Culinary Fundamentals; Friday, First Period [02/19].

[chef_chocobro]

"Good morning, everyone," Ignis greeted them from the front of the classroom as usual with a small adjustment to his gloves, a small push up of the bridge of his glasses in preparation of getting started. "Now, I've come to understand that next week is your spring break, and that this traditionally involves a trip to a different place around the world for you to experience the wonders and cultures of somewhere else while also enjoying a bit of vacation time and freedom from your regular no doubt rigorous," was that a touch of sarcasm in there? Maaaayyybeeee, "class schedules. Of course, as students to culinary arts, this affords you an excellent opportunity to experience a rich food culture likely different from your own first hand. And while it can be an eye opening experience to go into that culture quite blind, I feel that one can appreciate the finer details and nuances and deep history of how a culture perceives food if they are coming from a place of understanding.

"Which is why I have delved deep into the history of food in Japan and have come out with a guide that I hope you will all find enhances your experiences when you visit, and I look forward to hearing about it all next week."

As if he himself wouldn't be there to enjoy it. Because, as far as he knew, at that very moment, he wouldn't be, but he was, of course, very wrong about that.

"So for starters," he began, "Japan is an island nation, an archipelago, to be precise, so as one might imagine, their food culture is based very heavily on the use of fish..."

And from there, as one could very much imagine, Ignis launched into a steady and informative lecture covering some of the highlights of the history of Japanese cuisine in loving detail.

Whether or not this deep dive into food history made one ravenous or simply sophorific, however, was anyone's guess, though Ignis wouldn't be surprised if it was a little bit of both for most of them.

"With that," he finally concluded, "I figured we'd deviate a little from the syllabus with your school trip in mind to explore one of the seemingly more ubiquitous and popular styles of Japanese food ourselves. So ubiquitous that we even have this where I am from, and that would be sushi. Sushi started out, as it would seem, as a way to help preserve fish before going bad..."

Were you now being treated to a brief history of sushi as well? You're damn right you were!

"So not only can sushi be delicious to eat, it can be rather fun to make, and also affords for some amount of creativity and style. I'll take a moment to go over the basics on how to execute a simple maki style roll, and then I'd like to see you try it yourself. Ingredients are, of course, provided, and you can go very traditional with fish and vegetables, or perhaps you'd like to mix it up a little bit or experiment with different flavors. Perhaps even try some fruit instead for an interesting dessert sushi. Or perhaps simply keep this in mind the next time you have leftovers, because with enough creativity, you may find that nearly anything can be made into sushi."

Advanced Phys Ed: Xtreme Edition, Friday

[magnusrushesin]

Well, the classroom was set up like a normal classroom. And there was a TV ready, which could only mean one thing...

"It's a movie day!"

"Hope you're all ready for ice sports," Cara added dryly.

"Were gonna watch the best movie of all time," Magnus said, popping in the VHS--yes, it was a VHS --only to frown as it seemed be a different ice based movie.

"Huh." Look, Cara's only experience with VHS tapes was with this singular one, so she wasn't actually responsible here. "Rocks and brooms make a change."

"Well, I guess we can watch this too. I'll quack quietly at the dramatic parts, though." Of course he would.

Cara couldn't do anything about Magnus, but..."Don't follow his example."

Intro to Performing Arts | Friday, 2nd Period

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So," Annie greeted the class, "I had a whole thing planned for this week, but it sounds like pretty much every other teacher decided it was movie week, and I'm not, like, going to break with tradition on that. You guys are probably pretty pumped to go to Japan next week, and I so don't blame you, like, take so many pictures for me -- so I figured maybe we could watch a documentary on kabuki theater, which is a form of classical Japanese dance-drama." With, like, some of the most gorgeous costumes Annie had ever seen, so that's what she'd be paying attention to.

"We'll pick up with regular classes once you're all back, and just to give you an idea of what to expect...." Annie dropped her voice, eyes widening before she conspiratorially shared, "Puppets."

Aw yeah, you guys were getting into the good stuff after spring break.