Meats, Fruits, Veggies and Holidays

OK, so it's been a pretty busy 24 hours.  It feels like forever since I last blogged.  Lessons learned since then?  Shopping in a different country is stressful.  Shopping with a woman is stressful.  Shopping with multiple women in a different country is unbearable.  There's a local grocery store about half the size of Kroger/King Soopers/Piggly Wiggly (whatever) and we all had to stock up on food for non-school-sanctioned meals and also for the progressive dinner we have in about two hours.  While shopping, I discovered that some people have very strong feelings about the percentage of fat in milk...VERY STRONG.  Unfortunately, Italian milk doesn't make it incredibly clear what percent the milk was, so it was a crap shoot, though from the amount of panicking involved, you'd think it was more similar to a game of Russian Roulette.

We had our first cooking lesson today.  The lady teaching it speaks only Italian and looks, and acts, like the love child of your mother and Meryl Streep (regardless of who your mother is, it works).  She'll be causally chatting at us in Italian for about five minutes before she stops to let the translator translate, which usually ends up being only a sentence.  I feel like we're missing something.  We made our own pasta, a local specialty known as Pici (Pee-CHee).  We also made a bread soup that was absolutely amazing, and, unlike with the pasta, when I say we I mean she.  So, SHE made an amazing bread soup, a meat stew thing that was spread over bread (it had five meats: chicken, beef, lamb, rabbit, and pork).  And, to finish the four and a half our lesson, we had a type of cookie/pastry made from essentially powdered almonds, powdered sugar, some oil (because unlike the excessive amounts of butter used in a certain someone's TV cooking show that may or may not have lead to her recent diagnosis of diabetes, we use only massive amounts of olive oil here in Italy) and orange extract.  Back to the oil point, we literally polished off an entire bottle of olive oil during this meal.  The bread soup was oil based (with beef broth added) and served with oil drizzled onto it, the bread over which the meat thing was served was soaked in oil before being baked, the pasta sauce (which supposedly was a white sauce since we didn't use tomatoes, even though they added tomato paste (for color...red, not white...crazy Italians)) was oil based.  I guess Momeryl wanted to keep the intestines well greased.

Meanwhile, the nation of Italy is celebrating the end of WWII, well more specifically the day the Allies freed the nation from fascists.  We sort of stumbled into a parade (on right, sorry about the poor quality, it was the only way to get it to upload in under an hour a better version is here), an around a major soccer game (which was an absolutely electrifying experience, even just hearing the crowd) and narrowly avoided a demonstration in the Piazza (per the contract we signed prior to our trip saying that we will not attend riots, demonstrations, or any similar conglomerations of natives).

A brief rundown of some cool facts about meat, fruits and veggies (two classes, four hours, over 100 powerpoint slides, and 20 pages of notes):

• Myoglobin, a relative of hemoglobin (the molecule responsible for oxygen transport in the blood) temporarily stores oxygen in muscle cells, giving meat its red coloring.  The greater the need for oxygen, the more myoglobin, and the redder the meat.
• Animal stress before death causes poorer quality meat, since muscle cells use their energy stores prior to death, decreasing the amount of lactic acid in the meat after death which allows microbial activity (faster spoilage) and decreases the amount of water (dryer and tougher meat).
• Butchers hang meat to counteract the effects of rigor mortis (weird to think that your food also clenches up like a dead body on CSI)
• Green beans, cucumber, corn, and tomatoes are all technically fruit despite the 1890 US Supreme court ruling that tomatoes are veggies because they are "usually served with dinner, in, with, or after soup, fish, or meat, which constitutes the principle part of the repast, and not, like fruits, served as dessert."  Shockingly, just because the government said so, doesn't make it true.  
• We think of rhubarb as a fruit though it's actually a vegetable.
• Apple juice is brownish because the enzymes released during juicing cause browning (similar to browning of an actual apple) of the liquid.
• Don't refrigerate avocados, bananas, or citrous fruits because they will stop ripening, brown, and turn spotty, respectively.
• The amount of tissue damage done when cutting an onion determines the amount of volatile sulfur compounds that are released, so use a sharper knife, and chill the onion prior to cutting it to save yourself some tears.

Sorry for such a long post. There was just so much to say!  Cheers to the daily adventure.  Here are a few pictures till next time.

Eggs and Rain

It's a rainy day here in Siena and, of course, I forgot to pack my umbrella.  So I'm now the proud new owner of a 3 Euro blue plaid umbrella.  Either way, today has been an eye opener.  Human beings are incredible at adapting, perhaps too much so.  I was walking to class and then realized that I wasn't impressed.  These millenia old buildings and amazing landscapes were just part of the common backdrop.  Granted, as soon as I realized that I was just falling into a habit, I realized how amazing this place is, but it was a scary thought that less than 24 hours in this place and I was already beginning to take it for granted.  On the flip side, I found my way back to my apartment from the Piazza without getting lost for the first time.  Anyways, as I'm actually here to take a class, I figured that I'd keep you all updated on some of the cool facts we learn about the science of cooking.  We spent two hours learning about eggs.  How they're made, how they're cooked, what forms they can take once cooked, etc.  So here goes, fun facts about eggs:

• they're older than the chicken by about a billion years, as animals were using eggs to reproduce long before the chicken evolved.
• an egg is laid blunt end first
• some farmers add marigold petals to the hen's diet to enhance the yellow color of the yolk
• USDA grading system is an approximation of the quality of the egg when it is first collected, prior to shipment and selling
• If an egg floats in water, it's rotten
• if you're making a suffle, you can open the door of the oven as long as you close it quickly and without jostling the suffle

If you have other questions about eggs, please feel free to ask, I literally have 8 pages of notes on eggs, which is condensed from around 50 or so powerpoint slides... This afternoon we'll be learning about meat, so there's that to look forward to. Cheers to the daily adventure.

Into Siena

OK, so I made it to Siena, Italy in one piece!  It's about 9 PM here and just chilling on the couch in our pretty cold apartment enjoying better internet than I've had in the past 3 years.  The past two days feel like one really long one, but isn't that the way it always is when you fly?  Back in Atlanta, a few friends and I hit up the public zoo, only to realize that zoo designers have clearly never actually visited one as a tourist.  I don't care what foliage an animal needs to survive, do not put it in front of the stupid glass pane I'm supposed to look through to see the animal.  Any kid who has played Zoo Tycoon for longer than an hour knows this, they also know that dinosaurs are real and can be zoo exhibits, but that's beside the point. 
Anyways,  I peaced out of Hotlanta for Rome, with a pretty brief stop in Chicago (everyone please look at your maps and realize that I had to fly away from Italy before I could fly to Italy, maybe there's a reason the airlines keep declaring bankruptcy...).  Anyhow, after an incredibly long flight filled with two delicious meals (well done American Airlines) and a silent animated movie about two birds that may or may not have turned into people in a parade in Rio (I was dozing in and out), I landed in beautiful Roma.  Well, technically, just outside of beautiful Roma at Airoporto Leonardo de Vinci.  A sleepy bus ride up the country side, filled with sheep, goats, and alpacas (maybe llamas, but alpaca sounds cooler) and we were in Siena.  This is Siena:

We had dinner in the plaza:

And meandered Siena for a while, doing a pretty good job at getting lost...

Last comment before I go pass out...Italians have magic cars.  Some of the tight streets they get their cars down and parking jobs that seem pretty impossible imply that their cars must come with some magic abilities.  Moreover, not a single one was scratched, thus proving that their is witchcraft in the wheels.  Cheers to the daily adventure.

Atlanta...again

It's the end of my last full day in the US for the next month, SO EXCITED!  I've been on Spring Break for the past few days and it's been a far cry from an MTV special.  I spent the first half organizing my room and playing halo with some fraternity brothers.  The past few days, I've made a triumphant return to the heart of the south, Atlanta.  I've spent most of my time eating (shocker) in a part of town called Decatur which, as one of my friends described is for "hipsters and lesbians."  As potentially offensive as that description was, Decatur has been pretty awesome.  There are some pretty cool restaurants and I've had the best sandwich, bison burger, and cupcake of my life...which is quite a lot of best foods for only 3 days.  For those headed to Atlanta, Ted's has a great bison burger.  A restaurant called Which Wich, which doesn't exist in Colorado, New Mexico, or Virginia, has amazing sandwiches.  They have these brown bags with boxes to check off of what you want then you hand it to the staff, they make it, and give it back IN THE BROWN PAPER BAG!  Well, it's the small things in life.  Anyways, this other restaurant called Taco Mac serves the best...wings?  Absolutely!  There's a nifty, story about two guys who bought a taco stand with all the money they had and sold wings and beer but couldn't afford to change the sign.  OK, not that interesting of a story, but it embodies the American spirit.  Anyways they serve good wings and burritos, I guess they figured they couldn't be called Taco Mac and not serve Mexican food.  Also, there's this place called The Chocolate Bar and it is exactly what it sounds like.  A bar that sells only chocolate and chocolate drinks!  Overpriced, but literally amazing.  Meanwhile, I'm prepping for Italy, and the plan is to avoid leaving anything behind including, but not limited to: cell phone charger, computer charger, shoes, or passport.  Cheers to the daily adventure.

The Beginning

I'm sitting in the Roanoke airport.  It is essentially a hallway with a a few doors that supposedly lead to the airplanes.  I got through security with 100% of my dignity in tact in under 5 minutes!  Well done TSA, well done.  I ran into an alumni of my fraternity at the airport, in fact, it looks like we might be sharing a flight.  Random coincidences of life.

I know that at this point, I should be getting excited about Italy, but for some reason it still does not seem that real.  This flight is headed down to Atlanta, where I will stay for a few days and give a presentation at a psychology conference on aging.  And then I leave from Atlanta straight to Sienna.  Though, despite my mental block on being excited about my upcoming trip, everything I've heard over the past few days suggests that Sienna is an absolutely amazing town.  Apparently, it's tucked away on a hill in Tuscany, about half an hour south of Florence.  Places I've been told I NEED to see:  The cathedrals in both Sienna and Florence, the Piazza in Sienna.  Places I've been told to avoid: Naples.  At all costs, I'm supposed to avoid Naples.  It is supposedly, the birth place of the mafia, and home to some of the sketchiest and most dangerous people.  So it is safe to say that I will be avoiding Naples.  Adventure is ideal, but stupidity is not my style.  Alright, we're boarding.  I'll keep in touch.  Here's to the daily adventure.

Hotlanta

Ahhhh, Atlanta!  Home of the Braves, Coke, and probably other stuff too.  So I'm looking for another distraction from studying for finals.  Since, for some reason, I have no desire to do physics, I'll take a moment or two to blog about another daily adventure from choir tour 2012 in Atlanta. 

By the time our tour bus rolled into the ATL, the forty of us had spent quite a few hours with each other.  Nerf gun wars had been waged on the bus, ended abruptly by one of the darts hitting the driver.  Concerts had come and gone, with varying degrees of success.  But, we were ready to stay in one city for a bit longer than a night.  Atlanta meant 3 days in one place, one free day, and no more homestays.  We pulled up to the hotel, and Ernest, our driver, pulled this giant tour bus into this deceptively small driveway in front of the hotel, much to the dismay of the lobby staff.  Some security guard came running out looking as if we had literally set fire to the hotel, and begins to bang on the doors of the bus.  "You...you...you can't park here!  Are you sure you're even at the right hotel?"  Yeah, it was going to be that kind of stay.  The following few nights, we learned that the walls in this hotel were so thin and our fellow patrons so irritable that if you were to watch a basketball game and cheer at roughly 10 PM, the lobby staff was called to berate you.  Amid threats of being kicked out, we all promised to try harder to be quiet next time (I think we totaled something around 12 complaints between the 10 or so rooms we had booked).  The hotel staff agreed that this was a bit ridiculous and begged us to do nothing but sleep in our rooms and to keep any activity other than simply breathing to the lobby.  Fair enough, if you want 40 college kids chilling in your ultra-swanky lobby, by all means, we'll accommodate you.

Our day off in Atlanta, a group of four decided to hit both Coke-World and the Aquarium, quite a task to accomplish within only 4 hours.  Obviously we started with coke.  The lines were short but the buzz was great.  There was a room where you could try 48 different flavors of Coke: challenge accepted.  We tried cokes from Europe (a brand from Italy, Stoney or something is absolutely terrible).  Cokes from Asia were just about as weird as expected.  African coke was pretty high quality surprisingly, but clearly no one does coke like South America.  By the time we got to the final station, the North American coke, my teeth literally hurt but not as much as stomach.  Coke really is rough on your body.  But, we were triumphant!  And for our efforts?  We got a hug from a creepy polar bear and a free glass bottle of coke.

By the time we came down from Coke world, we were exhausted, but we still had the aquarium to do.  Our aquatic adventure began with music theater WITH DOPLPHINS!  An indoor amphitheater with a giant fish tank played host to the story of Star-spinner, a cross between Jack Sparrow and Lady Gaga.  I think, and I'm not really sure since the drunk guy behind me kept yelling at the dolphins to jump, that the plot was essentially that our hero's ship sunk so he used dolphins to kill some alien people and stole their ship and used it and some audience-based magic to bring his ship up from the depths.  Audience-based magic?  Oh, yes, we were asked to help by singing "higher, higher raise it higher" and "from the depths, it will rise."  It wasn't our best performance, the drunk guy really brought us down.  The rest of the aquarium was pretty cool, but a lot less magical than our adventure with star-spinner. 

Overall, Atlanta was pretty cool.  Nothing was as awesome, though, as the food from The Varsity.  The staff was a little scary, I felt bad that I didn't know exactly what I wanted to eat when I got to the counter.  But it worked out.  If you ever wondered why "the obesity epidemic" has struck the American South so hard, eat at The Varsity and understand.  Comprehend, that in its greasy, fatty glory, the Varsity is both addictive and slowly promoting Type II diabetes.

Alright, back to Electricity and Magnetism.  Cheers to the daily adventure.

Huntington, West Virginia

OK, so I'm taking a well deserved study break to write a little bit about my experience in Huntington, West Virginia on choir tour.

In February, roughly 40 college aged hooligans set out on a tour of the American South.  Our first stop?  Huntington, West Virginia, home of Marshall College.  We gave a quick concert at a Methodist Church and got our home stays.  Having done a few home stays, I had the image of the typical homestay family in my mind.  A happy, relatively warm couple in their late 60's who appreciate the arts, God, and miss their children.  What we got instead?  College kids.  Incredibly nice, slightly flamboyant music majors.  My mind was blown.

The night began with one of our hosts saying "Oh no, don't drive us through the meth district.  Oh look, there's another coke ho."  The night ended with a trip to a "club" (a 15 X 20 room) named something akin to "the floundering whale" and to Jimmy John's (they're open until 4AM).  In between those experiences, we talked music and choir tours with our hosts and participated in a "game?" that involved everyone singing a random note and then resolving the chord.

So Huntington, WV: music, coke ho's, and floundering whales.  Here's to the daily adventures.