Food Week

FOOD WEEK | A Closer Look at Mexico’s “Green Gold”

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While I will never understand 90% of the logic behind the store layout of Ithaca’s Wegmans (e.g. why the dried noodles must appear in seven separate aisles), I will admit that the Wegmanites got one thing right: the strategic placement of the avocado bags. Their perpetual position in a giant wooden crate by the entrance has permitted me to develop somewhat of an avocado dependency in recent years. When life gets too hectic to prepare actual complete meals, avocados are an easy fallback: they go well with the Holy Trinity of college-kid staples (eggs, easy mac, and bread), and they are green, bestowing any meal with the appearance of health and nutritional balance! My symbiotic relationship with the avocado encountered its first major roadblock a couple of weeks ago when I strolled into Wegmans and saw three horrifying numbers: $5.79 for just four little avocados. Whereas this was old news for most Cornellians, I had spent a semester abroad and hadn’t been tracking the ascent of the cost of my favorite green fruit.

Food Week

FOOD WEEK | Fall Flavors

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I thought of some really simple, fun recipes that everyone should try this fall season! To kick things off, I’ll start with two takes on a seasonal favorite: the pumpkin spice latté. Classic
Prep time: 10 minutes

What you’ll need: Cash, credit, or debit. Put on some clothes, and don’t forget—phone, wallet, keys! Walk down to your nearest Starbucks and order up a Pumpkin Spice Latté.

Life

AN APPLE A DAY | Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice: The Benefits of Incorporating Pumpkins into Your Diet

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With the chilly weather and colorful leaves rolling into the Ithaca area, there’s no doubt that fall season is upon us. And with the fall weather and ambiance comes the obvious pumpkin obsession:  pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pies (who could forget Patty’s delicious pumpkin pies?), and, of course, pumpkin spice lattes. Although most people think the pumpkin is just a symbol of fall seasonal bliss, it provides a lot of relatively unknown health benefits as well. Ever wondered what makes that pumpkin pie so orange? The beta-Carotene in the pumpkin is what gives it that red-orange color that looks so nice in the fall.

Ithaca Week

ITHACA WEEK | Ithaca’s Very Own Farmers Market

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April: Amidst the hustle and bustle—the only trace of New York City here in Ithaca—it feels liberating to venture outside every now and then to explore Ithaca and recharge in the loving womb of nature. Don’t let the “there’s nothing to do, Cornell’s in the middle of nowhere” eye-roll mislead you. A welcoming, homey venue with polished rows of autumnal-colored bell peppers, the Ithaca Farmers Market at Steamboat Landing has been beckoning hungry travelers to its diverse selections, ranging from organic honeys to ginormous furnace-baked pizzas, since 1973. April: Follow the adventure of two such hungry girls as they wow at one of the country’s best farmers markets, their eyes drinking in the homemade apple ciders, 5-person-job pizzas, and Thai-flavored ice cream. Mango sticky rice and Thai tea

Grace: For an appetizer, we started off by splitting a mango sticky rice.

Life

TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Portland – Part 2: Winter

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As you all know, this week’s blog post will be focused on the winter portion of my trip to Portland, Oregon this past mid-December. For the sake of not being repetitive, I will gloss over the minutiae of how I arrived at the train station and boarded the train because the schedule was almost exactly the same, with the exception of my parents and I deciding to leave for Portland on a Friday as opposed to a Saturday. Unlike my first trip to Portland, I took so many more photos of the scenery the second time around because it was more stunning. Most of the ride mostly resembled what you see above–brown-green hills with slush near the tracks–but a third of the ride made me feel like one of those professional photographers that only shoots in black and white because the landscape was covered with snow as far as the eye could see:

I wish I could convey to y’all the elevation at which these photos were taken and the extent to which the snow covered all that land, but since (1) I have practically no idea how to take good photos, (2) the train was moving so quickly and (3) you have no idea how challenging it is to attempt to eliminate your reflection from a photo, these pictures will have to suffice. After the train had descended from the mountains back to civilization, we were getting closer to Portland.

Life

POLITICS & STUFF | A FOOD REVIEW OF HAI HONG

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The Sun hired me as a politics writer but my blog is called “Politics & Stuff” so I’m technically allowed to write about the “Stuff” part! Here’s a food review of Hai Hong!! First, a little about the restaurant: Hai Hong is a family-owned Asian restaurant on 208 Dryden Road in Collegetown that’s been in business for 21 years. I will be reviewing 6 dim-sum foods based on 3 criteria: taste, presentation, and the “wow-factor”. 1) Water

Taste: Tasted like water

Presentation: In a nice glass so it couldn’t have been tap water

“Wow-factor”: Wow!

Life

TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Portland – Part 1: Summer

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This past August and December, my parents and I traveled to Portland, Oregon, where we ate like kings, dressed to kill and took a myriad of photos like the tourists we were. Due to this last fact, I am dividing my account of our Portland adventures into two blog posts–one about our summer exploits, and another about our winter shenanigans. The summer weather in Portland is very pleasant and reminds me of San Francisco: either sunny or overcast, but never hot. But before I get into what we actually did in Portland, I should tell you how we got there. In late June, my parents were talking about how they wanted to take Amtrak somewhere, anywhere really, to see beautiful landscapes while relaxing on a train.

Life

WHITE KNUCKLES | The Signs You Don’t Read

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This is an open letter, one that will never reach the addressee, the type of letter  that mostly benefits the author and maybe open some isolated, outcasted pairs of eyes. One of those that are not meant to be read, but meant to be written and spoken to strangers with familiar faces about familiar situations, one of those often charged with aggressive passivity, when maybe all they do is delineate a relationship between two people where names are not needed, where intimacy is beyond the point and from which no friendship will spring. I start and end with who I am, and in virtue of this identity of subject and writer I sketch the outline of who you are. To begin with, this is where I am from: a multitude of places, but – for the sake of this letter’s focus – from the self-sustaining micro-universe of a crowded dining hall. My face, I know you will not know, but maybe the colors will sound familiar – red speckled with a golden name tag, black over my hair.

Entertainment

TRAVELIN’ WITH JACQUELINE | Hand to God

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This week, I bring you all another event I attended through the charity of West Campus: Kitchen Theatre’s new play, Hand to God. For those of you (most of us), who aren’t familiar with this company, Kitchen Theatre is an organization in downtown Ithaca that performs plays in a small ninety-nine seat theater. Here’s an external view of Kitchen Theater, which you may recognize if you frequently ramble around the Commons:

I found this to be pretty cool because the smaller capacity ensures that everyone gets a good view of what’s happening onstage and produces a more informal atmosphere. Furthermore, before the play begins, the audience can help itself to an array of food that is provided by the company, an arrangement that encourages people to socialize with each other. You’re also actually allowed to bring the food into the theater with you, so you can chew while you view.

Business

THE DISMAL SCIENCE | Venezuela Can’t Feed Its Cats

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Long lines and empty shelves plague Venezuela’s grocery stores as its economic crisis shows no signs of stopping. Pets are also feeling the effects of the prolonged food shortages as residents are struggling to spare a single morsel, according to a report by CBS. The South American nation traditionally relies on foreign goods to stock its stores, but imports are down 40% from last year, according to a report by NPR. The reason for such a sharp cut is simple: the government is running out of money. It is easy to blame the problem on a worldwide slump in oil prices.