Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Day 26 at The Culinary: Midwestern Steak

Today was a pretty average day for food.

I went to Americas for lunch when it was American Midwest day. It was pretty funny how I ended up choosing to eat here. I was walking passed the kitchens to see what I wanted, and I came up to the Americas kitchen. As soon as I stopped walking, the expediter urged me to try the steak au poivre that he said he made. He was incredibly enthusiastic, and I hadn't even looked at the menu yet. When I got a second, I turned my head to look at the menu. I scanned it as fast as I could, because it seemed like they were almost all out of plates. I thought this because there was no line, the expediter wanted to get rid of food, and there were a couple people behind me looking also at the menu. I hurried through the list to find this French steak thing he was talking about, and when I found it, I scanned the item for anything I really wouldn't want.

I read it to myself as pepper steak, salad, and potatoes. It seemed good to me, so I helped him out and said, "Suuuuuure!" He was very happy, and I got my plate. On my way into the kitchen, I noticed that they had other plates available. LIES. He wasn't really lying, but I felt I was tricked. Anyway, here's the food:
  




-- Potato Dumpling Soup with Bacon
-- Sautéed New York Strip Steak au Poivre with Steakhouse Salad and Delmonico Potatoes

au Poivre: French for "with pepper"

I might have felt tricked into choosing the steak, but I don't regret it. It was cooked really well, and the pepper aspect was great. I kind of expected peppered steak like this to be intensely peppery. I mean, when you look at it, it looks covered in pepper. But it worked out to be very tasty, and I was satisfied. It's funny how I scanned the menu item for things I wouldn't like, and didn't find anything. It turns out, as you can see in the picture, that there was crumbled blue cheese in the salad. I tried it anyway, but I could taste the blue cheese easily, and tried to eat around it. The potatoes were perfect, and the soup was good too. It was light, creamy but thin, and had big potato dumplings in it.

I found a table with a friend of mine who'd gotten the Iowa pork chop from the menu, and after a little while, a bunch of other friends came to sit with us. They all had the same K16 dish, and I was happy that they got it. I passed by K16 on my way to find food, and I noticed that they had a pulled pork sandwich on the menu. I was really excited, and I went to the window where you can see the plates ready to be picked up to get a look at the sandwich. When I spotted it, I saw that the slaw that came with it was on the top half of the sandwich. The last slaw I got from K16 was incredibly acidic with a vinegar taste. I don't like slaw in general, because it's normally made with mayo (another of my bugaboos).

I figured I could order something that came with slaw and just not eat the slaw, but this had the slaw on the sandwich. Therefore, I decided to press my luck somewhere else, and eventually came across the expediter from Americas.

So, when my friend sat next to me with the pulled pork sandwich, I asked if I could take a picture of it. He gladly obliged, and here it is:


You can't see by this photo, because my friend removed it already, but it came with a couple onion rings and fried pickles on the top of the skewer. The diners at the table with the pork sandwich told me that it was good, but the slaw was too acidic. I was very pleased with my decision to skip it.

On my way from Roth to my dorm, I passed by some plants and I thought I'd take a picture or two. I briefly mentioned this in an early post, but try to remember that this school grows vegetables and fruits around campus. Instead of a normal university growing bushes and what-not on the school grounds, we grow special plants. We even use what grows in our kitchens! Check it out.



These are normal and white eggplants. I think it's fun seeing stuff like this when you walk around campus.

For dinner, I decided to go to K16. I guess I was feeling lazy. Here's what I got:


-- Crispy Chicken in a Sweet & Sour Sauce with Bell Peppers and White Rice

To be honest, it tasted just like local Chinese take-out. I like Chinese take-out, so I was happy, but it still didn't taste like CIA-quality food. As I ate it while I was by myself at a long table, about eight pastry students came to sit with me. I didn't know any of them, but they sat with me because it was a big open table that could accommodate them all. The last person to sit took the seat on my right, and it turns out that she was one of my hall's RAs. This was funny for us, and when I took a second to look at the table, I noticed that every single person got the crispy chicken. I laughed, and finished my meal.

Until the next post,
Eat well, then eat more

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