C&C - Clayton Loraine

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Final Assessment

Cuisine and Culture this year has been my favorite class to date. We had so much fun traveling around St. Louis and New Orleans eating all the different types of food and learning about the cultures.  We spent a lot of time eating but we also just walked around a lot.  I felt like we got a good overview of how life is in New Orleans. It’s pretty crazy! We got the chance to talk with some locals from a lot of these places too!  I can see now why my grandma loves New Orleans so much.  It has a lot of culture! Plus the amazing food!  But we didn’t just go to New Orleans. We also sent around St. Louis and even visited some Greenville locals from around the world who fed us.

There is no way I could choose one of these meals to be my favorite so I’ve chosen a top three, mentioned in no particular order.   The first of the three is Indian. I was a little scared of the Indian food at first, knowing that it can be very spicy at times.  Lucky for me though, they put the spicy stuff on the side so We didn’t have to worry so much about it. The Indian food remained me a lot of Ethiopian food. It had the stew-like curry and bread to dip it in.  I just felt that it was a little tastier.  They had these little dinner wraps that were amazing.  They had chicken and an interesting sauce that was light on the flavor but worked well with it in my opinion. Second, Italian.  It felt weird going to a place that was both Spanish and Italian for an Italian meal so I was a little confused when it was announced that we were going to Guido’s.  When we mentioned this to a local he also was a little confused so that didn’t help.  Well it was definitely worth it!  Apparently the Spaniards are just as good at making Italian food as the Italians!  I hate some of the best Pizza I’ve ever had there. Along with some amazing mostaccioli.  The pasta con broccoli was ok but definitely not bad!  Just ok compared to the other foods.  Third, Dominican.  That combination of rice and beans was heavenly!  The plantains weren’t my favorite but they weren’t bad at all. Just different. I’d also like to give Cafe Du Monde a special mention. The beignets there were out-of-this-world.  

This is going to be one interterm that I will never forget!  Last year I did a class on musicals and while I love the theater, that class got pretty boring half way through. All we did was sit around and watch musical-movies. There just wasn’t anything really keeping us interested. This class on the other hand was exactly what I wanted out of an interterm class, fun and laid back, but also educational. The price also helped a lot!  Being so much cheaper than other travel classes, it opens it up for a lot of people.  I’d rate this class 5/5 cups of gumbo. Would get lost in New Orleans again.

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#Dominican

Ivan and Lourdes Esteves are some of the nicest hosts we’ve had so far! They brought us into their own home and let us eat in their living room. When we got there we all sat around their living room and talked with Ivan as Lourdes was finishing up cooking. He answered some interesting questions and was just generally a fun person to listen to. We talked a lot about the culture in the Dominican. One of the questions I found very interesting was about what differences there are between food in the Dominican and food from other Hispanic countries. Ivan said that the main difference was that people form the Dominican use rice the same way that people form Mexico use tortillas. They put all the meats and beans and everything on top of the rice the same way that people in Mexico put all that on tortillas. The bases are different. After we talked eighth them for a little while, it was time to eat. Lourdes had all the food brought out and it smelled amazing! We had seven things on the table. The main meal was beans with a rice and chicken mix. With sides of potato salad, avocado salad, two types of plantains, and a broccoli salad. The beans and rice were really great! The mix of the two was delicious. The potato salad was also very good! It seemed to have some eggs inside of it too but I’m not entirely sure what else. Plantains were definitely different. There were green ones that were fried and yellow ones that were mixed with either ginger or cinnamon. The fried green ones were a lot like chips, but a little softer than expected. The yellow plantains were sweet but also had a flavor to them that I didn’t expect. They were a lot like a banana but just different enough that I’d say they were different things. The avocado and broccoli salads weren’t my favorite as I don’t really like either of those. Though I can see how people who like them would. I ended up getting seconds of the rice and bean mixture. Afterwards, they brought out the flan, a custard-like dessert with whipped cream on top. It was very good! There were two types, coconut and regular. I had the regular one and put whipped cream on top. Delicious! I unfortunately had eaten so much of the other food that I was unable to finish the flan but I was wishing I could have! Afterwards, Ivan and Lourdes made sure we were all comfortable and asked us each to go around and talk a little about ourselves. It was kind of weird as I wasn’t use to talking about myself at one of these meals as most of the time all the discussion is about the food or the culture of the people we are visiting. But these people seemed to be really interested in us. Possibly more than we were in them! I felt welcomed and full and I think that’s the best think that’s the best way to treat a guest!

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#French

Cafe Du Monde feels like a household name in my family.  Any time anyone mentions that they are going to New Orleans, whether to see a cousin, or to go to a wedding, the first thing that is asked is if they will be visiting Cafe Du Monde to get some beignets.  Of course the answer is always “Yes!”.  We love our beignets in my family. This is why when I learned that we were going to visit Cafe Du Monde on the trip I was ecstatic!  It had been many many years since I’ve had the chance to try a real one from New Orleans and I’ve been dreaming about the chance to have another since. Finally my dreams were recognized on Friday, January 11th 2019.  I finally had another legendary Cafe Du Monde beignet. Waiting in line felt like a life time, then when I finally ordered my three beignets and a hot chocolate, I sat down with some friends and opened up the heavenly bag.  Powdered sugar flew out of it like fairy dust out of a magic portal to another mythical world of flavor. I reached through the portal and grabbed a little angel out of the bag.  I took a good-sized bite out of it and my life was renewed once more. I felt like a 6 year old again, sitting in the same place many years ago, eating the same masterful piece of craftsmanship that I did in that moment. I remembered at that moment why there was so much talk about them in my family. The beauty of the rich bread and powdered sugar mix is incomparable. Lucky for me, I had two more to go.  

https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/what-is-a-beignet

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#Ethiopian

Cafe Abyssinia was likely my favorite of all the restaurants we went to over our time in New Orleans. The food there was so different from what I’m use to but at the same time so good!  This was Ethiopian food so we weren’t suppose to use utensils. It was all to be eaten with your hands. Now I thought this would be easy at first as I assumed they ate a lot of things, like wings for instance, that you can eat with just your hands. When I saw that a lot of the menu were stews, I was very surprised. I couldn’t figure out how we were suppose to eat a liquid with out fingers. “How is that possible?” I thought. Well It turns out it is possible!  We ordered four items. The kitfo, lamb alicha, doro wat, and doro with gomen.  

It took a little while before we got our food but it was worth it. It all came out on one large platter with a few sides as well. It also came with a basket of rolled up bread called injera. They looked like tortillas that were cut in half then the halves were wrapped up. Picking one up, I found that it was a soft, spongy bread.  Tasting it alone, I discovered that it tasted like sourdough bread. That was likely what it was.  The food was all spread out across the plate on top of a large round circle of this bread.  The kitfo was a spicy lump of ground beef in the middle. This was good but probably the spiciest thing I had all trip. The lamb alicha was what I ordered. This is a lamb stew that they originally said that it contained lamb bone and that I would have to dig through it to dodge the bones.  Luckily it came out without any bones in it at all. This was the first time I had ever had lamb and I’ve got to say that it was no different from any other meat I’ve had. The doro wat is the national dish.  It’s also a stew but this time made with chicken. Very good, much like the lamb alicha. The doro with gomen was the strangest fo them all. It was a chicken dish with collard greens.  Probably my least favorite of the dishes but not bad in any way. Just different. It tasted of spinach.  

The sides were a little different. My favorite was the goat cheese. Normal old goat cheese, but the mix of that and the injera was really good. There was also a mix of potatoes and carrots and some more collard greens on the side. There were two more sides that, truthfully, looked like baby food. I was not and I still am not sure what they were.  They weren’t bad though. One was yellow and the other was orange. They both seemed to have corn in them and I’m sure they contained at least a little potato but other than that I have no clue.

While there were many new things tried at this place, it still in terms of flavor was my favorite of them all.

http://www.benabeba.com/lalibela/Traditional_Ethiopian_Food.html

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#Cajun

Mother’s was the one of the two places that my Grandma was very excited to hear we were going to. The second was Dooky Chase. She told me to specifically get a roast beef po’boy with debris, dressed.  Unfortunately I was unable to get this as we were trying a lot of other foods that I hadn’t had before. When we walked in, we were greeted in the classic “mother’s” style. Strictly and to the point. I was warned before hand that the employees there were told to act like an impatient mother if they took too long. What truthfully happened was that I experienced some very nice service. At the start, sure, they were a little strict, but you got use to it. They were very no-nonsense.

We went up and ordered what we were assigned. My dish was the crawfish etouffee. I only remember this because I had to google it to find out what it was.  We went and sat down with our assigned tables and talked until the food came out.  Within the first couple minutes of us sitting down, the first of the dishes assigned to our table was served. This was the jambalaya. We decided to wait for the rest before eating. Next we got the gumbo, then the shrimp creole. It took a little while before I got my etoufee, but it came eventually. We split up all the meals and dug in.

The jambalaya was my favorite of the four. It wasn’t as spicy as I was afraid it would be. Plus, it was a nice break from all the seafood in all the other dishes. The gumbo was my second favorite. I think the rice really worked well with it. This was my first time trying gumbo and I have to say that it was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. It wasn’t as seafoody as I thought it would be. Third was the creole. I felt that it was just a little too boring. I don’t know, it reminded me of something my mom would make at home just with some shrimp added to it. Nothing dramatically different. Not that it was bad, but just a little different than the others. And finally, my assigned dish, the crawfish etoufee. In my opinion the worst of the four. It was much too fishy for my liking. It tasted a lot like the gumbo but just with so much more crawfish. I could barely finish the small amount on my plate while I ended up getting seconds of the jambalaya. It was that good.

In the end I think Mother’s was one of my favorite restaurants that we visited. It had a good mix of all the different classic cajun meals. Each one of the dishes was good in their own way.  I’m glad they weren’t as spicy as my family members warned me they would be. Though I still wish I could have gotten a good old fashion po’boy on this trip. Maybe next time.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/five-quintessential-cajun-foods-102578168/

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#German

A German dinner was the last meal of the day. It was served to us in a rustic Irish windmill/cottage replica in the middle of St Louis. Really astounding to look at. The building was built by the Busch family in the early 1900’s. It was very beautiful. Much larger looking on the inside I found which was strange as the building still looked quite large from the outside. We came in and sat down in a large dining room filled with antlers and wood from all over the world. At our table were sets of forks and knives and water for everyone already set up. WE sat down and within a few minutes we were being served. They gave each of us a large plate with many different types of typical German foods on it.

On these plates were, starting from the bottom, schnitzel, German potato salad, sauerkraut, spatzel, some mustard sauce, knackwurst, bratwurst, a pretzel, and a brisket-like cut of meat. Starting with the schnitzel, I believe this to be the best part of this meal.  It was a breaded piece of pork with a gravy on top of it. It really was very good. The German potato salad was pretty much just potato salad except for one major change. It was full of extremely potent mustard. That one was a little difficult to get down as it was so strong. I had the same problem with the spatzel, a very sift pasta-like dish that was also covered in the same mustard. Next, the Sauerkraut.  I truthfully didn’t get the chance to try this but I’m sure it was German as ever! The mustard sauce was interesting to say the least. While it was very strong like the mustard in the other items, it seemed to have a little bit of horseradish in it. Not bad, just interesting. The pretzel was amazing.  It was one of the greatest pretzels I’ve had in my life and I’ve had a lot of them.  I just wish there was a cheese sauce I could dip it in. All I had at the time was the horseradish-mustard and truthfully that just didn’t cut it. The two sausages were fantastic. The bratwurst being one of my favorites with just enough slight differences to the knackwurst that made them both uniquely good. Finally, the strange brisket meat. This meat was good but really not as good as any of the others and didn’t bring much of a difference to the plate.  Perhaps it was there for those Americans who wanted something a little more like home. It even had a steak sauce on the top that I felt was lacking a little.  Not the best part.

Over all, I feel that the schnitzel was the best part of the meal and I was happy to see that it was also the biggest.

After eating, they gave us a small tour of the place to finish off our evening. It was very interesting, we were even allowed into the top of the windmill where we could see the old motor running it. Really a great experience.

https://tastessence.com/german-food-culture

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#Jewish

We went to the Jewish learning center for our Seder dinner re-enactment. I call this a re-enactment because we didn’t truthfully do a full one and it wasn’t even the right night to do it on. At the start, we walked in to a familiar building.  I had been there before to see the Holocaust Museum. Instead of turning left like we did the last time I was there to see the museum, they brought us right into a large conference room where we all sat around a table where various interesting looking plates were scattered. I would later learn that these were important for much later in the ceremony. The same book was in front of each of us where we sat. On the front of it were the words “A Family Haggadah”.  The Rabbi that was teaching us explained that these were books that helped you through a Seder meal.  There were all different kinds of them.  They each had similar instructions on what to say and do.  She started the ceremony.

The first thing to do is to pour some wine. We weren’t using wine or grape juice so she didn’t do it but that was step one.  Next she washed her hands and then talked for a little bit about the tradition and what different things meant on the table and the washing of hands. Next we dipping a clipping of parsley into some salt water and ate it. I made a grave mistake here. The water was probably 25%-50% salt and I get a lot of it on my parsley. Might I say. That was a difficult thing to swallow. Once the salt subsided, I could taste nothing but parsley until we ate something else, which felt like a very long time. Next she “broke the matzah”.  She uncovered some very large cracker-looking things on a plate, took the middle one and broke it. She said that at this point you were suppose to go hide the biggest piece for someone to find later. This piece is called the “afikomen”.  After that she had us read the story of the Exodus.  Then she washed her hands again and said a blessing over the matzah. Now it was finally time to eat!

It was nice to finally be able to wash down the taste of parsley in my mouth. Though it did take a lot of matzah. Matzah, being much like a very large, dry saltine without any salt, was a little difficult to get down at first but when I realized that it started to get rid of the parsley taste, I was ecstatic and ate more. This is where we learned more about the plates of food around the table. One contained a weird type of root that is bitter, one an apple mix in which there was a little cinnamon but not enough to really taste.  Finally, the last one was a rain, nut mix with a few other spices in it and something sticking it all together. I was hoping that the sweet mixes would actually be sweet and good but they were more bland than anything else. Perhaps it was because they were sitting out. I don't know.  We finished it off with a prayer/chant. All I’ve got to say as a conclusion is that I’m glad I’m not Jewish.

https://www.dummies.com/education/holidays/the-haggadah-and-the-steps-of-a-seder/

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#Irish

Irish Breakfast was the first of the full meals eaten in this class. It was very enjoyable.  A typical Irish breakfast contains 5 parts. The puddings, bangers, rashers, fried tomato, and eggs.

The puddings were very good. Surprisingly good. There was black and white pudding. The black pudding is made out of the blood of a pig mainly. That’s what gives it it’s black color. It had a kind of earthy taste to it and though it’s the grosser of the two, it I felt was the best of them. The white pudding was made with other innards, like intestines, all ground up.  It just had less flavor in general but was very similar to the black pudding. I ate a half a pudding each but after that they were both very hard to get down knowing what they were made out of. Nonetheless, they were actually quite good tasting. I didn’t eat any more after initially trying it because I just couldn’t stomach it. The bangers were my favorite part. They were basically sausages but they were a little more mushy on the inside than I’m use to. They were still good though. Especially when dipped into HP sauce. The rashers were quite good too. They reminded me a lot of Canadian bacon but were less sweet than I expected them to be. Plus they had the added bonus of not having any fat to dodge.  The eggs were, well, scrambled eggs. Nothing really special about them but that doesn’t mean they were bad, it’s just that at this point I’m so use to trying new things that I expected then to be different from the eggs I eat at home.  They really weren’t though. Pretty much the same.  I really don’t like tomatoes but I went ahead and tried them. They were about as bad as I remember them to be. I feel bad because I’m sure if I had liked tomatoes in the first place they would have been great but they were just really mushy and tasted like a tomato.  Probably my least favorite of the things.

Afterwards, we were able to talk with the manager of this restaurant, Jake.  He was a nice guy who looked and even sounded pretty Irish to me.  It was kind of a surprise to find that he was in fact just from Cleveland, Ohio. Nothing extremely Irish about that. Though he had a lack of Irish heritage, that didn’t mean that he had a lack of Irish knowledge.  He let us ask just about anything and he could answer it. Something I was wondering about was that while the Irish are known for their potatoes, there were none in a typical Irish breakfast. Well he said that this was likely because potatoes are such a large part of every other meal that this one likely was just missed.  Something else interesting that I noticed at this pub was that the utensils were huge!  The fork was likely one and a half times the size of my forks at home. I guess the more fork, the more food!

http://www.foodireland.com/recipes/Breakfast/irishbreakfast.htm

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#english

The English love their tea. It’s pretty obvious tea time must be at least one of the favorite times of the day for 75% of English people. I came in to this class knowing nothing about tea and having only ever tried fake tea (the American, sweet kind) and some weird really bland tasting kind I got at the Japanese tea gardens in San Francisco.  I can say now that I definitely know a lot more about it.  

Tea was invented by the Chinese.  Mrs. Filby told a story about this.  Apparently there was a lord, or lord equivalent in china, who was sitting under a tree while his servant boiled some water. While the water was boiling, some leaves fell into it.  They found this out and out of curiosity tried the water and found that they liked it.  Then I guess they spread the word and next thing the knew they had started the newest and longest fad they had ever experienced.

We learned about 5 different kinds of tea, black, green, red, white, and oolong.  Black tea is the most popular kind.  Known for its less bitter taste compared to the other four. The leaves are crushed so they can oxidate.  This causes the more bitter chemicals to become less bitter.  Second, green tea. This type is more common in the east than in the west. It is very close to black tea but with the one difference that they stop the oxidation of the leaves half way. This causes them to be a little more bitter but also have a different taste. It also isn’t as flavorful. Red tea is a little confusing. We didn’t talk much about it but it appears that most types have a more earthy taste. White tea is one step further than black and green. It has no oxidation and so is a lot more bitter but also “naturally sweet”.  Finally oolong, the strangest of all the names. This tea is in between green and black. It’s not as strong as black but seems to be more of a flowery tea than anything else.

The English typically drink their tea in the morning or the afternoon but truthfully any time is a good time for tea.  It is typically served with a biscuit of some kind or a scone. The biscuit is a very hard, cookie-like snack that is dipped into the tea and then eaten. Scones are a little more unique. They are a bread, almost pastry, that is very close to a dessert. I think of them as little triangle shaped muffins that are slightly drier. Tea is also served with either sugar or milk in it.  More traditionally it is served in a cup with a small plate under it.  Then another small plate with a napkin is on top of that for your biscuits and scones. People on the other hand do tend to use mugs more than tea cups nowadays.

https://blog.udemy.com/kinds-of-tea/