first days at the culinary institiute of america

After moving in on Sunday night, the next day was a very informative tour of the Culinary Institute of America campus, which I had never seen before my arrival. The next few days we have spent going through many, many orientation sessions. What I can say about this part of upstate NY is that i is cold. However, this is my California attitude, as this whole winter has been unseasonably warm and everyone keeps telling me how lucky I am, as last winter there was at least 2 feet of snow at this time. Well. That's a good thing because I never did get around to buying those snow boots I really meant to, and I did bring my ski jacket that makes me look a little like the Michelin man...but i guess that's one of the benefits of no longer living in Los Angeles? Now I get to wear big, figure-eating chef pants that will (hopefully) hide the weight I will undoubtedly gain from being surrounded by terrific food.

Well, most of the food is terrific!
The fun part about being at a culinary school is that whenever you get fed, you automatically get to be really critical of what you are eating because other students have prepared it for you, and actually want your feedback, as opposed to a normal restaurant where you are a little worried that they will spit in your food. Your risotto came out cold? Tell someone! Underdone johnny cakes? tell anyone you want. Its a little addicting. I suppose next time I am in a normal restaurant I will have to watch myself.

Its actually very good food for the most part. My friends and I have been learning some tips along the way from the older students, aka: "Don't go to that kitchen for dinner. Those students are newer. If you eat a hamburger there it will DEFINITELY be raw". I mean I learned this after I had already picked up food from that kitchen, the good part being I don't eat meat, so I was not going to die from the undercooked johnny cake, but now I knew better.

Along with cooking classes, I will have to take "culinary math", catering principles, product identification, hospitality, and an introductory freshman class. These all start next week, but luckily we get our knives tomorrow. And, those smart folks at the CIA, they have already told us that we really should engrave our knives (engraver provided by school) which I think is very practical so that they don't get mixed up/stolen.

Throughout my time during orientation, I keep thinking back to when I started at UCLA four years ago. I really laughed during one info session talking about tutoring in the tutoring lab. At UCLA, this would usually mean writing, some high level math class, or organic chemistry (which I heard is nearly impossible to figure out on your own). However, in addition to writing and math help at the CIA, you can literally walk into the tutoring lab and ask for some potatoes or onions and have them help you practice your knife cuts/skills. I think of the high tech labs at UCLA being over run by small-dice carrots and kids at the computers crying as the air fills with onion fumes. Well, it made me laugh at least.

And now, some photos:

Corsica!

After my time in the largest city in France, arriving in Corsica was somewhat unexpected and refreshing. I landed at the Ajaccio airport, which is really tiny and my plane was mostly made up of locals, as it seemed. After waiting for my bags to arrive, I took the bus to the city center. But before the bus could leave, however, the driver-lady (wearing almost high-heel boots and scarf, no less) had to have her cigarette and so did a few of the other passengers. This should have given me and early warning about the pace in Corsica, which is unapologetically slow.


Jacky's apartment belongs to an older divorcee from Paris, which is very cute, small, and looks out on an extremely corsican view: into other apartments with lots of hanging laundry. Corsica overall looks a lot like Southern California. There are lots of oak trees, olive trees and shrubby plants. There are also a ton of fig trees, which is very good for people like jacky and I, that can't get enough of them and get looks from the locals while scouting out good ones.


Since it is a holiday week in Corsica, called "Toussaints" or "All Saints" day, which is Monday, Jacky and another "assistant" at the Corsican school were amazing enough to arrange a 5 day hike across Corsica. We met up at with another assistant, Sara, at her apartment in Porto Vecchio, which is closer to the trailhead. The trail that we chose to do was the "Mare a Mare Sud" which is a pretty popular one, but mostly during the summer. Now that it is towards the end of the season for hiking, we had to make sure that all the "gites", or small hostel/hotels were open. The Mare a Mare Sud winds from gite to gite with about 5 to 6 hours of walking in between each day. Once at the gite, the four of us girls were given a dorm/hostel room, and then immediately after we would shower off all the dirt and then usually compare how smelly our clothes were. Then dinner was served family style to all the hikers at the gite, usually around 7:30 (all the gites seemed to agree on this point, for some reason). Some of the dinners were amazing, like Corsican ricotta stuffed eggplant, chevre pop-overs, and local salads. Two of us being vegetarian, it was never a problem, except one time we did have to enjoy a main course of plain buttered pasta...but usually the gite owners were more than happy to accommodate us, and we never went hungry (or thirsty, there was always plenty of Corsican table wine).

Each day's hike was very interesting in its own right. Some days, there were many steep, winding uphill trails that really challenged our athletic ability ("well I thought I was in shape!"). There were also times that challenged our determination, as on the third day it decided to rain on us for the last two hours of the hike, on the longest walking day of the trail. Arriving at the gite that night, we all looked something of a mess! But luckily that gite owner had an inviting fire going for all the hikers to dry their socks and boots, and also served some amazing broth-y vegetable soup before dinner to warm us all up. Other days, we saw a dead wild pig's head, severed cow's foot, a cow that followed us down a path, walnut trees, and about a million chestnuts (I will never buy them again, they're basically carpet in corsica).


Hiking in Corsica is definitely something that I would recommend, as you get to see some really interesting towns and a slice of Corsican life that you would miss out on if you just stuck to the bigger cities. You also get to experience some really corsican and delicious food. My favorite is a type of cheese here called "tomme". A few gites would serve it with dried fig or locally made fig-compote after the meal. Somehow, now matter how much we had eaten for dinner we were always ready to have more cheese (and bread). There are also many locally made aperitifs and liquors, which include corsican flavors such as chestnut, myrrh, and ambrose. When we asked what ambrose is at the farmer's market, the corsican liquor salesman replied, "well its a fruit, thats from here" (in french), which seems to happen a lot in Corsica. Things are just very traditional, and you don't really ask why. Another tradition in Corsica is that everything closes at lunchtime, even sometimes the cafes that sell lunch. Maybe its my American capitalist attitude, but I just keep thinking how someone could make a lot of money in Corsica with a grocery shop that is open between 12:30 and 3:30pm...

everyday life

These are some photos of daily life in Oberemmel. We discovered a game at the local bar called "hammer and nails". This is the game: nail a nail with the claw end of a hammer, into a stump. Yes, real tree stump, in a bar. I asked Herve, our winemaker, homeowner, guide, etc, if we WWOOF'ers could have a stump and some nails so that we could all become really good and "hammer und nails" and then win all the games at the bar. Cause its certainly easier to practice that than foosbal.

This is some cake that Bridget gave us today as snack in Oberemmel. 

our sign

this is not ketchup

A NOTE ABOUT KETCHUP: in Germany, ketchup is not ketchup, is not ketchup. This is a classic example. Sometimes, at restaurants, Germans do not think of the difference between curry ketchup and reg ketchup. This is shown in this photo from the grocery store here. Here are some more ketchups:

Also, salsa here is called "mexico sauce". Yeah...

Herve special ordered for me some "black beans" so I could make mexican food for dinner next week, after I come home from Munchen. This is the conversation:

"I need black beans and cumin, and corn and smallish tortillas of course" (to make enchiladas)

"So the beans. They are totally black?"

"yeah...?"

"I have never seen those. We have cumin."

"Well, I guess I could use kidney beans...I mean, people in CA would kill themselves before using kidney beans. We hate those."

"So they are not peas, like black-eyed peas?'

"no, not at all'

"okay, I see what i can do. And these tortillas? Not like hard tacos?"

"No..no not at all. Maybe i just make "AMERICAN NACHOS?"

"NO no, i ask at the markt"

Because its silly, but I would like them to try some better mexican ish food. They don't believe me that much that TEX-MEX is not MEXICAN food. Not even that one is more "authentic" just that they are different. I guess that would be like here, telling me the German food is different from region to region. I would just say, but its all just schtzinel, right?! Just kidding. Its mostly cheese-bread. Running joke in the household. 

hazelnuts in the raw! JUM!

Local beer. Das ist gut. 

Bonn and Oberemmel (home)

On Friday we went to Bonn, which is the 19th largest city in Germany (thanks wikipedia) and was also the capitol of the west until 1998. Bonn is pretty big, especially compared to the town which we came from, Rech, which is really small (and 80% wine shops?)...

Bonn was about a 50 minute train ride on the DB Bahn train, which is the major train line around here. They are much much nicer than any american train lines I have been on. After we got off the train, I was able to buy a cell phone that you just add money too. Thank God for my new friend here who speaks fluent German! or else I would be doing a lot more pointing and waving and charades to get things around here. 

Bonn's main attraction, or claim to fame as it were, is the Beethoven house. Its where Ludwig lived until he moved to Austria, and then never was able to return to Bonn again. Its a old apartment-type thing with extremely squeaky floors, but it is well worth the student price to get in (always have your bruin card!). You even see his death mask! Ooo.

Milena waits for me to stop taking photos

After that, we had a meal that I can't really compare to anything else I have ever had. I think the words "German Mexican Restaurant" really sum it up. 

 

I think "Quesadilla Caprese" "Mexican Pizza" are the warning signs. Also how is there a taco pizza?...

Veggie "burrito" (read: wrap with beans)

On our way home to Rech, we made a quick pit stop in Oberwinter, which is just a really small town with no particular qualities, except that you can buy champagne in a can, and then watch the Rhine river which flows next to it (guess what we did...) Then it was back to Rech, which was having a little festival/community wine tasting "fete". We sampled a few, and then bought the cheapest bottle (americans!) and then it was time to go back to Oberemmel. 

The next day we worked on the vineyard in Oberemmel, which is home base. The vineyards here are really steep! I was told this was normal, and I said that in California if the land isn't perfectly level, we either make it level (more dramatic) or just let it go and have our normal sage bushes grow all over it (more lazy/normal). So at first this made me a little wary, but it makes for really great views while working!