BACK IN THE 7TH GRADE DURING THE SUMMER, MY DAD AND BROTHER AND I WERE DRIVING BACK FROM A LACROSSE TOURNEMENT ALL DAY IN LONG ISLAND. ON THE WAY BACK WE WERE RIGHT NEAR BROOKLYN NY AND DECIDED TO FIND A GREAT RESTERAUNT TO GRAB A BITE TO EAT. WE CAME ACROSS THIS OLD ITALIAN RESTERAUNT IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE. WE WANTED TO CHECK IT OUT AND TRY IT SO WE DECIDED TO GO THERE. AS WE PARK WE NOTICED THAT THERE WAS A SERIES OF NICE CARS AND TINTED WINDOWED LINCOLNS PARKED ALL AROUND THE BUILDING. WE ALL LAUGHED AND JOKED ABOUT HOW THIS RESTERAUNT WAS SOME SORT OF ITALIAN MAFIA COVER UP. WHEN WE WALKED I WE NOTICED ALL OF THESE ALL OF THESE BIG ITALIAN LOOKING GUYS AND ONE REALLY OLD MAN THAT EVERYONE THERE LISTENED TO WERE ALL STANDING NEAR THE BAR IN SOME SORT OF SMALL GATHERING MEETING. WHENM THEY SAW US THE OLD MAN GREETED US AND TOLD US TO TAKE A SEAT IN THE BACK.HE WAS THE OWNER. WHEN WE WERE READY TO ORDER MY PLATE OF SEAFOOD, PIZZA, AND SOME OTHER AMAZING DISH THAT I FORGET THE NAME OF; MY BROTHER WAS JOKING ABOUT HOW A LAMBORGHINI WAS GOING TO SHOW UP IN THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT FIVE MINUTES LATER A BEAUTIFUL LAMBORGHINO PULLED UP TO THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. THIS YOUNG MAN GOT OUT AND WENT INTO THE BAR AND JOINED THE ITALIUAN MENS CONVERSATION. WHEN WE GOT OUR FOOD IT WAS AMAZING AND WHENEVER I AM IN THAT AREA I WILL STOP AT MICHEALS RESTERAUNT AND GET SOME GREAT FOOD. STILL TO THIS DAY IT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE RESTERAUNTS EVER.

Over the weekend, my friend and I, went to eat at the place I'm currently working at, Fusion 25. This is one of the most amazing restaurants I've ever been to, and not just because I work there and have to say that, but because I actually believe it's amazing place. I ordered my two favorite dishes, California Rolls and Pad Thai. California Rolls are a kind of sushi roll, usually made inside-out, containing cucumber, crab meat or imitation crab, and avocado. Pad Thai is a thai dish based on rice noodles. These two dishes are easily some of my favorite foods to exist. I order them very often and just can't get enough. Jurnee M

Brazilian Valentine’s Day As you all know, Valentine’s Day is a day where many people get chocolates and devour them and many other sweets. But instead of store bought chocolates, my mom made some of her own sweets for Valentine’s Day. She made a delicious sweet called “brigadero” in Portuguese. It’s a creamy ball of chocolate covered with chocolate sprinkles and any other topping of your choice. There’s also other versions of the brigadero where they’re made with different flavors, textures, and with other toppings too. Along with those baked goods, we also made some homemade chocolate milkshakes to go along with them. Even though the brigaderos are usually used for party snacks, this was an exceptional situation to have them. Along with these snacks, my mom also made some Brazilian flan (pudding) for us as well. This is by far one of my favorite deserts because it sweet and fits well for any situation or event. It also has a sweet syrup that’s made along with it that makes the flavor out of this world. As you notice, Valentine’s Day is a very exciting day in our family because we eat many sweets in order to celebrate our love for food. But after a day like this, sweets are rare at our house because our blood sugar sky rockets after something like this which is never good. But having fun eating food together is what’s important. Food is by far the most important thing in our house because it’s what brings us together and displays our culture. These Valentine’s Day treats are just an example of what we do. Someday you should try some Brazilian sweets and deserts because I guarantee you’ll love them. They’re amazing and flavor packed in every bite and no one can resist. I hope someday you’ll be able to experience something so delicious. Gustavo P.

This weekend, I went to the Outback Steakhouse in Danbury. I had a pretty good time. I got the thing on the menu when you get to basically make your whole meal. I got the 9 oz. steak with potato walkabout soup, clam chowder, garlic mashed potatoes, and sautéed mushrooms. It was delicious. I finished it all, and I didn’t even get a stomach ache. I had a good time and I recommend for everyone to go there. It is a convenient location, nice and quick service, and most importantly: TASTY FOOD! It is a terrific restaurant, and the perfect place to go out and have a good time with your friends and family.-Harry

Recently my dad and I had a hankering for some tacos, as we hadn't had them in a good while. Not your normal taco, though. We like to sometimes go to the nice place in Danbury, Panchos Tacos. Instead of getting two tacos filled with beef or chicken in crunchy or soft tacos shells, you get a much better variety. You can get lamb, steak, tripe, pork, fish, ground sausage and a few others in a double tortilla not much bigger than the circle you can make touching you thumbs and middle fingers (one tortilla just isn't enough to contain all that flavor). Though they are smaller than your average taco, you can order as many as you want in as many combinations as you can think of at 1.75 each. You leave with both your stomach and your wallet full. This time I believe I went for the marinated lamb, ground pork sausage, beef head and beef tongue tacos. The lamb was very well seasoned as was the ground pork, but I’m a sucker for that beef head. Don’t be put off by what it sounds like; both the beef head and beef tongue have this wonderful sweet, fatty, beefy taste that you just can’t get anywhere else on the cow. It’s like deboned ribs, but better. You can’t go wrong with it. On top of the meat, tastefully simple, is just some onion and cilantro with a sliced lime on the side. All together it gives you this rustic, uniquely Mexican taste that anything else added would only detract from. No lettuce and cheese here. I love it because you can go back time and time again and never get bored with what you get. Mix and match or stick with your favorite for a cheap, satisfying meal out.

Who doesn't like Superbowl Sunday? well every year people look forward to watching it whether they're into football or not. It is especially entertaining, when two teams make it to the finals to compete against each other. Anyways the good thing about watching the game from your home is that you can sit back and relax, and eat some delicious food. My family tend to be very good cooks, especially my parents. My mother, whose Brazilian opened a new cuisine of food choice for us. And my father whose always been a great cook to me is that he is can simply take some food from a recipe and turn it into something unique and delicious. Anyways back to the Superbowl, as the 49ers and the Ravens faced each other, my Brother in law and sister came over with a bunch of delicious foods such as the typical finger foods you'd see at parties. Which would consist of a variety of cheese with those delicious meat choices such as salami and pepperoni that go on those oval shaped crackers. Not to mention that my brother in law runs a family restaurant, with his family and makes sandwiches that are so delightful. The restaurant is called, "A & J Sub Shop" and it's located in Danbury, CT for anybody interested and would want to check it out. As for other foods we enjoyed that day, wings go very nice on a occasion like this, and other exotic foods. Such as a family favorite prepared by my mother is her flan. She makes it burst with sweet flavor as a dessert option our family likes to go with. It sure is nice to have a family with such talent in the makings of food. Not to mention my cooking skills need much improvements which is such a delight to take culinary 2 and learn recipes to cook, like a great dip of Hummus to add to my cooking arsenal. But what makes their foods so great, is that they put a lot of love into it, and they sure are experienced in doing such a wonderful favor with such flavor. A lot went on in such a great night of fun while we watched the two teams of the Superbowl battle against each other for the title. As that night was soon to be over, I could never ask for a more of a better opportunity to hang out with my family and watch a great game of football, with the many food selections, that I have whenever a special event like this decides to come up. P.S. for those interested in the deli I mentioned I'll include the location of it. It should be easy enough to find if you know where The Abbott Tech High school is since it's right near there. Kevin Ross

This past weekend I had the chance to go to New Jersey with the NHS basketball team. We arrived on Saturday and stayed overnight until Sunday afternoon. We stayed in a nice hotel where our dinner and breakfast were provided for us. They were served buffet style, the way they are in many hotels. Buffets can really have any type of food depending on the meal, and this hotel had your standard breakfast and dinner foods. For dinner we had a small buffet table reserved in a room just for the team, with salad, chicken fingers, quesadillas, and desserts. While these aren't anything out of the ordinary, they were delicious. The chicken fingers were probably some of the best I've had; they had the perfect amount of crunchy breading. The salad also tasted fresh and good. For breakfast, we ate in the main hotel room among other guests and had a huge selection of food. There was bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, dozens of muffins and pastries, and an omelette and waffle station, among other things. I piled my plate with potatoes, bacon and waffles and ate all of it. The best part about the buffet was that I could even go back for more. Buffets with breakfast food are the best kind of buffets since breakfast food is the best kind of food. After this meal we had to check out of the hotel, but I was content with my buffet experiences for the weekend. - Hayley D

Matt Villamana

2/25/13

Culinary

Food in Times of Crisis

How much food was enough food? On the December fourteenth massacre there was many people who responded. Many of who were very hungry. Within hours of the incident there was food being delivered to the sandy hook fire house. And when I mean food I mean a lot of it, this was by far the most amount of food I have ever seen before. In fact someone called Carmanuccios our local pizza shop and asked to have 100 pizzas delivered to the fire house.  If you put it all together we had month’s worth of food being delivered each day to the fire house. The fire house had to get a refrigerator trailer to store all of the food in. even though we had  pizza boxes stacked up to the ceiling, It wasn’t only the place getting food as a member of Newtown ambulance I saw first hands the two emergency service companies had acquired significant amounts of food. We also can’t forget about Newtown police who had to use our refrigerator trailer because they ran out of places to store all the food.  It got to the point where we had to start to turn people away because we were just accumulating too much food.  We also can’t forget the people who donated thousands of dollars to food establishments like Panara Bread and peach wave so that Newtown residents could get free food.  It just goes to say when there’s so much hate there’s so much love and people show that through food.

So far this semester, we have been learning about grains, dressings, and hummus, but how could I know how to cook/create these items without the knowledge I obtained in Culinary I? Knowing my equipments, how to do certain things such as chopping or dicing or cooking techniques like roasting or grilling, has made a huge inpact on my ability to cook in Culinary II. I have obtained the ability to cook yummy treats and tasteful dishes and will forever have the knowledge needed to cook, thanks to Culinary I. -David B

 

Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bark
makes 1 sheet of bark

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
bag of mini pretzels
12-oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
sea salt

 

When making the bark we got a baking sheet and covered it with foil and then laid out all of the mini pretzels. Then once that was done I made the caramel. In a pot we put the unsalted butter and let that melt then I added the brown sugar and mixed that together. After it was all mixed together we poured the caramel over the top of the pretzels. The baking sheet we then put in the over and let it bake for about 6 minutes. Melt the semisweet chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for about 1 minute; until it is creamy and smooth (be careful not to burn). Once the chocolate was melted we poured it over the pretzels then spread it out smoothly over top. Then it was put in the fridge to cool.  

Jessica L.