Julie and Julia

Julie and Julia

​Cooking can sometimes be a hassle. After a long day, you just want something quick and easy to prepare, but cooking can be much more than that. In my mind, cooking is a way to listen and tell stories. Each and every recipe that has ever been created has a story behind it, and every time it is recreated, a new chapter is added.

​In the case of Julie and Julia, the first set of stories wascreated by Julia Child as she cooked her way through culinary school and wrote her cook book. Each dish she cooked told a little part of her struggles as a female in the male-dominated world of professional chefs. The next chapters to the recipes were added by Julie as she cooks her way through Julia’s cookbook. They once again show struggle, but instead of struggling to get a position, Julie is struggling to figure out what she truly wants to do with her life. Another difference is the fact that each new chapter is shared with the entire world almost instantaneously through her blog.

Are Chefs Artists?

Are chefs artists? Of course they are. Their medium is food, their canvas is an empty plate, and their brush is a spatula. Their studio is a kitchen and here, they create their masterpieces to share with the world. Instead of seeing or hearing the emotions traditional artists put into their work, you taste it in every bite. Chefs get to be creative, putting together a medley of ingredients like mixing a series of oil paints until the color is just right.

A chef is an artist in many ways. They express themselves through their work and do it for their own enjoyment and for others to enjoy. Although their work does not last, it can still have a profound impact on people. The best example of this in my opinion is a home cooked meal after a long time from home. Just the smell of the food will bring you on flashback through memories of your childhood.

Babette's Feast

                  Food can be a very powerful substance. It can be used to express emotions and to bring people together. In Babette’s Feast, Babette decides to cook a real French feast for the Dean’s 100^th anniversary after she learned that she had won the lottery. Hesitant, the sisters agree but are worried that it will be a sin to indulge in such foods. They and the entire town vow to never speak of the food to avoid sinning.

However, instead of representing sin, the food has a different role. During the feast, the brothers and sisters talk, something they do not usually do. The food lifts their spirits and they tell stories of the past. The people become more open. Instead of representing sin, the food, in a way, represented a higher power.

Food for Health

Congee, or rice porridge, is a typical Asian breakfast meal eaten with small sides such as pickled bamboo shoots and cucumbers. However, whenever anyone gets sick, my mom will make a special version her mom used to make whenever someone got sick. Instead of using plain water to boil the rice, my mom will use fresh-made chicken stock. The congee is also loaded with cabbage. This simple meal can make anyone feel better r

ight away.

Sticky Red Bean Cake

Ingredients:

·        4 parts Gluttonous ice flour

·        1 part Sugar

·        1 part Water

·        1 can of Red Bean Paste

Recipe:

1.      Dissolve 1 part sugar in 1 part water over low heat

2.      Cool the sugar water with the rest of the water

3.      Add the sugar water to the flour and mix

4.      Fold in the red bean paste

5.      Steam until done (when a tooth pick comes out cleanly)

Sticky red bean cake is traditionally a dessert eaten during the Lunar New Year. In Chinese, this sweet dessert is called nian gao which sounds like the phrase “to grow every year” which is where the tradition comes from. You are supposed to eat it to grow taller. This was always my favorite treat and I look forward to it every year.

Many people find this dish strange because of its chewy texture and the fact that beans are being used in a dessert. Most of the time, beans are associated with salty foods, but they are also great in desserts like this one and others such as sweet red or green bean soup. The texture of sticky red bean cake is similar to mochi if you have ever tried that before.

This was the first time I have ever made it and also the first time my grandma has tried to teach someone how to make it. She is usually the one making all the food for the New Year celebration, but she has never followed a recipe. She always goes by gut feeling. This along with the fact that she only speaks Chinese proved to be a challenge while making this dish.

After spending about half an hour just trying to figure out what the recipe was, it only took about 10 minutes to actually make the cake. Just a few ingredients and some stirring was all it took to make this traditional dessert. I hope it turned out well.

Food of the Yen Family

The average cost of food in my household is about $150 per week for 5 people. We are able to keep costs fairly low because our family owns a restaurant so we can get food at wholesale prices. The breakdown of what we buy is about 13% dairy and eggs, 15% starchy foods, 26% fruits and vegetables, 27% proteins, and 19% snacks and side dishes. As an Asian family, we always have some rice in the rice cooker. We will go through about 4 pounds of rice a week.

My family lives a fairly fast-paced life. Breakfast is always quick, we rarely eat lunch together, but we will always eat dinner together. Breakfast usually consists of just a few pieces of toast or waffles and tea before we rush off to work and school. My parents usually bring left-overs from dinner for their lunch while I usually eat at the Dining Commons. My grandma cooks dinner which usually consists of tofu, some kind of leafy greens, protein, and a soup. We also love to snack between meals.

I am constantly eating. Breakfast, snack at nosh, lunch, snack after school, dinner, and snack before bed (probably not the best thing for me). Lunch is usually my largest meal. Snacks include peanut butter sandwiches, cookies, celery, dried seaweed, cereal, and fruit.

Most of the processed foods we have at home are either snacks or canned side dishes such as pickled bamboo shoots, bean curd paste, and pickled radish.

We seldom dine out, but when we do it is usually at a diner or at my family’s restaurant. It’s nice to have your own restaurant since you can ask the chefs to make whatever you want, and a dish which may cost $20 at another restaurant you can get for about $5 (since you are only paying for the cost of the food). At first it might seem like a great thing, but when you become the taste tester of every dish on the menu, you get tired of it.

Food of the Philippians: The Cabaña Family

               The story of who we are and where we are from can easily be told by using what we eat. As saying goes, you are what you eat.

               The first thing you notice when looking at solely the cost of the food, is that the Cabaña family spent the most money on meat, fish, and eggs while spending equal amounts on grains, other starchy foods, fruits, vegetable, and nuts. Now if you look by volume, the Cabaña family bought the bulk of their food in the categories of “grain and other starchy foods” and “fruits, vegetables, and nuts” (about 40lbs of each category.). From this you can deduce that they live in a location where these items are easily found which is true. The Philippians are a chain of Pacific islands in South East Asia with a tropical climate, which also explains why they eat so much fish (about 9lbs of it).

               Most of the foods on the list are items that still need preparation, showing that most of the food this family eats, they eat at home. There is barely any fast food on the list, but there are several drinks. Something interesting is the fact that there is only tap water from 2 to 6am. This suggests that they either cook with very little water or have to collect it in the morning.  Overall, the Cabaña family seems like a very healthy family, eating mostly grains and vegetables.