Twist It Froyo

Times have changed! When I left for college three summers ago, my town had nary a frozen yogurt place. Yet Shoprite soon added a self-serve froyo station, and my brother told me that he and his friends had some froyo a 10 minute drive away, and all of a sudden, at least three froyo places have sprung up in vacant storefronts, and local water ice and ice cream places have shut down (or continue their seasonal operation). People are furiously eager to buy into this "sophisticated", ostensibly healthy and low calorie treat, with "healthy" fruity flavours and sundry toppings (cheesecake bites, brownie bites, chocolate, cereal...etc).

The standard price is 49c/ounce in both my town and Philadelphia, which makes adding any topping a huge rip-off. For example, gummy bears ($2.5/lb), dessicated coconut ($1.5/lb) and mango chunks ($3/lb) end up being $7.84/lb. If you're going for froyo, you might as well be paying for froyo, which you can't conveniently make yourself.

In any case, I'm not a huge fan of froyo because it's soft-serve froyo, stupidly pricey for self-service (as a comparison, the self-serve hot foods at Wholefoods is $7.99/lb and includes vegan chicken, real chicken, pasta salads, etc. Here, I am strongly against the people who complain about how expensive Wholefoods is, yet go out for froyo every other week), and melts entirely too fast. The cups are enormous, evidently to encourage people to buy a pound of froyo. In comparison, a 32-oz container of yoghurt ranges from $2-4. However, I do concede that if froyo motivates people to eat less sugar and fat, and stealthily transport calcium and protein to kids, it may not be such a bad concept. This, however, is just a small positive dent in the general dissatisfaction I have with the self-serve froyo business. I reckon I am dissatisfied with the ice cream store business too, and diners, and some other eateries, but I should only complain about one thing at a time.

Anyway, as I was only home for about a non-consecutive 14 days from May to August, I didn't really get to hang out with my high school friends as much as I wanted. This is saying something as I don't really have that many high school friends. I did get to play frisbee once though, and I also went with MP to Twist It, a froyo place competing with the Starbucks for the way-too-cool high schoolers. Twist It is nicely decorated with beach chairs, fish, and blue tiles (for the sea). The weighing/pay counter is adjacent to the froyo, meaning that workers can't see customers dispensing froyo unless they lean out over the toppings and cash register. In other words, both workers did not see a husband refilling (to double the brim) and hurriedly slurping up his sample cup at least three times, while his wife tottered around choosing different flavoured blobs of froyo.

But I saw him...and didn't confront him because it would've been awkward.

I tried some root beer froyo (even though SP loves root beer, it is still icky to me) and some banana froyo (bleh...), and ended up getting coffee, Irish cream, tart, and mint. They have interesting color schemes, especially with the two-colours-in-one-flavour. I got some strawberry boba for the topping, since it's not sold anywhere non-wholesale. It turns out that it's just strawberry goo, processed via spherification, like the poppy drink I got at Cube Cafe last summer.

International Dinner

I never got around to posting about my dorm house's International Dinner! Oh No! So here are some pictures. I was near the mid/end of the line, so a lot of the food was undergoing peristalsis, digestion, or absorption.

 Plum tart. DELICIOUS CAULIFLOWER AND LENTILS!

 Balsamic strawberries, vegetable dumpling, an olive bread thingy, crepes, and a cheese bread.

DELICIOUS CHEESE BREAD THING!

Snow White -- Pancake-style!!

Today, I am going to blog post about a social event that seriously lacks anything science-y or thoughtful. It is just a story that shows how food brings people together. I actually have a systematic review to write up too for Nutrition, but I'll get to that later today. Now. Storytime!!

Once upon a time, there were 8 people. They weren't dwarves though. They were named Popcorn, MC, MK, MA, MM, KB, CL, and me. MA never turned up though. Anyway, the 7 remaining people decided to make some pancakes on the Sunday after Fling.

There were delicious and plentiful pancakes with a whole box of batter to spare! There were sticks of butter and packages of frozen fruit! There was jalapeno jam and a packet of peanut butter.

MK accidentally poured some oil onto the electric stove. It was a terribly funny but terribly terrible move. The first batch of pancakes were also literally dripping with oil, but that was okay because it meant that they were easy to flip. (When I make pancakes...I add oil to the batter instead...) The first experimental batch were filled with orange/banana/strawberry juice and strawberries and KB and Popcorn loved them. Thus, we were happy.

The second batch of pancakes were filled with M&Ms, and MM and I loved them.

Some of the pancakes were ugly, but the others were beautiful. No one cared, no one judged, and no one said no to more.

The jalapeno jam was delicious!

The M&M pancakes (3 of them) shared between MM and me were the best; they were fluffy and rainbow-coloured and made by Popcorn. Popcorn, CL, KB and I made many of the pancakes.

Popcorn also made some mini blueberry pancakes, and we ultimately also had some blackberry ones.

And so, we were all happy and sated college kids, so KB and I started to do the dishes.

Suddenly, Popcorn exclaimed that she wanted a blueberry pancake!

When KB offered to make one for Popcorn, Popcorn declined the offer because we had already started the dishes. KB, however, decided to make some batter and to make an extra-nice blueberry pancake for Popcorn, because Popcorn had cooked the majority of the pancakes.

So, as we all relaxed and I washed dishes, KB prepared blueberry pancake batter and poured it on a pan.

Suddenly, I turned to see smoke billowing out of the pan and an acrid smell filled the room! The batter had fallen onto the electric stove, and it was bubbling! To make matters worse, the pancake on the pan was smoking too! I immediately opened three windows and KB turned the pancake onto a plate, and we both stood next to the window, with our arms outstretched, letting the smoky pancake and the smoky pan emit their smoke and repugnant smells onto those outside on the street. As we waited for the pancake to cool, we all laughed at the silly situation. Please. Laugh. Make us feel less stupid about this situation.

Now, the Snow White part sets in.

As I went back to doing the dishes, Popcorn ate some pancake...

...and realised that it tasted soapy.

So she ran to the sink and started to get rid of the soapy taste from her mouth, while we all laughed hysterically while our friend nearly choked/got poisoned/got hospitalised/died.

For that pancake, KB had used a soap-filled pan that hadn't yet been washed.

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.

Hamantashen!

It's nearly that time of year again! Okay, so it's Purim next week, but AK and her family decided to have the yearly make-a-lot-of-hamantashen party today, since two of us are going back to college [why are college spring breaks so badly timed?!] This year, there were a ton of little kids, and I taught two of them how to make hamantashen dough, which was really fun actually. One of the kids said she likes cooking, which makes me feel all happy inside.

We made hamantashen with apricot, raspberry, and strawberry jam, and we also had some with chocolate chips. I think that next year I want to make some peanut butter hamantashen, just to try it out (and perhaps make a hamantashen within a hamantashen within a hamantashen... just because today someone made a chocolate chip haman).

I'm not sure how many we made, but we started around 1pm and all the baking was done around 3:30pm.

This is (at least) half of what we ended up with.

I'm not sure that I should write out the recipe because it's AK's family recipe, and not mine, but I have to say that there is a LOT of sugar, oil, and butter in a batch of hamantashen. There is also a secret ingredient, which, after baking, is barely detectable. However, it adds a really fresh, zingy dimension to the cookie, so it doesn't taste purely buttery.

One thing is for certain: SHOPRITE HAMANTASHEN PALE IN COMPARISON!!! The meagre jam in those are too sticky, the dough is crumbly and tasteless, and they're also not as cooly shaped as these ones. Today, I personally prefer hamantashen a bit toasted/brownish, but the normal-baked ones are great too. I'm not Jewish but I'm really glad I get to have the chance to make different cultural desserts!!

This Is Unfair.

College life is taking over so I don't actually have time to blog or enjoy food anymore. I don't actually spend more than half an hour eating food. In other words, I don't actually eat slow anymore. Now... it's just PRESSED FOR TIME. I don't even think I finished blogging about NSO. I guess I'll do that now...

So, there was a toga party at the History Museum on the 6th. I didn't like it. The food was nice though, especially the crispbread thingy with bean dip. After the toga party, at which I walked around gloomily, I met some people from my dorm house and we went to two frat houses... it was such a experience. I'm not sure whether I like it, so the only way I'd describe it is as an "experience". This blog post is so dry. Like the cookie I ate today. I idiotically fell for the cookie trap [again! 4th time, I think!!] and tried the chocolate fudge cookie, that I have posted about, many times before, as being too dry and hard.

Mind lapse, I guess.

Plating. I see through plating. Those are just grapes. I don't actually think that I like plating.

A mound of whipped cream and a few strawberry slices with cakey crumbs.

Really oily vegetables. Eh.

I actually have a dilemma. Do I want to write for PennAppetit? Is that overkill, since I already have a blog? Maybe they should include my blog on their website. However, joining them means I get told what to do. Which isn't that cool since puns are probably not going to be accepted. I'm also in other clubs too...

It's on the table, like the orange and pear and apple in my room. :)

Maybe I'll take photos for them.

Berry Jam!

Basically, gooseberry jam...

...with strawberries, and raspberries, and kiwi, and tomatoes. Oh, and balsamic vinegar. This is the third summer in which I've made jam. The first summer, I made this blackcurrant jam that was wayyyy too dry. In other words, it congealed while the fire was still on, so by the time it had cooled, it had turned into a really-gummy-almost-dried-blackcurrant consistency. It was also really sour. Last year, I think I made three batches of jam [two currants, one gooseberry], which all turned out really lovely. This year, all our blackcurrants and red currants appear to have died, due to the climate characteristic of a summer on drugs. So, all we have now are raspberries and gooseberries. Actually, we're losing those too. Anyway, I salvaged about 4 cups of gooseberries, a few raspberries, and decided to make some jam, since my family isn't really in love with fresh gooseberries.

To make the jam:
4 cups of gooseberries [yay pectin!]
1 cup of sugar [which was way too much. Hence, I added all the other fruit too. Then again, I don't really like sickly-sweet jams, so maybe it's okay for other people]
0.5 cups of water
10 or so cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 kiwi without seeds or white centre [my brother wanted to add this]
5 or so cut up strawberries.
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar [complements the strawberries very well, both taste-wise and SMELL-wise]1. Add gooseberries and sugar and balamic vinegar. The vinegar, I suppose, helps preserve the jam, meaning that we don't need to use lemon juice or another acid. In all honesty though, the sugar and gooseberry's acidity should preserve the jam well too. Stir mixture. Realise that there is wayyyyy too much sugar - see image above. All that goop is sugar. [A fine coating of sugar on each berry should be enough. A freakin' snowstorm is... too much for me].
2. Add water and other fruit.
3. Stick it on high on the stove until it starts to boil.
4. Add more fruit if it still looks/taste too sweet.

5. Start mashing the berries. Technically, the tomato is a berry. And, to astound you more, the kiwifruit is ALSO a berry! So, yes, I made berry jam today.
6. Turn down to the stove to low heat, and the mixture should be simmering. Stir every once in a while [this works best in a nonstick pot] for 45 minutes or so.

7. Check every once in a while by dropping a tad of it onto a dry plate and letting it sit there, and see whether it congeals. This is also a great time to taste the jammy syrup, because you want to know whether it's too sour/sweet.
Note the tomatoes - orangey.
8. Turn off heat. Let it sit for a while. Then, pour into jars. I got about...900g? Well, three chili-sauce jars full. Evidently, chili sauce has a different density than berry jam, so the yield is probably 1 kilo of jam.



We didn't have any bread so I spread some on man[2] tou[2] that my mum made a few days ago. You should put all remaining jam in the fridge. It keeps for at least a month. I don't know beyond that because we, as a family of 5 [well, temporarily 6] usually consume it all within that time.
Taste? Starts off soury-sweet, almost like candy. The gooseberry and strawberry flavour is initially very prevalent [NOT the store-bought strawberry jam taste, though!!], and ends in a slight tomato taste [think a tiny touch of tomato sauce]. There is no kiwi taste, even though my brother, who had insisted we stick in a kiwi, insists that there is a tang of kiwi. Texture-wuse, the skin from the berries and tomatoes and such are surprisingly a great addition. I find it amazing that the kiwi and strawberry chunks appear to have melted [even though they're just mushed]. ENJOY Jammmmmmin' EVERYONE!

Jammin'

Yesterday, I had lunch with AP. [I like AP. I hope he likes me too. I digress.] We were talking about playing guitar, and I said that I was bad at guitar, and he said that I couldn't be worse than him. Then I said that we should jam together one day.
I find it funny how "jam" is used in such different contexts. Jam: the fruit & sugar preserve [NOT "JELLY"], rockin' out, getting something STUCK [usually cars, but cupboards can get "jammed"]. As a kid, I didn't really have a predilection for jam... it was just this sticky sweet stuff, like honey. However, I've grown to actually enjoy it, though strawberry jam has been wayyyy too trite in the past decade... so I don't really like it anymore. Currently, I am obsessed with cherry jam and apricot jam. I'm NOT talking about the "sugar-free" type; those are filled to the brim with aspartame, which is an artificial sweetener. Okay, okay, the FDA thinks that it's safe to ingest, but I disagree. Wikipedia, using this source, states that "A study performed by Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine found that individuals with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to this artificial sweetener, and concluded that its use in this population should be discouraged."
It just so happens that I have mood disorders. Obesity spread from the U.S. The rough figure is that 1/3 of the U.S. is way too chubby. Ironically, though, the U.S. more obsessed with the whole "fat-free", "sugar-free", "carb-free", "cholesterol-free" and "common-sense-free" crap than any other country.
I remember this asinine chain letter that I read ages ago, poking fun at U.S. people by saying "The [insert ethnicity] eat a lot of [insert fatty substance], but they aren't fat". It later concluded that "It turns out that being American is what makes you fat!" Pretty racist, considering that other countries' citizens are also becoming obese due to [American] fast food... Anyway, my grandpa got some strawberry jam from the plane and it was OUT OF THIS WORLD [literally.] It was gelatinous, sans fake-American-"jelly"-flavour, and there were chunks of strawberry in it... too bad it was just a sample size.

Hamantashen!

A's house = hamantashen paradise.
Seriously, we made probably 391 hamantaschens.
Don't believe me? Check these blurry images out [I didn't bring my camera so I used my phone... JB brought her pro camera and took a zillion photos, and each click had that awesome shutter noise... but I can't use her images because this is my blog and I believe there are some copyright issues at some print in the book. Anyway.]!

Apricot, strawberry, raspberry, chocolate chip hamantashens. Note the chocolate chip dough :D My favourite jams are apricot jam and cherry jam. I don't really have a predilection for strawberry jam... maybe because I've had it for all my life. Oh, and the secret to the "best" hamantashen dough? Orange juice!!!!