hungrytravelerswelcome

This past semester in Florence I was challenged to write my first research papers. Since having my high school education in many different countries I was never really had the opportunity to right a research paper. This new experience was challenging with my first paper but I believe that I am beginning to get use to it. My latest paper has been about functional foods and whether or not they actually hold any nutritional benefit. If they did hold any nutritional value what good could they do? Functional food is food that has additional vitamins added to it. Normally different juices, or cereals will promise health benefits to the consumer. The problem within this is the fine print. While it does say it has more health benefits they are an extremely small amount. For instance, quaker oatmeals cereal says that their product helps to lower cholesterol. This is caused by an “increased amount of fiber in their food.” Once reading the find print we discover that the quaker oatmeal only contains a third of the daily amount of fiber to  reduce heart disease. Another example would be grape juice. While we think it is 100% juice as, said on the label, it actually contains more sugar than a candy bar.  These functional foods are clearly a bundle of lies used as a marketing scheme for companies to sell more products. One of the problems that I have met in writing this paper was a difficulty in finding good sources from which I could quote. Luckily, I had some help from my professor, Dr. Campisi, who helped me to find a couple of good articles which helped me to revamp my paper. At the moment I am close to being done and I look forward to reading over the final product.  

Click to access Condiments%20as%20Weapon%20Against%20Malnutrition%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf

One of my favorite classes this semester was my topics of nutrition class. In topics of nutrition we are educated about promoting a healthy lifestyle. This is arguably the most important class. As we start our lives in the world we will forever hold a basic knowledge as to how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. One of my favorite foods that we made in this class was the risotto with seafood. The seafood included fresh mussels and clams from the market. We prepared the mussels and clams by first washing them and them and them putting them into a vacuum bag and then into a pot of boiling water.  This helps us to create a brine which is later used for reducing the risotto. We then removed the meat from the clams and oyster and set them aside. The risotto was mad by reducing white wine, vegetable stock and the brine we had made previously. Once the risotto was done we mixed in cooked clams and oysters. The next step of making the dish is plating the food. Plating the food is one of the most important parts of cooking. It stresses the importance of the aesthetics of cooking.  We learned to do this by bringing the elements of the food that was already incorporated into the dish as well as adding color to make it interesting. After putting the risotto into a bowl we added the shells of the clams we used. We then added some bean sprouts on the top to add more color. This dish is probably the best food I have ever tried in my life. Hopefully I can recreate it someday.

This past week I went to the christmas fair with Aaron Tod. The christmas fair is an annual fair here in florence that happens during December. Open almost all day long it is home to a variety of stands each featuring traditional food from different countries. almost everyone of these stands allows you to experiment with the different foods. We stopped by one place that sold different flavored chocolates. We tried different chocolates that all had different flavors although most of them were fruit flavored. Aaron ended up buying three different kinds but I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between them. Afterwards we stopped to get hot wine and apple cider. Hot wine was something I was very excited to try since I hadn’t had any since I hadn’t had it since I was in Brazil. In Brazil there is an annual June festival where they have a variety of different festival foods and drinks. The hot wine is a necessity at every Brazilian June festival. Aaron didn’t enjoy the hot wine as much as I did so he decided to get the hot apple cider. Afterwards we were feeling a bit hungry so we walked around looking for food. We saw stands with german sausage, pig roast, grilled potatoes, and greek food. We stopped to get greek food. He got a greek yogurt with honey and I decided on a gyro. While in line I was lucky to run in to a couple of women visiting from Portugal. We had a very interesting conversation about the food in Portugal compared to the food in Italy. They talked about how they missed the fresh foods in Portugal but were happy to have the opportunity to try new foods. After we ate, talked, and said our goodbyes Aaron and I went to try and interesting balsamic vinegar for dessert. It was a truffle honey balsamic vinegar with slices of truffle. We both thought it would be amazing but it had a terrible aftertaste. Definitely not the best dessert I’ve ever had.

A few weeks ago some of my classmates had experienced thanksgiving away from their families for the first time. For me it was something I had become used to. The past few thanksgivings I had been away from home making it impossible for me to have a regular thanksgiving. Luckily I have great friends who were willing to prepare an excellent meal for me. Cassandra and Jordan are two of my close friends with whom I spend a great deal of time with. There were nice enough to prepare a great thanksgiving meal while I was at soccer practice. As soon as I walked in the room I was hit by the surprise of great smells and old memories. Right away I noticed two huge pans of macaroni and cheese and a large pot of candy yams right next to it. There was also grilled fish, cabbage, and corn bread made with honey. The mac and cheese had to have been my favorite because I had about three or four plates of it. The candy yams reminded me of home and luckily there was a lot of it. To be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of the cornbread(I would never tell them that) but the cabbage and the fish were also good. Overall it was a great meal and it really reminded me of home with my family.

Regularly, I go out to eat with one of my close friends anna. She makes a good eating budding because of her courageous eating habits. I know I can count on her to eat crazy food just as I do. One day around lunch time we decided to venture around the market to see what food we had yet to try. As we were both craving fish we looked through the fish market to see if there was anything there that we might be interested in trying. We found a large group in front of one stand so we quickly went to see what it was. To our surprise it was fried calamari and fried codfish. I was extremely excited for the codfish since I am finding hard to find fish out here that is not too expensive. We both got fried calamari, fried catfish and french fries. The calamari was good but there was so much of it compared to the catfish. I believe that the catfish is more expensive for the shop to buy so they mix it with calamari. The calamari was just average to me and started to get a little annoying since there was so much of it. The french weren’t too bad and I was overall pretty happy with them. Overall the meal was good but It was a little pricey and disappointing for me because I expected more fish for ten euro.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

In the world, hunger is becoming a problem. According to the world food program one in nine people do not have access to the necessary amount of food to lead a healthy life. The sad part of this problem is that we have the power to eradicate this problem but we choose not to. It is estimated that to eradicate world hunger we would need spend 30 billion dollars a year to end world hunger. One of the most disturbing statistics that I found on this topic is that the United States spends around 737 billion dollars a year on national defense. This disturbing evidence shows that we have the power to solve this problem. I believe that wealthy nations should assist developing nations. The power of wealthy nations should be used to help people for the benefit of the greater good. Im also a firm believer that before we help other nations we should help our own. In the United States hunger isn’t caused by a lack of food but by the never ending cycle of poverty. More and more people rely on food banks to feed their families. Throughout my life I have volunteered to feed the hungry. Over the years after talking to the people who I’ve helped to feed. I’ve noticed that a lot of them seem to be fairly professional people. One time I even had a conversation with engineers that weren’t making enough money to feed themselves. A countries top priority should be to feed it’s people. A Country that has the ability to feed it’s people should do so.

To be able to speak about gmo’s we must first understand what they are. Gmo’s or genetically modified organisms are living organisms that have had their genetic material altered through genetic engineering.

genetically modified organisms can be in fact be beneficial. Crops can be genetically modified to become resistant to certain pest or even weather conditions. Organisms such as these can be extremely beneficial for people in developing countries. Even organisms such as mosquitos can me genetically engineered to become resistant to malaria. This could be useful to help stop the spread of dengue and malaria.

The negatives of genetically modified organisms is that we do not fully understand them. Especially dealing with our consumption of them. We have genetically modified different types of animals to be able to produce bigger quantities of them and at a faster rate. One of the best examples of this is the chicken. They are placed in small compact spaces where they grow so fast that their legs cannot support their body weight. The thought of eating food that is raised in this way makes one think about the health repercussions. It’s thought that eating food grown in this process can lead to serious health problems. In my opinion I believe it best to steer clear of genetically modified food. This is entirely because we are yet to fully understand what happens to our bodies when we eat these foods.

To wrap this up I do not fully believe that all genetically modified organisms are bad. There are positives but the problem is that this is a relatively new discovery. Therefore, we still have a lot to learn from it. I also believe that if handled correctly genetically modified organisms will be the future of the human race. Who knows maybe one day we may even see a generation of genetically modified humans.

Lately in class we’ve been talking about the ethics behind eating meat. Most of these discussions include talks about the ethical and voluntary reasons we choose to eat or to not eat meat. Over the years I have considered whether or not meat is ethical to eat or not. My family thought I could have easily been a vegetarian because of my love for a good salad or some mixed vegetables. Personally I eat meat for two reasons. Reason one being that I am an athlete. I need to eat meat to help my body recover from hard training sessions as well as increase in size and speed. Without protein in my diet I would have a lot of trouble improving in my sport. The second reason is that I enjoy a good steak or lamb every once an awhile. Whether it’’s cooking it myself or sitting down at a good restaurant a steak or lamb is always a satisfying. One thing that people don’t know about me is that I really enjoy cooking. One of my favorite meals that I can make is a hamburger with blue berry mayonnaise, arugula and cheese. From a chefs standpoint meat can be easily complimented with a variety of fruits and vegetables. Although I do eat meat I am beginning to slowly stop eating pork. Will a good piece of crispy bacon is relaxing in the morning food such as hot dogs are made up of random pieces of the animal. To me this is highly unappetizing not knowing exactly which part of the animal I am eating. Eventually I hope to stop eating pork all together.

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to visit Barcelona and Portugal. Barcelona was a city I had visited in the past since I had previously lived close by in Valencia. One of the best dishes I had ever tried was the paella of Valencia. Paella is originally from Valencia and is made in many different ways. Some of the most common are paella with mixed sea food, rabbit paella with chicken mixed vegetables and black paella where the rice is mixed with squid ink. As it is normally made with a rice it can also be made with small pasta. I knew that if I had the opportunity I would try it in Barcelona. As soon as we stepped off the bus I was immediately searching for places to eat paella. I tried a paella with mixed sea food while one of my friends decided on the black paella with mixed sea food. The black paella had to be my favorite because it was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. It seemed to almost have a sweet oily taste along with the sea food. The black paella is on my list of my favorite european foods. 

In Portugal one of my favorite foods was a pastry. This famous pastry is known as pastel de nata. One of the most interesting things about this pastry is it’s history. It’s story begins in monasteries and convents in Portugal hundreds of years ago. Nuns were using large quantities of eggs to starch clothing. They had left over egg yolks that they used for pastries and cakes. We decided to visit the most famous pastry shop in Portugal, Pastéis de Belém. We found it just outside of the center of the city. The shop was filled with photos and memorabilia from when it first opened. I two pastéis and covered them with powdered cinnamon and powdered sugar. The were just slightly warm which made it even better. One of my biggest mistakes was not buying twelve more to take with me back to florence.