Let me just say right here and now that I don't remember too much about the days leading up to present day. I'm pretty behind on posts, because I got the idea for this blog pretty late. Therefore I can't give too much info. on my day, just the food. I promise as it gets closer and closer to the present, these posts will be more interesting.
That being said, here's what happened in a nutshell.
I had orientation all day until dinner, and all the meals were included. I wanted to get up early to experience my first CIA breakfast, because I knew it would count against my meal plan after orientation ended. I did take a picture of my food though!
-- Bacon Cheddar Omelette with a side of Bacon
-- Sweet Biscuit
-- Fresh Fruit Salad
-- Apple Raspberry Juice
It was pretty successful if you ask me. Lots of bacon, and it was damn good bacon. The biscuit to this day competes for the best thing I've eaten here. It was just sugary, buttery and perfect. Also, I don't think I've had a fruit salad with fruit that fresh. I can never seem to get melon that I like enough to eat, and I'd have this any day. You get the breakfast from Quantity Food Production, a class I will only call K16 from now on because it's easier to type and that's what the school calls it.
K16 is right by the main dining hall called Farquharson Hall which I will call Farq from now on for the same reasons. Here are some pictures I took recently of Farq:
Soon after, orientation started and I sat around lectures until lunch at Banquet. This was the first time I got a meal from Banquet. I had already met a few people, and planned to sit with them. One of them was my roommate. I realized as we approached the front of the line to get a table that they seat people in groups of six, and we only had three or four people. They weren't doing what would become the usual routine of letting people say, "We're a group of four, we're waiting for two more of our friends to arrive", or "We're a group of four, we need two more". That will follow with the class's appointed Maitre d' walking down the line of people waiting to be seated, looking for a group of two that would make the original group into a six.
So what happened was that they seated the first six people on line, then the next, etc.. I was grouped as the last member of the group of six in front of me. The group was all girls, and it was a little uncomfortable since the only people I knew so far were sitting together and I was stranded at a table of quiet girls. These girls ended up being very friendly, and we had some nice conversations. Also, I made five new friends! I'm not knowledgeable enough yet to provide a confident definition or description of what these foreign things are, (the food, not girls) but I'm going to use my handy "Food Lover's Companion" book to help you all out. Here's what we ate at my first Banquet lunch.
-- Mushroom Vol au Vent
-- Roasted Lamb with Ratatouille and Pommes
-- Créme Brulée
Vol au Vent: a puff pastry shell that resembles a pot with a lid. The term translates to "flying in the wind" and refers to the pastry's incredible lightness. In this case, it was filled with sauteed mushrooms.
Pommes: French for Potatoes
Ratatouille: A popular French side dish or appetizer that combines various vegetables such as eggplant, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and zucchini--all simmered in olive oil.
Créme Brulée: A chilled, stirred custard that is, just before serving, sprinkled with sugar and quickly caramelized to create a brittle top layer
Sorry, no pictures of the food for that meal, but I remember it was tasty.
After lunch I quickly went with the rest of my class for more orientation meetings, followed by dinner at about 5:30. Back to Banquet! It was at this meal that I found out that each meal is equipped with a special drink. They're non-alcoholic and usually very good. I also learned that tea is always available, but only during dessert.
-- Salmon over Spinach with Bacon, Egg, Mushroom, Red Onion and Red Wine Vinaigrette
-- Roast Strip Loin of Beef with Steamed Carrots, Green Beans and Pommes Purée and Red Wine Jus
-- Dried Apple and Cherry Crisp with Créme Anglaise
-- Spiced Cider and Chamomile Tea
Pommes Purée: French version of mashed potatoes
Créme Anglaise: The French term for a rich custard sauce that can be served hot or cold over cake, fruit or other dessert
One of the better meals I've had at Banquet. I remember the salad being exceptionally good. There was a bed of raw spinach, lightly dressed with the vinaigrette, topped with a relatively small piece of seared salmon. The spiced cider was pretty good, but I like the local half-gallon containers of spiced apple cider from Shop Rite better.
There are certain things I feel I should address. They're important, or at least I feel they are.
- One is that I like to take advantage of what's available to me. The tuition is pretty expensive, and they make the students pay for two meals a day (weekdays) as a requirement as to ensure that students can do two things. The first is taste the food and experience the classes that we'll soon be taking. The other thing is so that we put the students in those kitchen classes to work. If no one eats at their kitchen, they'll have less work to do. The school says we need to push them. I think that's a good reason. So I order two spiced ciders, because I know that one costs me the same as two.
- The other thing I want to address is a big one to me. Like everyone out there, I have food aversions. Lots of people connect certain foods to bad experiences, be it throwing up after sushi or becoming very ill after a slice of pumpkin pie, and then refuse to eat that food ever again no matter what. It's very logical, at least to the person, but I just want to say that I only have one of those slightly irrational food aversions. Thankfully there's no way I'll encounter it at the CIA. It's a Quizno's Bread Bowl.
You see, there certainly are things that I don't want to eat, but as I've learned since I've gotten here, I'm incredibly open to food compared to almost everyone I've met. I actually can't take it. I hate it. No matter what table I sit at, and no matter whom I sit with, there are always people who go, "I don't like duck". This is fine (to me), if duck is one of the let's say ten things you don't like. I'm being generous with the ten. I swear to molasses. People are so banana-flinging picky. It disgusts me. I seriously get disgusted when I see someone repetitively make a cringing face, look around the table, back at their plate, back to the table and then look for approval or empathy when they say "These carrots aren't very good".
It is a god damn carrot. The carrot is fantastic. It's a great carrot, and you're too whiny. Grow up and be grateful that you are where you are, and that you have glazed carrots and beef tenderloin with a Madeira sauce in front of you. As you can see, this really frustrates me. People are allowed to dislike certain foods, but not a couple things from every meal. That's what people have been doing here around me. I actually like sitting alone so I can appreciate my meal without any crying "culinary students" around me.
Ok, so that was a bit harsh, but I'm very honest, it's my blog, and it's the truth.
As I was saying, it's fine to have foods you don't like. As for me, it included four things when I came to The Culinary.
*Mayo
*Mustard
*Vinegar
*Moldy/Soured Dairy (Yogurt, Blue Cheese, Ranch)
So I had my four main bugaboos, if you will. I think Mayo is just gross, and I've tried to eat a Burger King burger with mayo on it and I just couldn't make my way through it. I'm sorry. I like it in a tuna-fish sandwich though. I can't explain really, but aside from tuna sandwiches, which I grew up eating, I just can't take the taste of mayo.
Mustard. It smells bad. It doesn't look very appealing either. It's in a lot of things, like barbecue sauce, and I'm fine with that because I can't smell or taste the mustard. However, I knew that when I got to this school, I'd have to suck it up and try everything (something I realized no one else decided to do). So when we got a certain meal (which you don't know about yet) that had a good amount of mustard on it, I tried it. I ate half of it, but just couldn't finish. I still don't like mustard.
Vinegar. Holy crap I just don't understand vinegar. It's in sooooo many things, yet tastes terrible and smells terrible to most people. I thought I just didn't like any vinegar (rice wine, red wine, apple cider, white wine), but when I was given that first salad with the Red Wine Vinaigrette, I loved it. I really didn't mind it at all. I've had bad experiences with vinegar, and I realized that it was Balsamic Vinegar. That stuff sucks. No arguments here people, it's a fact as of now. It always tastes and smells bad. Shame on Balsamic Vinegar.
Last one is Moldy Dairy. As Jeffrey Steingarten once said in an article I really enjoyed, "Blue food (not counting plums and berries). This may be a rational aversion, because I am fairly sure that God meant the color blue mainly for food that has gone bad." (The Man Who Ate Everything) I think that purposely soured and moldy and bacteria-fed dairy products are gross. I used to like yogurt, but not anymore. I mean seriously. You take some milk or whatever and you purposely make it sour. WHAT THE CRUMPETS IS THAT ABOUT? Blue cheese has blue veiny mold, yogurt tastes like thick sour milk, and ranch dressing smells like ass soup. However, when the day came for me to have to eat the Banquet lunch with gorgonzola included in it, I had to try it. It wasn't that bad. It was just kinda salty. On the other hand, I recently had Blue cheese crumbled on a salad, and I tried the smallest piece I could find. That was like a punch of sodium. I don't know, I suppose I need to try them all.
So readers, my overall point here is that I am a person just like you who started out hating tons of foods. I personally over time developed a taste for most foods. It's probably connected with my passion for cooking, but in general I've ended up as a person who can't wait to eat octopus, wild boar, chicken heart, dried anchovy, raw oyster, and almost anything under the sun. I find new foods to be fascination, and that's why I am where I am. Given that theory, you'd think everyone else here at The Culinary would be as open to trying new foods as I am, but for some reason it's not the case.
Anyway, I think I still haven't said my main point. To conclude on this post, if you're in this field, you need to be adventurous. You need to put aside prejudices and just try things. It could smell bad and taste great, or the other way around. You don't know unless you try and that could mean you'll be missing out on discovering a new favorite food. There's so much out there, and so much out there that looks or sounds gross, but you just need to give it all a chance. I did. I tried three of my bugaboos at school so far in less than two weeks time. Sure, I still don't like plain mustard, and there are varieties of vinegar and blue cheese that I still don't care for, but now I know that I like gorgonzola and at least some vinaigrettes. And I know these things because gave them a chance.
Until the next post,
Eat well, then eat more
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