Cheese n Crackers

Cheese and crackers.

And grapes, blueberries, and lemon cheesecake.

There were actually brownies and bar cookies too. I suppose this internship pays off, huh? I get paid a little, I get lunch on Thursdays, and now I get some lab experience!

Smoked cheese is delicious, but too much makes me feel nauseous :O. Actually, does any one know what kind of cheese that is? There are two kinds up there; they're both delicious but I don't know the names of them :(

Kiwi Froyo

Kiwi.

Previously called "Sprinkles". The most popular flavours in Philly include vanilla, chocolate, original tart, and cookies and cream. Seasonal flavors turn up every few months.

Owned by Ryan and Matt Mealy, Kiwi is a frozen yoghurt (okay, for this post I will spell it "yogurt") store located on 36th and Chestnut, and I signed up for a Preceptorial lead by them. A preceptorial is basically a 2+ hour class that isn't going to be graded, and I suppose Penn gives them out because it's a way for students to learn things that aren't part of their majors/requirements. For instance, I signed up for a Thought Experiments Preceptorial, which is... well, philosophy, right? There was also one called Wine Tasting, and I got accepted into it but I'm not 21 yet so I can't actually go, legally.

I thought that this Kiwi Preceptorial would be interesting because it would open my eyes up more to the commercial/production aspect of food companies. I also hoped that there'd be a tour of the actual store, including what ingredients are used and how flavours are created. This wasn't the case though; the Preceptorial focused mainly on business. Ryan and Matt are businesspeople. They love food, sure, and they love frozen yogurt, but they are fully focused on the -open-more-stores- & -promote-Kiwi- & -sell-more-. They grew up in a family-business household, they have business degrees, and they decided to open up a frozen yogurt store because frozen yogurt was a business-grabber, with it being touted as "healthy" and all. If, for some reason, the frozen yogurt business dies down (although I highly doubt it, with more and more people believing that frozen yogurt is healthier than ice cream), they claimed that they are ready to pursue a different fad, including non-food ventures.

See, if I was going to open a bakery/patisserie, it'd be because I like food and I love baking and I want to cut out the stigma that pepper, vinegar, and chili "are too weird to put into sweet cookies/cake". So, this Preceptorial showed me why businesses expand and why Aramack and Campbell (and all the other places I applied to for internships) want Management and Marketing degrees. Thanks. Biology (and Chemistry, even though I really don't want to admit that) gets thrown out of the window. Actually, I take that back. I did ask Ryan whether they created their own froyo from scratch, and she said that they currently didn't. "However," she said with a grin, "my husband, who is a scientist, will be working on it at some point, although he doesn't know it yet."

Which goes to show that I should marry a Whartonite. Haha. I think that I prefer Engineers.

The Kiwi story, as I said, starts off from a family business; Ryan and Matt had a bunch of experience helping out in the family furniture company. They claim that each company needs to offer something "new", and to stay within that niche, in order to get recognition. The "new" thing for their furniture company had been that they offered same-day delivery, and the "new" thing for Kiwi is that the frozen yogurt is self-serve. I had never gone to Kiwi before, so, yes, I agree that this is indeed new. Unlike Flurt or any ice cream stores, Kiwi gives you a container and 14 flavours from 14(?) machines to choose from (16 in other Kiwi stores; only Philly has 14 flavours. I think that this is due to the fact that there is not enough wall space to stick in more machines here). For 49c / ounce, you can fill out however much of frozen yogurt you want; you just pull down the lever and let the frozen yogurt flow. Then, you can add toppings/fruit, and you weigh the bowl and its contents, and pay. I suppose this is great because it

1. Offers customers customizable sizes.

2. Offers customers every single flavour in one sitting.

3. Offers customers the ability to have 90% toppings and 10% froyo, if they really wanted to.

4. Means that employees don't have to be trained to make the perfectly pretty froyo. When I was at Carvel, I had to make sure that the ice cream on the cone looked pretty. If it looked wonky, customers would appear a bit upset, and I'd look unprofessional.

5. Means that only 1 container needs to be ordered. There's no such thing as a "small", a "medium", a "large", an "extra large", or a "kiddie cup".

6. Is "new".

Initially, Ryan and Matt were going to Franchise, but they decided that they should just open their own store, and they were going to call it "Wondercream", which has various connotations, one of them being inappropriate and another of them meaning "fat" (if you think about the word "cream", you will instantly think of "fat". Yes, you will, because the Media said so). Technically, they're still registered under the name Wondercream, although the name Kiwi is "fresher" seems to make customers like it more.

Back to the story. Ryan and Matt opened a store in June 2009 in Cherry Hill, NJ, and it was a really tough time up to that point because literally no realtors wanted to rent to a new company. Apparently, that's how it is in the business world; you're of zero value until you stick a dent in your market. (This is where I think the story got confusing, because Ryan said that they had started searching for location, equipment, interior design etc. in "December 2008" and that "after 16-17 months, we finally opened", which would imply that they started in December 2007. Nevertheless, the point is that they took a while to plan everything.) They ended up signing four leases before even opening the first store, and because nearly no-one turned up on their opening day, they had this huge "Grand Opening" and gave out unlimited free ice cream to everyone at their Cherry Hill Mall place. Both these events demonstrate how confident they are; apparently, they gave away 15000 oz of frozen yogurt to ~2000 people. Matt laughed about how it was a huge business risk, but that summer, they averaged 700-800 people per day.

This was a different story in Philly though; when Kiwi opened here in September 2009, the unlimited free froyo idea made people line up and just TAKE AND TAKE and be CRAZY! It's pretty interesting to see both Ryan and Matt laugh at all these events, which one could consider to be "failures" or "setbacks"; again, they're really confident people. They "want to dominate", they say.

So, here is the advertising component of Kiwi from Ryan and Matt. I'm typing it down because it's true, although I'm not sure how much more likely I am to buy froyo from them when I would rather buy bread since I like bread more:

1. Customers are greeted every. Single. Time. //I guess I'm indifferent to this part, unless I get discounts or something if I become a loyal member.

2. 30 toppings. //Thanks for the choices, but I'm not paying 49c for an ounce of marshmallows or an ounce of sprinkles. I'm paying 49c for an ounce of frozen yogurt.

3. Clean. //Whoot!

4. Fruit delivery 3 days a week! Fruit is also freshly cut!//See comment 2

5. Short shelf life of everything; no HFCS, no preservatives. //Whoot!

6. Good place to go for lunch. //But is there a nutrition label somewhere? See, I would pick a sandwich over this because I know that I will get enough protein and iron from eating whole wheat bread. For froyo, how much sugar did you add?

After the preceptorial, we all went to Kiwi to get some froyo. Everyone got 25% off, and I got $5 off because I was one of the lucky 25 people out of the 40 or so people who signed up at the right time. $5 gives ~10 oz of yogurt, and since I actually didn't bring any money with me (hey, with a prepaid meal plan, what else would I be using money for?), it was really useful having a few sets of scales sitting there so I could measure my yogurt content. I ended up with 8.7 oz of various flavours, but not all of them. The restaurant environment was pretty cheerful, but that may have been because of the swarm of people in there from the Preceptorial.

I tried original tart, peanut butter, green tea, chocolate, strawberry, mint, cheesecake, mango, and I want to say pomegranate but I'm not even sure that flavour exists. I just know there's another flavour buried underneath the ones in the pictures. The peanut butter flavour actually tasted like peanut butter, which is a change from "peanut butter flavoured" items such as Clif bars or cookies etc. The green tea flavour was light and poofy, as was the original tart flavour. Actually, all the flavours tasted very light (but NOT BLAND) and watery/icy. Another word I would use to describe Kiwi froyo is "fragile" because it melts mad fast.

Yes, I'll go again next semester, when I don't have a meal plan. I'll do a proper flavour review because I was too preoccupied talking to someone new (who I guess I will never see again, unfortunately) who I had met at the Preceptorial.

What?! Cheesecake?!

Yes! Cheesecake! With tofu! The recipe is at the bottom of this post! [I haven't posted a recipe in a LONG time... a whole semester, right?]

I had a problem. I wanted to make cheesecake because BV likes cheesecake. However, I have never used sour cream or heavy cream or whipped cream or dairy products like that in my cooking before, so... I felt scared using them. Okay, I've used whipped cream before, but that was at least 5 or 6 years ago, and that was whipped cream used as... whipped cream.

On the other hand, I squeezed a piece of tofu. [haha. weak joke...]...I mean, on the other hand, I know very well how tofu works. I can make food with tofu.

BV hates tofu but I used it anyway...

The first cheesecake turned out tasting like tofu, because I had used approximately 20 ounces of tofu in it... along with some cranberry juice, because, why not? I also threw in some corn starch to keep it from falling apart, although I'm not sure whether it's necessary.

It looks like cheesecake, right?

Or, it looks like stained bacteria cultures...

I personally like frozen cheesecake, and I think this is due to the fact that the first few times we bought cheesecake in HK [33HKD for a plain Sara Lee cheesecake - that's what I remember], we never followed the "leave cheesecake at room temperature for 20 minutes before eating" instruction. Honestly, frozen cheesecake, with the hard, ice-blockish texture, tastes better than creamy, room temperature cheesecake.

I used Grape-Nuts for the crust, because ever since I found out that every graham cracker at Shoprite has PHO, I've decided to dislike them [yes, I'm biased!! But so are you!]. Maybe Trader Joe's has nicer graham crackers?

I've also decided to dislike Keebler because everything they make [that I know of] is grossly full of HFCS and/or PHO.

So, in my second batch, I gave some leftover batter to my sister who ended up decorating them with candy and sprinkles. It is utterly overkill.

This is the cheesecake I gave BV. I probably shouldn't've told him that there was tofu in it... but I guess he couldn't taste it [except for the "weird texture"] because he didn't say that it tasted tofu-y.

This is the 3rd cheesecake [from the second batch] that I gave to JM, and I decorated it using the leftover icing sugar from the cookies.

Recipe for cheesecake!!!!

Filling:

1. 8 oz cream cheese, cut into chunks [one package. GET FULL-FAT. DON'T GET LOW FAT!!! This isn't because full-fat cream cheese is healthy or anything; it's just because I'm not sure how fat-free cream cheese melts/reacts with my other ingredients...so I suppose you could get fat-free cream cheese if you want.]

2. 10 oz squeezed firm tofu [or 20 oz if you want the tofu taste to be prevalent. By "squeezed", I mean, try get rid of as much of the water as possible. I did this by literally squeezing the tofu, which incidentally mashed the tofu so it was easier to blend.]

3. Blueberry, or 2 tbsp cocoa powder, or whatever flavouring.

4. At least half a cup of orange juice. [Or lemon juice. An acidic juice. The orange juice actually left a tiny bit of orangey taste... although that could've just been my imagination]

5. Around 4 tsp of corn starch [add more if you feel like it. I'm not quite sure how much I had, since I initially had 2 tsp, then during the blending, I added more.

6. 1 cup of confectioner's sugar! [YES!! More if you feel like it.]

Healthy Crust!

1. 2 cups of Grape-Nuts

2. Honey or sugar water [However much you want; if you want a crunchy-tooth-breaking crust, don't use that much water, but if you want a soft crust, add more water until it looks damp!]

Stuff to do!

1. Pulse and shake cereal and sugar/honey/water mixture until you get fine pieces.

2. Press into a 11-inch pan if you want the crust to just fill the bottom. Alternatively, press into a 9-inch pan if you want crust on the sides. I used a 7.5-inch pan and had a lot of crust leftover [hence the mini cheesecakes that my sister studded with sprinkles...]

3. Bake at 350F for 5 minutes. You do NOT need to preheat your oven. That is a waste of heat.

4. Stick everything in the Filling list in a blender, and blend! After a few minutes on Low, you should have something that is uniformly blended and has the consistency of American pudding. If not, make it more pudding-ish, by adding corn starch and/or orange juice. I know "consistency of American pudding" is really hard to define, but it shouldn't be like cookie dough. It also shouldn't be like cake batter. It's more... elegant and poofy than those. Actually, it's sort of gelatinous.

5. Taste it. If it tastes good, cool. If it doesn't taste sour enough, add more orange juice!

6. Pour onto crust and smooth it out.

7. Stick that cheesecake into the oven at 350F for 25 minutes. Leave it in there for another 25 minutes; why not? Use up the remaining heat!!

8. In the meantime, eat the cheesecake filling remaining in the blender. No eggs! No 90% fat! Yay!

9. Take cheesecake out, and let it cool. There really shouldn't be any browning...a tiny bit on the edges is okay, though.

10. When cheesecake is COLD COLD COLD, put it in the fridge/freezer/outside - whatever you prefer.

11. In 12 hours, take out the cheesecake and wipe off the condensation at the top, using a paper towel. Do not use a tissue. I'm not sure why the cheesecakes condensed... I think it's due to the tofu, actually, or perhaps the blueberries [high water content!]. Either way, although it makes the cheesecakes look a bit weird, it's just water after all.

12. These cheesecakes taste good for at least 3-4 days. In the freezer, they last much longer [well...duh.]

13. The cheesecake is actually relatively healthy...

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.

Convocation...2014

There's going to be a lot of jumping around for the next few days, because I have to post about New Student Orientation [NSO] for UPenn, and that's going to take a while to talk about because it included a lot of food. However, before I backtrack about all that stuff, I'm just going to mention the convocation dessert, which happened an hour ago.

Apparently, this "sumptuous dessert" thing is a huge deal; the upperclasspeople talk about it a lot and claim that people actually bring containers to put the dessert in, for later. I thought they were kidding.

They were not. I saw at least seven people sticking chucks of cake and mousse into plastic containers. Seriously. But, who am I to judge? I would do the same thing if I didn't have a meal plan... and I would totally take all the desserts just because they taste good.

Chocolate mousse with hazelnut wafer crumbs on the bottom, with sponge cake. I'll get to that.

This tricked me into thinking that it was key lime pie. Don't like wavy lines make the otherwise homely cheesecake look just like key lime pie!? The unfortunate thing was that this cheesecake wasn't even sour. It was way too sweet [and a tad too warm - I like frozen cheesecake] to be flavourful cheesecake.

Charlottes. I didn't take one.

Mousse; get to it later.

Chocolate cake, and carrot cake. These disappeared immediately...

For some reason, there were orange custard cakes. Penn's colours are dark red and blue. Princeton's colours, so blatantly shown during the dessert reception, still confuzzles me. After all, Princeton is apparently our rival school, what with the Puck Frinceton thing.

Cookie pile, along with plates and smooshed cakes that inconsiderate people just left lying around.

Mounds of cookies.

I consumed two pieces of dessert, the cheesecake and this mousse. The mousse actually had a bunch of layers; starting from the top:

1. Hazelnut

2. Whipped cream

3. Chocolate icing layer

4. Weak chocolate mousse layer - shallow airy flavour, very sweet, not really what I consider dense chocolate mousse...

5. Hazelnut wafer layer - crunchy

6. Sponge cake. Eh. Plain.

7. Thin chocolate coating.

I think that I'm starting to [I know that no one can believe this] get sick of eating dessert. Seriously, I don't even feel like eating...I think it's because I'm nervous for class tomorrow.