Assignment (4 stars)

This week, I met up with Victor Barethean for a nice lunch. I had never met Victor before, but I had heard of him during my time hosting the Edward Creeper Show. Victor seemed like a casual, laid-back individual when we first met at the local diner. After some short introductions, we began to look over the menu. I settled on a classic cheeseburger and fries, while he order a crab cake platter.

The food didn’t take too long to arrive, but we were both already starving before we even got there. I took a moment to savor the scene when the food first arrived. My cheeseburger looked very well prepared, and was topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheddar cheese, and mayonnaise, all served on a warm sesame seed bun. Victor’s crab cake platter looked just as good. It had two large crab cakes, along with some pieces of lettuce and tomato on the side. He also had some tarter sauce for dipping. There wasn’t any bread, but I’m sure he could of asked for some if he wanted it. Both of our meals with served with hot, crinkle cut fries, with ketchup for dipping.

We quickly dove in to our meals, not saying much in the process. My cheeseburger was cooked very well, and had a juicy (but not soggy) finish to it. Everything on it was proportional, so every bite had all of the ingredients in it. I didn’t taste Victor’s crab cakes, but he told me it had the perfect amount of crab meat and seasoning. We both commented that the fries were a bit undercooked, but they weren’t bad enough to be sent back.

I had debated on whether to order some apple pie after my meal, but we were both stuffed after finishing everything. After a few more minutes, we both were ready to depart. This was definitely one of the better meals I have had recently, and I’m glad I got to share the experience with someone else.

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For this assignment, I used my host character Edward Creeper, along with the Victor Barethean character of James Rives. It has been a bit challenging this week to find assignments that we could incorporate two characters in, so I was glad to find this assignment. It was also interesting to think about the kind of food that you eat in these situations, and to describe it in great detail.

I am so upset! Today was the day that Eve Winters and I had planned to go on a picnic in the park and Instagram is down! This is so disappointing now none of my social media friends will be able to see any photos from our picnic or the scrumptious meal we have prepared for lunch. However, I will describe to my DS106 class what exactly we ate for lunch. We laid down a plaid red and white blanket in the park, Eve brought a wooden type picnic box to carry our lunches in. Inside the picnic box were homemade chicken salad sandwiches, cheese, chips, dip, and water. Chicken salad is one of my favorites and the sandwich was delicious! I had my sandwich on toasted white bread that was cut on a horizontal angel (Eve doesn’t like toasted bread and had their sandwich cut down the center) The chicken salad had celery, mayonnaise, and grapes cut to a small size. The small grapes really added in atangy flavor but it was sooooo good! We had giant chunks of cubed American cheese placed in a container; we had lays original chips with French onion dip, and two 24oz bottles of Dasani water. Lunch was awesome and I really wish I could share my photos with you all.. But maybe next time!

I am not a fan of instagram. I AM a fan of assignments poking fun at instagram. I am not a fan of people describing food. I AM a fan of food in general though, so I figured I would have to compromise. Besides, the ol’ vocabulary could always use a workout, and this assignment was the perfect opportunity to dust off the thesaurus.

When the assignment said “you or your character”, I knew this assignment was good because it would help me expand upon my character, which I would otherwise be willing to leave more open-ended. I want my horror host to be from Alaska, but in a situation where he may have spent a lot of time alone. Thus, I put together a meal that a manly man might have in the absence of company, something purely for the body and not for society. The most stereotypical manly man meal is a hunk of meat, and the rest described as the same worn routine that is tolerable because tolerating self discomfort is what men do.

Have you ever had moose? For Morlium, it is a staple. For a man who sleeps with an axe by his bed, it is only fitting that he should eat the animal deadliest to humans.

The meat is the primary element of what is a routine for Morlium in the Alaskan Wilderness. Cooked over a wood stove, the meat certainly tastes gamey, somewhere between deer and beef, but definitely closer to deer. The chewey, well cooked outside covers the juicy, but still chewy inside of the morsel. Throw in the saltshaker and the seasoning of the stove, and the morsel makes a hearty, not half bad dish. On the side is a quantity of cabbage. The growing season in Alaska is short but intense. The long hours of summer sunlight help the crops compensate for the short summer season, and they certainly get big. It may not be tasty, but cabbage keeps for a long time if you store it correctly, and doesn’t change too much in flavor when frozen. Unfortunately, it didn’t taste too good when he first got it either. Still, if it isn’t part of the meal, the body will cry out for a source of ruffage. To supplement the meal is a slice of buttered bread and a glass of cranberry juice of some brand you never heard of. No wheat or fruits are grown within a two hundred mile radius, so it has to be imported into town at considerable expence, and for a considerable amount of time. The bread keeps well enough, and the slight stiffness of the slice is offset by the taste and feel of the warm butter. The cranberry juice has become more tart due to age, and contrasts sharply with the juicy moose meat. Alternating between the two helps reset the pallet in relation to the other.

Writing requires imagination, not just seeing and hearing people, but also feeling what they feel, and in this case, tasting what they taste. Truth be told, I barely remember the taste of moose, since I was so young when I last had it. The challenge was to bring in the details I did know while obfuscating the true taste through more general terms. Fortunately, years of reading news sources has lent me plenty of examples of how to do just that. With buzz words such as “gamey” and “ruffage”, you get to describe the meal while borrowing some of the reader’s own connotations for effect.

I could take a picture of my lunch. Did you want that pre or post consumption? Pre or post digestion?

Today, I had a moderately decent bibimbap from a food truck over on 13^th street. The hot and cold ingredients came in separate containers as well as a small side of kimchi. The bibimbap came with about a cup of sweet rice and spicy pork, which was cooks with some green vegetable I didn’t recognize and a whole fried egg.

The cold ingredients included grated radish, pickles, shredded carrot (okay sure) and sprouts. There was a small container of sriracha with the cold ingredients. To eat bibimbap you’re suppose to mix the cold and hot (or hot and hot sometimes) together and eat it as a big mchanganyiko.

That is precisely what I did. Everything went in the container except for the kimchi and I stirred and stirred with my chopsticks until it was well mixed. A taste, then another. It was missing something. Mmmm, sriracha – about half the container, just enough to give it a bit of a kick.

I’m not embarrased to admit I had downed the whole thing in about seven minutes. Then on to the kimchi. Uggh. Just wayyy too much salt. It made the pungent taste of the fermented cabbage taste just awful.

I have had exactly three types of kimchi. Good, way too spicy, and this stuff. For the price, I’ll probably go back but unless I’m contemplating suicide by blood pressure, I’ll pass of the kimchi.

[contact-form]

With Instagram down, I suppose it’s still my duty to inform my loyal audience of my most delicious meal. Fortunately for you all my literary chops have granted me the ability to give you what you’ve asked for!

I made myself a delicious pasta today, starting with a homemade tomato sauce seasoned with oregano, salt, pepper, basil, a little chili powder (and love <3). I let it all simmer for a while to get it mingling before I chopped up some raw beef and browned it in a pan. Before it got too comfy, I invited some onions to the party and let them get acquainted before combining the meat-veggie duo with the sauce of their dreams. Then came the pasta– a standard Penne. I started the water off with a splash of olive oil and some salt and once it came to a boil, BOOM, the whole box of pasta went in (I can’t let my roommates miss out on this, can I?).

Now, enough about the process. I’m sure you’re dying to know how it looked and tasted, right? Well, it was a mighty fine product I say. Imagine the noodles being perfectly tender as they cascade amidst the tomato sauce and Italian herbs. The noodle-y grooves of the Penne seemed to soak in the flavor and the chunks of beef and onion were molto bene, my friends.

For this Writing Assignment I am going to describe my favorite lunch that I have during the week. This is rated four stars!

For lunch I had a burrito bowl from Qdoba! I start out with the white rice that includes parsley and lime juice to add a little flavor to the bland rice and that is the basis for my bowl. With every bite of rice it is as if someone adds a spritz of lime into my mouth. Then I layer it with black beans for some good old protein. The beans juice add this dark color almost the same as black tea that gets soaked into the rice as well. I get some more protein by adding chicken that has been grilled with the outside layer having some charcoal flavor. It reminds of summer cooking on the grill.  I then add the mild cheese sauce. The sauce has green and red peppers and a hint of spice that makes you want to have it with every meal that you eat. I love the flavor of the cheese it seeps into the rice and it has a kick to it because I am not a big fan of too much spice. Then I add more to this flavor boat by getting the “fajitas.” The grilled veggies the highlight of my dish. The seasoning that have been soaked into my favorite vegetables are lightly glazed on top of the cheese. I add pico de gallo to give it a little traditional salsa flavoring. All of the colors warm my taste buds as I continue down the line to pile more onto my dish. Can you believe it? I’m not even done yet. I add shredded cheese because if you haven’t noticed by my description of the mild cheese sauce, cheese is a way of life for me. I then get lettuce just to pretend that all of this food is so healthy and by covering it up it will look like a “healthy salad.” I add the last two key ingredient to my lunch: sour cream and guacamole. This all put together is what makes me look forward to the day knowing that all my hard work will lead to this delicious lunch that I will never share with anyone else. The color of the dish when mixed together isn’t all that pretty mostly brown from the juices from the beans and the chicken.  When you take a bite the different flavors stick out and each bite has a different spice to make this the best meal of the day.