This Semester in review

This year in literary interpretation we have been dealing with the main subject of Food. For our final project we were handed a list of things to accomplish by the final exam day. This list consisted of writing three separate blogs on presenters that present to our class. Another part was to make a recipe, bring in the product of that recipe, and upload the recipe to the wiki page. Another part was to make go to an ethnic restaurant (encouraged to eat a style of food we have never had) and write a blog on it. We were also asked to attend an event in the community relating to food. Last but not least we were asked to create our Ted Talk.

            For the blog posts it was pretty simple and educating. We had presenters from inside and outside our class present. One of the days Joe Starr and Casey presented on satire of food inside video games. This was very eye opening and shed a light on something I would probably never think twice about unless it was brought to my attention. It is amazing to me how much GrandTheft Auto pokes fun at our American culture. Another presenter that came in from outside our class room spoke on Global warming’s effect on our agriculture. I had never known the massive effects that only five degrees could have on our climate. There was a graph that showed if our world were only five degrees colder, Michigan would be buried under ¾ of a mile of Ice and snow. It was a very educating lecture and well put together by the professor that came in. The last presenter that I wrote on was Lexie. Her topic was on Judaism and the food in her religion. Lexie herself a Jewish member gave a very riveting presentation on her religion of Judaism. I am very fascinated by other religions outside of my own to find out what they believe in compared to me and their culture inside of that. She talked to us about the 613 laws of Judaism that the Jews got from Mount Sinai. She also talked about their Passover meals and meals related to their holidays. It made me chuckle when she said “Basically our holidays represent Hey they tried to kill us, let’s eat!” All the presenters were great and very informative.

            For our assignment of going to an ethnic place to eat I was able to get outside of the Kalamazoo area. I got to try a new place I don’t think many people will get to try. I got to go to Demera which is a very well known Ethiopian restaurant in Chicago. My girl friend’s father has been there before and knew exactly where he should take me so I could finish this assignment. I got the Ye-Doro tibs and they were amazing. The experience itself was fantastic and I now like Ethiopian food. The restaurant was pretty upscale but reasonably priced, the service was fantastic and the people were very friendly. This restaurant was voted Chicago’s best Ethiopian restaurant.

            For the final project I created a recipe to share with the class and post to our college cook book on wiki spaces. The recipe I created was called Fruity fun skewers. The recipe was a hit and I did not have any left overs at all when class had finished. I was very proud of my cheap, easy to make, and healthy recipe. Another part was to make it to a community event. Due to my overly packed schedule and zero flexible hours I was unable to make it out to a community event.           

            Finally we had to create a Ted Talk. A Ted Talk in a nutshell is approximately a 5 minute video that is spreading an idea or knowledge to help make the world a better place. They can be somewhat witty, or sometimes very inspirational and powerful. The subject I chose to do my Ted Talk on is the inequality of drinking water in the world. This is a very deep and intense subject. My goal was to drop some hard facts but also keep it somewhat light so that the viewers would be able to understand the need for help but not leave wanting to cry, because I left them with ways to help change it.

            Overall I enjoyed most of this final project. This year has been a blast and I have thoroughly enjoyed this class. I have learned a lot from the moments Dr. Allen has made us get out of our comfort zone and loved getting to know my classmates.

Going ethnic in Chicago

During this Easter weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Chicago to visit my girlfriends family. I have been to the windy city many times but have always stuck to mainly authentic Chicago style food, such as Chicago style deep dish pizza or famous burger joints around there. Since our project is making us try and ethnic food we have never had before I asked my girlfriends mother if we could go somewhere.....ethnic. They are a very experimenting family when it comes to food and were more than excited to cater my request.

    While driving around we stumbled across a restaurant called "Demera Ethiopian restaurant". As in came across I mean her father had known about this place and new exactly where he was taking us. He has a very cultured taste pallet and that came in handy for this project. I have never eaten Ethiopian food before but I was about too. My mind ran with the random and endless possibilities with what Ethiopians would eat. As I received the menu I started browsing, and was very surprised by the amount of food that looked delicious. I ended up choosing the Ye-Doro tibs which was Chicken breast cubes marinated in lemon juice and garlic, then sautéed with onions, tomato, sliced jalapeños and rosemary; spicy, medium or mild. THEY WERE PHENOMENAL!!!!!! I was blown away by the spices and flavor this dish packed in it.
  I was unable to get really any information on the background due to it being packed but It was outstanding.

Food and my religion

      In response to Lexie's assignment I have many ideas about food and my religion. I was raised in a Christian household and raised in a Methodist church (Methodist is just a branch of Christianity). Something about the Methodist community for those that don't know is their go to for social gatherings is pot lucks! We love gathering around food and talking. Every since I can remember my life has been filled with social events and pot lucks at the church.

        Growing up in this environment my life was changed upside down when I was at one of these pot lucks and I was 8 years old. Earlier in my life I was a pretty chunky child and I loved food. While at this pot luck an elderly woman in our church (Rosemary Chamberlin) brought in these things called cheesy potatoes. I decided to give the cheesy potatoes a whirl...and man did I ever. I rividly recall return to the line for at least eighths of these glorious form of potatoes. Ever since that day I have never been to a church pot luck without having cheesy potatoes. Now I can never eat cheesy potatoes without thinking of a church pot luck.

Ironic Isn't it?

    Every 2 years there is some sort of Olympic games, whether that be the summer Olympics or the winter Olympics. In this year of 2014 it was the year for the winter Olympics. I love the Olympics and have always loved the Olympics. I watch almost every event even if I have never heard of it or care about it. The capture pure true competition and you get to watch these athletes living out their dreams and the dreams of billions around the world. These people are competing for their country, representing their flag.
 
    Growing up I would pretend to be in the Olympics in my backyard wearing the red, white, and blue and defending the honor of my country in a game I love. I know for a fact I'm not the only one that did that. As I sat watching the winter Olympics this past February I started to notice the sponsor's of the Olympics. After watching the best athletes in the world fly down the face of a mountain with precision, net slap-shots from the blue line, and break the world record in ice skating. These events would be broken up by commercials for McDONALDS and COCA-COLA! The would use slogans like "Supporting future Olympians everywhere."
   

    While watching this I couldn't help but thinking HOW?!?!?!?! How is awful junk food helping you become a better athlete? This kind of advertisement is giving children and these younger generations wrong and mislead ideas. They make it sound like food to help you fuel your body to success. This upsets me A LOT! The place and beverage that leads to obesity and sluggishness is sponsoring the most outstanding athletes this planet has to offer. The Olympics should be sponsored by things other than COKE and the golden arches. Ironic Isn't t?

Climate Change

During the presentation on Climate change and global warming I couldn't help but doubt its validity. As the presentation was going on I kept glancing outside at a massive snow mound that was just hanging out in the April sun. After I winter like this I really wouldn't mind a little global warming. (That was a joke I don't really) The facts they have to support global warming are very valid and very real. Granted the rise in temperature isn't huge but it does not have to be huge to have a large impact on the earth. He showed us stats of if the world was 5 degrees colder, and Michigan would be buried under snow if that were in fact the case. In all honesty our world is getting worse by the Decade, year, month, week, and day! And it is all because of us! But we can change this with the same hands we are ruining it with.

Food Inequality

  It is astounding the amount of food inequality we have going on in our own backyard. Growing up I would always be told "Anthony, finish whats left on your plate there are kids starving in Ethiopia." My witty and always go to response was "Mom, if they were knocking on the window I would give them my food." As witty as my comeback was it is besides the point I'm trying to make. My point is when my Mom would say is the starving people were in Ethiopia, she didn't mean just Ethiopia she meant all third world countries in that comment. And I'm sure that this is a comment we are all somewhat familiar with. By her saying this is represents a lot of our views on where people are that go to bed hungry at night. The reality is that there are people starving amongst us, whether we realize it or not.
   Not only are there people going to bed hungry at night that are so close to us but often have a surplus of food. I'm not saying my parents or families that have a surplus of food are bad people at all, I'm simply stating that we often have skewed views of where the real dissonance in the stats are at.
  We live in a society that often even worships food and makes competitions and challenges out of it.

While there are people out there starving our society is trying to see how much food we can stuff in ourselves without puking to win a free t-shirt or some sort of prize.

I don't have a solution to this problem, but maybe you do.

Like Water for Chocolate: Part dos

In this book my group and I are reading every chapter represents another month. I think this is very cool because you can follow a timeline by month. Every month that starts my group and I noticed starts with a new recipe that Tita is whipping up! She walks you through the process of cooking the meal. She goes into such detail about the meal I feel that I could make the same meal myself if I followed the instructions.

This isn't the only place that she is cooking or talks about making something. She makes stuff for all sorts of occassions! This reminds me of my house and family. We have certain meals that I almost expect to be made for certain events. For example my grandma's fried chicken on the fourth of july or my mothers country hash for my birthday! I can relate to like water for chocolate based souly on the food the emphasize in this book!