Author Archives: Jessica Aletta

A Farmer

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On December 1 my class went to a presentation with a speaker named Annie Novak. She works for the New York Botanical Garden that is located in the Bronx, New York.  She came in to talk to us about what she does and how it pertains to our class in different ways. Basically what she does is teach the children part of the garden and teach them how to plant and what the right foods are to eat. This presentation did inspire me and I found it really interesting and intruiging. We talked about all the different vegetables and fruits she grows. With that we tallked about how organic food right off the tree is much better for you.

Talking about the fruits and vegetables made me want to eat better and not just buy whatever i see first. It taught me to actually look into what i am eating and not just put anything into my body. I love to cook and to help my dad cook so talking about food that is good for you really inspired how I cook. When I go home for winter break I plan on changing my diet and trying to eat more organically. I am looking into shops near me that sell more farm fresh foods and where i can access these foods locally. Also seeing all the pictures of the garden made me want to go to the garden itself and see what it’s like.

This is a video of Annie and one of the rooftop gardens. All should watch!

Cliche Thanksgiving Dinner

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Yesterday was the best day of the year for me because it was the day where there is no shame in eating until you can’t eat anymore. Thanksgiving is about being thankful for what you have and just good times around family. It is different from Christmas because the holiday is not centered around gifts. Its just about family and coming together to give thanks for the life you are living. This is why I feel as though Thanksgiving is more about food than Christmas because people during Christmas just eat to get to the presents but most families on Thanksgiving just eat. With the focus on eating and not presents people pay more attention to their meals.

There is an array of food from the moment you walk into the Thanksgiving dinner. From a selection of appetizers, that is custom to your family. Then you have the main course which for most people is the same around the country, Turkey! Most people have the same side dishes as well to go along with the turkey. These side dishes include stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cranberries. The side dishes may vary for each family and what they like best but most families do have similar side dishes no matter what culture background they come from.

My family being an Italian-American family has all the same side dishes that I listed but different appetizers to start out. At every holiday we always start with the cliché mozzarella, tomatoes, and roasted red peppers. We also have a variety of other things such as the cliché vegetables with the dip in the middle. We also have the assortment of cheese and crackers with pepperoni next to the cheeses. As you can see we have some Italian appetizers and some American appetizers and that’s what makes our appetizers different from most people. IMG_0471

Bryant Park

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This past weekend I went with my boyfriend to the city to explore new things that I haven’t seen in New York before. On this trip we went to Bryant park and little Italy and got some good food. When we went to Bryant park it was earlier in the afternoon but we hadn’t eaten all day and were starving. We both were extremely tired and the first thing we found when we walked in was coffee of course! Then we tried to find a snack before we went to an early dinner late lunch. We came across a station that said fried pickles and for him and I anything that says fried sounds good. So the first thing we ate that day was some fried pickles and drank some coffee. Which to me showed wow we really are college kids in the way we eat.

I think the psychology behind these food choices is very interesting to look at. Not all people would even dare to look at a fried pickle when they are drinking coffee. But the way that we have been living these past few months you learn to eat what you can when you can. So to us it was not a big deal to have a weird combination of things because we have learned this behavior. But for other people who are not college students they would think this is such a disgusting combination that we were even getting weird looks. This situation and the college dining situation is kind of like the optimal forging theory as to where you do what you need to do to waste the least amount of energy and gain the most amount of energy back.

the weirdest combination but the best fried pickles

The weirdest combination but the best fried pickles!

New York VS New Jersey Pizza

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New York my home away from home is supposedly the best place to get pizza. But I have to disagree with that claim because New Jersey my actual home has the best pizza i have ever had. Many people will dispute me on this but it also depends on what type of pizza you like. I am a fan of thicker pizza  with a thick crust. Many New Jersey pizza places make it the way i like it. There are other places that make it very thin and brittle which i do not like probably because as a child my parents always got thin pizza. Which is an interesting topic because i did not stop liking pizza all together just a different type.

The competition is high for pizza places in New Jersey because there are so many places that sell it. When there is so much supply and demand it causes many people to divulge in the business because you know you’ll make a profit. You know that a you will make a profit as long as your prices and location are good. In New York it is the same way where you can find a pizza place on each corner. It is a great example of the business world if you look at pizza places in either states because of the competition and the demand for it.

 

 

Dining Hall

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For the First time in about a month my friends and I went to Dining Hall to eat at dinner time. We never get to do this because we usually have practice until late at night when dining is closed. While at dining I looked for habits of people just like we discussed in psychology class. I also thought about what i do when I am in dining hall and where i go first and last. There are many different routes to many different stations that people take when in dining hall.

The first thing i go to when i am in dining hall is to get my drink and look at the line for the sandwich station. If it is too long of a line i will not wait to get a sandwich i will move to the salad station and the main station with the main courses but i did not waste my time at the sandwich station because i got my drink when over there. My last option if I don’t find anything is the hot station but that is my last option.

I find my own choices interesting because i try not to waste energy from going to stations that i won’t obtain anything from. I try to get energy back from all the stations i visit. This is why I go to the hot station last because it waste the most energy going there because we never sit by that side of the cafeteria. This goes back to psychology class because we talked about how people do not like to expend more energy than they are going to get back from the food. This is not just for walking around and how far each station is but also how much energy you are going to waste in the sandwich line as well. I noticed many people grabbed something at the station they were at never really walking away form a station empty handed. Many people act the same way in dining hall just as I do.

 

 

 

Markets in Washington Heights and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal

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Today my group went to go to Washington Heights for our Neighborhood project. This project is where we get to know a part of the city and do a grant proposal on that specific area. When we were walking through our neighborhood we noticed that there were many markets on the streets and also in store markets. The market prices were actually very cheap with deals like 5 for 1 on bananas. There was a market on every corner so they must need to have cheap prices to compete with all the markets around.

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When we came back to the ferry from our neighborhood and went up the escalators we noticed that there was a market right at the ferry! This was the first time I have seen something like this in a public transportation waiting area. Seems like they were selling more of the fall and Halloween goods. As Halloween is this weekend. the had a range from pumpkins to apple cider to just apples and many more items. They also had deals of three pound bags for three dollars each or two bags for five dollars. These deals attract many people in the city because this is there only source of a market around the area of the ferry and they can get fresh fruit as the go home either way. I found this market to be placed in a very interesting and intriguing spot.

Soho Loving

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On this past Saturday the soccer team took a trip to the city. One of our coach’s friends is a singer and was playing at a bar in soho. She had a chance of getting a record deal that day but the soccer girls took up too much space that the record label people couldn’t get in! Before we even got there though, we had to walk a little bit through soho and as we were walking I was noticing the shops around. Soho is this cute part of the city that has all brand new shops that are high end. You can see how new everything is just by looking inside and window shopping.

The shops in soho are so small and are not like any big department store. When you look in the shops that barely have any options which means the clothes are going to be extremely expensive and that it is going to be high end. Soho has been going through a  gentrification lately and is the new hot spot for hipsters in New York. Gentrification is when a deteriorating city is renovated and made new and attracts people that are hipsters. When you pass Soho shops you can tell exactly who their target audience is because of the mannequins that are in the window displays. The mannequins are dressed in the fashion of hipster and that attracts the type of people that live in Soho.

Also the restaurants in Soho are very modern and going through gentrification as well as the shops. We had stopped at Delicatessen a cute modern restaurant in Soho. It is a two floor restaurant with new modern decorative pieces and mirrors all around. While looking around at the different people in the restaurant you could tell the neighborhood that it was in is a home of the modern hipster who is chic and stylish. Delicatessen was a fun place for young people to hang out and get food in. The prices were not too bad which was shocking with all the shops around it.

In the early years Soho was a farmland for the Dutch West Indies Company’s freed slaves. It then in later years, 1800s, became a place for the wealthy to live in and then quickly became a place for the middle class. It was not till 1950s that Soho became a place for artists to live and that the shops succumbed to the people that lived there. But then industries started to pop up around that area driving out the artist and placing the worker class there. Now in present time Soho has gone back to its roots and become a place for artists to live again. It is now the Soho we all know of, the expensive hipster part of the city.

Home Cooking

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This weekend for fall break i got to go home for the first time in two months. The first thing i wanted when i got home was a home cooked meal of anything my parents have made before. Of course the weekend i go home so does my older brother which means he has the choice of what the meal is. Normally i hate what he picks because it is pork chops or something i was forced to eat as a child that i do not like now. Which we learned in psychology that being forced to eat something or being shunned form eating certain things and then when you’re older liking them and not liking them is common. This is common especially among sweets when children are not allowed to eat sweets as a child and when they get older they love sweets.

The recipe my dad uses

The recipe my dad uses

Back to my home cooked meal, my brother chose to have jambalaya. We used to eat this all the time when my dad would cook on the weekends so i have grown to like it very much. This time my dad added shrimp into the mix with the sausage and chicken. I actually enjoyed this version more than the other version. This could be from me getting older and my taste buds changing as i get older to like different things. As a child i did not like shrimp but now as a young adult it is one of my favorite foods to eat all different kinds of ways.

This home cooked meal and this trip home was exactly what i needed to relieve the stress from college.

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New York Pizza

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Yesterday my friends and I ventured into the city to go grab food and it was the best idea we had all semester. We had gone to this pizza place called Adrianne’s Pizza Bar. They serve the best deep dish pizza found right off the ferry boat on the Battery Park side. The pizza is old fashion and cooked just enough before it burns. My friends and i got a plain pie and a pepperoni pie, the classic choices.

While ordering and eating i tried to be observant and watch my friends eating habits. I thought it was interesting when deciding how many pies to get we always order more than we need just in case. Then no one wants to leave the pieces behind so everyone eats one more piece then they should just so there is no debate on who gets the left overs. I think its because people do not want to make conflict where it is not necessary and they avoid it when in a social setting. Therefore everyone eats more to avoid the conflict of who gets to take the leftovers.

All the money was worth those three slices.

San Gennaro

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Two weekends ago I visited the San-Gennaro feast in Little Italy, New York. This experience made me see a whole different culture by just walking through a street in the city. The feast is originally from Naples, Italy and was brought here by the immigrants in the 1920s. This tradition has stayed with the city ever since and is held every year and will continue to be celebrated for many more. Those immigrants had made a tradition that has stuck for almost a hundred years and that is a powerful thing to me. Tradition is the key to every culture and is the key to keeping the culture alive.

Walking through the feast with all the food stands lined up and all the restaurants packed made me hungry beyond belief. The aromas that came from the restaurants filled the air and may have been what attracted the thousands of people that attended. Once i sat down and took that first bite of my pollo de marsala i could not be happier. Next to the chicken came fried mash potatoes which i will never forget the taste of. This dish is a nineteenth century Italian American dish that is famous in the United States. I recommend that all attend the San Gennaro feast if possible!

Entering the madness of the festival Entering the madness of the festival