This past weekend was the first weekend not having soccer. Now that soccer season is over, I have more time to do my school work and hangout with my friends and go back home to see my family. When I went home on Friday, the first thing I did was go out to eat with my friends. We were all hungry and wanted something that would taste sweet. We all agreed to go to Brother Bruno’s Pizza in Wayne New Jersey. We ordered a dessert pizza that consisted of peanut butter and jelly slices, nutella birthday cake slices, dirt slices and smore’s slices. We all split the slices and got a slice of each flavor. They all tasted sweet and sugary, but delicious at the same time. I bought a bottle of milk to drink along with the dessert pizza. This may sound very unusual, but it was a cool experience to get to eat such a unique food. We decided not to order regular pizza before the dessert pizza because we knew we were going to be full.

On Saturday, my family and I went to my cousins engagement party at The Rosewood only thirty minutes from my house. The party provided all types of foods like chicken, steak, pasta, salad, vegetables and more. I decided to take a little bit of everything to have a variety of tastes. The rest of my family did the same as me, and we all cleared our plates because it as so good. Considering I haven’t been home for a couple of weeks, it was great to have food that wasn’t from the dinning hall at college. Also it was nice to have dinner with my family and catch up with them.

Being able to go home on the weekends now is extremely relaxing because I get to see my family and be back in my home town. I like going home so I could eat foods that I don’t get to eat at college and also get away from the college atmosphere.

I was born and raised in a suburban area in central New Jersey called Freehold. In Freehold, there is an incredible place called Terrace Bagels. This was the place that everyone went to before school in the morning and also the morning after a late night out. When you walk into Terrace, you cannot expect to see no one you know, because everyone is always there from my town.

My favorite thing to get at Terrace is a pork roll, egg, and cheese on a bagel. Pork roll is a foreign term to most people besides native New Jerseyan’s. Some people call it “Taylor Ham” but in the Trenton area, it’s called Pork Roll and no one knows about it. New Jersey is known for more than just “The Jersey Shore”. Jersey has originated an incredible pork-based meat. North Jersey people refer to it as “Taylor Ham”, south Jersey uses the term “Pork Roll” and Central Jersey generally uses both depending on the area you live in.

Pork Roll is very easily made. All you have to do is slice 4 cuts on the circular piece of meat (so it cooks flat) and place it on top of the stove to cook on each side for about 2 minutes each.

Pork Roll should be distributed all around the country so that everyone knows how good it is- not just the state of New Jersey. Actually, part of Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland are becoming aware of pork roll and distributing it throughout supermarkets, diners and deli’s.

This past weekend my friends and I ventured into Crown Heights Brooklyn for a school project. When we first got assigned our neighborhood we first were a little intimidated. None of us knew this area besides what we have read online. Thus, we did some research and looked for interesting places to go eat or visit. We read about this called place called Elsie’s Doughnuts and saw some mouthwatering pictures of pastries. I immediately wanted the doughnut that was covered in chocolate and coconut shavings. We knew Elsie’s was a place we had to go visit upon our visit. When we got to Crown Heights, we walked around and explored this unfamiliar place. It was obvious that this neighborhood was one that was indeed changing. The visual difference from one block to the next was drastic. On one side there would be run down homes and on the next there would be brand new condominiums. Even the differences in businesses ranged from bodegas to trendy hipster restaurants. We walked around Crown Heights for a couple of hours and to finish up our trip we stopped at Elsie’s Doughnuts. With our luck, our GPS took us to Elsie’s Doughnuts on Bergen St which turned out to be an abandoned doughnut shop that was closed down. We wandered about thinking, “what do we do now?” Luckily, there was another Elsie’s but it was called Elsie’s Parlor just a few minutes away. When we finally found it, we encountered a cute place that was small and empty. The doughnuts offered at this Elsie’s were not as extravagant as the one we initially wanted to go to. Thus, instead of my chocolate covered doughnut with coconut shavings I settled for a glazed doughnut and my friend got a black and white doughnut. The prices for each doughnut was $2.50 which (to me at least) is a little pricey however, it was a pretty big doughnut and it was delicious. My experience at Crown Heights was a positive one that made me excited to go back and find other delicious places to eat and explore.

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Every Monday, I take a trip to Port Richmond High School to mentor a sophomore student and his name is Joe. Joe is interested in becoming a chef eventually and that is why he came to Port Richmond to get a head start on his career. Joe plays baseball for the school and likes playing video games. His favorite thing to do is cook. Whether it’s cooking dinner for his family or putting together a quick snack for himself, he always enjoys making new things. Joe is taking a culinary class at Port Richmond that will help him learn everything he needs to know about being a chef. The class teaches the students all different kinds of utensils they need and how to use them all. Joe explained to me all the meals his class has put together and all the ingredients he used in them. The class makes a variety of soups and stews mainly and Joe explained how the beef stew dish was his favorite so far.

On Mondays, the class receives a recipe that they must look over and think about how they are going to go about the task. On Tuesdays, they prepare to cook by getting all the utensils and ingredients they need. Wednesdays the class begins to cook and Thursdays they will continue cooking. Finally on Fridays, the class eats the delicious meal they have put together. Joe feels the meals he cooks in class aren’t as good as the ones he makes at home because they don’t add any spices or herbs. Joe told me he has learned a lot so far in this culinary class and he really looks forward to it during school considering he has it last period. It seems that Joe is extremely interested in the culinary program and wants to continue learning more about it so one day he could have his dream job as a chef.