Tag: food

#FOODSTAGRAM

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In today’s culture, constant sharing of people’s day to day lives has become the norm.  Particularly, sharing of pictures of food.

But why has it become so important that we share images of our meals with the whole world?  Food has evolved from former functioning as nutrition into a source of status and culture.

For example, through the popular social media site Instagram, you’ve probably seen countless pictures of people’s bubble tea from Urth Caffe or someone’s In-N-Out burger. 

Where does this need to share their food come from?  The aestheticism of food has become more important than actual consumption. 

The tradition of mealtime has drastically changed from an intimate gathering to something shared with the whole world.  Specifically, rather than be engaged in food and conversation, individuals remove themselves from the present moment of the meal in order to stage the scene of their food. 

The closeness of a meal is lost by revealing the location of a person as he or she eats. 

The image of restaurants has become a status symbol that is spreading through social media. People have become obsessed with proving their participation in this trend by taking pictures of locations that are coined “popular”. 

The concept these restaurants put out, with help from socialites creates the obsession surrounding it.

Our culture has become brainwashed with the idea that what they eat helps their image.  This also contributes to the growing number of people who believe that their social media image is essential to their lives.

https://i0.wp.com/konnectifi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/How-to-Instamarket-your-restaurant.jpg
photo credit Konnectifi

Thanksgiving

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Photo credit to http://alt-gcs.com/
Photo credit to http://alt-gcs.com/

Thanksgiving is at the bottom of the favorite holidays list. Somewhere the meaning was lost and people don’t think about the history behind it, they just think of it as the day before Black Friday. This holiday doesn’t have decorations, unless you count Christmas trees. It’s just to pass time between Halloween and Christmas. Just a reason to get a few days off.

Some think of it as a punishment. Having to eat the same dried out turkey, flavorless mashed potatoes, and bread all covered in somewhat good gravy, year after year. It’s not an exciting holiday, there are no gifts or fun activities. Just sitting at a table with family for hours. Then, after dinner, having to do all the dishes.

But just think – the reward for all this is a week off of school and a huge sale the next day. It’s like a boring desk job. Being miserable while working but enjoying the large amounts of money you make.

Break

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

You know that feeling when you’ve been going strong, getting everything done in time, and doing a bang-up job of it, and then all of a sudden, BAM, you’re sick, exhausted, run down, and ready for a break?

Yeah, well that happened to me about two days ago.

I’ve been doing pretty well in school, and I’ve actually been ahead of my work for once, which never happens. But all of a sudden I got really run down, and now I can not wait for break. Thankfully, there’s only one more day.

And even more exciting, I’m not going home to Aspen, Colorado, but to Santa Monica, which let me tell you, is a heck of a lot warmer right now. My plans for break aren’t anything crazy, but my dad is driving out with my dog, who is a total sweetheart and who I can’t wait to see.

I can’t wait to see my dad either of course.

I plan on relaxing as much as I can, and eating a ton of food. And then the week after break, I’m going on the Honors Ski Trip. The ski trip is led by the headmaster, and we spend a week in Yosemite cross-country skiing and hiking. It’s a blast, and turns my one week vacation into two. By the time I’m back in school, I’ll be ready to kick my schoolwork’s butt for the next five weeks, before I break down again right before spring break.

Rinse and repeat.

Sweeeeeet

enternity1030Leave a comment

Speaking of desert, my favorite would definitely be a “macaron.”

A macaron is a French sweet meringue-based confection made with eggs, icing sugar,  almond powder or ground almond, and food colouring. The macaron is commonly filled with ganache, buttercream or jam filling and sandwiched between two biscuits. The name is derived from the Italian word “macarone.”

Macarons are usually really small. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth. There are numerous flavors and each has different colors. The traditional flavors are raspberry and chocolate to the new ones such as matcha, lemon, green tea and rose.The fillings also range from jams to ganache to buttercream.

Macarons are more and more popular these days. In Paris, the Ladurée chain of pastry shops has been known for its macarons for about 150 years, and even McDonalds sell macarons from McCafé. Outside of Europe, the French-style macaron can be found in all over the world, not only in U.S, but other nations like Australia, Korean, Japan.

I’ve not tried all the flavors of macarons yet, but my goal is to try all colors of them and then decide which one is my favorite, right now it’s rose.

But if you are not a “sweetness” lover, you probably will not enjoy macarons that much, because to be honest, they are really really really sweet!

Oh, btw (to my dear friend Emmy), they are not hamburgers!!

Farmers Markets

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

One of the underrated aspects of American culture is the farmers market. Most towns or cities have one, and most often they sell things like organic fruit, handmade soaps or clothing, and delicious  desserts. In my opinion at least, they’re all pretty good, and definitely affordable.

Most everybody these days has realized that the healthier the food is that you buy, the more expensive it is. Example #1: Whole Foods. While it’s delicious, and unquestionable healthy, it can cost up to 200 dollars for a single bag of food.

That’s ridiculous.

As a result, many people forsake healthy food and decide instead to go with the cheaper, more filled-with-preservatives option. What they don’t realize, is that they could get the organic veggies and homemade natural goods at a much cheaper price – and much fresher. Enter farmers markets.

Farmers markets generally take up a block or two, and are crammed full of different sorts of stands. Many of them sell fresh produce. Others include homemade gelato, honey, soap, clothing, and the ever-important desserts. What’s especially nice about it, besides the fact that it’s all delicious, is that it’s affordable. Prices aren’t marked up to the jaw-dropping expense you would find the same items for at Whole Foods.

For those looking for a healthy alternative, of the less expensive variety, I highly recommend you visit your weekly farmers market. You might be surprised at what your hometown locals can offer you.

Mr. Noodles.

eternity1030Leave a comment

People do love food. After I came to OVS, i discovered that students do love noodles, I mean instant noodles, which can be cooked in short period of time, usually with good flavors.

Instant noodles are for “lazy” people mostly but to be honest, I personally regard them invention as a smart stuff and they indeed change our lives a lot. Then I did some research on the instant noodles and discovered more about them.

Instant noodle was invented by a Janpanese. In 1958, Momofuku Ando invented “CHICKEN RAMEN ™”, the world’s first instant noodle product. His achievement brought a revolution in culinary culture. In 1971, he developed “CUP NOODLE ®”, the world’s first cup-type noodle product. In the editorial in its January 9, 2007 edition, the New York Times expressed appreciation for the achievements of “Mr. Noodles,” who it said deserved an eternal place in the pantheon of human achievement.

“The technology of “CHICKEN RAMEN ™” developed by Momofuku in a humble shed behind his home involved rapidly drying noodles through flash-frying in oil.” This method became the basis for all instant noodle production.

Later, his revolutionary “CUP NOODLE ®” concept in which a single container serves as packaging, cooking vessel and serving dish was the basis for cup-type instant noodles.

Nowadays, the instant noodles have numerous types from different countries. Even though hey are not really healthy, they can be fairly helpful and save your life when you are lazy to cook and when you want to try something different.

My Brothers

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

One of the downsides of the schedule we have at OVS is that our spring break falls about two weeks after everyone else has their spring break, and that includes my brothers. This past week, they road tripped from Aspen out to where we used to live near San Francisco. They spent the week staying up there in a friends pool house, and then on Friday they came down to visit me at school.

They showed up around 10, just as morning announcements was starting. After announcements, I was able to catch up with them briefly before having to head off to class. My dad and Peter drove to Ventura to hang out while I finished my classes, while my youngest brother Philip joined me.

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Random Disney Trip

backinphillyLeave a comment

As I write this, we are about to leave for a day long trip to Disney. These past couple days away from school have been filled with excitement, heartbreak but most of all, FOOD!

Yesterday we found a place in La Jolla that advertises the sale of a cheesesteak. Before yesterday, the only place I was getting cheesesteaks from in this town was Jersey Mike’s and Philly station. Both of which are somewhat subpar.

Yesterday, the restaurant had the ingredients that we were waiting for.

Amoroso’s rolls? Check!

Provolone and Cheez Whiz? Check!

Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer? Check!

Every thing was falling into place. That was until we found out that the cheesesteaks were made with roast beef.

Now I’m not going to sit here and pretend to have any idea what kind of meat goes into a classic Philly cheesesteak, but it ain’t roast beef. Something about the taste just wasn’t right. We quickly recognized that the meat ruined the sandwich.

But I wanna mention one massive heartbreak from today. The Eagles, once again, lost.

At this point, I’m not surprised. I’m just annoyed and pissed off. I’m disappointed. It was hard to watch my team fall so pathetically. But I digress. We move on. That’s the Philly way.

Well, hopefully Mickey Mouse and all that crap will help me feel better. I’m going to spend tomorrow in Disneyland with my family and my girlfriend.

I hope nothing goes wrong. What could possibly, right?

Pick Me Up.

eternity1030Leave a comment

Tiramisu is a gorgeous Italian dessert, it has became very common in restaurants and bakeries nowadays.

It is made of ladyfingers (In Italian: Savoiardi) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks and mascarpone cheese, and flavored with liquor and cocoa. Tiramisu has a very smooth structure and a very rich taste in every spoonful of it, it is magical.

Everybody knows by now that Tiramisu’ means “pick-me-up” in Italian, for the high energetic content (eggs and sugar) and the caffeine of the strong espresso coffee. There are many different stories about the origin of Tiramisu’. It is a layered cake; therefore some people place its origin in Tuscany, where another famous layered Italian dessert is very popular. It is called “Zuppa Inglese” (English Soup).

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Defeated Again

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Once I again I walked off of another teams field not feeling the great feeling of victory

This past weekend the team traveled up to Los Olivos, CA to compete against the Dunn Earwigs on their parents weekend, just as we did last year.

We went into the game with high hopes, and a new play series that we had worked on all week.

We arrived at the school, and right of the bat the day was not going as planned.

Somehow the ball bag was left back at school, some 2 hours away.

We did not have our own game balls, or our own kicking tee.

We put that aside and made do, and went into our pre game routine of bananas, pretzels, and stretching.

Our Defensive Coordinator John Wickenhaeuser had dome some research that bananas and pretzels before a game does the body good if that comment seemed a little odd.

During our warm ups that same nauseous feeling returned, and I was once again off my game.

I even tried to take medicine to make this feeling go away, but it is clear that it is nerves, and I just need to be hit a few times so that I don’t think about it as much.

When the game started Dunn quickly scored their first touchdown, and we weren’t too worried, that happens in the game of football.

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