Friends!

TJ made me some iced peach juice. Actually, I think's more of a... hm... It's basically ice and peaches stuck in the blender. I really liked it, since it was icy cold (frozen peaches, I found out, don't taste as juicy or sweet as fresh peaches), but there was still a pleasant peach taste. TJ didn't enjoy it though, and proceeded to throw away a plate of cut up peaches, which kind of irked me.

 In other news, SR gave me a peanut butter cookie that his mum made for him. It's funny, because my mum came to Penn to give me my glasses (whoo!!! I can see far away now!) and brought along a bag of broccoli, cauliflower, mangoes, peaches, and basil from the garden. She also brought me a slice of pizza, which is pretty silly considering I have at least 9 slices of pizza in my fridge right now.

[THR]ICE CREEEEAAAAAM!

In an attempt to make its environment more swanky, 1920 Commons has decided to refurnish and update its locations of foods. The fruit bar has moved to where the nacho bar used to be. The nacho bar and soup have moved to where the fruit bar used to be. They're both displayed rather prettily, and they look less cluttered.

The bread section has switched with the dessert section; now, the dessert has a black-table backdrop rather than a white-table blackdrop, which I suppose more elegant too.

They've also stocked Original flavoured ["Original" has been a flavour for a long time] soymilk rather than Vanilla [read: sugar] flavoured soymilk.

The ice-cream bar now has to share space with the waffle maker [which used to be next to the soup, because it, of course, was completely logical to put a waffle maker next to the chowder...], but I think this makes college kids squeal with happiness. In addition, there is now caramel syrup, marmalade [labelled "pineapple"], strawberry jam, chocolate syrup, SHREDDED COCONUT, and walnuts in syrup stacked in sticky containers near the ice cream.

This change took me quite by surprise.

I ate at Hill today and there was no noticeable change there...so why did Commons decide to ka-boom and polish everything?

It did seem to make people happy, especially the ice cream area.

That was Tuesday night. Yesterday night and tonight at dinner, Commons had moved stuff around again; the dessert, nacho, fruit and soup had all switched places. Commons also has delicious pre-packaged breadsticks from NJ, even though they claim to be "Real Italian" or something...

I think they're trying to test out where the best placement is for... themselves [i.e. best places to put food without having a huge mess to clean up from us students dropping stuff]? For us [so that we walk more and use more Calories]? It's true that changes make people more interested and more likely to lurk longer/more frequently. That's why companies always make new flavours of stuff, and restaurants always have different "FEATURED!" or "SPECIAL!!" items.

At the beginning of my first semester here [what?! Second semester already!?!?], I figured, hey, if I eat ice cream using a cone, I will "save" a bowl and a spoon. That means that energy will be saved, because dishwashers won't have to use energy to clean the bowl and spoon, and chemically cleaned water won't have to be pumped and used and re-cleaned.

However, my logic was pretty bad because the cone itself took a TON OF WATER AND ENERGY to make, not to mention package and transport! Think about it.

The cone: grow flour and other ingredients on a field from a seed to plant. Pick plants, process them, cook/shape them.

The packaging [in a giant cardboard box, with plastic wrapping, perhaps]: grow trees, cut trees, process trees, shape card, fold/glue/staple card.

Transportation from factory to dining hall: more energy.

Now, if we used a ceramic bowl and metal spoon [not disposable!], the energy to create the spoon and ceramic bowl would be invested evidently [synthesising, packaging, transporting], but once it is in the dining hall, every use only uses, say, 1L of water and a bit of dish soap. It is much less than the energy used to synthesise a wafer cone.

However, a paper/plastic [and, please NO, styrofoam] disposable container would be the same as using a wafer cone, although I think that the wafer cone would be more energy efficient because the wafer cone is digested, leaving no trace of garbage.

The digested cone is excreted as heat, water, and in poop, perhaps, and consumed by bacteria and someone cycled back into the soil or water.

So, I suppose the way to conserve the most energy in this circumstance would be

1. Consume less of everything and stop wasting stuff!

2. Use a reusable bowl and spoon.

3. If there are no reusable utensils, use the wafer cone.

4. As the last resort, use disposable utensils [oh how I dislike them!]

I Tell You, Mango Smoothies Require Mango.

For La Maison Française, my college house resident program, we played pétanque, which is basically like curling, but without the ice or the skates... so before we went to play, we went to Saxbys, which is this coffee shop right next to my college house [still not explicitly stating where I live! :O but one could definitely find out...]. I got a mango smoothie since it was 8pm and I didn't want caffeine in my system, lest I lie in bed for seven hours unable to fall asleep. I was really happy when they gave me a big straw too :D

Isn't my photo beautiful? I'm trying to make food look more amazing... And the amazing part of this was that I took it in at around 8:20pm, without flash [can you believe it!?]

Anyway, the smoothie was quite disappointing. It was basically sugar and mango juice and crushed ice. I do not call that a smoothie. There were no mango chunks, mango textures [the fleshiness did not exist], or anything else... I'd imagine that smoothies have milk or some sort of apple juice/juice base, but this was full out basic.

I suppose some people like smoothies that are way too smooth [so smooth that they are essentially drinking a thin liquid], but I prefer smoothies to be thicker, and have actual pieces of the substance with which the smoothie was made, which in this case would be mango.

Free drink on the house, though, so it was still nice :D

PennFest! 3 Sept

Pennfest is this event in which retailers try to sell their products to unsuspecting frosh. Since I'm not really advertising the companies that I don't love, I'm just going to refer to them as "this company". This company gave out free cups with a ping pong ball nestled inside. I honestly spent a whole week pondering why they would give us a ping pong ball... and yesterday evening, as TL, JX and I walked back from dinner, it finally hit me. The ping pong ball and the cup was for beer pong. DUH!

Way to advertise alcohol to us...

Cupcakes from Insomnia Cookies... didn't take them.

Anyway, Pennfest had a lot of companies selling dorm stuff, selling "online-food-ordering" services, and plenty of "ohh get a discount if you come to our store!" I ended up consuming a taco from Chipotle, an amazing coconut pecan cookie from Insomnia Cookies [very famous on college campuses, apparently] and some mango water ice. There was also popcorn and candy floss but I wasn't actually that hungry. In all honesty, I think my hypothyroidism is kicking in [Yeah, apparently my hyperthyroidism has been lowered way too much, so I have to cut the meds again]

All my pictures are blurry because it was 11pm and I was walking around while taking pictures. This is actually a huge problem; I can't take a picture without getting ominous stares from strangers.

Coffee Ice [or...Granita?]

I'm technically not supposed to have much caffeinated stuff anymore due to the fact that it apparently interferes with methimazole efficacy, but this was made with decaf coffee [so, it has 2% of the caffeine it otherwise would have] which means that it probably has the same caffeine power [if not less] as some chocolate. I started off with coffee, fat free milk, some honey, and some saccharin. I froze it for an hour, and it looked like the image above.

An hour later, a layer of ice had formed on the inside sides of the plastic container, but the centre was still liquidy [or, slushy, after I mixed it]. The whole point of making this is to chop up the ice crystals every hour or so. I actually should've used a shallow container, since it was more difficult to reach the bottom parts which were frozen.

In total, six hours later, this is what I ended up with. Granules of frozen coffee and milk! The volume had [evidently, due to not only the lattice structure of ice, but also to the air between each crystal] increased to... about 157% its original liquidy volume.

I'm not sure whether this is "Italian Ice", "ice" or "granita". When I was younger, my brother and I used to make watermelon granita, which I recall included 150g of caster sugar dissolved in water, a lot of watermelon juice, and lemon juice. It was made in the same way as this, and did NOT taste like artificial watermelon flavour. It used to be such a big deal! Today, I felt like making this since it's too humid to drink hot coffee [even though it was pouring with rain all afternoon] and I felt like this would be yummy. Before freezing, the slurry tasted like normal sweet coffee with way too much milk [I tend to like coffee without milk]. After freezing, I feel as though it tastes even more watery than originally... which means that next time, I have to brew super-strong coffee. This is saying something, since I generally make really strong coffee. However, it isn't super sweet, which is great. I'm just worried that it's going to freeze into one huge mass by tomorrow morning, since I probably didn't add enough sweeteners to keep the ice not-that-frozen, since adding sweeteners means that the freezing point of the solution increases, which means that, in theory, the granita would freeze at a higher temperature [because the sweetener molecules prevent the water molecules from bonding to each other as efficiently].

Chocolate Shell Ice Cream

I think that this was the first time in my life in which I tried a hard shell coating ice cream. Once, when I used to go to Mc.D, I ordered a sundae, and the guy gave me one of these instead... and I told him, no, I wanted a chocolate sundae. So he promptly dumped the ice cream into the bin and made a sundae for me.

I wish he had just given me the chocolate coated ice cream... that would've been cool...

Anyway, in March, I tried the chocolate-shell ice cream for the first time in my life... and as you can see above, one end of it was smooshed, due to the fact that it arrived in a box from Carvel [my sister's friend's parents own a Carvel]. I saw the mum today at the library, actually, which is why I thought about blogging about this [I've not only lacked the chance to blog about this, but also haven't eaten anything of note today to blog about, so this is a suitable time to talk about this ice cream].

I imagined that the chocolate coating would taste waxy or oily, due to my belief that there are tons of random emulsifiers and additives in order to make the chocolate have a low melting point, but also a low freezing point. Actually, while I was at Carvel, I made a bunch of these... you basically make a vanilla soft serve, dunk it in the melted chocolate [or cherry] sauce AT AN ANGLE for 3 seconds, and gently pull it out and let it stand there for a while. The shell forms FAST. I unfortunately lost an ice cream through this procedure, but I think I made.... around 10 of them? I never cared to try one, though.

So, taste-wise... the chocolate actually tasted sweet, like chocolate. It wasn't waxy. It wasn't bland. It wasn't very chocolatey, either, but actually sort of tasted like a less creamy version of fudge. Maybe chocolate plastic would be a good description of it.

The vanilla ice cream... is just vanilla ice cream. Eh. And, the cone was just a sugar cone with PHO but oh well.

Berry Nice Morning.

With ice cream dollop.
Without ice ceam dollop.

I'm gonna let two grad parties slide [too many pictures]... and instead talk about berry pancakes and smoothies. Yesterday morning, my brother and I went to JM's house to make some berry smoothies for breakfast and watch the movie 21. We brought along a lot of raspberries, some gooseberries, and a few blueberries from our yard. JM has this mulberry tree, so the smoothies we made ended up being berry berryful. Actually, I can't really take credit for what JM's sister and my brother made, with milk and ice and berries. Oh, and maple ice cream, once we realised that the smoothie tasted way too sour without a shot of sugar.

JM and I, on the other hand, made some berry pancakes with the leftovers. We used this flat-pancake recipe but omitted the baking powder because apparently last time, the pancakes had turned out sour. JM actually has a griddle! GRIDDLES ARE AMAZING! Although I never butter or oil the pan when making pancakes, JM does. I personally didn't see much of a difference...

The only problem with not having some sort of raising agent was that they tasted more like crepes, and the berries had to be flattened in order to actually get something that looked uniformly flat. Actually, we had dumped in too many berries in the first place, and there proberry ["probably"] was more berry than batter. I liked that they weren't sweet, though.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning :)

It-t-t-talian Ice. [Luigi's]

This is the U.S. Slap on a native name, and you get a native food. Blue raspberry, which does not exist in reality, let alone in Italy, is the official artificial feature of this cup of Luigi's "Italian" Ice.

They say:

"LUIGI’S Real Italian Ice may not date back to ancient times; however, we have got a pretty cool history going. Although we only date back to 1989, LUIGI’S Real Italian Ice is now the world’s #1 Italian Ice. We think you’ll enjoy it."

Nowhere does it state that they're Italian. Actually, Luigi's is owned by J&J Snack Foods Corp, which sounds distinctly American. In fact, the company is based in NJ.

"LUIGI'S^® is not only delicious and nutritious"... um... 160 calories of pure corn syrup is considered nutritious?

1 cent gave me 10 Cals of corn syrup flavouring. Good experience, bad idea.

Plate of Updates.

Here's a plate of updates [it rhymes!]
1. I made an ambigram title.
2. I deleted my "hamster-cute-pet" gadget [at the very bottom of the page] because it spammed my blog. Everytime I came here, it would redirect me to another website. I couldn't even save anything!! I couldn't even delete my gadget; every time I clicked on "Edit" at the gadget place, and the new window popped out, it would redirect. So it was a game of cat and mouse - or should I say, me vs. Spammy the hamster. So, I ended up doing this F5 STOP F5 STOP F5 STOP until I finally stopped on the page JUST before it redirected. And I deleted my hamster. Sigh.
3. My grandpa came from China and brought a lot of food. I'll be updating those, at some point.
4. More gross icing.5. My sister's elementary school Multicultural night! From 6:30 to 7:50 I ate a lot of food. I could see more that I could stomach [hardeeharhar]. Here they are, with captions:
Quince and fresh cheese. QUINCE. "They dined on mince and slices on quince" - The Owl and the Pussycat [which sounds kinda wrong now that I think about it]. I've ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY QUINCE. AND NOW I HAVE!! And it's quite good... it's like a super soft gummy candy. Or, some kinda strawberry jam... I don't remember which ethnicity it was, though. It was next to the Polish table, though.
Spicy samosas. They were pretty good. Indian.
Potato perogies. So. Good. LOVED it. Polish.
Mini pancakes with sweet cottage cheese. Polish?
Soda bread. Irish, of course. I gotta make that one day, since I'm Irish by birth.
Brazilian cheese puffs. They. Were. SO GOOD. Just like the cheese thingy [I wish I remembered the name] at St. Etoile Bakery in Cwb Hong Kong. Apparently, they closed though, so I guess I'll never ever get a chance to taste those again. Actually, does anyone know what they are? These cheese puff thingys, and they also had a green-tea flavoured one.
Challah. I forgot to eat it after I took a picture of it. Israeli.
Potato cakes. Israeli. It was too salty for me.
YEAHH matzoh with hummus. I love hummus. I love matzoh. Even if I had to eat it for a week. I think I'd be okay. Though A says she hates it. Israeli, duh.
The first chocolate coconut macaroon of my life... was okay. Not chocolatey enough. The original flavour one tasted storebought. Actually, it had that anise flavoury thing [I think that's what it's called? It's that flavour in biscotti], and I despise that flavour. Israeli.
Russian rye bread with beet and onion [so yummy, purple]. I forgot what the brown one and yellow one was. Cheese? They all had onion in them, though. The beet one was the best.
A mixing of cultures. Russian, Israeli, and Mehico.
Russian honey cake. It was so moist and yummy and I loved it.
Russian marshmallows. Vanilla, apple pectin... they tasted like light apple jam, not much vanilla, and kinda gritty because of the caster sugar on the top.
Chocolate. CHOColate. CHOCOLATE. Brazilian. I LOVE IT.No gelatin, either!!!! I don't think that I could make marshmallow puffed rice squares with it, though.
Passionfruit pudding, Brazilian. At first, I thought it was mango, because it really does taste like mango. This is the first time I've tried passionfruit.
Rita's Italian ice, which, ironically, was in the "American" food section, along with cookies [below. The image looks like a painting...], Dunkin, bottled water]. This was the first time I tried Rita's [there were only two flavours, mango... and some other fruity flavour], since on the 20th when we went to Rita's [for the "free Rita's"], they were closed :(. I think I had 5 cups of the ice. No kidding. I kept count. In the midst of consuming my 4th cup, I dropped my mini spoon from the passionfruit pudding, and I didn't want to get another one since that would suck for the environment, so I half drank it, half used a ripped piece of the cup. Yes, I am resourceful.
We brought in a aluminium container of fried rice [notice I had nothing from the Chinese or Italian sections... because we eat that too often, even though I do love both cuisines]. Woah the cookie on the bottom right looks VERY painted/drawn. Seriously. I used one small plate, 5 small paper cups, three plastic mini cups and spoons, and one mini cake wrapper. Not terrible considering the amount of food I ate... Oh, I also drank Brazilian soda, Haitian orange and fruit soda, Belgian waffles, cheese, flat Russian pancakes, sugar cane, Haitian fudge, Israeli noodle pudding, and some doughnut. The doughnut wasn't that great though.