I started out my day by skipping lunch. I did that because I slept through it. There's nothing like getting extra sleep.
I went to Math class, and when it was over, I went to dinner. Because I missed lunch, that meant that I had two swipes available for dinner. I could've gotten two things and brought one to my room, but I didn't. I got one meal from K16, and here it is:
-- Broiled Halibut over Sauteed Vegetables with Shrimp and Crayfish
This fish was very soft and flaky, and the other seafood was very good too. The vegetables were slightly acidic, which was unexpected, but still good.
After dinner, I went to Product Knowledge. I went there straight away, and can you guess why? It's because I was steward!
It was finally my turn to be steward, and I knew this meant that it was my first opportunity to cook something at the CIA. Therefore, I got to class as early as I could. If it weren't for it being my day to be steward, I most likely would've gone somewhere else to eat dinner than K16. I got to class while the previous class was still in session. I waited, and eventually the class ended. I went into the AB Theater, and put my backpack down on a seat I liked. I then rolled up my sleeves, walked up to my Product Knowledge teacher, a man we call Freddie B (Chef Frederick Brash), and asked what I could prepare.
Today's lecture was on tomatoes, peppers, and squash. I helped bring out bags and plates of food, and the first thing I cooked was spaghetti squash. I heated up the pan with butter, and then added a couple spoonfuls of chopped garlic and shallots. Once the shallots were translucent, I added the plate full of spaghetti squash that I had just prepared. To make spaghetti squash be in spaghetti form, you need to first blanch the squash in halves. Blanching is quick-boiling, and once you've done that, you remove the seeds from the seed cavity. Then you take a fork and scrape at the flesh. It comes apart in strings, just like spaghetti.
I took the squash I'd prepared, and added it to the hot, buttery pan. It cooked for a while, and once it was almost fully cooked, I added numerous plates of cooked spaghetti squash that the morning class had made, but forgot to taste. I got it all cooked and hot, and then put it in two bowls, one to be passed up the right side of the classroom, and one for the left. After the squash, I heated up the chayote (ch-eye-oh-tay) squash that the morning class had also forgotten. Once that was done, I did some dishes.
Meanwhile, one of my friends was helping out with a very special recipe, which I'll be discussing soon. The other steward was setting out the trays of produce which the class would be studying later. I don't want to give away the surprise of what the special foods were exactly, but let me just say that I got to taste them as they were being prepared, before anyone else was able to. Because I forgot to include the tasting of my last Product Knowledge class, which was Tubers and Onions, I'll include it now. Here's the tasting:
- Spaghetti Squash, cooked with garlic and shallots
- Chayote Squash, cooked with butter, red pepper flakes, and others
- Pork Belly, cooked in a soy sauce stew with mushrooms, star anise and ginger
- Mashed Potatoes alla Joel Robuchon
- Standard Cucumber
- English Cucumber
- Grape Tomato
- Fingerling Potato
- Red Potato
- Sweet Potato
- Japanese Yam
- Jicama
- Cardone
- Roasted Cipollini Onion
- Jerusalem Artichokes
This was my favorite tasting. Spaghetti squash isn't something I normally get to eat. In fact, now that I think about it, I'd never had it. But it tastes great, I think, and it was awesome this time. The chayote was pretty good too, but I have a feeling that it was just heavily spiced and what-not. It kind of tasted like spicy cucumbers. The cucumbers were tasty, as always, and the sweet potatoes were interesting. The regular sweet potato tasted just as I expected it to. I'd never tried a Japanese yam before. It had a brown skin and a white flesh. It was surprisingly significantly sweeter than the normal sweet potato. I look forward to buying some if I ever come across them in a supermarket. For your information, yams and sweet potatoes are different, but domestically they are considered the same. Jicama was not that special. Cardone resembled an enormous stalk of celery, and had the flavor profile of artichokes, only I wish it tasted like celery too. It was disgusting, and I'm not eating it ever again. The roasted onions were delicious, and the Jerusalem artichokes tasted like crunchy water. The red and fingerling potatoes were yummy, and the tomato tasted like a tomato.
The special, if you couldn't guess, was the pork belly and the mashed potatoes. Freddie B told us in the previous class about when he was doing a stage (similar to an internship) at a restaurant run by the famous chef Joel Robuchon in France. While he was there, he came across one recipe that Robuchon created. This was his recipe for mashed potatoes. The key to this recipe is that, using peeled LaRatte fingerling potatoes and a food mill, you mix equal amounts of butter to potato. If you're not familiar with mashed potato preparations, this might not register as a strange recipe. However, if you do understand, then... well, you understand. It's ridiculous. When I tasted them, it tasted like I was eating a freshly baked shortbread cookie. It was simply phenomenal.
Out of the foods we tasted that were in today's lecture, Freddie asked which we liked best. Well, he asked how we liked each thing individually, but the best reaction from the class overall was clearly for the spaghetti squash. Of course I said to myself, "Cause I made it!"
The pork belly was made because the dish in France was served with it. Freddie thought it would only be right to have us taste it that way. The pairing truly was incredible. The potatoes being rich, starchy and buttery were a perfect match for the salty pork and mushrooms.
After class, I was required to stay behind to clean up. I did some dishes, and when clean-up was done, I sat in the classroom waiting for the Thailand Club meeting. I thought it was going to take place shortly in the same room, but I was wrong. Someone came and told me at the last minute, but until then I got to have a chat with Freddie B. It turns out that he's from a town very close to where I grew up. My class already consists over four people from the same 10-minute radius, so this was pretty amusing.
When I got to the correct room for the club meeting, it hadn't even started yet. I waited a few minutes, and then the club leader came with his bags of Thai products. Here's what we tasted:
- Rambutan, fresh
- Longan, fresh
- Lychee, canned
- Rambutan, canned
- Coconut Sticky Rice with Canned Longan
I have concluded that all of Thailand's exotic fruits taste the same, but look like monsters. Rambutans look like a scarier lychee, and we got those first. The rambutans are the ones with the red spike things on the outside. They tasted pretty good, but required a lot of work to chew. The longans were the ones that were small and light brown. Since they all tasted the same to me, I'm going to describe them all in one go. They were all squishy, clear, juicy, grape-like, pulpy, sugary, and had pits. The fresh fruits were definitely better than the canned ones, even though the canned ones tended to be sweeter. The club leader said that longans are also called "Dragon's Eye", because you can see the spherical, dark pit through the clear flesh. It was fun eating them all, and now I have a greater knowledge of Thai fruits.
It looks like we have nine new additions today: rambutan, longan, cardone, jicama, jerusalem artichoke, spaghetti squash, chayote squash, pork belly, and Japanese yam. And the list of foods I've never tried before coming to the CIA grows even larger!
Until the next post,
Eat well, then eat more
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