Things To Come

    I have a butt-load (always wondered how you quantify "a butt load") of other things to to add such as:

• pictures from demos I've gone to recently
• food from our production kitchens and dining halls
• Thoughts on CIA thus far, and breakdown of the curriculum
• Restaurants I've gone to with friends

    For now I need to get to bed, have to be up at 5:00 am for kitchen class where I will make New England clam chowder woooo! Then its pack and home to the 518. More to come tomorrow night. 

CIA Day One (Am I Really Here)

 

Roth Hall...where everything goes on

     I'm not going to dive too deep into the whole moving in thing because "this ain't my first rodeo" (thank you UB) so I cut to the chase and talk about some fooooood. The first week was dedicated entirely to orientation, and it was the same stuff I had for UB Orientation. During the first week we were required to eat in the East Wing Dining Room in Roth Hall on campus. East Wing is an interesting thing for a few reasons. First, its a 2 course sit down lunch and dinner plus dessert in a fancy dining room, which will take all of 90+ minutes of your time. Each time you sit with 5 new strangers from orientation and its the luck of the draw when your in line, so its important to strategically place yourself close to beautiful girls and away from the creepy kid with the eyes. Here are some pics I gathered during my orientation week, enjoy.

A crustini type thing with sauteed mushrooms, and a red wine reduction

Prosciutto, grapefruit, port wine reduction, baby arugula

Tomato soup, gryuere grilled cheese

The waterfall in front of my dorm...you can fish in that pond by the way

 Holy textbooks batman! Got all these during orientation 

Your King Has Returned From Exile....With Presents

"[O,o,o]Okay. This is the first record I've made under my own name.
And the first one I've made under my own control entirely without anyone else telling me what to do in certain places.
Some of the stuff I like very much. Some of the stuff I quite like. and I don't hate any of it, so I've settled for this... music.
I can't decide which piece to start with, so I won't start with any of the pieces I've already started.
I hope you like what you hear [hear,hear,hear,hear,hear...]"
~ DJ RJD2

    The last few weeks at home before I shipped off to CIA were a real cluster-fuck in terms of making sure all the necessary documentation was taken care off. Us Hahm's always cut it close. Seriously, just picture the scene in Home Alone when the McCallister's are RACING to get to their gate at the airport. That's me and my family in a nut shell...but in all facets of life. Movies? "eh...well find seats in the dark, anyone die in the first 10 minutes?" The exception to the rule: my dad. He's notoriously early for everything, as in he will catch the first 10 minutes of the movie BEFORE our movie. Aside from all that, I really was busy for the duration of my summer vacation; hence the absence from my command post.
     You are probably wondering what the hell those lyrics up above have to do with this post, so allow me to elaborate. First off, they're lyrics taken from the song "Salud", by RJD2. I realize that the majority of the people who read this post won't know who that is, i.e. my family, grandma, her bridge group (had no idea I was a hit with the older crowd?) but I was feeling like this blog was begining to become to forced; too stagnant, so I decided to step away from it for a bit so I could stockpile photos and stories like Russian nukes during the cold war. I was constantly being told to "update my blog" by people who read it, and I was all set to unleash everything I had been saving over the summer when the funniest thing happened...I just decided not to.
    I erazed all the stuff I was saving and have decided to start with new, fresh material (no one wants to hear about a burger I ate in late June). If it looks moldy and smells, throw it out. In a nutshell that song embodies my triumphant return because I was done with everyone telling me to keep it going when I knew it wasn't heading in the direction I wanted it to, and I couldn't decide what to start with so I didn't start with any of it, and am starting over..."I hope you like what you hear" (Actual food related ranting and photos in the next post)

The Beginning Of The End: Part III/IT'S SODA!

      Alright, a Tully's post (never thought this day would come)!

      These are Alabama Slammers or as I like to call "angels milk" because they are so heavenly...There's a tad of alcohol in these but don't worry I wasn't driving. I cant stress responsibility enough.

      I'm not a gambling man, but I'd bet the mortgage to my parents' house that your probably thinking "why the hell is he taking pictures of pickles...and worse, talking about it??" Well there is a story behind this, I promise. The boyfriend of a friend of mine was back from a tour in Afghanistan and came to Tully's with us. I'm sure our waiter, Steve was already creeped out by my group of friends and I (we were probably being obnoxious...and how the hell do I remember that our waiters name was Steve?). On the other hand, he could have been even more creeped out when my friend's boyfriend, Pat asked for a pile of pickles...I sh*t you not. this was a paraphrasing of the exchange:

Pat (last to order): this may sound weird...but can I just have a bunch of pickles?
Steve the waiter: you just want pickles?
Pat: Yeah! you can charge me whatever you think it will cost, but yeah I'd like a bowl of pickles if possible
Steve the waiter: I'll see what we can do...
Pat: And I don't just want like one or two pickles. I want a whole bunch of 'em!
Pat: annnnd I'll also have a water...
Steve the waiter: hahah alright I'll get them to whip that up for ya.

      The weirdest part was the fact that he asked for a water. Go figure. So sure enough, Steve delivered and brought out everyone's order along with, yep you guessed it...a bowl of pickles. The funny thing is that this probably wasn't the strangest part of his day. The place is wild. See what it boils down to is that working in a restaurant you see this kind of stuff everyday. Its the nature of the beast. Steve was a gracious host and got a more than generous tip for our table...seriously, go to Vegas with that money Steve!

 

       Another day we went to Duffs for lunch(which was also dinner). For those of you who are unfamiliar with Duffs, its a famous chicken wing joint in the city that is famous for chicken wings: Buffalo, NY. When I say famous, I mean the chicken wing was invented here...but you already knew that! There was 6 of us and we split into 3 pairs based on wing preferences. Clearly I wasn't going for "Atomic" and committing asshole suicide so my friend Casey and I ordered medium and BBQ wings. No one gave us a hassle for not going bold in the heat department which blew my mind...then our mini pitcher of "pop" that came with our combo arrived. Everyone else at the table had pitchers of beer and Casey and I had a mini-pitcher of Dr. Pepper so we were laughed at for a while. To put it into perspective, that's a regular sized cup next to the mini pitcher...yeah there was probably about 13oz of "pop" in there.
      I say "pop" because that's what they call soda in western New York....wait....what?? This isn't a simple case of tomato/tomATO potato/potATO. A line must be drawn.....and don't even get me started about the folks who refer to all soda as "coke"

Customer: Hi I'll have a mountain dew
Idiot Server (with way too many "pieces of flare"): Don'tcha mean Coke!?!?
Customer: No, I want a mountain dew
Idiot Server: Yeah thats a Coke!!!
Customer: I'll just take the check...

      I was so interested in this that I Googled soda vs pop vs coke geographical breakdowns. What I found was that more people say soda than "pop" or "coke" (those will always be in quotes by the way, because I refuse to except them as real ways to order SODA), which I knew would be true. It was closer than I thought though. This is why I have asked President Obama to sign a declaration of war against the "pop" and "coke" sayers. We're going to have to implement the draft again an wage a modern day civil war. "Pop" sayers get weapons from the original civil war, we get modern weapons (naturally)...and "coke" sayers, well they should get weapons from the Bronze Age.

Here's the soda link if you were interested to see a state by state breakdown: http://www.popvssoda.com/stats/ALL.html     

      Checking back in on my friend who had the "Atomic" wings...suckaa!

The Beginning Of The End: Part II

      When my parents came up for graduation we went to dinner at a place my parents love to go to: Scotch and Sirloin. My dad always talks about it when I talk to them days before parents weekend every year. This year I was starving when we got there because I hadn't eaten all day due to graduation ceremony an all that. A little fun fact: I handed in my registration form to walk wayyy late so I had to go at the end with a small group of people who did the same instead of being in alphabetical order. This was a blessing in disguise because I magically ended up next to two of my close pals.

     
      After two trips to the salad bar and the always appetite killer: free bread, I was already "feeling it" before this crazy plate arrived. Mondo King crab claws, filet covered in sauteed onions, and baked potato. I distinctly remember thinking my stomach was going to explode like the guy in the movie Alien...but God those claws were good!

THAT'S HOW FULL I WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Beginning Of The End: Part I

       So my Senior year of Calvin Coolidge aka college was winding down and my roommates and I were trying to use up everything we had left in the kitchen. One late night I wanted to use up the last of the powered Gatorade mix (that my roommate Joe "borrowed from the high school he worked at...well interned really. I seriously doubt they even knew he was there. The few cups we had left were under a large pile of dishes so I had to improvise. I look around and voila, a tupperware container...hey a kids gotta improvise. In the wise words of John Belushi in Animal House: "We can do whatever we want, we're college students!"

One of the lifesavers I found in our cabinets was pancake mix YES! Needless to say I had a lot of banana pancakes those last few days.

One thing I love to do with pancakes, which freaks some people out (I don't understand how) is to slather on peanut butter and jelly. It honestly is one of the most divine things you can have for breakfast.

I'm Aaaaalllliiiivvvvveeee

     
      I haven't posted anything since Easter, but I am alive and have been collecting pics, stories, and recipes along the way to fill you all in on what you have been missing. Photos and such, after the jump.