Ca ca ca ca ca CATEGORIES!

We decided to play Scattegories on Friday night because we had a busy day, so we had so much fun playing that...with a little addition of...Jack Daniels haha (NOT TOO MUCH AT ALL) I didn't have any I promise.

Fun night...

BADA BINGO!!!!

Many of you have already seen these pictures of Bingo but let me explain what they are exactly. Bada Bingo is an event held every year here at the CIA. Bingo sounds boring but not when there are GREAT prizes involved!! We were allowed to play 5 games and each prize was different:
Game 1: $100 cash
Game 2: Ipod Nano
Game 3: Helicopter ride for 2 in NYC
Game 4: $400 in cash
Game 5: Ipod Video plus a Enterntainment Speakers from Apple

SOUNDS PRETTY DARN GOOD HUH! Anyway, so it was a blast and my friend Gigi (the other one with the tiny umbrella), won $400 in cash!!!! She was tied for the prize with 4 others and she won the sudden death round! It was so bittersweet to see her win because she really deserved it :) Anyway, that's us by the school's courtyard called Anton Plaza, it has a really nice fountain. So much fun!!

Roasted Chicken and Chicken Fricasse and Sauteed Trout

These are dishes we made in Skills 2. The Roasted Chicken tasted delicious, only because we put butter and herbs underneath the skin!! That's called "larding" when you but pieces of fat into parts of lean meat haha. Clever name eh? My Chef is Chef Jose Sanchez from Mexico. He's so awesome and has travelled around the world. He's taught me so much and it turned out that he was going to teach a new class called Skills 3 (which is what I had next in my curriculum). So i had the privilege of having him for 9 weeks, which is unheard of for a Chef since we have 3 week classes and you usually see the Chef for 3 weeks and then it's goodbye.

I'm helping him with this event called Chain de Reutesseurs (i think that's how you spell it?) . It's a VIP event where all the money goes to scholarships. The menu is so interesting, I don't have a copy with me but some of the items include Frog Leg Mini Crustilles (mini egg rolls), Salmon Cornets with Wasabi Creme Fraiche, Veal Loin, Yuzu and more....

Bowling and Amish Market

Ok, so you're probably wondering, what in the world is an Amish Market. "I thought that the Amish people were a secluded bunch where no one could see them in public so why would they have a market" right? Well...it's all a marketing ploy I say! I went into the Amish Market, thinking, "Ok so there are going to be all things Amish". Boy was I WrONG. In fact, inside, it looks like a Trader Joe's meets Whole Foods. They have lots of varieties of cheeses, fruits, seafood, a great Patisserie, sushi bar, charcuterie, hot food and cold food side. It' SO Great in there! I always get my cut fruit from there and it's so cheap (1-2 bucks for a half of a papaya already cut and peeled!! What a deal!) So, life is pretty good here for these past 5 months. I can't believe that it will be about one more month until I go HOME!!!!

Cool Stuff Yo!

Beef Tournedos, Onion Rings and Steamed Broccoli Rabe, Potatoes Gratin
Classroom with our classmates
Dairy Queen with Nance

Randomness

These pictures are in no particular order...
Dairy Queen run when Nancy was here.
Shallow Poached Trout Paupiettes with Spinach, Pilaf and Glazed Carrots
Sara Moulton speaking at "Women in the Industry" at our school

PASTA PASTA PASTA

Skills 1 and 2:

In Skills classes 1 and 2 we did the following things:
Knife Trays with different potato cuts and dices and minces
Stocks
Sauces
Soups
Plated dishes: poached salmon, roasted chicken, grilled steak, etc.
These few pics highlight our fresh pasta day where each team made a different sauce and shape of pasta. Our team made Fonduta Tortellini (bechamel sauce with white wine) and Parpardelle with Amatriciana sauce. The other teams made Ravioli and Tortellini with herb ricotta filling, mushroom filling and spinach filling. The other sauces were Bolognese, Sweet Tomato, and Mushroom Tomato. I also have a picture of our class and our Chef, Chef Sanchez, who is probably the TOUGHEST Chef in the entire universe, but I'm thankful for it because he pushes us so hard.

Nancy!

So we went to the MOMA and saw the original masterpieces of famous painters! As you can see, we saw Starry Night (Van Gogh), Salvador Dali, Monet, Kandinsky, Klimt, Seurat, Edvard Munch, Andy Warhol, Paul Klee, Picasso! and so much more....... it was an amazing experience (crowded as hell too!)

ALSO!!! I ate Wa-Gyu Kobe Beef!!!! At Yakiniku, they had it on the menu as a special. According to Chef Schneller, Wa-gyu is the most coveted Kobe Beef brand out there. Produced by Snake River Farms. (www.snakeriverfarms.com), this Kobe is the most marbled and the most flavorful and he was right! After cooking it it was So incredibly butter in its texture and full flavored. Oh man...a piece of heaven.






Tulips in Springtime! These were on 54th street close to Central Park (on the street)

NANCY'S HERE!!!!

Nancy came to visit me here in NY (actually she's still here and leaves Tuesday). It is SOOOO SOOO SOOSOSOSOS OS SO SO SO SO SO SOS OS OS OSOSo great to see her (did I mention so?) Anyway, we went to some great places (Central Park, Gray's Papaya, 9th Street Market (great BRUNCh!) MOMA, SOHO, Dean and Deluca, Yakiniku) I think this picture of us is really cute. There's a random picture of Jin Young ironing on Ariel too..just random that's all.

MEAT ID & FABRICATION

Chef Schneller ruled this class. In his past life, he owned and operated a German steakhouse in New York, grew up wit his family owning a meat company (butchering). He has been a professor at the CIA for a number of years. His teaching style is very kind and gentle. He teaches you how to fabricate items such as roasts, tenderloin, hind shank, whole lamb leg, pork loin, stew cubes, tying roasts, butchers knot, veal cutlets,, and much more! He is the type of person that will tell you what you are doing wrong but in a very polite way such as "That looks good but I think you can do better by tying it tighter on the right side). I think I learned a lot but it was only a 7 day class, just like seafood so it's hard to learn a lot in such a short period of time. The pictures below are of a shank bone, the meat room (where we do our fabrication) and Chef Schneller fabricating a shank piece of meat (deboning it)