You Slay Me, Jane Doe...

    I don't follow a lot of food blogs these days, in fact any of the days for that matter....You would think that if I love doing this so much naturally I would follow a lot of other food blogs to draw inspiration and creativity from. I follow three. I don't know why I follow them. I never read them. The truth is, its not that I think other food blogs are lame, I just don't have the time. 
    Earlier today I was boogie-boarding through the world wide web and I started looking at some other food blogs. I stumbled upon one that was refreshing because it was run by a girl closer to my age and not some turtleneck wearing mom who wants to teach everyone about "whole grains" (sorry moms). I perused through her blog, reading a post here and there, clicking on the vast array of tabs displayed at the top, reading recipes she posted, etc etc. To my dismay it only took me a minute to realize that her food blog was better than mine. And I'm not talking the quintessential sports movie "we overcame adversity and unified as a team only to lose by 1 point in the last second" kinda close. No, it was more of the "Apollo Creed vs Ivan Drago" type close. And I was Apollo Creed. Yeah, it was a closed casket...

    In order to prevent all six of my followers from jumping ship and following the girl I'm talking about, she will forever remain "Jane Doe". I spent another 10 minutes or so analyzing the layout, it was almost perfect. She even monetized the site! I mean, I had no idea you could blog that good. Reminds me of the first time Clapton heard Hendrix play live:

"There was also curiosity from the emergent powerhouse of British blues: Cream and Eric Clapton. There was a particular night when Cream allowed Jimi to join them for a jam at the Regent Street Polytechnic in central London. Meeting Clapton had been among the enticements Chandler had used to lure Hendrix to Britain: "Hendrix blew into a version of [Howlin' Wolf's] 'Killing Floor'," recalls Garland, "and plays it at breakneck tempo, just like that – it stopped you in your tracks." Altham recalls Chandler going backstage after Clapton left in the middle of the song "which he had yet to master himself"; Clapton was furiously puffing on a cigarette and telling Chas: 'You never told me he was that fucking good.'"

     To be fare to myself, we really do have different styles all together. Hers was more geared towards providing actual recipes, and educating her followers. I would like to say mine is more plot driven? I give you stories that are fueled by my passion for food. That's all I got.

-- Cheers 

A Crash Course in Molecular Gastronomy

  

     I would imagine that upon seeing the words "Molecular Gastronomy" my dad probably closed his laptop and went to work on his weather station. For all of you who don't know what that term means, basically it entails infusing food with SCIENCE. Terms get tossed around like "agar agar", "sodium algenate" "spherification" and "culinary foam"...all things my dad probably sees as the devils work.

     In a nutshell molecular gastronomy is foods like this:

"spheres" of a liquid made with sodium algenate

 

     Made by people like this:

Grant Achatz

Ferran Adria

 When it comes to food, my dad is a traditional meat and potatoes kinda guy (crab cake appetizer and filet mignon entree every time like clock work) and the term molecular gastronomy gets lumped into the category of: "please don't make me sit through this for more than a nano-second" along with things like Stephen Colbert, and Seth Rogan (seriously, if you bring any of these things up to my dad he will probably leave the room). Everyone has their things they can't stand and for my dad these are those things.
    The part that I cant grasp though is why? If you know my dad, hes not just a doctor, but a man of science. He enjoys solving puzzles, especially of the electronic type. If your computer has a virus or the X-box displays that "red ring of death" my dad seems to actually enjoy fixing them. In another lifetime my dad works for tech support I am convinced...so naturally a man of science would be fascinated by the new scientific revolution we are experiencing through food right? Wrong. I don't blame him, and I can't fault him. Its a new age in food that most people don't understand. For the most part, I don't understand it.There's a speech a mob bosses delivers in one of the batman movies that accurately sums everything up:

"This is a world you'll never understand. And you always fear … what you don't understand." 

Read on to see what this all means...plus TONS OF PICTURES (ACTION SOUNDS)

No Soup For You!!

     Ahhh finally, I get to write about the infamous "Rossi's Deli": Zagot-rated "best Deli Hudson Valley" since the dawn of time. My good friend Pbish used to go to Marist down the road and when I texted him about it he replied, "ahh the best" so I knew I was in good hands. Its a small, cramped deli filled with preserved meats, huge hocks of prosciutto, ham, etc. Run by the godmother manning the register and her 4 Italian sons, I felt this was as close to an authentic NY deli I was going to find outside of the city. Finding myself menu-flustered I kept deferring to the next person in line to decided what I wanted. Intimidated by their hard New York style deli demeanors, I finally ordered a large panini (which I would later regret not getting the small) with roast pork, red peppers, spicy spread,  and mozzarella on a toasted freshly made focaccia loaf.

chocolate canolis filled with nutella, whattt??

THE SOUP NAZI!!!!

Zeth on the left (you can find him in the hiking post about conquering the devil) Anthony aka "the swan" on the right

    The first thing that came to mind when I tore through the bag which revealed this behemoth: "...oh fuck" It was a cool day, but it was sunny out an we thought screw it were too hungry to drive back to campus and eat so we crammed onto the small table outside and gorged ourselves like it was the last night before we all turned vegan or something...I gotta be honest with you, I have no idea what that actually means? All I know is that that this panini carried enough weight to break a mans jaw if used as a blunt force instrument...

Hoboken Aka NYC Jr.

    I was feeling nostalgic earlier scrolling through my phone looking at landscapes and bright skys, views from the tops of mountains, friends, and the copious amounts of food related photos while the Black Keys played an uncharacteristically mellow tune on my computer's Itunes. Realizing I had so many great posts at my finger tips I decided to break out the shovel and start digging for new ideas. One of the topics that came to mind was my trip to the city the weekend before the Eleven Madison Park extravaganza. I took a train from campus to the city and cabbed it to Hoboken, New Jersey to meet up with some of my old college buddies from UB (they're not really "old buddies" seeing as how I only graduated last May, but you get the idea). I remember feeling anxious and for some reason nervous to see everyone again. It was the first time I was getting to see the gang again since graduation with the exception of Casey, who visited me over the summer. I donno why I felt so nervous, maybe I was afraid that everyone had changed, and I had not. Or maybe that it was me who had done the changing. To my relief everyone was characteristically themselves. New jobs, new living situations, new stories to catch up on, but all intensive purposes the same. And I loved it...

    I remember my friends Casey and Chauncey grilling me about neglecting to keep in touch for the most part over the summer. I reassured them that it was not them but me. When I move on to a new thing I become so wrapped up in what I am doing that I forget everything I left behind. Not on purpose or because I regret past experiences, I just get too caught up on the present sometimes. I have lost some friendships and pissed a few people off because of it no doubt, but those who know me understand (or at least I hope so). Now that I cleared that all up lets get into the spirit of Hoboken shall we?
    The weather was absolutely brilliant the whole weekend and my friends and I didn't skip a beat when it came to our old UB shenanigan ways. Within minutes upon my arrival there were hugs, and jokes about Ken becoming homeless once Barbie left (Hence "Hobo-ken"...a very cheesy joke on my part of course). The following morning a few of us walked to grab a bite for breakfast and walk down to the dock to eat and look at New York from across the river. It was a perfect day, getting me one step closer to the whole "yeah maybe I could live in NYC for a while" idea. We sat on a bench ate breakfast sandwiches, watched girls jog by in Yoga pants (thank you to whoever made those by the way) and did our usual recapping of the night (a UB classic). I wont bore you with the particulars but my friend Casey fell asleep on the train and ended up in Camden, New Jersey (a scary sight at 5 in the morning he would later recall).  

"Manmosas" drink two of these and your feeling right at home in Hoboken

Standard breakfast sandwich with ham, egg, and cheese

    

NYC across the river

     All in all it was an unforgettable weekend and the perfect get-a-way to see my college amigos. I'll post some more stuff soon, be cool.

MapQuest: Carnegie Hall

    When "knife skills" comes to mind I grimace at the thought of Chef Speckamp shaking his head in disbelief while picking through my stack of "julienned" potatoes with a toothpick. "hmm thezz side luuks ok...but thezz ends are uneeeevennn PeteRR...you have twooo by FOurs!" The knife cut that keeps me up at night is the ever so elusive tourne cut--a 7 equal-sided football. Although mine have improved to an extend that's not saying much after the term "tour-nuggets" was applied specifically for me...

     Thanks to the magic of Paint, the "Disappointed Asian father Meme" becomes "Disappointed Chef Speckamp Meme" (see what I did there). At this point in time I would like to point out that Chef Speckamp apparently used to have the greatest mustache of all time? I wish he still had it...damn!

Classic "tour-nugget" right there....

Ideally this is pretty darn close to what my chef expects but this was done in my room with no actual time constrains

    The last line of the clip pretty much sums up this post so feel free to fast forward to the last 30 seconds. Man, I had fun writing this post....

Bocuse Is Loose!

    I promised I would elaborate on all things culinary that have unfolded the past week weeks and now I'm going to deliver (shipping and handling included).

yeezzz...but of course!

    A few weeks ago my school held the 3rd ever Bocuse d'or USA competition which determines the American representative team that will compete in the Bocuse d'or competition held in Lion, France every two years. Being the "Harvard of culinary schools" our school can do things like that, and yours can't (sorry Johnson & Whales). Days before the event, students, faculty, chefs, and the like all chattered amongst themselves about the second coming of our savior Paul Bocuse and his monumental culinary competition. Our skills chef made it very clear that "it was extremely important that all students attend the competition" while also remembering to season the hell out of their food (tis the season)...Photos and full analysis after the jump.
    

Play With Your Food

    Whats up world? I apologize for my delayed absence from my command post. It will never happen again (yes it will)...I have been stockpiling photos and epic stories for you guys but until I can really sit down and regurgitate everything I will fill the void with photos of the food we get to play with in Product Knowledge...all in the name of research I assure you.

It's important to always play with your food

Beets: standard red (sweet), golden (savory), and I am holding a beet called "candy stripe"

baby carrots

celery root

salsify

watermelon radishes

"Purple Top" turnip

Chinese long-bean

edamame beans, boiled in salt water and just pop em in your mouth. So delish

  

     Nothing special here, I'll admit this is more of a filler post until I can plan out how I want to explain some of the big events that have unfolded in the past few weeks. You have no idea how long it takes for some of these posts to go from raw data to life altering reads ...what you think I'm funny off the top of my head?? It has been an exciting time lately being me so here are a couple of posts you devoted followers can look forward to in the near (I promise near) future:

• My trip with friends to 11 Madison Park (EMP) aka the best meal of my life
• Bocuse d'or USA competition held on our campus (basically the Olympics of culinary competitions minus the fact that there actually are cooking competitions in the Olympics)
• New batch of classes--the last week of Culinary Fundamentals before meat/fish fabrication
• Culinary job hunt and externship preparation
• A bunch of other random things my crazy brain finds interesting

    Peace, be good people!