Food language class: Food Folks !!

Have you ever realized that in every activity, event, occasion in our life, we eat?

In sadness and in joy, people eat.

In victory and defeat, people eat.

Before even thinking, while thinking, and after thinking, again people eat.

While meeting, reading, writing (I'm eating chocolate right now), riding, resting, listening, spending, watching, and touring... (sigh) people eat!

Wow. what a fact! Food is necessary for survival folks, our entire culture is based on it. It's in our laws, our money, our superstitions, our celebrations, and especially our language. 

I'm not really a fan of history class but today I'm going to spice up this post with a little bit of history, but don't worry guys, it doesn't give you any brain damage. We are going to have a food language here - and the food that's hidden in our language. why is it called Graham crackers, Beef stroganoff, Eggs benedict, etc? Welcome to the food language class. :)

Some people leave their fingerprints in the cake frosting. Other people's names are on the menu. 

Graham Crackers. 

The mighty Graham Crackers

Slyvester Graham was Presbyterian minister in Connecticut in the early 1800s. He was convinced that people were suffering from many bad habits, including poor diets. He preached against tight clothing, soft mattresses, and alcohol. He thought pepper, mustard and ketchup caused insanity (Whatt??!). He preached in favor of exercise, open bedroom windows, cold shower, and a vegetarian diet. 

Sir Graham with honey Grahams by Nabisco

Graham is probably most remembered for his belief that white bread = evil and people shouldn't eat white bread. He urged women to stop buying bread from bakeries and instead to make their own. on the other hand, he had many followers back then. Graham societies formed, and Graham boardinghouses and Graham food stores opened. 

Today, health experts know that this guy wasn't all wrong. People are exercising more, eating more vegetables, and using whole-wheat flour! 

How did it made?

So, this graham crackers is using Graham flour which is different than white flour. Many bakers tried to market the crackers, but it wasn't until 1898 that the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) made any real inroads into the market with their Nabisco Graham Crackers product. Nabisco achieved evern greater success with their Honey Maid Line, introduced in 1925, which boosted the original graham flavor through the addition of honey. 

I'm sorry Sir Graham, but your graham crackers is not the same as you preached back then. today's Graham crackers are made with bleached white flour, sugar and preservative - OUCH! stab into the heart. :'(

Sir John Henry Kellogg

Kellogg's brand

Do you know Kellog's brand? Yeah. he's the one who invented cornflakes. He had the same belief as Graham. These two people will change the dietary and health in American history, and they did! Bravo!!

Sources:

http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/grahamcrackers.asp

Further reading about Graham and Kellog click here

Beef Stroganoff

The Stroganoff family was well known in Russia for hundreds of years. With their great wealth, they helped develop the Russian mining, fur, and timber industries. There are 2 stories behind this lovely dish. 

Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganoff. He's good looking, isn't he?

First story, it goes when it was found that Beef Stroganoff had won the first prize award in a competition, 'L'Art Culinaire' in 1891 where it was presented by Charles Briére, an employee of the Stroganoff family. Legend has it that his patron Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganoff had lost all his teeth and his chef had especially prepared this dish to overcome the Count's handicap.

Second story, so Count Pavel Stroganoff, was a celebrity in turn-of-the-century St.Petersburg, a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and a Gourmet. It's still arguable if it's him or his chef-Charles Briére who invented this recipe since it was included in the 1871 edition of the Molokhovets cookbook.. which I should presume predates his fame as a gourmet and his loving to entertain guests by hosting dinner parties.
Doesn't it seem odd that a family who contributed so much to a great country's development is remembered today for a beef dish served over rice ??

Beef Stroganoff

Caesar Salad

If you think this salad is related with caesar things, you're totally wrong. It has nothing to do with the emperor who ruled Rome two thousand years ago. The caesar salad at your local cafe was originally called aviator salad. 

In 1924 an American named Alex Cardini worked at his brother's restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. One night more customers than usual came in to eat, and the restaurant kitchen ran out of the usual menu items. So Alex put together odds and ends- eggs, romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper. He made croutons out of some dried bread and then mixed everything together. 

The customer loved it!! 

He named it aviator salad since the restaurant was near an airfield. Later the name was changed to Caesar salad after Alex's brother, who owned the restaurant.

Source:
http://www.beefstroganoff.net/history.php
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmeats.html
http://www.frccusa.org/Cuisine.html

Voyage à: Toulouse (Part 2.1)

Oui. We're still in Toulouse.

Here it comes the best of the best. FOOD. Anyways, I was a little bit disappointed because I haven't tried so much of the food in capitole. But, hey.. I found these 2 restaurants that serve a really really really good food. Geez, I don't know how to describe it with words. *sigh* Too good to be true. Truth hurts. Wondering when I can go back and eat that again... 

Duck Confit @Le Bon Vivre

We're being told by our lecturer about this restaurant. And yes, it was a great meal during dinner. Their restaurant always full, especially dinner. So, you have to reserve or you won't get any seats. Talking about the food, I ordered duck confit. The skin of the duck was crispy but still, the meat was juicy inside. it really went well with those potato and salad. I forgot to take my friends meal picture. Maybe I got too excited to eat it and forget about anything. Munch.. munch..munch..

Stalk them in: http://www.lebonvivre.com/

Spaghetti Bolognese 

We tried new restaurants just near Le Bon Vivre, Pizza Pino. Their restaurant was not packed enough compare to Le Bon Vivre, but since we haven't try pasta in France, we thought,"why don't we give it a try?" So, each of us ordered pasta to feed our craving for food. And while we're waiting for the food to come, I went off to go to this small chocolate shop called Criollo chocolatier. To make it short, I found the shop and bought 1 box of chocolates. And it was the BEST chocolate i've ever eaten. #truestory. Anyways, when the food comes to our table, I didn't find that the food was appetizing enough for me and the taste? you could say. yeah. it wasn't bad but it wasn't good as well. Standard. Nothing special. Don't try to eat Italian food when you're in France. That's my advice. But, if you found one, please let me know!! You can drop any comments at the end of each post. I'll be glad to see your thought about this too. 

Stalk them in: http://www.pizzapino.fr/2011/restaurants.html

The best Ravioli eaten so far

The best potato dauphine. ever.

Outside of the restaurant

On our last day in Toulouse before we got back to Paris, my friend asked us to go to this restaurant. It is called MEET THE MEAT. The restaurant is small but really comfy inside. We ate for dinner and the service was explicit, it can't be deny that we found difficulty when we tried to dine in (Language barrier) But when we went to this restaurant, the server was fluent in english and we ask why he has such an excellent english then we know that this guy spent 2 years in London before he went back to Paris. No wonder. Ok, let's move on. Service? Excellent. How's the food then?

Talking about the food. it was GREAT. The potato dauphine? C'est superbe! When I put in my mouth for the first bite, I said to my friend,"Geez, This is soooo goooddd, I'm in heaven already." Well,  my friend said I was too over but when she tried it, she felt the same way as I do. All I can say is, this is the best restaurant I had during my trip. And I have to go back to this place, someday..

Stalk them in: http://www.meetthemeat.fr/

During our management game back in toulouse university

Taking pictures during rehearsal for culture show

Our culture show. We're doing Indian dance.

Au revoir Toulouse ! Tu me manqueras

Bisous,

Agy.

Voyage à: Toulouse (Part 2)

Have you heard of Toulouse? I never heard about Toulouse as well before, but here's a spoiler. It's a beautiful city with lots of yummy food and definitely different from Paris. When it comes to Toulouse, you will find it calm and relax. Well, if you prefer a quiet place to live in, Toulouse shouldn't be taken as your second consideration. That's all I could say.

If you go to Toulouse, you have to check out Capitole. It's a place where there are a lot of shopping spree, small shops, cafe and a square for you to hang out and relax while you're eating panini or even sip a cup of coffee. ;) Here are some of the pictures I took.

Capitole

Ronie, moi, Vincent

Nutella Crepes

Can you see how big the NUTELLA is ?? It's so big, I'm gonna die!!

OH MON DIEU !!

Such a calm place to be

Lots of restaurants, cafe, local fashion designer shop

Toulouse University

Pretty shop

Really cute picture 

I hope there's a cupcake like this. GOOD JOB LV !

What are you looking for kid?

There's a nice wine here.

A big H&M shop!! *Drolls*

You shouldn't miss this if you go to france

To be continued...

Bisous,

Agy.

Voyage à: Paris (Part one)

Salut à tous !! (Hi everyone !!)

What I'm going to share with you folks out there today is my trip to France in February for 2 weeks !! It was an amazing trip with my friends and yeahh.. it was unforgettable. We have to stop in Dubai for around 3 hours before we continue the trip to france. I forgot to take some pictures about the delicious meal we had during the flight. Emirates' really a knock off. Anyways, even though this is a foodie blog, it's such a shame for me to not to share these beautiful, romantic, incredible sight to all of you. Are you ready ??   Let's roll on.

After we arrived in Paris, we only spent 1 day in town because we gotta off to Toulouse for the next day. FYI, this was a study trip, my college is associated with Toulouse university, thus we had these 4 days wasted to play some management games, which I can't deny the truth that it was tiring and I just can't imagine, we're supposed to have fun for the final year instead, but yet. we have to STUDY. even though we were in France. *sigh* 

As long as we arrived in Paris, we went straight to Arc de Triomphe after we lost for a while and since we taught french in college, it doesn't mean that we can speak fluently. all I can say was, "Excusez-moi, où est _____ (name of the place)?" or "Je ne sais pas," or "Je ne comprend pas," orr "Je parle francais un petit peu." And if you're lucky, you can find someone who speak english which is very rare indeed. So, I just listen carefully to what they say and using random gesture as well. you can imagine how strange it was.  

Here's a snapshot in Arc du Triomphe

Moi et Michelle

Mes amis

Michelle, Moi, Allison et Pipi

The weather was so cold and I was freezing. I can't stand cold weather, so after we took some pictures, we're off to this warm yet pretty cafe, called George V. The decoration was nice and the waiter really professional for assisting the guest. We ordered rose champagne by recommendation from the waiter and pour moi, Duck breast with honey sauce and mes amis ordered escargot and  beef bourguignon. Such a lovely day. C'est sympa !

Escargot - Sorry for the blur picture

Kentank ate escargot. He's escargoters !

Duck breast with honey sauce. I'm in heaven. No kidding

To be continued...

Bisous,

Agy.