OxFam Hunger Banquet

Anne, John, Ben, Dale, Jennifer, and Michelle joined the Avila social work club for a poverty simulation - the Oxfam sponsored hunger banquet.  Each participant is assigned a role, based on the proportion of folks in the real world.  Anne, John and Dale were lucky enough to be middle class, while Jennifer, Ben, Michelle and I were assigned to the lower class.  None of us was assigned to the elite class - though we noted that, in reality, EVERYONE of us belongs to that category if you look at those categories from a world-wide perspective.  While the elite class was served a full meal, including fresh salad, meat, and bread, the middle class folks ate rice and beans.  After both of those groups were served, a large pan of plain rice was put in the middle of the floor - where we lower classes were seated.  We all served ourselves.   It was kind of funny when Michelle asked Ben to get her the salt shaker from the table of the upper class - oops! that was a no-no and they were quickly put back in their place.  Of course, the exercise serves to remind us of the real world situation in which a very few eat very well, while many others go hungry.  Ben and I were going to hit the Subway after the exericse, but fortunately, at the end, we got to eat some of the rice and beans and salad that was leftover.  I was happy to do so - as I was hungry - but, also, because I've thought more and more about food waste since our last class. 

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving - and when you are giving thanks, I'm sure that we will remember how great it is to have all this good food that others can not obtain.





Dale and John (Middle Class) ate rice and beans




Michelle helps her self to plain unseasoned rice



Food&Culture Students thank their Korean guest

A message the class posted on Culture Complex Facebook page, thanking          이종수, who was our guest from Seoul, South Korean on Friday night via video chat.

Korean BBQ at Chosun BBQ

Cooking thinly sliced marinated meat on a grill table.

Many small side dishes to eat with rice and BBQ

The class went to Chosen BBQ restaurant to sample Korean BBQ and Bibimbop for the vegetarians in the class.  You cook the meat at your table on a grill, then cut the meat into small pieces with scissors.  You can eat the meat by itself or wrap it in lettuce leaves with sauce or small portions of the various side dishes. We also sampled a soybean soup.

The Future of Food

The theme of our weekend was to look at some issues in food, water and food packaging and noting the changes in agricultural food production to an industrialized, global production model.  While we have an abundance variety of cheap and convenient foods in America, we hope to be mindful of the inherent problems such as food waste, starvation, pollution from plastics and other chemicals in this system, and health consequences.  The students learned about the Pacific garbage patch - one of the ocean vortex's that captures the tons of plastic debris which washes into the water each year.  Since it does not decompose, only breaks into smaller pieces, it remains in the water and is frequently eaten by seabirds and other marine animals.

The plastic debris on the left below was taken from the bird's stomach

Remember there are lots of people and organizations working to solve these issues in ways big and small every day.  

From Seoul, South Korean

이종수

In preparation for Saturday's trip to a Korean restaurant, the students spoke to 이종수 (pronounced EE Jong Soo) by video chat from the Culture Complex coffee shop in Seoul, South Korean.  이종수 was charming, entertaining, and very informative.  He talked about common Korean foods, fast food in Korea, his favorite American foods, hunger and obesity in Korea, and Korean drinking habits from coffee to soju.

Student Food History Presentations

We start off the weekend with another great round of student presentations, ranging from the history of wheat, kale and avocados to M&Ms and Spam.  We had samples of fresh kale (yummy) and kale chips (hum, not sure about those!), Catherine's tasty guacamole, one of my favorites M&Ms.  I'd have to say that Chad outdid himself with an interesting presentation on KC BBQ accompanied by Oklahoma Joe's BBQ for the entire class!  Can that be considered bribing your professors?

Food in Film

By far the most surprising reaction to my food in film lecture was to the raw egg scene in Tampopo.  I could not resist giving you another image from that interesting Japanese movie.  Enjoy your breakfast!

Shatto Dairy Trip

The class traveled to Shatto Dairy - a local dairy farm which bottles their own milk and also makes cheese, butters, and ice cream products.  Leroy Shatto, one of the owners of Shatto (along with his wife - an AVILA alum!) gave us a tour of the farm.  Students saw the milking operation, the calf barn, and the bottling plant.  Mr. Shatto was a wonderful host who patiently answered the students' many questions.  It was a real lesson in locally owned, small scale farming.  Leroy's obvious passion, dedication to his job, and wonderful sense of humor made the day.  We taste tested Shatto's flavored milks (banana, strawberry, chocolate, root beer, coffee, and pumpkin spice eggnog) together with a sampling of butters and great cheeses.  Some of the students even tried their hand at milking a cow by hand.  Professor Winter had given us an overview of Shatto's award winning product packaging which Mr. Shatto discussed with the students.

My favorite photo - a future Avila student

And a few shots from the trip.

A New Edition to Shatto Dairy

Wow - the class got more than we bargained for when one of the cows at the dairy went into labor, allowing us to witness the birth of a calf.  Leroy Shatto, one of the owners, said they will name the new edition to Shatto  "Avila"  Welcome to the world Avila.

Here's a great photo from Tina of the mom and her newborn calf.

Food Packaging

Professor Winter gave the class lots to think about in his lecture on food packaging design.  Fonts, colors, shapes - unfortunately, it will now take me twice as long to shop at the grocery store, as I peruse the packages.  Here are two interesting ones.  I'm a sucker for the beautiful packages.  Good thing I do most of my shopping at the farmer's market -not much packaging there.

Can you guess what it is?

Cute Baby Food Jars - it's the mouth and eyes that got me

Food HIstory Presentations - Fri night

From the exotic Balut to the mundane potato, students presented a history of their chosen food.  Special shout out to Summar's father who took the time to make Knafeh for the entire class.  This is an Arabic dessert that combines a shredded pastry, special cheese, honey syrup and ground pistashios - here's a look after we tore into it.

Tasty Vegan Food

Eric and I ventured to Fud on 17th and Summit with Michelle, Marcus and Susan.  No animal products are used in this food, so things like cheese and ice cream are made from nuts.  The reuben sandwich looked just like corned beef, but was made from jackfruit.  The food was pretty tasty - some items more popular than others.  Notice the presentation of the food.  We'll learn in class that taste is heavily influenced by sight, making food design important to the eating experience.   Here are some photos - with a surprise.

Says alot about my partner that he can handle this surprise so graciously.

Trip to Pho Hoa

Thanks to Anne Kwon for suggesting this wonderful restaurant at 1447 Independence Ave in KC - Spike Nguyen, the owner was a fabulous host.  Several of us had the Vietnamese soup - Pho - which is so flavorful and tasty and fresh.  We also sampled appetizers from dumplings to spring rolls to a fried sweet potato and shrimp dish.  Marcus and Michelle tested the steak and rice dishes.  Then Spike brought us samples of iced Vietnamese coffee - so yummy- and one of the sandwiches - wow, very flavorful.  I learned so much about Vietnamese cuisine from Spike, including the Chinese and French influences of its dishes.

Pho

Spike talking to our students

Chosen Korean BBQ

Eric and I sampled some Korean BBQ to set up our November class trip.  We wanted to grill at the table and taste all the side dishes (Banchan) including Kimchi (김 치)   You grill the meat, take a small piece and wrap it in lettuce leaf with any of the sides and pop it in your mouth.  There is also rice that you can eat with or without the side dishes.

김 치

Eric enjoying BBQ

John's Recommendation

 From the Market Grill - John says these are delicious.

Does anyone know what this is?

Fresh Food at Chinatown Market

Among the many interesting sights at the Chinatown market were displays of fresh produce and tanks of live seafood.

Jackfruit

Live Crabs

Italian Market

Sherri insisted we stop by the Italian market - and we found these olives displayed in barrels.  Although they were lined in plastic, it did remind the students of the traditional wooden barrels from the morning's lecture on packaging and storage history.

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Al-Habashi Market

Students got a look at a Middle Eastern market - and decided to take some samples with them.

John and Anne digging in

Catherine getting the scoop

An interesting example of packaging - nuts in a glass jar packed in honey.  A very artistic presentation.  Professor Winter approves.

Blue Nile Restaurant

The class ate lunch at the Blue Nile Restaurant in the City Market.  The owner, Daniel, gave a wonderful talk about Ethiopian culture and cuisine.  The food was great, and all the students came to the table with an adventurous appetite.

Injera (bread) with various traditional tastes

I was so busy eating and drinking that wonderful mango juice, I forgot to take photos of the class.  If anyone has some pics - please email them to Eric or me.

Memphis - Food

I'm in Memphis, Tennessee for a couple of days with my husband.  Thought I'd do some "field research" for the course!  The evening we arrived, we tried the famous dry rub Memphis BBQ - different from KC BBQ. The ribs  are covered with the "rub" which is dry and sort of the texture of sawdust.  It tastes great, but I'm still a fan of KC sauce rather than dry rub.  

In the morning we had breakfast at Brother Juniper's - tiny spot near the University of Memphis campus where we are staying.  Great omlets - everything is served with grits, of course.  They have an open faced omlet where the filling is served on the top of the eggs instead of inside.  Mike had the cheese grits and biscuits with his omlet for a real southern breakfast.

Open faced omlet - cheese grits on the side

Grits and Veggie Omlet

Went to the Cooper-Young Historic District while Mike was working - reading a great book about sugar and slavery - while hanging out at the Imagine Vegan Cafe.  So even in the midst of southern comfort food - which is big on meat - there are plenty of options.  Here's my healthy lunch:  veggie soup and salad

Tonight Mike and I went to the Soul Fish Cafe for catfish.  He had the traditional fried catfish with hush puppies and pickled green tomatoes.  I had the blackened catfish with sweet potato fries and cornbread.

Fried catfish and hush puppies are foods that Mike's grandmother cooked many times, so these are good examples of traditional foods that are still popular in many places in the U.S. but perhaps especially in the southern regions.