Day 8 at The Culinary: Trying the Deli/ Bio

Hello. This day was rather uninteresting as far as meals go.

It was still the weekend, so the only place I could go for food was Courtside. I believe this was the day when some family came to visit and drop off some things that I needed from home. I needed towels, detergent, and other things like that. They also took home some paintings I'd originally brought to school with me, because I couldn't seem to get them to stick on the walls. I first tried sticking up my mirror, and yes, it fell and shattered when I was in class. Then I put up a light painting with extra hooks, but it still decided to fall. Thankfully it didn't get even a scratch, but I knew it wasn't worth it all, and asked my mom to bring them back home. They came at around three in the afternoon, even though they said they'd be here at one. I got some schoolwork done in the meantime. When they finally left, it was dinner time and I hadn't eaten at all yet. So I went off to the Rec Center for dinner. I'd tried the signature sandwich option last time, so I decided to try creating my own sandwich this time. Here's how it went:

-- Corned Beef, Roast Beef and Swiss on Rye with Fries 

It's very important to me to have a good deli sandwich. I guess I would say that Jewish deli food is my comfort food. I grew up eating corned beef sandwiches on rye, and having matzo ball soup with kneydlach the size of my fist (at the time). I've had a lot of cold cut sandwiches in my life and I've grown to be able to tell if it's pretty good or not. My favorite would have to be pastrami on rye. It's still my favorite thing to order at a deli, and after many attempts to find the best one, I've figured out where the best places are to get one around me.

With my knowledge, I was interested to see what a CIA corned beef sandwich would taste like. They didn't have any pastrami on the menu, but I didn't hold that against them. When I got it, I was very happy that it was stuffed with meat. I was thinking to myself, "At least I won't be starving later". And that was true, because I took the second half back to my room. I had the option to get the meat warmed first, but I said no. Looking back, I think it would've been nicer, but the sandwich was still really good. The corned beef was excellent and fatty, just how I like it, and the roast beef was pretty dry, but that's the only way I'm used to seeing it. The swiss was good too, but what made me excited was the quality of the rye. I knew that if there was rye, I'd want it every time for the rest of my stay at this school, if it was good. I've had some good rye breads and some terrible ones, but I'm thankful that the school's rye is very good.


Actually, I have an idea. My friend recently told me that I should give my readers a little "About Me" section. I figured why not, and so I'll do that now.

My name is Jared Selig Prager. Before college, I lived with my mom, sister, and grandpa in Oakland, New Jersey. My parents got divorced when I was around two years of age, and I've gone to my dad's house for weekends since then. He lives with my step-mom and grandma in Pomona, New York. My brother lives with his girlfriend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My brother is 23, and he recently got a job doing something with computers or some sort of technology. I don't know, his career path is confusing to me, but it's nerdy and he's good at it. His girlfriend is also 23, and she works as an editor for a publishing company, and she's very good at what she does, too. My sister is seven and she was adopted at an early age by my mom and (ex) step-dad from South Korea. She's a pain in the ass but I like her anyway. My mom's side of the family, grandpa included, is from the area of Sharon, Massachusetts, and we moved as a family from there when I was a toddler. My dad's side of the family, grandma included, is from London, England, and yes, they have accents.

My mom is a bad cook, and a reasonably good baker, depending on the dish. She'll appreciate me writing this. She's the reason I got into cooking. As I've told many people when they've asked me why I started cooking, I realized a few years ago that if I wanted to eat anything good, I'd have to make it myself. I'm not from a long line of chefs or anything, but my dad is very good at cooking. From what I understand, he's been interested in cooking since he was in college at Cambridge University. He's made most of the meals I've eaten at his house, and he's a great reference when I have questions about cooking and such. My brother is also a big fan of food, and eating it, and he's jealous of where I am and what I'm doing. He sends me pictures and tells me what he's eating, and it's mostly things like pina colada cheesecake and bacon cheeseburgers with donuts as bread.

At the beginning of high school, I didn't like school. I didn't do so well, but it was only because classes didn't interest me. At the end of sophomore year, I started making food for myself. It was very simple things like tuna fish sandwiches, boiling pasta, and other things that require little effort. When my mom saw me making my own food for once, she decided I must love cooking or something, and that I should totally go to the county's vo-tech school to do it all day. I was a little unsure about all this, but as time went on I found cooking to be pretty fun and didn't mind the idea. So I was enrolled in the culinary program at the Bergen County Technical School for my junior year. I would get to my public school, Indian Hills High School, and wait for the bus at an ungodly hour. I'd eventually get to the county school and I'd have about two and a half hours of cooking class as well as gym. Half way through the day I'd be bussed back to my public school to take my required academics.

My culinary class was awesome. We'd switch between the kitchen and the bake shop next door, being in one class each marking period. My chef in the kitchen was a really awesome teacher, and from the start he made me feel welcome in an environment which was not familiar AT ALL to me. Once I got the hang of the way the class went, I found it all to be fascinating and I got myself involved. My baking teacher was also a great guy, and he really helped me out and took time to make sure I understood everything in class. I have always been the kind of student who asks a lot of questions, because I need to make sure everything I do is just how the teacher said to do it. Neither of my instructors ever got impatient with me, probably because they could tell I was enthused and serious, and I put out reasonably good products.

By the end of senior year I graduated top of my class and received a few awards from the school for my achievements there.

Outside the Kitchen Doors at the School

 

What else is there about me....  I was in a band throughout high school with a few of my best friends. I was the drummer and it was instrumental metal. We were called The Feast. We're in the process of getting the songs we recorded back to us from our friend who did the recording. 

Also, I had a special group of friends throughout high school known as the "Brawl Group." We would have these get-togethers which would, most of the time, end up being sleepovers, and the story goes that it originated with us all getting together to play the new Super Smash Brothers video game called Super Smash Brothers Brawl. The things we'd do at these get-togethers would change frequently; we'd play other video games, ping pong, computer games like Age of Empires and Rise of Nations, watch bad sci-fi movies, eat pizza, and talk about philosophy. We had a lot of fun over the years and now we're spread out in colleges across the east coast. Two are at RIT in northern New York, one is at SUNY Binghamton in central New York, one is at UConn in Connecticut, one is at SCAD in Georgia, and I'm here. I'm looking forward to the first time that we all have school off so we can get together again and share our college experiences so far. That looks to be Thanksgiving, so we still have to wait more than a month.

Oh yeah, what I like to eat. Well I love bacon, garlic, duck, pastrami on rye, matzo ball soup, bananas, cannolis, custard cream, abba zabba candy, chorizo, fresh mozzarella, raw oysters, any and all seafood, and if I had to choose one last thing, I'd say pumpkin pie. 

I'm excited to be here at the CIA for way too many reasons, and this place just rules. I think that's a good Bio section, and I'm going to go to class now. 

Until the next post, 

Eat well, then eat more