dinning hall is closed. It chilly outside. What I am supposed to do???

Yesterday, I went to Target and Publix to buy the food for next week (I am leaving on Dec 19th). Here is all food I am going to survive with:

As you can see, they are all healthy. Egg, milk, and beef provide protein. Carrot and apple have plenty of vitamins. Bread is the main source of carbohydrate. Yogurt can help to digest.

Basically, for breakfast, I am going to make sandwich. For lunch, I am making sandwich again. For dinner, there will be another sandwich!

blogpost 4 revised: Too Much Science

In his new book “In Defense of Food,” Michael Pollan argues that western diets should escape from the nutritionist approach and follow the common sense approach. He establishes a statement that people should not depend too much on nutruitionism because it is “bad science”. He advises people should “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” to escape from nutruitionism. However, after reading his book, I am confused about his opinions of science. Although, Pollan is trying to criticize that science does not work on food, he still uses a lot of scientific evidence and analysis to prove the argument. In my view, his arguments are not effective and comprehensive enough for readers.

Pollan uses many professional scientific terms to establish his arguments, but they are not necessary. For example, Pollan writes abstruse words such as cell membranes to explain what Omega-3 and Omega-6 are and how they affect people. Nevertheless, do readers really care about how Omega-3 and Omega-6 work scientifically in the human body? The answer is no. Readers are not scientists, so they are not interested in understanding every complicated scientific word. They only care about the fact that people who consume less Omega-3 become less healthy.

Though Pollan always uses science to explain how food affects people’s health, the scientific reasoning can be proven wrong. For instance, Pollan suggests people to drink wine because scientific research shows that people who drink wine are healthier. However, wine may not make people healthy at all. People who drink wine are on average richer than people who do not. Rich people certainly have better house, better health care, and cleaner environment in which they live in, plus they dramatically worry less about financial problems. All of these can be the reasons that they are healthier.

Although Pollan points out that science cannot explain the nutruitionism very well in the beginning, he still uses a lot of scientific analysis to claim how and what we should eat in the later part of the book. For instance, Pollan argues that calories cannot indicate whether food is healthy or not. Nevertheless, he also encourages people to eat more plant-based food later because plant-based food has fewer calories, which protect people from many types of cancers. On the one hand, Pollan mentions that nutritionism is “bad science,” but on the other hand, he uses science to explain that plant-based food is healthy. This contradiction confuses the readers and weakens his arguments. Another advice is more illogical: although he says food cannot be simply broken down into nutrients, he still suggests to “being the kind of person who takes nutrimental supplements (multivitamin-and-mineral pill).”

Pollan does not offer enough evidence and arguments from different perspectives. Culture, history, and environment in addition to science are also critical to change eating habits. In fact, they affect people's eating habits more than science does. For example, the Japanese eat fish because of their culture and living environment, but not because of science. Although he mentions some influence of culture, his analysis of culture is too brief to convince readers. In his book, he presents an unbalanced load of different categories of arguments, as the scientific arguments exceeding all the rest by a significant quantity.

In all, Pollan uses too much scientific analysis and evidence for his arguments. Many people do not truly understand these arguments and become even more. After reading his book, I do not have impression on his main idea that nutritionism is bad science. Perhaps the best way to encourage readers to eat more healthily is to write the book in layman style and not pack the readers’ minds with too much science.

Is This The End??? Not Yet / Definitely

I have a couple of solutions on what to do with this blog, now that the class and the semester has almost ended:

1. I'd like to think this blog would be carried on by people taking ENGL 1101 Foodies in the coming semester and years (assuming there is still a Foodies course at GT then). We could have new people joining this blog who would continue to post their journey through this course, like we did. We would occasionally check the blog for new posts, but obviously we wouldn't post much (because we would be busy with other classes)... sort of occasional advice to students taking the course at that time. If we're the first to do this, we'd be like pioneers of the Foodie blogs at GT. Even if the section designations are different (other than P4, G5, E3), the URL could be modified on the Blogger server and all the followers would be informed.

2. Take the blog off the net after the semester ends. Yes, heart-wrenching as that sounds (and is), this was strictly a course-based activity, and after the course has ended... we should have nothing to do with it. I know we've put our hearts and minds and our lives into this, but let's not make this bigger than it actually is.

These are my preferred outcomes. What I would not like to see... is a status quo - i.e. leave the blog as it is. What am I expected to do then? Continue posting when I'm too busy to do so? Put it in my past, which I know will be hard to do, especially if some of us continue to post? And feel guilty about not posting, thereby ensuring that everybody thinks you just posted for the grade? I can probably live with it, though.

Feel free to disagree.

Is this the end??

Hmmm....I was just wondering.....Has anyone thought about what is going to happen to this entire food blog,now that class is over.Our blog can still be viewed by millions using the internet,I'm sure some may use it as a reference for recipes...Maybe some as references for their own essays(lol).But this is like a public forum,in which we speak out to the world...Our thoughts,ideas and works are floating around in cyber space(if you want ot put it that way).haha....that's sort of amazing!I guess we'll all be blogging most probably for English 1102 So what do you think is going to happen to this foodie blog?Dr. Tiff. do you have the answer?

New Dining Hall!

So as many as you may know Georgia Tech is starting construction on a new dining hall on the east side of campus very soon! They have already closed the few real food establishments on North Ave. in preparation of construction. There are rumours that this dining hall will be open 24 hours a day. Which would be nice because when I am up late at night studying I get hungry and it would be great if I could just go across North Ave. and get a warm bite to eat! They are also going to have an outdoor patio and LEED Gold certified, which basically means it will appease all those people who want to save the world. If you guys are interested in this check out the page on the GT site located here http://www.housing.gatech.edu/projects/index.cfm

The price of pizza these days

Just like everyone else I have been studying for the last week like I have never studied before in my life. So today I thought I would reward myself with a nice pizza. Getting tired of the dining hall I called up the local Pizza Hut and asked if they had any deals. I found the worker to be quite ill tempered and she got mad at me because I didn't know exactly what I wanted when I called. So then I called Papa John's and the cheapest pizza they had was about $8 with any reasonable toppings. On top of that they wanted $5 worth of delivery and taxes. I remember the days when you could walk into a Pizza Hut or Papa Johns and get a personal pizza for $3 . Unfortunately I gave up on my pizza hunt and sadly got a burger at the dining hall :( . Oh well, maybe when I am off for my break I can reward my hard working with some home cooked ribs :)

ChocoCraving

So I'm not sure what's going on but I had my first hard core chocolate craving today. Crazy coming from a girl who thinks Milky Way bars look gross and the smell of Reese's turns my stomach upside down. I think the stress of finals is finally setting in as my one and only Calc final approaches tomorrow. Not only do I feel unprepared, but also completely lost in anything my TA does.

Official first ChocoCraving: December 6, 2009

Specifications: I want dark, bitter chocolate

My Cure: Coffee... bitterness is what I was looking for

Monster Energy Drink

It looks like Monster energy drink is the biggest sponsor for Georgia Tech. I often see the Monster vans parking in the campus and some Monster staffs giving free Monsters to Tech students. And during this dead week, they were sending the Monsters in the library. How smart they are! They know Georgia Tech Students need the Monsters to boost energy for studying!

I also got two Monsters from the One Night Stand on Friday. One is purple color (names MIXXD and another is orange color (names KHAOS). I drank the purple one today, which is a grape flavor taste. Honestly, it tastes really good, like grape Fanta and much better than Red Bull.
On the can, it says that Monster is the juice mixed energy drink, which contains B vitamins + Taurine +Ginseng +L-carnitine. Follow Michael Pollan's opinion, Monster is probably unhealthy for us because it makes a big health claim. So what does Monster exactly contain?


Calories 220, Sugars 54g, Calcium 40mg, Sodium 20mg. All these numbers are quite same as soft drinks.
Vitamin B: B2 3.4mg, B3 40mg, B6 4mg, B12 12mcg. I know Vitamin B is a scientific proven energy source
Taurine is 2000mg, Panax Ginseng 400mg. They are very unfamiliar to me.
Energy Blend 5000mg: Glucose, Caffeine, Guarana, L-Carnitine, Glucuronolactone, Inositol, Maltodextrin. I am extremely worried about this blend. First, I have no idea about most of them. Second, I think Glucuronolactone is unpronounceable for most people. Third, this blend contains seven ingredients, which are more than Pollan's suggestion of five ingredients in all. Fourth, the accurate amounts of these ingredients are very unclear. It can be 4999mg caffeine! Remember, the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee is between 90mg-150mg.

I drank one when I felt sleepy this afternoon. Unfortunately, it does not work well for me. After drinking it, I still felt sleepy and then I had a terrible nap. Caffeine made me have a dreamy exhausted nap. I am still a little dizzy now. I do not know if it works for other people, but I am sure it is unhealthy food.

Overdue Post: Dead Week & GT's Influence

Before I indulge the craziness that this post will entail, there are a few things that I would like to mention in order to emphasize the insanity.

1. Last week from Monday to Thursday at Midnight, you can get a free donut and energy drink (Monster) from the Library Atrium.

2. I never drank energy drinks before going to Georgia Tech except one time, which led to my friends banning me from every drinking them (Why? I'm afraid even I do not know o.o)

3. Recent days I've spent my time on the highest floor in the library, where one day I saw this on the wall: "I've been imagining having ... in the library. What has Georgia Tech done to me?"

With that last question, I also began thinking of an answer, which I reached Thursday night/Friday early morning.

Near midnight Thursday night, I went to the Library Atrium with my boyfriend and his roommates. I was on a mission for donuts whereas my boyfriend and his roommates were after getting all the energy drinks they can get. Initially, the line was long but after the first run-through the line, the line got incredibly shorter. The donuts definitely ran out within the first fifteen minutes; doughnuts actually ran out right after our group reached the table. On the other hand, the Monsters were nowhere near depletion. The people running the stand were actually having a little competition between themselves of who can distribute the most of one particular kind of Monster: blue or green.

In the end, we acquired 17 Monsters, which somewhat overflowed from my friend's fridge. We had to drink a few of them. One roommate of my boyfriend remained in the dorm, where he

was lying on the floor. As we had to drink some of the Monsters, another roommate rolled one to another roommate, who immediately opened and drank it... the Monster spilled all over the floor. We were in for a crazy night.

So what is my answer to what Georgia Tech has done to me? After watching my boyfriend be tricked to jugging down one Monster and then drinking 3 Monsters myself, I'd say that Georgia Tech has made me a more daring/bold person to try new things with only the sky as the limit, which may or may not be a good thing considering I'm already quite a trigger happy person.

Aftermath of Crazy Night (Round One):

P.S. Monster, Monster, Monster, Monster, Monster, Monster!

P.S.S. Drink with caution. Exceeding three may lead to undesired consequences.

P.S.S.S. Green > Blue Monster. Also, can there be that many S's after P?

What to Avoid

So a few days ago I had a little dessert called a Little Debbie cupcake. I decided to keep the wrapper and see what our dear old friend Mr. Pollan had to say about the ingredients.

Please recall that in his book In Defense of Food Pollan tells us this:
Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) Unfamiliar, B) Unpronounceable, C) More than five in number, or that include D) High-fructose corn syrup.

Here is a list of all the ingredients in one Little Debbie cupcake:
Sugar, water, enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin B1], riboflavin, [vitamin B2], folic acid), soybean oil, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sorbitol, eggs, cocoa processed with alkali, invert sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil with TBHQ to preserve flavor.

It continues: Contains 2% or less of each of the following: palm and palm kernel oil, corn starch, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, salt, chocolate, whey (milk), natural and artificial flavors, emulsifiers (sorbitan monostearate, mono- and diglycerides, polysorbate 60, propylene glycol monosterate, sodium lactylate, soy lecithin), leavening (sodium acid pyrophasphate, baking soda, calcium phosphate), colors (caramel color, titanium dioxide, red 40), dextrose, calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, agar, locust bean gum, sodium hexametaphosphate, lactic acid, calcium lactate, guar gum, xanthan gum, sorbic acid (to retain freshness), citric acid.
Going back to Pollan's criteria, we must conclude that by his standards Little Debbie cupcakes are NOT food.

With that many different unpronounceable and unfamiliar ingredients, I am starting to regret putting it in my mouth in the first place. I hope my tummy can forgive me after it figures out what to do with all of these strange chemicals.

This New Diet Thing

So in case anyone has been wondering how trying out Michael Pollan's way of living is going then here we go. It's actually not that hard at all. There were only a couple things I really had to give up and I've been doing fine without my South Beach cereal bars and oatmeal. When I started on this new diet, a big fear of mine was feeling weak because I have low blood sugar but I actually have yet to have a big crash. Usually, I'll have something that will just make my head start spinning but not yet. This is really reassuring to me because I might have finally found a diet that suits me. I have been cooking a lot more for myself, especially over the holiday break. I told my mom about what I was doing and I got a vibe filled with a mixture of impressed and annoyed. She already has to deal with my "I don't like that food" attitude, so now she just has it even worse. But I think that she truly likes the idea of eating true foods and not foods out of a box or can or bag or wherever they find to stuff "food." Mom and I actually prepared dinner together on my last night there which consisted of Chicken Stuffed Ravioli we made with a Olive Oil and Pesto sauce. Everything by the book. It was good, but we decided that over Winter Break we would work out some truly delectable dishes to serve for dinner. The greatest part was watching my younger sister tear into 6 raviolis and finishing them like a champ. Food for the family is exactly what came to mind. I can't wait to get back and start making dinner for the family. Since I'll have a lot more free time, I've promised to cook more for the family. Mom is constantly rushing and doing everything herself. I though it would be nice to either help with the burden or take it all together. This also let's me try out new ideas for recipes and try to feed my family some quality meals by Pollan's standards. I really want to start trying to cook a lot more with tofu.

Does anyone have any recipes that might work? I'm completely lost here.

Kilwin’s candy shop at Atlantic Station

Hard and soft candys; lolipops; ice cream...

Every type of our dream candy in our childhood(or right now!), Kilwin’s candy shop at Atlantic Station has them...

Recommandation:

Apples covered with caramels, peanuts or peacan:

Just imagine such a thing in your head: the refreshing smell of the fresh apple; the big round chocolate color; the sour apple covered with sweet and sticky caramels with chocolate and nuts outside... The amazing side of it just shown and shane with no shame! It is such a good treat during a movie!

Rice crispy or mashmelow covered with chocolate:

I personnally do not like mashmelow so I always choose rice crispy. Still super good. Soft fragrant inside, smooth chocolate with cute candy decoration outside... Has both fantastic look and taste!

Other small little things:

Ice cream over there is really good too; a lot kinds of lolipops: animals, christmas trees, flowers...; however, I do not like the fudge over there since I tried two kinds of them but all I got is the sweeeeet sweeeet taste, nothing else,,, too sweet that made me want to puke... Also, it is more expensive and probably less health than the dinning hall too,,, so just considering it a treat after final is a good idea.. not good for everyday!

PS, enjoy the pictures!!!
fore more info: http://atlanta.metromix.com/restaurants/photogallery/kilwin-s-candy-shop/1197379/content

quadruple Burger!!!!!!

Everyone knows that the food in Britain is worse than the food in Woodruff.

However, in Woodruff, you don't get dubble cheeseburger, or triple cheeseburger, or.... quadruple CHEESEBURGER!!!

So, the other day, I went to Britain with my friend, and he got a BIG cheeseburger, like, A BIG ONE. So I decided to count how many picese of meat there were, the answer is: four!!! I was so surprised that I took a picture of it as shown on the left side.It was so big but since it is made in Britain, so it is not that thick as it should be... I bet students at tech knows what I mean...

Anyways,,,

life is full of surprise !!! not only at tech!!!

Personal Review: Team 5 & Team 4 presentations

I enjoyed the Final Project Cookbookettes presentations by Team 4 and Team 5 yesterday. It's always a treat when somebody other than the instructor stands up in front of the class and talks (nothing against you, Dr. Tiff, I like you a lot too). In any case, here is short review about what I felt about the presentations/websites. Please don't take any of this personally, I like all of you (even those who criticize me) this is just my opinion. I don't expect my group website to be better than anyone else, but we'll see today anyhow.

Team 5: Korean For GT Foodies

First off, it was brave of you to choose Korean cuisine as the subject. It's hard enough to do a project on a familiar subject, let alone a website on foreign cuisine. How you guys managed to learn Korean cooking skills, techniques, recipes and a palate in less than two months is beyond me. Kudos. I know my team members will cringe when I say this: we chose an easy subject when we chose chocolate desserts.

Thumbs Up:

I liked the soft brown and yellow theme of the website (gives it distinctly Asian overtones), the overall structure and the recipe pages design. It was great how you varied the recipe selection by including some simple and incredibly complicated ones, desserts, entrees, and appetizers. You covered a lot of ground in 5 recipes, and gave us all a Korean history lesson to boot! Those spirit-style personas were a nice touch too.

Thumbs Down:

You could have put up more original content on the website. I would have enjoyed this "cookbookette unveiling" more had the presentation been a little more fluid and professional.

Team 4: College Microwave Cookbookette

Another great unique idea: What do college students lack? Mom, money and time. What do they have? Microwaves and fridges. Why not make a college microwave cookbookette targeting this group? Yet, I have never seen, heard or read about such a thing in the market. I mean, if you connect the dots... it seems all very simple. Maybe the rest of us out there are just idiots.

Thumbs Up:

You guys really got into the whole college thing. What better way to select recipes than to ask college students themselves through a survey? Brilliant. Lots of original content, pictures, videos (too bad they didn't work on the site) and an enthusiastic team manager. I liked the fact that most of you speaking were confident, loud and comfortable with what they were talking about. It's clear you put in loads of work into this.

Thumbs Down:

I'm not a huge fan of the website design and structure. The colors, themes and fonts were sort of off-putting.

Well, I've tried to keep the criticisms short and to the point. Please forgive me if I overlooked any aspects of your team's websites, content, presentation, etc. I wasn't taking notes - all this is from memory. Now this also means that I've set my group up for a higher standard of evaluation. I should not be surprised then, to find a laundry list of complaints about my group's cookbookettes later. FML.

Yet again this is Hasan, helping you sort Internet trash from Internet treasure. (Though there is no trash here to speak of - you were all great.)

Pie-A-Professor for Charity

Well, you asked for it, Dr. Tiff.

So there was an event organized by the Student Movement for Real Change - GT Chapter at the Campanile for charity called "Pie-A-Professor". Seizing this opportunity as one of the few penalty-free fun things to do during dead week (or when you're frustrated), I proceeded to pie Dr. Tiff in the face.

Dr. Tiff before the assault:

Dr. Tiff in the aftermath:

That was pretty brave of you, professor, and very nice of you to do something like this for those Kenyan and Brazilian kids. Please note that I thoroughly enjoy your class, this was nothing personal.

P.S.: The "pie" was basically a paper plate of Cool Whip. I almost wish it was a crusted pie on a metallic oven pan, but that would have probably broken noses.

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving is one of the most foundational and meaningful holidays of America. Some may take it as a time to gorge oneself, which is probably wrong if done so, but I see it as a time to enjoy family and friends and a binding meal as well as a special time of thanksgiving to our loved ones, our forefathers, our military, God, and anyone else. I almost stayed at Tech so I could see the UGA game, but decided seeing my family again and having a good time with them was more important. We had a good meal of the usual Thanksgiving foods with some spin on them by my mother, she is a good cook :). The food brought us together and brought memories of the past and thoughts of the future. My loneliness was cured and I felt ready to go back and tackle my final exams afterward. It was a great break, I was definitely refreshed and spent some good time with some close friends on Friday. Saturday, however, was a little disappointing. I woke up congested, including my ear(my eardrum ruptured today). I ended up lazing about Saturday, but had a good day Sunday. I am still fighting it and hopefully it will be gone by the time exams come around. Overall, I had a good break and fellowship over food. Food is an amazing thing that binds so many people and cultures together. I think it is partially because it is essential to life, but it also a great social activity, it is something all people understand.

Thanksgiving

I went back home to Florida for Thanksgiving. We had the typical American layout of food; turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc. We did have a smaller turnout that usual, though; it was just my family, my grandparents, and my neighbors. Usually my whole extended family gets involved. Friday I got a chance to see some old friends I didn't back in fall break. So altogether, I had a pretty good break.

Saturday night was a disappointment, though.

Thanksgiving Break

This Thanksgiving I went back to Johns Creek to spend time with my friends and my family. My mother had just recently returned from a business trip in China, so needless to say I was very happy to see her.

For Thanksgiving dinner we went to my best friend's house to eat with 3 other families. It was the most un-traditional Thanksgiving dinner I've ever had.

There were no mashed potatoes, no stuffing, and no gravy. Instead, these dishes were replaced by Chinese dishes; though equally delicious, it was strange to be eating food I used to eat every day on Thanksgiving.

Dessert was especially delicious though. There was pecan pie and a Chinese dessert. The Chinese dessert was a soft white gelatinous substance that was very easy to swallow. It was seeped in a tangy, fizzy drink that made me want to keep eating more and more. The pecan pie was also delicious.

All in all, I'd say my Thanksgiving was very good simply because I got to see my friends and family again. I do not care about what food I ate; instead, I care about the people I spend my time with.

Back to a Great Start!

I must say that I was very impressed by dining hall today. I am not sure if the break gave them a chance to get things together or what actually happened, but the food was excellent today. They served us chicken tenders and curly fries and both were delicious. I hope they keep it up for all of this week and next week.

Thanksgiving Haircut

So for some reason, my mom decided that it would be fun if she took our family to a remote island for Thanksgiving. My father has a saying, "If mom's not happy, no one will be happy," and we all went along with her plan.

The only way to get to this island is by a ferry which leaves at 7:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 4:00 pm. We took the 7:00 ferry and planned to return at noon to get on with our day. Unfortunately that did not go as planned.

Because of the holidays, the noon ferry was not scheduled to arrive, but we didn't figure this out until we were already on this island! This left us stranded on an island with literally nothing to do for 4 hours. The bordom began to ensue.

And then the stupid things that you do when you are bored.... I had been wanting a haircut, and my family decided that now was as good a time as any. The only problem is how do you do that with no scissors? Well apparently my family thinks that a swiss army knife will do the job just fine. Each person in my family took a turn hacking away at my long blonde hair. By the end of it, I had a surprisingly good hair cut considering it came from a Swiss army knife!

Nevertheless, I was forced to buzz the rest when we got off the island finally. It is the first time I have ever done it, and I realized for the first time that I look relatively similar to my brother.

Blind Date

I went to Montreal, Canada over the break to visit my parents, friends, and girlfriend.
Rather than having a Thanksgiving dinner, I decided to go on a date with my girlfriend.

We went to a restaurant called O Noir (a pun for au noir, meaning "in the dark"). The restaurant is special, because the patrons dine in a room that is pitch black. You literally cannot see anything and even all cell phones are asked to be turned off, because they can produce light.

We are given a menu to choose our meal from. As an appetizer I go with an octopus and decide to go for the "special" for my main course. I do not get a desert. The special is a surprise, so I tell them I do not want mushrooms in mine because I do not like them. My girlfriend gets vegetables with goat cheese and shrimp with risotto. The meal with an appetizer OR desert costs $30 Can. A meal with all three costs $37 Can.

I place my hand on the waiter's shoulder and my girlfriend places hers on mine. We are taken into a pitch black room and guided through the maze of tables and chairs to our seat. It is incredible how the waiter knows exactly how to take us there. It is completely bizarre not being able to see ANYTHING (I close my eyes during the meal to rest them, because they are utterly useless. I also take off my glasses, but put them back on after I accidentally knocked them off the table and almost ended up losing them forever). Another thing we notice is that everyone is really loud, because they feel the need to be since they cannot see the others.

The food was fairly good but overpriced, but the experience was truly something unique. It is fun trying to eat food with utensils until you eventually give up and resort to using your fingers (it's OK, because no one can see). I also enjoyed the liberty of scaring my girlfriend while I was literally right across the table from her. Even holding hands was something new, because we had to find each other's hands first.

Although it was definitely expensive for the food we got, the experience was something I think everyone should have at least once. There is a restaurant called Opaque if anyone is interested in this in Atlanta. Unfortunately, I believe it is also fairly expensive.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving meals. I know I enjoyed mine.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as tasty as mine. I spent it with my grandparents, and I have to say the turkey and stuffing was absolutely amazing.

Unfortunately, not everyone was able to go home to enjoy Thanksgiving. To compensate for some people's losses, Glenn Hall Council voted to hold a small Thanksgiving party for those in the hall who could not go. I hope they enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoyed yours.

12 oz Chocolate Bunny and food prices

Today while at the super market my brother pointed out something amazing, a 12 oz Chocolate Bunny! For $8.00 it could be mine, along with the heart attack that would probably ensue. I was really shocked at how big it was and how someone could possibly eat that before it went bad. But that wasn't the onlything that really shocked me. I went to go find some cheese in a can that I like to eat with crackers and they wanted $4 for a can of cheese! I couldn't believe it. So I decided not to get the cheese and just roll with my favorite Ritz crackers. Then when I went to grab some soda they wanted $5 for a 12 pack of sprite. I remember not too long ago I could go to somewhere like Costco or SAM's club and get a 48 pack of sprite for $8. Food prices have truley gotten out of hand. It is crazy. I was talking to my mom on the way home from the super market and she said that since my brother and I have left for college they havn't seen a dramatic change in the money they pay for food. I was really shocked because I would image that with two less people at home they wouldn't pay near for food as when we lived at home.

What really made me realize this whole thing was when I was actually going to pickup a pack of soda before Thanksgiving break at the East Side market and they wanted somthing like $6 for a 12 pack. I thought that was crazy. But now that I see that normal grocery stores are almost just as expensive, I may have to rethink what I buy at the supermarket.

Diamonds or Chocolate?

Since my final project is about chocolate dessert, I am posting some fun information about chocolate.
It is one of the most expensive chocolate in the world--Chocopologie by Knipschildt. It contains a black truffle and 70% Valrhona cacao. How much is it? $2600 per pound. (The cup is also made by gold)Compared to the Chocopologie, the chocolate, which called Africa Continent is much more extravagent. It was made by a japanese chocolate store in order to celebrate the 2006 Valentine's day. The small white shinning balls are not sugar or candies. They are 2006 diamonds! How much is it? -- 436 million dollars!

Information: http://qkl8.5d6d.com/thread-82-1-1.html

Fu Lin Men

Last Saturday, me and my friends went to a event Taste of Taiwan in China Town. However, after it, we were still hungry, so we went to Fu Lin Men, the seafood Chinese restaurant over there.

Since we already ate, we just ordered XO Jiang Pao Greenbean and Fried Lobster with Egg yolk: my personal favorite two cuisines over there.

The greenbean was fried with garlic and the so-called XO sauce which had no achohol but smoked pork and soy bean. The greenbean had a crispy skin with sweet-salty flavor inside which tasted great and fragrant. The sauce and the bean were a wonderful combination.

THE LOBSTER!!! Crispy golden egg yolk covered the red-orange shell of the lobster. The cover was salty and has a aroma of both egg and seafood. Inside the shell was the sweet meat: delicate fresh and juicy. One word to describe: INCREDIBLE!!! Just cannot get enough!

There were two lobsters and the rice was free. The price was not too bad(but i forget). If you go as a group, it will probaly cost everybody around 9 or 10 including tips. Also, even it is a seafood restaurant, it serves almost any type or Chinese food. They are traditional too! Love it!

P.S. Not an ad... just personal recommandation~

Back at tech

Ahem, welcome back people. I hope everyone's thanksgiving break was as good as mine and had lots of good food. Meals that is served with whole chicken, good steak, and whole fish. What I mean by whole is not chicken patty or fish patties but chicken with the bone and shape of a chicken and the same for fish. Now the first night back at tech the food is the same as always which is what I call college fast food. Everything is deep fried and the food does not resemble itself in any shape or form. Its looks like a block of deep fried bread crumbs. Well anyways its just two more weeks till we get to go back home again.

Thanksgiving Day Football

My family always has a big Thanksgiving day lunch at my cousin's house. The feast will usually feature

anywhere from 20 to 25 people. There are some keen hunters in my family so usually some of the

venison or the turkey at the meal is not store bought. However, one of the big focuses of the

Thanksgiving lunch is the chance to watch some professional football. The NFL always has two or three

Thanksgiving day games on. This year had the Green Bay Packers against the Detroit Lions, the Dallas

Cowboys versus the Oakland Raiders, and the New York Giants at the Denver Broncos. The Packers,

Cowboys, and Broncos all won their games.

The NFL has become a big part of my Thanksgiving, so for my blog post I would like to show everyone

what I would consider some of the best NFL Thanksgiving day moments/performances.

1. Ref blows coin toss - 1998

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d80cc8200/Bettis-calls-tails

Overtime in the NFL starts off with a coin toss to determine possession. The referee obviously misheard

Jerome Bettis say "tails". The Steelers ended up losing the game.

2. Leon Lett Blunder - 1993

Leon Lett touches the ball after a missed field goal, which turns it into a live ball, meaning that the kicking team can recover it.

3. Clint Longley - 1974

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d8074317a/Top-Ten-One-Shot-Wonders-Clint-Longley

An unlikely hero during the 1974 Thanksgiving Day game.

Staying here at Georgia Tech for Thanksgiving week.

Over the Thanksgiving week, I couldn't go back home.

However, the woodruff dining hall was closed on wednesday at 3 o'clock and reopened on Sunday. During those days when Woodruff dininghall was closed, I ordered some food from lucky 101 and Papa John's Pizza. Because the food was all greasy and fried, this was the first time for me to miss dininghall's food, especially salads and vegetables, and I learned to be thankful what I can have.

Thanksgiving Blog Post

Dangerous Cooking

Since the dinning halls were closed during Thanksgiving, I had to cook by myself. However, cooking is much more dangerous than I thought before. When I cooked pork on Friday, the exremely hot oil(at least 400F) hurt both my hand and my cooking turner.



The pork was really good. You can try to cook it by yourself someday, but be careful of your hands and turner! Here is the recipe :
1. Pickle the pork (rib is the best) in cooking alcohol with green onion and ginger from 30 minutes

2. Add cold water and pork in the pot, boil them togather.

3. Heat 2 teaspoon of oil in the pan, add 1 teaspoon of sugar, fry the sugar until it turn red.

4. Put the pork in the pan, fry the pork with fried sugar. (Be very careful! The oil temperature is very high now.)

5. Move the pork into the pot, add soya sause, cooking alcohol, dried prickly ash, dried aniseed, cortex cinnamomi, leaf bay, and water. Cook it for 1 hour.

6. Add some salt, sugar, and continue to cook for 30 minutes.

Thanksgiving at Home

Thanksgiving Dining Experience This thanksgiving, I went back to Indiana, where my host family was to spend the thanksgiving with them. It was really cold over there when I got there on Wednesday, I felt like it was going to snow the next day. But home is always a warm place that it drove all the coldness away.

On thanksgiving day, 23 people were in our house. There were the grandparents, the uncles, aunts and the kids. The elders were talking and greeting to each other, the kids were running around and laughing while the others were busy preparing the food. Our house was not a big one, so it was crowded and messy, but it felt so warm and happy.

Before the meal, we all gathered around to pray together. With my eyes closed, hands holding together, a sense of peace and safe rose in my heart. Our house was not a big one, so everybody was standing next to each other to pray but I was really thankful to GOD for offering us such a sweet family. After praying, we all got a plate in our hands and waited in line to get our food one by one. As usual, grandma brought us fresh raw shrimps with home-made salsa, chicken noodle and some sweet desserts, aunt Charleen brought us her stuffed eggs while we cooked the other main dishes at home. We made sweet potato with mashmelow, mash potatoes, chicken-with-veggie pie, cranberry pie and broccoli salad, also, there were 3 roasted turkeys! Our house was not a big one, so we set up 4 tables for people to sit, but as it was a family, no matter where we sat, it was fun and enjoyable.

I was so grateful to the food. The roasted turkey was so juicy and cooked just enough that I never liked any other ones that much. The egg yolk of the stuffed eggs was well mixed with sweet-sour sauce, salt and coco powder,it was cold, sour and sweet, it was melting in my mouth while I was chewing the delicate egg white. No doubt that this is the must-have-cuisine of every family meal. Sweet potato with mashmelow was amazingly cute. It looked like a brown-golden hill with white flowers. The mashmelow were puffy and the cover was crispy while the inside was melted and soft, it was good, but a little bit too sweet. The raw shrimp with home made salsa was incredibly good that I only got three of them before they were grabbed all which was such a pity! Moreover, the cranberry pie was sour but delicious., tthe broccoli salad was refreshing, the chicken-with-veggie pie was juicy and tender... At last was the dessert, it was chocolate pie with walnut. I usually do not like walnut, but this time was different. It was crispy and fragrant inside the soft and sweet chocolate which was fantastic! Our house was not a big one, so that we did not have a lot of space to eat and have a comfortable position, but the food was so good that we forgot the inconvenience, all that left was the attractive aroma of the food and the warm feeling in our hearts...


I am so happy that I have a family here in America that I could spend this wonderful thanksgiving with. And even we are not blood related, it is still a family. Just like, the house is not s big one, but it is still a home.

Thanksgiving- my least favorite holiday... food wise.

Kiara enjoying the sun :)

Thanksgiving.

People are usually so ready to dig into pumpkin pie and turkey. However, that's not the case for me. In fact, I dislike all Thanksgiving food. Cranberries. Yuck. Turkey. Dry. Sweet Potatoes. GROSS. Asparagus. Bleh. Pumpkin Pie. Eh... it's okay. Overall, I'm just a realllll picky eater. So, this year, my astounding mother made me my own little meal :) I ate sizzling honey roast ham, these sweet carrots, and mashed potatoes! For once, I had a happy Thanksgiving and left the table feeling stuffed and content.

But besides the food, I love Thanksgiving for I get to fly down to my grandparents house in Ocala, Fl. A charming retirement community where you can live right next to the golf course, my grandparents at the 8th hole, as well as drive golf carts around. I love spending time with my grandparents and listening to their stories. Plus, my Oma's cooking is to die for :)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Plus, my Oma turned 84! And she is doing fabulous!!! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Thanksgiving-a normal Thursday

Thanksgiving!!!!!!! It is not exciting for me. Just like most international students, I stayed in school to celebrate the Thanksgiving. On Wednesday night, I ate one and a half pounds Wingnuts with my Chinese friend (Sorry to Michael Pollan. I know it is unhealthy, but it is the only food I can find in campus). And I played Super Smash Bros and watched South Park until 4 am. On the Thanksgiving, I woke up around 2 pm and ate an energy bar for brunch (Sorry to Michael Pollan agian). Then I went out to play basketball alone. School was extremely quiet. Only fallen leaves are everywhere, which made me feel like I was the last person in the world. What was the Thanksgiving dinner? Seafood flavor Korean ramen noodles! (Michael Pollan probably wants to kill me).

Somehow, I do not like Thanksgiving because it is probably the only moment I will miss my home. Although we have four days break, I hate saying goodbye to my friends. Every time, when I see my friends so excited to go back home, I always feel quite sad and lonely. Now, even the blog posts are mostly about home, family, and Thanksgiving dinner. I know I have to get used to it, but sometimes I cannot control my emotion.

Since there was nothing to do during the Thanksgiving, I did some research about Thanksgiving food. Different from Christmas, Thanksgiving is originated from America. It is the most traditional festival for Americans. Turkey is one of the most important food during the Thanksgiving. It is a large game bird and related to the grouse and the pheasant, but it is native to North America. Turkeys have been roasted for harvest feasts since the first European settlers came to North America. Another symbol of Thanksgiving is the Cornucopia, but I have never seen it in America. It is a goat's horn overflowing with fruit, flowers, and grains. It is a symbol of prosperity.


Information from International Buzz

Dawgs Ruin My Weekend

In a slightly lighter vein now: As most of you probably know, we were humiliated 30-24 by U[sic]GA at home yesterday.

Ok, this may not be strictly 'food-related', but take a look at the picture below:

Yes, my friends, that's exactly what it is: a Georgia Bulldog player chewing on a piece of Bobby Dodd playing turf after the game. I did not know we were that different from the U[sic]GA people, but they clearly have bovine dietary tendencies.

Or perhaps it was a lack of hedges at Bobby Dodd. Then it's a case of "repaid-in-kind" theory clearly gone wrong:

Nobody said them Dawgs were very smart.

(Thanks to Hector, my PL, for the pictures)

McAllester, Pollan becoming clearer to me...

As luck would have it, this break the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha happened to fall on Friday, just a day after Thanksgiving Eve. Unfortunately, being away from my family this time, it was never going to be a particularly fun event. In any case, this is what I did on that day:

Eid al-Adha is essentially a festival that occurs on the 10th day of the month of Dhul Hijjah of the Muslim calendar, as a commemoration of the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. It also marks the end of of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj). Traditionally, the prayers are followed by an animal sacrifice, usually a goat, sheep, cow or camel and ritual charity.

Kaifi (a good friend of mine) picked me up at around 8 in the morning and took me to the mosque in order for me to offer the special Eid prayers. We drove around downtown Atlanta (which was very beautifully decorated) and visited a couple of places. For lunch, we had some traditional lamb stew and vermicelli, which reminded me painfully of what I was missing back home with my family. For the first time since I came here, I felt an aching, burning feeling to go home.

I guess it could have been 'delayed homesickness', but I think it was just the association we have of culture and "mom" (using Pollan's terminology here) with food. We've touched upon this in class, but the magnitude of food's association with culture and family is only becoming clear to me now. I did not believe in the ability of food to evoke such a strong response in me until now, especially since I'm away from home. McAllester and Pollan were right all along: they capture the essence of our association of food with culture and family through their personal experiences and research. I feel it's not something we give enough credit to, as a society.

I don't know if you guys will be able to relate: maybe if you had your Thanksgiving dinner alone in say, Kuwait, you would find yourself inexplicably thinking of home.

Family Time is the Best Time

There is nothing better than spending time with your family. I have never been so happy to come home and visit all of my family and friends. There is never a dull moment when I am around the people I love. It seems like everybody that I hang around with just LOVES to eat. So of course as soon as I got home Wednesday night, me and my girls went to our favorite restaurant Red Robin. I was enjoying life getting to see my girls AND eating my favorite buffalo chicken strips. Then, of course there was Thanksgiving! We had turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese, yams, string beans, cabbage, greens, mashed potatoes, bread, stuffing, pretty much anything you could think of. Regardless of what we had, it was not dining hall food so I was extra excited. Overall, so far break is going really well and I'm enjoying my time spent with my family and friends.

What? No Turkey?!?

Just kidding. There was a plethora of turkey. Probably too much. I had the privilige of going home and staying with my family for a few days, and it was extravagant. Wednesday night I accompanied my family to my grandparents house, where my aunt and uncle from Chicago were staying for thanksgiving too, and we all had a fantastic dinner. After much fellowship and memories, we parted. The following day seemed like de'javu: everyone was back together, laughing and reminiscing, only it was in my parents kitchen instead of my grandparents. I had a wonderful thanksgiving, mostly due to the fact I hadn't seen a majority of the people there in months. It just makes me wonder how many years until there'll be a third consecutive day spent in our generation's kitchen.

Thanksgiving Without Real Food

Thanksgiving was not as exciting as it should have been, well this would have been true for most international students. I was pretty happy that we had time to get some rest just before the finals. However, one thing that was problematic during Thanksgiving was getting food. The dining halls were closed, the super market was closed and most of the restaurant available were as well. Luckily enough I was aware that the dining hall was going to close and went grocery shopping a day before. For most of the holiday, I lived off processed food like ramen, spam, and etc. Although it was against Pollan’s beliefs, I found myself munching on these industrial products of science. I figured out that industries have focused more on personal connivence rather than health, because as a consumer of their products, I didn’t have to use much effort in preparing myself a meal. I really can’t say processed food is a bad side-effect of the industrial society. If it wasn’t for processed food I would have been to lazy to eat. I guess a moderation between real food and processed food would help maintain both connivence and health.

Thanksgiving(s)

Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate with family, which is exactly what I did. My mom hosted our families thanksgiving for the first time this year, and it went wonderfully. The food was great, and we all helped out to make it a very special meal. My thanksgiving however, was also a little hectic. My boyfriend's family also lives in the area, and so we committed ourselves to eating two thanksgiving dinners. One at 2 pm, and one at about 6. Needless to say, we were very very full. But it was still a wonderful time to visit family that we have not seen in a while.

thanksgiving

my thanksgiving started out with the potential to be disastorous, but thankfully it ended up great. The problems occured with my flight home. When i got to the atlanta airport, i learned my first flight (to philly) had been changed so i could have a better chance of making my connecting flight (to state college). However, there were problems at the philly airport, and the flight was delayed two hours. If i had gotten on this flight, i would miss the last connecting flight to state college and would have been stranded at the philly airport overnight. Thankfully however, with much thinking, i found a flight going to harrisburg. Harrisburg is only a hour or so drive from my house, so i ended up flying there and getting a ride back home. Even though ended up home hours later than expected, i was very thankful i didnt have to spend the night in the airport.

Then when i got home i finally had a chance to eat real food and stuffed myself with as much turkey and homemade pumpkin pie as i could handle. I left the next day, earlier than i might have wanted to, (considering i didnt get tickets to the uga game) but i thoroughly enjoyed my time home, and regard it as a teaser for the month or so ill have off in two weeks time.

Thanksgiving

After reading everyone's thanksgiving posts I feel very fortunate to be able to spend the break with my family. Although I think everyone enjoyed a break away from Georgia Tech Dining Halls. For thanksgiving at my house we had the traditional meal; turkey, stuffing, salad, corn, beans, soup and my favorite mashed potatoes. Preparing the meal takes forever. Usually we start around dinner time the night before getting everything ready. Everybody in our family has a job. Usually I am the potato peeler and cheese cutter. Though usually my mom ends up doing everything. In the end the dinner usually turns out amazing and I find it hard to eat for the next couple of days because of how fat I am.

Thanks to the Giving

I was in heaven being at home and having real food placed before. There are times when I question the source of what I eat at school. I have picked our turkey to the bone. I have eaten turkey with every meal since our early Thanksgiving lunch. I woke up to my mom tossing around dishes at about 6am and went downstairs to give her a hand; she has a bad back and shouldn't be standing too much. I did everything she would actually admit to needing help with, realizing that I have become to her what she is to my grandmother. I've watched her for many years be the "second-hand man" to my grandmother in the kitchen and this is exactly what my purpose had now become. The gravy needed stirring while the pies were placed in the oven for warming; I was there. After our early lunch, about 11am, we all sat down for some much needed rest and pie. Around 4pm, we left the house for a movie. My sisters are six and seven so the movie of choice was A Christmas Carol in 3D. This was our Thanksgiving Day; nothing elaborate because we don't have family in the area, but it was exactly what I was wanting. I have yet to go out because I feel like I can do plenty of that when I return to Tech. I have enjoyed my sitting on the couch, decorating the house for Christmas (our after-Thanksgiving tradition), and doing Calc homework (it never fails). As everyone else began decorating the tree, I received the request of making my grandmother's recipe for Buckeyes. These are bite-sized balls of sugary peanut butter dipped in chocolate and place in the refrigerator for hardening. As I am writing, the balls of PB are sitting in the fridge waiting to be dipped. The only problem? When I went to buy the ingredients, the local grocer didn't carry the parafin wax necessary for thickening the chocolate dip. My mother and I had much fun rolling these sticky, greasy balls of PB. Mom resorted to using two spoons and made some not-so-spherical forms. But I insisted on doing it as I had seen my grandmother do it, digging in with both hands covered in powdered sugar to minimize the stickage to my hands. This was interesting, but nevertheless, it was tradition.

I remember watching my grandmother spend hours in the kitchen baking and once I was old enough to learn, I began to help. Of course, when I was younger I had a much smaller attention span and baking became uninteresting after the first couple of steps. I would always leave after the stirring had been done. It was nastalgic to think that I had now become the head baker in the family since mom was busy orchestrating my sister's decorating and arguing in the other room. Throughout the past couple weeks, I have noticed my interest shifting from baking to also cooking. I was never really interested in food, but sweets were a binding part of the meal in my mind. Dessert was the most comforting to me. I have encouraged Mom to start doing more cooking like she used to. She's always had this interest for trying new dishes; we never eat the same type of food during the week. One day we will have Italian, the next Indian. It is amazing the things my mother can come up with. I have vowed to return on the eighth with ideas and recipes for my family to try. I have become a lot more adamant about my sisters turning down the juices and snacks for milk and water. At the same time, I have refused to let my sister prepare new food when there is plenty for her to choose from. I think Pollan really got into my head about everyone sitting down and eating the same meal at the same time. This is one thing I grew up with that I am determined to instill in my sisters.