Carriage House Cafe

(No Pictures...but a milestone!)

Brunch: my least favourite meal of the day because it means that I didn't wake up early enough for both breakfast, second breakfast, AND lunch. However, brunch at the Carriage House Cafe this afternoon was quite a relaxing and novel experience.

Carriage House Cafe is a restaurant that offers local food. It is blatantly obvious when pointed out, on Stewart Ave, but is otherwise camoflauged because it has no blatant neon sign and it is painted an olive green that matches the nearby trees. It kind of looks like a barn, and the front door is difficult to open. The interior is both bubolic (with stone brick walls, lazy fans, and a winter scene painted on a giant saw) and old-school modern (with typewriters, a turtle lamp, old-style radio, and glass tables), if that's even a style.

It was really busy when we arrived at noon, so we either had to wait upstairs (really pretty, natural lighting, clean, quaint), or sit at the couch. We decided that we might as well eat at the wooden coffee table with the velvet, paisley-seated couch with plump beige cushions in which you could lose yourself (or your wallet, haha). It felt a little uncanny to be about 50 cm lower than everyone else seated at tables. Maybe it just seemed too casual. If the entire restaurant were couches and beanbags... well, then, that's a business plan.

The locally-killed animals included salmon, cow, pig, and rabbit (there may have been others but I don't recall...). As I have never been offered the opportunity to try rabbit, I was in quite a quandary. I like rabbits. They're cute. I frequently consider getting a pet rabbit after I graduate. Heck, a rabbit face is on my login screen! So...no rabbit, rabbit pate, or rabbit sausage? What a eerie feeling, which was soon overwhelmed by my animalistic desires to try new animals and not be a hypocrite (because I eat cows. Why not rabbits?).

I ordered the breakfast sandwich, which was an apple and rabbit sausage, egg (I asked for poached), and salad lettuce, served in house-made ciabatta (one side coated in butter, the other side with some mildly spicy mustard mayonnaise), with fried potato chunks on the side and homemade ketchup. The apple and rabbit sausage was really good. It was slightly peppery, and the apple cuboids were the size of rice grains. The rabbit part was very juicy, chewy, and sausage-like. It was kind of like eating a cow burger patty, but more fatty and chunky. I wonder which part of the rabbit they used. I would assume that the legs would be too muscular, thus rendering the patty too lean if they used it. But then, where do they use? The poached egg were great. The ciabatta was perfectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, with lots of holes. The butter soaking into the ciabatta made me question why I never buy good butter to put onto my toast - or rather, why I never eat buttered toast in the first place. I also really enjoyed whatever mayonnaise sauce thing they threw on the other half of ciabatta.

The potatoes and ketchup were pretty good. Perfectly fried.

I also tried a slice of bacon which was pretty thick and not very fatty. It was pretty good but a bit too salty.

Overall, I currently do not regret adding rabbit to the list of animals I've consumed, though I think I prefer lamb more. The list is:

Cow

Pig

Chicken

Duck
Goose

Lamb

Various fish (eel, salmon, etc.), but not shark

Various other seafood and crustaceans (clams, mussels, oysters, squid, octopus, in various states of rawness)

Turkey

Quail

Snake

Turtle

Rabbit

Contrary to stereotypes, I have not tried kangaroo or dogs or cats. Possibly because of the stereotypes, I would prefer to keep it that way for now.

Mother...what is an Apple Slice?

I'm taking NURS-313, Obesity and Society. I do enjoy the class and I really respect my professor (Dr. Compher). Here is one of the assignments: Look at a piece of media and explain the stigma/message. Unfortunately, I didn't get the grade that I wanted because the prose wasn't formal enough. Well, it's definitely formal enough for this blog! Quite pertinent, too.

As a reminder, if anyone would like to use information from my site, citing me would be necessary.

The image I am analysing is from here. I don't wan to repost it because my blog contains original content.

Mother...what is an Apple Slice?

While I was rinsing chard one day, an apartment-mate asked me, "What IS that?" Chard is neither famous nor common, so it's understandable that one is wary of eating a blood-red stalk. Apples, however, are ubiquitous in the U.S., so it's ridiculous to ask "What is an Apple Slice?" [1] This absurd statement is portrayed in the satirical cartoon by Bryant Arnold. A shallow interpretation is that McDonald's is a maverick for educating children and sneaking fruit into their meals. However, it is more likely that it signifies that the business of food today is neither healthy nor natural, and that children’s food education is inadequate.

An obese Caucasian mother and her equally obese son purchase a Happy Meal from a skinny Caucasian McDonald's employee. The son asks "Mother...what is an Apple Slice?", while in the corner, a sign proclaims that McDonald's has now added Apple Slices to Happy Meals (notably, the word "Happy" is cut off, and no characters look happy), which occurred in July 2011 [6]. Although the child barely reaches the countertop, he is drawn to be ugly and old, which contrasts with the common depiction of children as adorable. The skin around his eyes is wrinkly, his various chins are wobbling, and his face is red and blotchy; it looks as though he could be in the process of a stroke! One of his front teeth is missing, and he is wearing a bland sweater, which, with its various curves, extends outwards out of the frame. He possibly represents the population of children already suffering from disorders traditionally only considered to affect adults. Similarly, the mother's facial expression resembles a pig and she looks haughty and defiant, as though she dares anyone to ask her why she’s at McDonald's. She clenches her son's shoulder, as though with a talon. Like her son, she isn’t dressed in a flattering outfit, signifying the American layperson. 

Despite asking "Mother... what is an Apple Slice?” in a possibly cautious tone, the child nevertheless attempts to grab the Happy Meal. This incongruity can imply two things. Perhaps children would eat anything, as long as it has been well-advertised and has familiar McDonald's packaging. Therefore, even though there is a new item in his Happy Meal, the child will eat it due to its "fast food"-style packaging. On the other hand, perhaps children are willing to try new things, including fruit, if only their authorities (i.e. parents, McDonald's) would offer them the chance. According to the cartoon, the mother has never given apple slices to the child. This implies that childhood obesity can be traced to irresponsible parents. 

The phrasing is also awkward. "Apple Slice", with capitalization, implies something sinister; it's as though apples are only sellable as a brand name product! Plain apple slices have morphed from an apple cut into wedges to Apple Slices, skinless, seedless, and wrapped in plastic. This disconnects children from farms and nature; will kids soon think that apples come in plastic (like how tuna comes from cans)? This also depicts the general laziness of the population; it is certainly not difficult to buy an apple at the grocery store and slice it (which isn't even necessary); instead, patrons take the same amount of time driving to a fast food restaurant to buy Apple Slices. In addition, only about 11% of customers actually choose to get Apple Slices rather than fries, although this will change since McDonald's is soon adding Apple Slices to Happy Meals by default and removing a portion of the fries [6].

The McDonald's employee, Billy, contrasts entirely with the other two characters. He is skinny, and represents the 1/3 of Americans who aren't overweight or obese [2]. His expression is wary and apologetic, which represents two things. As a person, he represents the normal-weight population who stigmatizes overweight or obese people, and he is separated from them by a counter [6]. As a McDonald's employee, Billy represents the "business" that exploits the general population by creating a façade of appearing "ideal" in order to make money.

A better message could elicit an even more outrageous response in satirizing the situation further, because the point of the image is to portray problems and misinformation in the food industry. By using a Ronald McDonald look-a-like instead of Billy, parents would feel more contrast and disgust, because the skinny Ronald, who is advertised as the champion of being friendly and caring, instead lures their children towards unhealthy food. Using McDonald's Apple Dippers would have made McDonald's more insidious. Apple Dippers are two servings of Apple Slices plus a “Low Fat Caramel Dip”, which has 100 Calories and 15 g of sugar, which is more than that of the Apple Slices (35 Calories and 6 g of sugar)* [4, 5]! The Apple Slices/Dippers also lack skin, and therefore, fiber. Also, the mother could have retorted with a comment such as “Stay away, that hasn’t been processed for human consumption!” to represent the current media’s lack of mention (whether positive or negative) of fruits. Marketing for high-sugar cereals and processed foods that have added vitamins, instead of fruits that naturally possess vitamins, misinform consumers. In addition, this cartoon may be seen by some to stigmatize obese people because the question could portray obese people as stupid, since the child doesn't know what an apple is [3]. To portray an alternative message that puts more blame on society, companies, advertising and convenience (rather than on misinformation or personal choice), the mother could've said "Fat chance that'll change anything!" which would indicate that she is aware that she is obese, but that the obesogenic environment fueled by McDonalds and other companies has made her powerless. This way, the stigma of obese people being stupid wouldn't be implied.

*Actually, this figure isn’t trustworthy because the McDonald's website has glitches. By refreshing the page, I get values of 35 Calories/6 g sugar/68 g/1 Carbohydrate and 70 Calories/9 g sugar/21 g/0.5 Carbohydrate for the Apple Dippers (without dip) and 15 Calories/3 g sugar/34 g/0.5 Carbohydrate

References

[1] Arnold, Bryant. "McDonald's Fights Childhood Obesity with Apple Slices Cartoon." Cartoon A Day Funny Business Cartoons and Web Comics. Copyright Cartoon A Day / CartoonaDay.com, 26 July 2011. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. 

[2]  CDC/National Center for Health Statistics. "FASTSTATS - Overweight Prevalence."Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 June 2010. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

[3] Lillis, Jason, Jason B. Luoma, Michael E. Levin, and Steven C. Hayes. "Measuring Weight Self-stigma: The Weight Self-stigma Questionnaire." Obesity 18.5 (2009): 971-76. Web.

doi:10.1038/oby.2009.353

[4] McDonald's. "Apple Dippers :: McDonald's.com." McDonald's.com. McDonald's, 2011. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

[5] McDonald's. "Apple Slices :: McDonald's.com." McDonald's.com. McDonald's, 2011. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

[6] Redroxe, Christina. "McDonald's to Include Apple Slices in Every Happy Meal | NOLA.com." New Orleans Net LCC. The Associated Press, 27 July 2011. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

Apple Pie!

I finally made a pie. Refer to here for a story about the last few pies that I've made...

0.5 cup of sugar

3 tbsp whole wheat flour

cinnamon and/or whatever spices you like

3 giant apples (You know, the ones from Costco), sliced. I had one Rome, one Royal Gala, and one Golden Delicious.

Pie crust!! (whole wheat!)

All you do is layer apple with sugar and flour. I managed to get three layers of apples in my glass pie pan (which doesn't seem to have issues with dough sticking on it, so it's cool).

On the bottom rack, I baked for 20 mins at 375F and 15 mins at 350F. Then, I let it sit in the oven (while the oven was cooling down) for about 50 minutes to an hour.

I guess it's a matter of preference, but I really don't like apple pie when the apple parts have the consistency of mashed potato/applesauce. I also don't want super sweet apple pie.

So, for me, improvements to this recipe would be

1. Less sugar in apple filling. For sure.

2. Bake pie in less time (Possibly bake the crust for 10 minutes first, then add in the apple, to get less soggy apple).

3. More sugar in crust.

We had leftover pie crust because the top design didn't really use much crust, so my sister ended up making cookies with it (microwave for 45 s). Pie crust cookies are really yummy, actually.

Pie Crust!

I made pie crust today because it has to sit overnight for the apple pie tomorrow. I've already figured out a design for the top! No, it will not be a crumble top.

I looked through my old photos to see if I ever took a picture of the pie I made 5 years ago, and unfortunately, I didn't.

I guess the rules for this pie crust are that it's made with patience and whole wheat flour. I know it's rare to see whole wheat pie crust, and it's even rarer to see pie crust made with chunks of butter (not melted) without the use of a food processor.

I found a pie crust recipe here and I altered it specifically for whole wheat flour and apple pie filling.

Ingredients for a 9- to 9.5-inch pie base and top

2.5 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon sugar or just plain sugar (more if you want)

1 cup (2 sticks) of butter cut into chunks

5 to 7 tbsp apple juice (or water)

Method

1. Sift flour. Add everything except juice/water into bowl.

2. Cut butter using a metal spoon. I suppose a plastic knife would work well too.

3. Cut butter. Now, the dough starts smelling phenomenal. For some reason, my dough smelled like cheesecake-graham-cracker crust, or just pie crust in general.

4. Cut butter. The dough looks browner, the butter pieces are smaller, and ... I smooshed some butter too because cutting butter took a lot of time. In retrospect, though, leaving a few lumps may not have made much differenc.

5. Add juice/water until you can form a ball.

6. Stick in fridge overnight. I didn't wrap it in plastic wrap... I just stuck it in a container. For cookie dough, at least, it doesn't seem necessary to wrap stuff in plastic.

Well. Let's see what happens tomorrow!

My Brain Isn't Fried!!

...But my food is.

Today I did absolutely no work. I had an extra half an hour of spare time because we finished comp sci recitation early, and I had an extra two hours of spare time because we got out of bio lab early. My Thursdays usually go from 9 to 2, then 4:30 to 7:30. Today, however, I had all this extra time! Perhaps I should've done some homework. I used it very unwisely, but very wisely all the same; I slept, I read The Hobbit , I went to Quiz Bowl, I watched Robocop ... and I fried apples!

At 10pm, my dorm house had Fry Night; there were fried Oreos, fried apples, fried pop-pastries, and one fried cherry pie [which I fried!]. I wanted to fry an orange, but apparently oranges are too watery...

So, here is a fried Oreo. Since the kitchen table area apparently lacks lights, I had to use flash, and with oily hands and people swarming around picking up food, picture-taking was a bit difficult. I'm quite unhappy about this image, but I can say that the oreo cream was literally dripping, and it looked like icing. The cookie was moist, and the batter was...well, fried batter. 90% oil.

The rejects...

...tasted great too!

These are a close up of the fried Oreos; they look so perfectly elliptical!

After a while, I decided to help out at the fryer, and this reminded me of Spongebob although I don't think I've actually seem him frying fries; he does have a deep-fryer though [I think?]. J, who had been at the fryer, had burned himself a bit when the oil splattered on him, which made me scared to use a wooden stick to flip the fried items over... but I did it anyway, so now I smell like fryer oil. It was fun, though!

I made a few batches of stuff, and this was the last batch; the huge thing in the middle is a cherry pie. A pre-packaged oblong cherry pie. I couldn't flip it over with a wooden skewer/stick, so I had to use a knife, and it was seriously difficult to manoeuvre it, with oily hands. I thought this was really fun, though, and a few specks of oil did fling onto my arms but they were really minuscule, so it's alright.

I really loved the fried apple; it reminds me of fried apple pie which I used to adore in HK, from McDevil. It was perhaps more enjoyable than the fried Oreo, to be honest. I accidentally ate some fried pop-pastry, because I thought it was just an abnormally small piece of fried Oreo. It tasted like melted pop-pastry, and I decided just to finish the rest of my chunk instead of wasting it, despite the fact there were PHO and HFCS in it. Oh, that reminds me; today I was eating a calzone and realised that there was small cubes of ham in it...because I suddenly tasted ham. I suppose that was a bit upsetting. Oh well...

Here is the fried cherry pie...cut into pieces because it was really huge. I didn't eat it, though. They also tried to fry chocolate but the batter kept slipping off or something.

I'm really glad I went and helped out. It was all delicious and fun, and I have to say I did have an amazing day!

I Miss Penn Food.

Home food is good. I had a poached egg today. Do you know how difficult it is to obtain a poached egg at a dining hall? All they have are scrambled eggs and hard-boiled eggs. One can NOT obtain a poached egg with pepper. :(

Egg aside, I still actually miss Penn food a bit. At least I ate exactly 3 meals a day (or 2, on weekends), instead of 6 or 7 mini meals...

This is an apple crumble from Penn. There is no such thing as apple crumble in my house. Oh no. Fresh, raw apples are not to be cooked and wasted into sugar- and butter-clad chunks. The only times I use fresh fruit to make stuff... is black currant or gooseberry jam in the summer, because no one likes fresh black currants in our house, due to the high number of seeds in the currants. No one wants to eat fresh gooseberries either because they're "too sour", and also full of seeds.

The raspberries go from branch to mouth in a matter of seconds, though.

Stromboli of amazingness. I mean, vegetable and cheese stromboli; the best ratio of crust to filling ever. I also love potatoes. I LOVE CARBOHYDRATES!! And the quiche was okay... I don't really miss it because it was dry and the egg proteins were overcooked.

But I can NEVER obtain stromboli at home!! Speaking of which... maybe I'll make some one day... although it'll never be as poofy as the ones at Penn.

Food Injustice

UPDATE: So, I apparently got 3rd place out of 40 photos. The photo that got 3rd place is the one with the plastic spoon, knife and fork, the broken coffee cup, and the piece of bread - the third picture. 3rd place means I don't get any prizes but I get my photo displayed on college green on Wednesday from 11-3 I think... so check it out :)

The Civic House at Penn with Moral Voices had a photo competition about food injustice. I tried not to waste any food in the making of these photos... [mostly wasted spinach and lettuce...:(]

As a side note, I wonder why there was a "Dinner for Hunger Awareness" via Unicef at Penn. Why host a buffet dinner to kids who are able to obtain food? Sure, each person is paying for this dinner, but why not pay to experience fufu or Plumpy'nut? Then, the people to whom the money is going [excluding the amount that goes to Unicef workers and advertising...] will get to experience the buffet dinner so ubiquitous in our lives [instead of just obtaining more fufu or something]

Omelettes...

It looks like the letter Y. As in, "Why?"

Yeah, they're supposed to be mismatched...

Pure injustice right there. Why is a segment of fruit so much more expensive than a pastry? What if the world sold and bought food based on caloric value? Implications... would be ridiculous.

Salad leaves...

Oh the puns. It's such a mouldy cliche metaphor...

It just so happens I obtained an apple [that I was ACTUALLY going to eat...] with a hole in it from a worm or insect or bacteria or something...

National Apple Day?

Apparently, the 4th of November was National Apple Harvest Day...

I don't believe it is. I just think that commons had a surplus of apples. Either way, everyone literally clamoured to grab chunks of baked apple goods... It was sickening [and I was part of it]. I overheard one of the workers remarking that the consumers were piling their plates with these apple-y goods so fast that they had to keep bringing new pies and cakes out. Again, consumerism demonstrates our inherently greedy personality. I didn't try the apple crumble cake or the pie. I also just mooched off TJ for some apple muffin and doughnut [she didn't finish them, anyway]. In the end, all I actually got for myself was a mini cake, some fritter and a coffeecake.

The coffeecake was extremely moist.

Crumble that I didn't eat.

Amazing AMAZING moist apple cake... with very few chunks of actual apple. The icing was amazingly gooey. I was not aware that this sort of viscous-ness existed. However, on the apple scale I'd give it a mere 20%...

The muffin was just a standard muffin, with an apple-ness of maybe 7%. I only have this picture because the reflection on the table is really pretty. I've never realised how reflective the table is...

Apple cake. Appleness? 40%. The chunks of apple are actually visible and the top was nicely crusted with cinnamony-appleness.

Contrast that to the fritter..

Tasteless doughnut...apple cider doughnut, perhaps, but an apple rating of zero %.

The fritter has an apple rating of 1%. It was fried dough. Coated with sugar icing. There were a few cubes of apple, but this reminds me of the time when I was 6 [or 10?], and my parents' friend bought my brother and I a cake with whipped cream sandwiched inside. After unsandwiching the layers, however, all I found was a thin outline of whipped cream on the perimeter of the bottom cake layer. Hm.

An Epic Day of FOOD!

I'm finally getting into the swing of things. I'm finally getting used to managing time in college... so now I think that blogging shouldn't be as difficult as it was in September. Everything is finally settling down and I don't really know if I want to blog for PennAppetit. Can I double post? Can I blog here and then copy and paste the same thing onto their blog? Will PennAppetit shrivel up from my seriously bad sense of lack-of-humour and honestly longer-than-necessary sentences?

Anyway today at lunch there were ricotta cheese stuffed pasta shells [They. Are. Gigantic. I don't think I've ever had pasta that was THAT THICK. Yes, the shells were thick.] and a variety of pumpkin/squash stuffed with Buglar. This meal was amazing. It was also a really photogenic dish.

Later, TJ and I went down to the basement of Commons to do some homework. At around 5pm, there was a reception for another Food Week event, and even though TJ and I hadn't signed up for it, we managed to obtain some food [not the ones with animal pieces inside, though, since both she and I are vegetarian]. This Food Week event included the audience and chef of Commons, Donald Stauffer, asking 5 local farmers about gardening and raising animals and meeting the demands of the clientele. It was pretty interesting, I suppose, except I was sitting in the corner trying to do my Comparative Medicine outlining. There was a point, though, where a guy asked one of the farmers a question, and the farmer said something about how he had "two angels on his shoulders" [as opposed to an angel and a devil, I presume]. Of course, this generated some giggles from the audience. Then, as the guy proceeded to ask his question, the farmer cut him off and started saying some random stuff that wasn't really related to the question [which we never actually heard]. The farmer said that "we should get off the computer and unplug everything because we don't need to know about what Britney is wearing" [paraphrased]. A few minutes later, the guy who was asking his question left the forum.

I was pretty surprised, but in retrospect, I would leave a pro-choice forum [but why would I be at one in the first place?!].

I need to stop digressing. The food that I DID eat included a cold pumpkin soup with cute little cubes of pumpkin texture and a candied walnut [amazing], an apple crumble with flaky pastry, and a pumpkin cheesecake. The pumpkin cheesecake itself didn't taste much like cheesecake; the pumpkin flavour was more prominent. The crust was phenomenal, though, since it had this caramelly butter taste, and it also reminded me of Digestives. The crust was honestly the best part of my day, foodwise.

The apple crumble was deliciously textured and clearly resembled stewed apples with seasoning, nuts and oats. It was wonderful. The pastry was icky and tasteless, but that's because I don't really like plain pastry [yes, I ate all the crumble first].

Evidently, Commons food need not be terrible. The other animal-filled stuff seemed good too, judging by the way MA was eating them. He ate a lot of food and appeared to be sincerely enjoying it.

TOFFEE APPLE!

On Friday the 1st of October, Commons decided to give out toffee apples and LEGITLY AMAZING DESSERTS. I still can't get over the fact that they had all these random desserts like chocolate ganachy balls and coffee chocolate with cream and cheesecake with a hint of jam. There were also eclairs but I don't really like eclairs. Nor does TJ. Actually, we just sat there for over an hour, talking and eating these sumptuous I don't understand why they decided to parade out desserts. I was simply stupefied... unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but they were beautiful desserts. *Sigh.*

Well, at least I have a toffee apple to blog about. I don't really want to advocate prepackaged toffee apples though, considering it has some PHO... I ate it anyway, though. My first toffee apple, ever. I know in Woolworths in Penrith they used to have green and red cellophane wrapped toffee apples, without the nuts, I think. I always wondered what they were... but I never tried them.

This toffee apple was so pretty.

Experimentation with the lack of light in my room... I have to put everything really close to the window in order to take pictures without flash.

This was the first bite of the toffee apple. I didn't manage to bite any apple bits though, since the toffee layer was so thick. The toffee and nut combination was amazing though; it was really sticky and sweet, which was sort of neutralised by the nutty chunks.

This was after taking a ridiculously large bite of the toffee apple. It was a tremendously difficult feat. Yes, HARD [both meanings]! Try biting into a sticky apple on a stick while holding the stick with one hand, without getting toffee all over your face and your hand[s], because having sticky hands means getting the camera sticky.

Oh gosh that sounds wrong.

I think that I might want to make a real toffee apple one day. Actually, maybe I'll make a hard toffee [not soft toffee] apple... actually, I think I'll cut up slices of apple, and then dip them in toffee and let it set so there's be a bigger toffee-to-apple ratio. Also, this way the only ingredients would be apple, sugar, milk, and some sorta fatty substance [butter? oil?] lacking transaturated fatty acids.