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At 12:54 a.m. no other words have never made me feel better.

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Dessert Party I don’t think there was any other way we could have ended our Cuisine and Culture course than with a wonderful dessert party. I really enjoyed breaking into groups and having to make a dessert with others in the class because I feel like it brought some of us closer. Before, I had never known Allison and after making a cake with her, (and also Matt but I knew him before so) I realized she was a cool person and I don’t know why I hadn’t really talked to her before but enough of that. On to the desserts! Breaking into groups where we all had to come up with a different dessert from a culture was actually pretty fun and better than us just showing up with something we bought from the store. I think my favorite was John, Jessy’s and PJ’s Jamaican dessert which was a fruit salad called “Matrimony” and it really was good. Every fruit in there blended together so well, I never would’ve thought star fruit and grapefruit would go together but hey, they do. My second favorite had to be (because I can’t choose my own dessert without feeling like a jerk) the banana foster that Bradley, David, Baylen, and Joseph made. Which, Bradley did give me a taste of it before and it was really good but he forgot to tell me that it was really hot and my mouth is still burnt so I’m going to hold that against them for awhile. But, with all joking aside, their banana foster was pretty good. The other desserts were good also to be honest but I felt like those two should be pointed out. The dessert my group made was Tres Leches which is a Dominican three milk cake which takes two hours and fifteen minutes to “prepare” which really was just a lot of whisking that took forever and made my arm really, really tired and made me start to hate the cake for a few minutes but I got over that thankfully but then the hatred came back when I go to flour EVERYWHERE. And I do mean, everywhere. But enough about that. Making the cream/icing was a bit hard because all we had was a whisk and we really needed a mixer so we had to wait a while to get one but we ended up getting it done and everything’s turned out well and everybody seemed to like it (except Deloy but that’s just one opinion(: totally kidding about that). In all fairness, I really do believe that our last night of the class was spent in good manner and everybody had a lot of fun despite the fact that it was our last day of this class. I believe, in a way, that having a class revolving around food and other cultures brought us all together and made us appreciate our own culture as well as all the other cultures in the world and being able to sit around and talk about food made us forget for awhile all the barriers that would otherwise be standing in the way of reaching out to others in the class and just made us remember that we’re all just teenagers going through similar struggles and trying to find a balance between living in the moment and stressing over Financial Aid. So I have to say a personal thanks to Deloy Cole for talking me into taking this course last spring because otherwise, I would’ve taken a course where I didn’t get to socialize with my classmates and I would’ve missed a lot of opportunities. And also, a special thanks to Doug Faulkner for being our second professor for this course and making us all laugh for getting into “marriage disputes” with Deloy.

http://www.thecultureist.com/2012/06/13/desserts-from-around-the-world-to-die-for/

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Indian

So Indian food. I have never had Indian food before so this was a really good experience for me. The red chicken was kind of a scary thing to try because, well it was red for one thing and it looked like it was going to be really spicy but it wasn't at all so that's good because I don't know how exactly I would feel about that. I also had some ramen noodle type rice that was pretty good considering it looked and tasted like ramen noodles (which, I mean, I like ramen noodles every now and then so it didn't completely throw me off the meal). I also had chicken that was soaked in some orange spice sauce type stuff that was really good, to be honest and I also had the bread. Originally I only grabbed one type of bread because I thought they both were the same but then Allison said they were different and she was so nice to grab me a piece of the other kind which was actually better than the one I had originally had on my plate. The second kind reminded me of pizza crust and I love pizza crust so I really liked that kind. I also had this square piece of food that was like a square piece of bread (kind of like a pizza roll and pizza rolls are really, really good in my opinion but that may be because I'm just usually eating anything that is fast to cook and can be eaten on the go) that had food in the inside and it was kind of sweet which threw my off because I was not expecting it to be sweet at all so it kind of threw off the whole thing for me honestly. Also, I had this like cheese and peas kind of stuff and it tasted alright but it really wasn't for me at all, I think it was the texture and it just didn't really sit right at all so I didn't finish that. For dessert we had some rice pudding which was nice but not what I was expecting since I thought the lady said ice cream and when I got some, I thought maybe it was just homemade and that was why it looked like that but then I tasted it and it was not ice cream...I was mistaken....very mistaken.... After dinner and dessert, the guy who runs and owns the restaurant came out and talked to us about the culture of where he was born (he was raised in America) and he told us about the food and some differences between all the different types of Indian food because it differs depending on where you go in India apparently (did not know that but now I do so it was a nice little fact to learn). I think we all had a really nice time and enjoyed every part of the evening even though some of us may have been a bit skeptic at first but it was still a nice time and I wouldn't mind going again.

http://www.mapsofindia.com/culture/

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Asian

So I have never had hotpot before but it was a nice experience. The people were really nice there and informational because they helped us figure out how to cook everything in the hotpot and let us know when everything would be done after we put them in the hotpot's Overall, it was a nice experience (I think I've said that a lot in these posts but hey, it's relevant in each one so there you go). I didn't try the tripe though because I just couldn't get my head to wrap around what it was really made out of and I didn't think I could stomach it so. But I did try to the noodles and the cabbage and the beef, lamb, and shrimp. Although, I felt bad eating the shrimp because I had to tear the heads off of them and I guess whenever I ate shrimp before I just never really thought about them having heads in the first place so when I saw them with their heads still on, it threw me off for a few seconds and I kind of had to look away from them as I pulled the heads off and then the legs...it was kind of traumatic really....really bad....but they tasted good...I'm having like an existential crisis right now trying to figure this hard...it's a hard time for me right now.... But in the buffet, I really enjoyed because getting to pick food that didn't have heads still on them so I got to get some honey chicken and some pork chicken (not really sure what exactly it was but it was good), an eggroll, a cookie of course for dessert and this rolled up sponge cake type dessert that was really good and I wish I had gotten up to get more but I never did get up again and I slightly regret that choice but you know, thankfully, the restaurant is in St. Louis and not in New Orleans, so it will be really easy to go again and get some which I probably will do sometime in the future and I will probably drag Tawnie with me but she wouldn't mind becasue she loves Asain food, also I wouldn't want to go alone so there's that. I really did have a good time at the Asain restaurant though because while I have had Chinese food before, it was nice experiencing hotpot which I have never had before and I really enjoyed it to be honest but I don't know if I would ever try it again as long as there wasn't any squid or shrimp headsinvolved but yeah, I would still eat everything else that we had. So thank you to our professors who so kindly let us have this experience and took us there and sorted everything out for us to actually have this experience.

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/5001-asian-culture-and-traditions

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Ethiopian

I have never had Ethiopian food before and to be honest, I really enjoyed it which I didn't expect to like it at all because it's a bit out of my comfort zone but it ended up being really good. The only part was the was waiting to get a drink because a couple of us were really thirsty but it kind of took a while to get drinks but oh well, other than that, everything was good. I ordered the Zilzil Tibs which was a great choice because it was this broiled like beef that had herbs and spices on it and it was pretty good. On our plate, we had a vegetable combo (courtesy of Baylen ordering because he said it would be nice to have that choice so shout out to him), some fish (which was pretty good, I tried a few pieces and I don't like fish but I did like that type of fish so I might look into fish again and see if I like it more than I did as a kid), we also had some Kitmoji (I don't really know if that was the exact name of it but I think it's close, it starts with a "K" I know that for sure). The Kitmoji was this kind of spicy meat with some fettucini-like cheese and some green vegetables that were kind of spicy but not too spicy so I didn't need to chug down water which was good. Overall, the whole experience with the Ethiopian food and culture was fantastic and I did enjoy it a lot for it being my first time experiencing it. The shops we got to see walking towards the Ethiopian restaurant were pretty interesting also but I won't go into too much detail, just know that some I wouldn't mind going into while others, I would run away from if they had people outside the doors trying to get people to come inside. But other than that, it was a nice experience and I really think everybody enjoyed it (especially Maggie) and if I ever had the chance to have Ethiopian ever again, I probably would most definitely try it again because it was really good and, despite the bread, I enjoyed how it's supposed to be eaten (even though I do also like forks and spoons and knifes very much, thank you) but all joking aside, I would go back to that restaurant and have more Ethiopian food if I ever get the chance and who knows, maybe someday I will have the chance and I'll have the memories of going with a wonderful group of people who I have grown to like and respect very much and will miss a lot once the class ends.

http://uncorneredmarket.com/ethiopian-food/

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Soul

After walking around the tombstone's and being able to look at people's headstones and imagine what they might have lived through or done in their lifetimes, we went to Dooky Chase's which is owned by Leah Chase who (and this is an amazing fact) the movie The princess and the Frog's own Tiana was based on which is amazing because it was a Disney movie and it really is a good movie and I really need to talk about the food now even though I could probably spend all this time talking about the movie and Disney but it's not what this post is supposed to be about so I'm going to move on to the food. (Which you're probably happy about because you'd probably rather hear about the food then the movie but oh well.) To start out, of course we had gumbo which was pretty good as far as gumbo goes and it was probably the best gumbo I had while in New Orleans so shout out to Dooky Chase for that. After the gumbo, we got go into the buffet and pick what we wanted to eat which was nice, it was kind of like homestyle but, well, buffet style of course but still nice because you get to pick out how much you want instead of being given a certain amount of food and expected to eat it so. In the buffet, I choose to get some fried chicken (of course), some macaroni and cheese, some rice with some shrimp sauce like stuff on top of it and some really good potato salad (if you can't tell from my posts, I really like potato salad and this one from Dooky Chase would be on the top of the list to be honest). I did see some other options but sadly, I wasn't that hungry since we had the beignet's that morning and they were kind of filling and so I didn't really get a lot of food but what I did get was really good and I enjoyed it all even though I didn't try anything else. The dessert was really good though, one of the best on the trips that I had. All in all, Friday was a really good day and I really, really liked the restaurants we went to (especially Cafe Du Monde). The food was really good and the activities we did, like walk around the French Quarter and walking around the cemeteries to look at the different tombstones was fun (as much fun as you could imagine walking around cemeteries is because it doesn't really sound fun but when you actually do, at least the ones in New Orleans, were pretty cool). So, the first day in new Orleans was a hit, at least I think so and I'm sure a lot of other people enjoyed it as well.

http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/soul-food-brief-history

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French

You can ignore my horrible nail polish in the picture but the beignet in the picture was awesome. Our first morning in New Orleans and we went to the Cafe Du Monde which was a pretty cute but busy little cafe. We stood in line for a few minutes while we waited to get our beignets and coffee and it was worth the wait to be honest because the beignets were really good and I enjoyed them. After the beignets, were got to walk around the French Quarter for awhile which was fun but I wish I got more time to actually look at everything on the Quarter but my group was kind of walking really fast and exiting shops really quickly but oh well, I still had fun walking around the Quarter and going into what little shops we were able to and seeing everybody out and about just doing what they would normally do on a Friday morning. What was really interesting and fun was to walk around and see everybody's artwork that they were putting up on the fences and everything. It was really cool to see the different styles of artwork everybody had and how they actually sort of went together in a way. The Quarter really was amazing, to be honest and the beignet's were great. Also, in one of the stores, I saw this really funny "crazy cat lady" figurine where she was wearing a bathrobe with cats all over the place and it was great, that's going to be me in the future. (Just so you know.) It really was a good start to our time in New Orleans and I loved walking around (it was good because I got to get my steps in and my time also so yay for that). 

https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/le-bon-vivant-understanding-french-culture-through-food

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Cajun

After a long, long, LONG car ride with four boys and Tawnie, I was really glad to be out of the car and be able to walk around and have my first glance at New Orleans. And I have to say New Orleans is AMAZING. It's so lively and upbeat and has so much going on, it's so unlike Thompsonville and I loved every part of it even in those first few minutes when we were just walking around looking at stuff until we went to Mother's. And Mother's wasn't at all like I was expecting. The service was great and even though I felt bad for that guy who kept standing and talking to us during the whole meal, I kind of liked his dedication for telling us the history of Mother's and all about the famous people who had been there before and the history of the hurricanes and his experiences with them. It was really interesting and fun to learn about all that stuff. Our first course was gumbo, of course, and it was a toss up of whether or not you got shrimp or chicken gumbo (it was either chicken or gumbo but I'm pretty sure it was chicken) and I had the luck to get shrimp gumbo (I like shrimp and Tawnie doesn't so we asked how you could determine without eating it first and the guy said the color so Tawnie gave me hers since she doesn't like shrimp). We also had this mixture of rice and sausage which was pretty good, I liked it. Also, we had some shrimp and oyster's and Bradley even found a pearl in his oyster (found it by biting right down on it which his reaction was pretty funny) and some good bread. We also got to try our first PO Boy's which was awesome even though I couldn't finish it because it was a lot of meat and it was messy but the messy part was pretty fun actually because neat, unmessy foods are just boring. For dessert, we had a choice between sweet potato pie, pecan pie, and a bread pie. I tried the pecan pie and I actually liked it which makes me feel bad for never trying it before even though my mother and grandmother always told me to. I did try a bite of the sweet potato pie from Tawnie's plate and it was okay but it wasn't the best pie I've ever had. I did not, however, get to try to the bread pie because it was on the other side of the table and I didn't really want to bother Allison and them by asking to pass it all the way over to me and Tawnie even though it did look pretty good. But maybe some other time (the next time I go to New Orleans, which may be soon because I really liked it). All in all, I really enjoyed my first night in new Orleans and it was really fun to go to Bourbon Street and walk around to look at everything and even see a live jazz band play which was awesome! It was really an amazing night.

http://www.thelostcajun.com/

http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/cuisine/cuisines/cajun.html

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Dessert Questions

1.  Why is dessert so popular?

2. Why is it that in some places, cakes are more popular while in some other places people prefer ice cream or brownies or cookies?

3. What made people think “let’s add these ingredients together and see what they make” in order to get desserts? What is the origin of the name “dessert’s”?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/books/review/how-we-got-to-dessert.html

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Indian Questions

1. Why do they make their food spicy, hot, sweet, sour or all four at the same time?

2. How significant is rice in their daily lives?

3. Since curry is something that you can make anything with, what kinds of curry are there?

http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/India.html

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Chinese Questions

1. Why is the hotpot one of the most popular foods in China?

2. Why do the Chinese rely on a form a starch and vegetables in every meal?

3. What is the significance of chopsticks and why are they used?

 http://www.livescience.com/28823-chinese-culture.html

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Soul Questions

1. How many methods and ingredients for soul food are there?

2. What are the influences behind soul food? Is it only the slave influence or is there more?

3. What is the significance of soul food and why is it still around today?

http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/soul-food-brief-history

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French Questions

1. How can they layer flavors?

2. How many sauces do they have and how are they different from each other?

3. Would you be looked down on if you didn’t know all the dining techniques and if you were a french person, would they go so far as kicking you out if you didn’t abide by them?

http://www.livescience.com/39149-french-culture.html

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Cajun Questions

1. How and why are Cajun cuisines and Creole cuisines interlinked and intermingled?

2. Since they are known to not waste any part of an animal they use for food, what all do they make out of every part of the animal body?

3. Do they rely on rice as many other cultures do?

http://www.thebayoubandits.net/culture/culture.html

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Creole Questions

1. Why do they have “extension” foods like gumbo, ‘files’, etouffe and ect.?

2. Why is it said that almost all Creole foods are cooked and eaten with a gravy or a ‘ruax’?

3. Since spices are important, how many spices are used in Creole food?

https://www.nps.gov/cari/learn/historyculture/upload/creolefood.pdf