"I'll take you down to CHINATOWN"

Famous New York City Chinatown at night! It was so freezing that night, about....12 degrees I would say, or colder and it was windy as heck! We met my friend Diana's cousin's wife (Pat) there. Pat is Chinese from Thailand so she speaks Thai. Anyway, she took us from Grand Central to chinatown (Canal Street) and we ate at "Shanghai Cafe" which had, you guessed it, shiao long bao! They were quite delicious, especially since I hadn't had chinese food in SOOO long. The hot tea and tsong yo bing were a trip back to Los Angeles haha. So here are some pictures of the restaurant, steaming the baos, making the baos, etc. They had vegetable, fish and pork filled bao-tze.

Poughkeepsie Train Station

This is a trip that my friend's and I took down into the city (Manhattan). The girl in the second picture is Jin-Young and the girl behind her is Diana (she's from Panama and she's chinese!) , next to her is her friend Kiki. Anyway, these are pictures of the Metro-North railroad. It's about a 1 hour and 45 minutes from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal (which is in the heart of Manhattan). We went down into the city because my group had to go to Jacques Torres' chocolate shops. Anyway, more pics to come!

Campus

Yellow Building: Caterina de' Medici Restaurant - classic Italian restaurant run by students!
Triangle top building: Conrad Hilton Library - he donated 8 million dollars for this library
Water Picture: This is a view of the Hudson River, the school is right on the Hudson River. The River partially freezes over during winter too.
Swirling Leaves

Dining Hall

There are many kitchens where we can eat our lunches. Everyday (breakfast, lunch and dinner) there is a class who cooks a different menu. Each student is allowed to peruse the halls, look at the menus and choose what they want to eat. Sometimes it is limited though since some kitchens don't operate at certain times. I usually eat downstairs at the Lunch Cookery kitchen. Here are some pictures of the people eating down there, probably 2nd year students and some other pics of the halls.

cont'd

Such a beautiful day...

Wow, it is the most beautiful day on campus. The sun is shining, it is 58 degrees (supposed to be 19 degrees). Global warming I tell you! These are some pictures I took of campus. The one of the trees and the house on the lake is President Ryan's house (President of the CIA). He lives "on campus", but off to the side in another house and he has his own driveway and everything. Enjoy the pics!

V-Day and Friends

SInce Valentine's Day is coming around, KILL ME NOW BY THE WAY, lots of chocolate molds and boxes are being done. The Apple Pie Bakery and Cafe (our school coffee shop), is wrapping them up all nice so people can buy them at a heinous price and think "Hey it's from the CIA, so it should be good right?" Who knows... anyway here are the pics. Also, there is a picture of our eating group (part of them). My friend Rose is on the left (short hair) and Tanya (my roommate is on the right). I would have been sitting in the middle (see all those plates with dessert?), but I was getting more food hahaha. Everyone goes freaking crazy during the grand buffet. 3 more weeks and I can see it again yay! :)

So can you...

GRAND BUFFET

Ok, so there's this enormous and elaborate buffet every 3 weeks at the CIA. What is it you ask? It's called the Grand Buffet and it happens one day before graduation. Since there are new students every three weeks, there are also graduations every three weeks. The students who are graduating cook one more divine meal for the school and then they are OFF to the real world! Here are some of the pictures. There was a LOT more food though. For example, you walk in and there are these breads, challah, baguette, pumpkin seed bread, cheese jalapeno rolls, etc. LOTS of stuff to choose from.

Also, there was a section with made to order bananas foster served in martini glasses, oh my goodness it was SOOOO good. Also, there was forcemeats (which are pates and such). The seafood pate was delicious. It was shrimp on the outside and other seafood on the inside mmmmm....Let's see, que mas? specialty salads such as frisee with apples, walnuts and a sweet vinaigrette. Mini empanadas, and last but not least, the DESSERTS. The ones that I tried might not be in these pictures because my friend took these of her own plate. I had mini creme brulee, dark chocolate truffles, mango mousse cake, dark chocolate torte, hazelnut something, vanilla and chocolate hazelnut crisp cake, flourless chocolate cake, housemade blood orange and white peach sorbet, fruit tart, pistachio and chocolate pyramid....I can't remember!!! Others had granitas, gelees, caramels, taffies, italian torono or something (i can't remember what it's called). Lots to eat though!!! Enjoy the pictures. I will try and take more the next time the buffet rolls around :)

Different Products

The first few pictures are inside one of the produce walk-in refrigerators. This is where the CIA keeps all their homemade stocks (about 100 lbs are made daily or more). They are sealed in plastic bags and held in the walk-ins for each class to use daily. They make all the different stocks, such as chicken, beef, veal, seafood, vegetable, etc. To give an example of the volume of these kitchens and how much the issuing department must order, the school uses 40 lbs of shallots PER DAY. That is a humongous amount of shallots! Pretty amazing.

They have 3 (50 lb) bags of carrots delivered daily as well. Their main purveyor is a produce company down in the Bronx. Some things are farm direct, but most are from this wholesaler in the Bronx.

Here are some green peppers, these are picked immature for their green color and high acidity.

Another picture is of some green onions that are packed iceless! That's kind of a novelty if you ask me. More to come!

STORE ROOM

The storeroom here at the CIA is absolutely amazing. Not only is it humongous, but it is bursting with so many different products. I have already been in there 3 times and every time I get lost. When you first walk in, there is an issuing area where the different kitchens (for different classes) such as Cuisines of the Americas, Cuisines of Asia, the American Bounty Restaurant, Escoffier Restaurant, Catarina de Medici restaurant and so on, must pick up their product here in this hallway. Further down are the walk-in refrigerators.

Dorm Room Cont'd

More pix of the room:
My bed, obviously. I believe there might be laundry on it, but notice the sleeping bag I need to use as a make-shift blanket. Know why? It's because after 2 weeks my car has STILL not arrived (I got it shipped from CA). I had so much headache with the transport company, HORRIBLE do not EVER contract with West Coast Auto Transport. DO NOT I REPEAT!

Ok that's enough of my ranting. Anyway, the thing is I don't have a lot of things that are still in my car and that's why I'm so pissed haha.
There's my computer and desk! Yes, it's messy I know that's because I was doing some work on it. Anyway, right now those are the only pictures I have, more to come! Thanks for being patient :)

DORM ROOM

Here are some pictures of my dorm room.

As you can see, we have a Spongbob Squarepants Television (courtesy of my roommate's neice!) and also a Spongebob DVD player. Both include Spongebob remote controls too. Gotta love it!
Also, my dorm room pictures include the entrance, where the closets are (mine is the second from the bottom.
Classic bathroom shot, see it's not dirty yet!