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!!!