Pea Patches = Amazing

Isn't it funny how you think you know a place and then with one discovery your whole view changes? And isn't it amazing that amongst concrete buildings and metal cars, there can be a garden of life?

I had heard of pea patches before, but during our walking tour of the pea patches in University District I came to a new understanding of these community gardens. The whole concept is amazing to me and puts a smile on my face.... in the hustle and bustle of city life there are patches of gardens you can reserve. How simplistic in nature (no pun intended) is this idea! When I got home I immediately went online to search pea patches in my neighborhood... there are three within walking distance, or rather a short run distance!

I also thought it was so neat when Teresa was explaining how sometimes people within the pea patch trade goods. I think that not only is this environmental friendly, but also socially friendly. It puts back the community in a world of fast demands and growing distance between people. Also, when Theresa was discussing the reaction of children to the whole process, it made me really happy. Maybe now, instead of eyes glued to TVs and computers, children can have their eyes glued to the process of nature. I believe they should really implement this idea in schools all over the country.

The pea patch tour was definitely a success and I am thrilled I was able to partake in the experience. I hope by next year to have a pea patch of my own!

The Makings of Greatness

A scenic view of a fluffy mound whispering promises of delectable decadence combined with a taste so smooth and pure that taking one bite will get you into more trouble than taking none. Cheesecake. Even the sound of its two-syllable name makes your mouth salivate as you contemplate this creamy dessert coupled with your favorite additions. Its no wonder that the cheesecake has gained popularity from its early existence, but then again when did this tempting dessert even surface and when did it become such a commodity?

It seems like there are thousands of different cheesecake recipes, with additions from fruits to chocolates. Like its rich additions, the cheesecake is full of history, tradition, and culture. It’s not a surprise that popular food magazine Bon Appetite, proclaimed the cheesecake to be their “readers’ all-time favorite dessert” and even one of their “top 100 dishes.” Not so bad for a dish with such a simplistic ingredient list. Today, the average filling has only as many ingredients as you can count on one hand: cheese, eggs, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla.

Its simplicity is something that has allowed for its existence and progression since its documented origin in the second century BC. In The Oxford Companion to Food, author Alan Davidson explains that the "cheesecake was mentioned in Marcus Porcius Cato's De re Rustica around 200 BCE and that Cato described making his cheese libum (cake) with results very similar to modern cheesecake."

To say the least, the cheesecake has been around since the completion of the Great Wall of China and before the collapse of the ancient city, Babylon. It has even been documented that athletes were served small “cheesecakes” before the Olympic Games of 776 BC in order to gain protein and energy in Greece, the country where cheesecake has been said to originate (Mary Bellis, About.com). In Slow Food and the Politics of Pork Fat, we see the same method to fortify men with the use of lardo, which in Italy was an essential calorific food for men who worked gruesomely long shifts cutting marble (Leitch 445).

The Greeks were probably too busy eating and enjoying cheesecake because the next mention of this luscious dessert wasn’t until 230 AD when Greek writer Athenaeus gives us the first documented modern cheesecake recipe, “take some cheese and pound it, put in a brazen sieve and strain it, then add honey and flour made from spring wheat and heat the whole together into one mass” (Marquis and Haskell 18-19). The recipe may seem silly and outdated, but it got a lot of use during that day and age. It even was so popular that the Roman’s snatched the Greeks secret right up and started the circulation of cheesecakes, just after they used these precious cakes as offerings to their gods (Culinaryschool.com Newsletter).

As the Roman’s conquered land after land, it’s as if they handed out consolation prices in the form of cheesecake recipes. By the 10th century, cheesecake became popular all throughout Europe, especially in northwestern Europe (striclycheesecake.com). In much later centuries, with the popularity of immigration came the popularity of the cheesecake in the United States. The rest isn’t history yet, because in 1912 James L. Kraft revolutionized the cheesecake with the invention of cream cheese, the most popular cheese for making cheesecake today.

On wikipedia’s entry of “cheesecake,” it breaks down some popular cheesecakes, over twenty, from Canada to Japan. In researching cheesecakes, it seems almost every major country has its own version of the cheesecake. Not so bad for a cakes made of cheese. Oxford’s Encyclopedia of Food and Wine, offers examples of this diversity between countries, “Italian cheesecake is made with ricotta cheese. Russian pashka [cheesecake] is a molded dessert—a pyramid of sweetened creamy cheese—served at Easter. Eastern European cheesecakes are made with cottage cheese or farmer cheese, and some are baked in yeast-dough crusts. America's favorite, New York–style or “Jewish-style” cheesecake, relies for its dense richness on cream cheese.” However, like the story of lardo, “memory replaces tradition as we move from modernity into modernity…as [a] commodification of nostalgia” (Leitch 448). To say the least, the cheesecake is the epitome of a commodity. Once a meal of athletes and an offering to the gods, the cheesecake is now seen at almost every restaurant and even the establishment of its own acquiring, “The Cheesecake Factory.”

But still, isn’t it amazing that five simple ingredients have tested time throughout the centuries and still cause people to salivate at the mention of the mere word cheesecake? This is what I call a rich and remarkable dessert.



Self Proclaimed "Best Cheesecake on Earth" recipe from allrecipe.com

Ingredients:
- 1.5 pounds ricotta cheese
- 16 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup white sufar
- 6 eggs
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C.) Wrap the outside bottom of a 10 inch springform pan with foil to prevent water seeping in while baking.

2. Cream together ricotta cheese, cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the eggs one at a time. Add flour one tablespoon at a time, mixing well. Stir in the sour cream and vanilla. Pour mixture into a 10 inch springform pan.

3. Place cheesecake in a large rectangular pan filled with 2 inches of hot water. Carefully put into preheated oven without spilling water. Bake for 90 minutes.

4. After 90 minutes turn oven off, but leave the cake in the oven for another 60 minutes (do not open door).

5. Cool on counter for 60 minutes and then refrigerate. Serve when thoroughly chilled.

Hello my name is Ashley and I'm a Carnivore.

They say it's a natural part of life... that it is the cycle we have always gone through... they call it survival of the fittest... something that is normal... but is it? After reading Michael Pollan's book Omnivore's Dilemma, I have learned so many things about the real cycle of life, the evolution society has created and the nature's way... all leading me to a better understanding of how I choose to live my life via food.

I was just a meat eater for a majority of my life, but now I am proud to say that I am a conscientious meat eater, something that I owe to Michael Pollan. I would love to say that I always cared about the animals I was eating, but frankly it was certainly something I did not want to think about, nor dwell upon it. Honestly, it's not very appetizing or gleeful to think about Mary's Little Lamb, Bambi, Chicken Little, or Wilbur while I am taking a bite of an innocent animal. Even writing it in words still makes me view this "normal" process with shame and embarrassment. I found Mr. Pollan's excerpt on the chicken slaughtering both disturbing and revealing. Thinking of their helpless bodies hanging upside down to drain the blood and the machine plucking their precious feathers, made me a little queasy. However, I was relieved that these chickens appeared not know their sad fate and up until that day lived a happy and healthy life.

I still eat meat and I don't think I will ever decline a steak dinner... but I will now be educated enough to know what I am eating. Polyfarms really opened my eyes to the problems and issues we are facing in terms of "grass farming," something I can only imagine is not practiced nearly as much as it should be. I can bear to eat a chicken, cow, or other animals as long as I know where they are coming from and how they lived their life before becoming my meal. This seems like a difficult task, but I will not condone the inhumane treatment of animals for a couple dollars more in my bank account or for my time. I thought it was weird that Joel (the owner of Polyfarms) wouldn't ship a steak and it came off kind of ridiculous, but I understand it now and "when you know better, you do better." It will probably be more time consuming, expensive, and difficult. But, if we do that for quality in clothes, cars, and other ridiculous products that don't benefit our health or the environment, then why can't we do it for the food that goes into our system and will affect the world we live in.

No Longer Fooled

If there is one snack, one meal, one food of comfort that I cannot resist even though I know I should, for me, that choice is the Chicken McNugget…or I should say was. After reading the little dedication to the McDonald’s famous nugget in Michael Pollan’s book, All in Creation, I now know what I am getting myself into and prefer to stick to the basic carrots and celery (organic of course) as my snack.

Mary Weismantel mentioned in her article, Tasty Meals and Bitter Gifts, something I think we can all relate to when it comes down to that one guilty pleasure… “It is the one special food that everyone would like to have on hand all the time, while at the same time it is agreed that no one ever ‘needs’ [it]” (pg 93). I laughed out loud when I read that, because it is so true, like the double-edged wanlla foods (like our guilty pleasures) that Mary Weismantel was referring to, Chicken McNuggets had that hypnotizing allure for me. I think the memories attached to the McNuggets were the real allure, those after school adventures to McDonalds knowing that under the Golden Arch’s was a treat waiting for me, but not really knowing what they were comprised of.

The thing is, up until now I didn’t know just how bad they were for me. I knew they weren’t good for me, I mean they were my weakness, but thirty-eight different ingredients in the McNugget! I couldn’t believe what I was reading in Michael Pollan’s Book! And the kicker is that a variation of lighter fluid, TBHQ, was also added for preservation of this precious meal. I don’t think I will ever eat at McDonald’s again and I KNOW I will never eat a Chicken McNugget no matter what the allure is or should I say, was.

The Little Soldiers

My Hungarian culture is something that I have always been proud of and incorporated in my daily life. Its culture of food is something that also reflects in my life and consistently reminds me of home. Just as corn is to Nebraska and Collard Greens with Hoppin’ Johns are to the South… Salami, Cheese, and Bell Peppers are to me, my America, with a slice of Hungarian culture. There are so many foods in my Hungarian culture that I affiliate with my identity, but above all it is this balanced grouping of foods that brings home directly to my plate.

It’s really incredible to reflect and recognize the impact of food on my identity. Even more interesting is to see the incorporation of the Hungarian food I have grown up with and how it meshes with the identity of culture I have developed. They aren’t called “Soldiers” in Hungary, I guess it was something my brothers and father’s family came up with, but they were indeed little soldiers of salami, cheese, and bell peppers. Since I can remember, these “Soldiers” have always been in my life and extended to my friends, who were also influenced by this cultural snack endowed on me. I received a text message from my childhood friend last week, it said, “Do you remember the soldiers?” My first thought wasn’t about the military, but indeed the soldiers dressed in a dark red, white, and either green, orange, or red. My friend was so proud she remembered this unique delicacy. “Soldiers”, my fairly healthy “comfort food.”

In Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance, I saw a recurring theme that has also applied to these “soldiers,” that is the theme of change over time. My “soldiers” went in through different phases, alterations, additions and deductions just like the culturally taboo food described in the article. A great example of this is the strict conformity first imposed (only salami, muenster cheese, and green bell pepper) and then the progression of this food throughout time (addition of bread, any color bell pepper would do, etc.). However the pursuit of these “soldiers” has always been playing a part in my identity.

Our Choice

When did life get so complicated? GMO’s, GEO’s, BT crops, transgenetic plants, organic or not, locally grown or imported, pesticides, genetically altered, and the list goes on. It becomes an issue of science versus nature and I guess it then becomes a question of why did life get so complicated and does it have to be?

The most concerning issue is the use of insecticides on crops. The book All in Creation, as well as the movie The Future of Food, goes in great depth on this issue. However, the effects of using these science-based technologies are astonishing and somewhat devastating to our environment. It is mentioned in both the book and movie, of the science procedure of splicing crops and implanting the insecticides directly into the crop. Immediately after hearing that, I asked myself is there any other way? This is something so invasive and could harvest (no pun intended) so many problems in the future of food. The idea of altering crops and the planting of certain crops together, as natural pesticides makes this issue of complication and alternative methods answered.

The issue of science being more powerful than nature is, in my opinion, what is making the life of food so complicated. It becomes a constant competition of what man made inventions can fix nature, something completely irrelevant to the natural cycle of life. If it’s not broken, there’s no need to fix it. And there are always natural ways that can sustain the disruption of natural processes such as cross breeding. One particular account that I remember in the book All in Creation was the vivid process in which Momoko is gardening and taping her plants in order to stop the hybrid process, the natural way. There are always two ways to handle a problem and this again becomes an issue with the close relationship between science and huge corporations. Big seed businesses are trying to create these mono-functional fields that nature is not accustomed to and this is also disrupting the natural process. Nature is used to diversity. These issues then become choices for us as consumers and people of our "natural" environment.

Breakfast for Five

When I was a kid, it was all about Sunday mornings. I would sneak into my brother’s room and hover over him, not waking him up, but wanting to. He always knew it was me and without even opening his eyes would ask, “what’s up Ash.” It was a mixture between annoyance and big brotherly love. I would always reply “Mom’s almost done with breakfast.” He would always tell me to go wake up Michael, our other brother, but I never did. Besides he was always mean and didn’t deserve a breakfast like this.

The aroma of cinnamon from the french toast filled the air, the extra crispy bacon that was going to be devoured lay in the middle, potatoes roasted to perfection sprinkled with green herbs, toast edged with perfectly browned corners situated next to the glass full of bright orange juice, and eggs yellow and fluffy with speckles of pepper announced “come and get it while its hot.” I would look at my Mom in awe and when I look back I am still in awe, how was she able to keep everything so perfect and so warm all by her self? It is a question I ask myself every time I cook. She even had the look in her eyes, “it was nothing.” The thing was… it was something, these Sunday breakfasts’, when everyone was together and everything seemed so perfect, these were the memories. Just as rice is the staple in Japan, Sunday breakfast was the staple in my family.

The funny thing about the mountains of french toast drenched in powdered sugar and sweet maple syrup, crispy bacon next to roasted potatoes, and clouds of eggs and houses of toast is that this memory draws me to a reoccurring theme of the present: “Nothing tastes as good as the past.” Maybe it’s that I know what it takes to make meal now and I am no longer naïve to the hard work. Maybe it’s that everyone is grown up and things have changed. Or maybe just as in article The Breast of Aphrodite, the economic process has left our food altered and changed into ordinariness. Whatever the reason is, the sweet aroma of a homemade Sunday breakfast will always remain to me, a memory of the better days.

A is for Aesthetics!

I thank my mom for my ability to see beyond food, of course in the aesthetic sense. She got my brothers and me use to the idea that food didn’t have to look appetizing to be appetizing. Deep, almost putrid, purple colored cabbage…meat loaf in the all-American way, not the gourmet way…and of course the “ethnic” dishes she tried to conquer without aesthetics in mind. I have to give it to her, she is one of the best cooks in this world, if you don’t count the “this dish looks delicious” factor of course. Thinking back the only aesthetically pleasing dish she did serve was the scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream. However, her aesthetic consciousness did arise when we had a Japanese exchange student stay with us for one year. Junko was able to endow in my mother a sense of visual awareness to all her dishes; a theme my mom would always describe as simplicity is beauty.

After this weeks course on bento boxes and its cultural significance, I thought I was equip for the creation of my own box. Ideas scrimmaged through my head of what my final creation would look like and what additions I would bring to the table. However, I learned very quickly that it’s not as easy as it looks. This made me think of all times my brothers and I would poke fun at my mom’s not so beautiful dishes. It becomes a fast and competitive game of aesthetics or taste. I now have a new found appreciation for my mom’s dishes, which I might add she has gotten better at combining the two elements after Junko’s help. With my bento box I had to take into consideration allergies of my partner, broccoli, which just happened to take a part in my imagined creation. So now that the broccoli was left clear of my concoction, taste and style had to battle each other for the lead. In the end, I think that style won over taste. But, I could always use the excuse from the readings that I was getting my partner use to foods she didn’t necessarily like.

After making bento boxes and reading about the significance behind the actual creations, I have a new outlook on food, not just Japanese. We live in a culture where things have to look beautiful to be in the same vicinity as us. This made me think of what Ann had mentioned in a previous lecture, about how many different varieties there are of apples (thousands and thousands), but of those the couple hundred we consume because of the aesthetics. I thought this exercise and lesson would make me be more aware of aesthetics of food and it has but in the opposite sense; I now wont judge a book by its cover… in relation to food.

Hungry-Sick for Home

It had been about three weeks since I left home to study abroad on a cruise boat to ten different countries across the globe. I missed home, my family and friends, and everything that reminded me of home - food especially. I remember how every meal on the boat my new friends and I had grown accustomed to talking about foods from home. Salads, burgers, paninis, pasta’s and especially restaurants we missed like Cheesecake Factory, CPK, In-n-Out, and even just the simple Subway… you name it and literally while we were eating the bland cafeteria food we would talk and talk about it. A club, a powwow of stories, or just a group of homesick (or rather hungry-sick) people grown close by this discussion and collaboration of food and its stories.

The Bahamas passed and so did the hopes of decent food. Then was Puerto Rico with flies digging into our would-be meals that already didn’t look so appetizing. Things were not looking good for us or for the hopes of good food. Even in the beginning of our days in Salvador, Brazil there were just restaurants after restaurants with undercooked meat and vegetables we couldn’t even identify. My two friends, both named Anna, and I would always travel together within the countries. If we would have known wait awaited us in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at a little restaurant called Calvados, I don’t think we would have been as hesitant to by our plane tickets.

It was always an adventure to find a restaurant that wouldn’t get us sick and tasted okay, something that over the course of three and a half months had drawn us very close together. One can only eat so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before they go crazy. We decided on Calvados, it looked clean and the owner spoke English, always a good sign. However, it was next two restaurants that had dead pigs and other animals on display, kind of freaking us out. You know when you haven’t eaten a good meal in so long that any decent meal will taste like the best food you have ever had? This wasn’t the case, it literally was the best food we have ever had. In the time it took us to eat our steak and potatoes, we didn’t say one word to each other, but our smiling faces spoke loud enough. It was in this journey and more importantly this silence of appreciation and happiness that we created a strong social connection.

We still talk about this meal all the time when we see each other, something all our other friends on the boat will never know. It is something that as silly as it sounds, holds such a special place. After we left the restaurant to today, we leave talking about it in perfect harmony

Pistachios: From Trickery to Memory

Obtained on Flikr by "pmpistol89"

Pistachios, not many people know they are actually grown on trees and begin as little fruits. I didn’t …until now. It’s interesting to think what foods are foreign and which are domestic, even in the scale within our own lives. Originally these fruits trees were cultivated in the Mediterranean and Middle East, and it wasn’t until a mere thirty years ago that they started production in the United States. To some, this food might be foreign, but in my household they were always a common good.

Growing up, my mom always found the most ridiculous things to keep us kids occupied, breaking open the shells to obtain the prized pistachio nut was one them. I remember countless days that I would just sit with my mom eating pistachios and even today when I see those little tan things inside the comfort of the shell, I can’t help but pick up a bag, even if they just sit in my kitchen. Childhood memories, a time I often wish I could resort to. But now life is consumed by “real” occupation, not the one that consists of breaking open shells for a prize. And every time I see an association with pistachios, I already feel emotionally invested into the product, a feeling that draws me toward.

The funny thing is, even now, with this blog and title I still resort back to the correlation between food and memory. But, the memory lives on and continues because food is all around and so are pistachios. And to my amazement every time I fly back home and step into my mom’s house… she always has those pistachios ready.