Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving’s day is a traditional celebration in the United States and Canada. Originally, it was celebrated the last Thursday of November in the USA, but nowadays it takes place the fourth Thursday of November. Canada celebrates it the second Monday of October.
Its origin come from Europe. When the Europeans first arrived to America, they bring their traditions with them. They used to celebrate a good harvest having a big dinner. The first Thanksgiving’s dinner was in 1621, in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
What to have on Thanksgiving’s day?
Well, there are many things you can eat that day, because, normally, each member of the family brings something to eat; but the main plate is Roast Turkey!

How to make the Turkey?

To prepare the turkey for roasting, first remove the giblets. Next, rinse the bird inside and out and pat dry with paper towels.
If you are stuffing the bird, stuff it loosely.
After that, brush the skin with melted butter or oil.

Then, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh. Finally,
place the bird on a rack in a roasting pan, and into a preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven.
Bake until the skin is a light golden color, and then cover loosely with a foil tent.

By Ángel Barbecho Ortega

SODA, POP, COKE, SOFT DRINK?? THIS IS A MESS!!

Hi, dear readers!!

I want you to think just for a moment how you would invite a foreigner to a “refresco”… Saying “a drink”, maybe?? I think that if many of us have the opportunity of going abroad should know that because it’s easy!

When I have watched TV series or movies I have noticed that characters order a “Soda” in a pub... but what’s “soda”?? maybe a specific non-alcoholic drink? Yes and no!

“Soda” is just a term that means “soft drink” or “gassy drink” (the last one is more British)
But it doesn’t finish here. This term varies from one country to another. Is more familiar for you “Pop” or “Coke”?

Let’s take a look at this map of United States:

Interesting, eh?

Ok, I'm going to show you something more delicious! Hmmm…
Do you know what ice-cream soda is?? In many movies you can see it and maybe you have tried it!

It’s the mixtured of a soft drink or carbonated water with a few scoops of ice cream and flavoured syrup.

And again we have a discussion about terms for it: "ice-cream soda" or "float" are used in United States, Canada and United Kingdom; "spider" is used in Australia and part of New Zealand and in another part of New Zealand is used "coke float".

This delicious drink was invented by chance thanks to Robert M. Green in Philadelphia. He was selling sodas when he ran out of ice and in order to keep his sodas cold, he used vanilla ice-cream from another salesman.

There are different ice-cream sodas according to its flavour: Chocolate ice-cream soda, Boston cooler,purple cow, root beer float or black cow... and one very famous called "Butterbeer" due to Harry Potter series. =D

Do you think that Hermione likes Butterbeer?? haha xD

By: Nuria María Ortiz Sánchez.

HONEY

It is known for everybody what “honey” means. It is a sweet yellowish or brownish viscid fluid produced by various bees from the nectar of flowers and used as food. But, what we know about its history?



Apparently, human beings started to hunt for Honey at least 10,000 years ago, as a cave in Valencia, Spain shows. In which two female Honey-hunters collecting honey. In the ancient Egyptian, they used it for embalming the dead, and to the fertility of the god Min, were offered Honey.

The religious importance is also important. In Hinduism, honey is one of the five elixirs of immortality. To Jewish, it is a symbol of the New Year. In Buddhism, it plays an important in the festival of Madhu Purnima, in which they celebrate the day in which Buddha make peace among his disciplines into the wilderness. In the Christian Bible, honey is referred to heaven as the “Land of Milk and Honey”. It was considered the food of gods in ancient times. In Islam, according to the prophet Muhammad it is recommended for healing purposes.

Later, honey was the basis for the production of an alcoholic beverage called mead, also known as honey wine or honey bear. Even Napoleon chose the honeybee for his crest. But nowadays, the main uses of honey are in cooking. We add it as spread on bread, as an addiction to tea and others beverages, and obviously to prepare some dishes to, especially desserts, as pudding. It is also used as a medicine to diabetic ulcers, acidity, conjunctivitis and ocular allergies, and also in cosmetics products,etc.

But, the word honey has become a term of tenderness in most English-speaking world. In some places it is used for loved ones, and in others, it is used when addressing casual consciousness or even strangers. Honey appears in many children’s books. Bears, as Winnie the Pooh, are depicted as eating honey, although they eat a wide of foods. This term could be in relation with bears to children because both things, by the point of view of a child, are extremely sweet and it makes that children can associate both together.




By Esperanza Reyes

Meeting means Eating

Any plans for the weekend? You could go to have lunch out with friends, or to have dinner in a new and exotic restaurant! Any plan for a rainy night? What about going to a friend’s house with your group, eat together and watch a film with popcorn?
Meeting with people to eat is very normal in our lives, it is a very good resource for any occasion or the perfect excuse to have fun!


Most of the important events are accompanied with food. A good example is a wedding, where the couple chooses the best dishes and sometimes very original, preceded by starters and followed by a dessert. Lately it is very normal that in the celebration there is food during the whole day or night.
There are similar celebrations where many guests are attending and the dishes are very important too, such as the first communion or the baptism.


But not only in celebrations we think of food, but also in meetings for example. Political meetings will have more attendants if they offer some food and wine. It is very typical that they do it to attract people, as in politic meetings as in any kind of lecture or talk, or to inaugurate something. It seems that offering food they will be more successful.

We also have celebrations where we meet our family and friends to eat, for example in festivals, like on Christmas’ Eve or Christmas, on New Year’s Eve or New Year, on Thanksgiving or in any typical festival in any country. Also to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, that someone has got a job or the end of exams (whether if we have passed or not!)
We also have meetings to eat with workmates, classmates, old friends to keep us updated…

We would also invite people to eat for different reasons: to thank them something, to surprise them or to try to get off with someone.
Another typical thing is to buy food, sweets or chocolates to people for some of the same reasons I have mentioned before but also to friends when they feel bad or to visit ill people with some delicious food to make their days a little better.
As you can see food is present all the time in our everyday life and almost most of the times meeting becomes eating!

NY: "THE BIG APPLE"

Hello People!
Why New York is also know as "THE BIG APPLE"?
This history was during a time a mystery. But, twenty years ago, two etymologists from the University of Missouri of Science and Technology, Barry Popik and Gerald Cohen, has provided a clear image picture of the term’s history. Before to this theory, there were a big number of false etymologies. One of this was that the term derived from the name of a brothel madam in the city called Eve.

The first time that this term was used took place in the 1909 book The Wayfarer in New York, by Edward Martin, writing: "Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap". This quotation was recognized as a metaphoric use by the Random House Dictionary of Slang.

This term was popularized as a reference of the city by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number in the 1920s in reference to New York horse-racing. The earliest was a casual reference on May 3, 1921:
J. P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of the L. T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for "the big apple" to-morrow after a most prosperous Spring campaign at Bowie and Havre de Grace.

Later, Fitzgerald explained his use in the column “Around the Big Apple”.
“The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York”.


New York writers started to use "Big Apple" by the late of 1920s and used it outside of a horse-racing context. It became a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Other writers continued using this term in the 1940s and 1950s.


In the 60s, "the Big Apple" alluded to the old name for New York. In the early 1970s, under the leadership of its president, Charles Gillett, began promoting "the Big Apple" for the city. It has remained popular since then.

The New York's baseball team, the Mets, have a "Home Run Apple" that rises when a Mets player hits a home run. It has become a symbol of the Mets baseball team, recognized in the league as an iconic of the Mets' stadiums.


By Esperanza Reyes

WHY MEDITERRANEAN DIET?

The Mediterranean diet is a lifestyle based on a balanced and varied diet in which predominates food derived from the traditional crops of the geographical area bordered by the Mediterranean: wheat, olives and grapevine.

His discovery as a healthy diet was made based on nutritional studies in Greece where it was detected an incidence of “arteriosclerosis”, cardiovascular disease and degenerative diseases below average, and of course a longer life expectancy.
The study results showed a clear relationship between the characteristics of the diet and the health of its population.

The basic foods and the main characteristics of this diet are:
1. Abundance of plant foods: fruits, vegetables, bread, pasta, rice, cereals, legumes and potatoes.
2. Olive oil as the main source of fat both for frying and for seasoning.
3. Eat seasonal foods in their natural state, it have to be always chosen the freshest.
4. Normally consume red wine in moderation during meals.

5. Consume a moderate amount of cheese and yogurt.
6. Consume weekly a moderate amount of fish, eggs and poultry.
7. Eat nuts, honey and olives in moderation.
8. Red meat a few times in a month.
9. Use herbs as a healthy alternative to salt.
10. Make a regular physical activity to work the heart and keep in shape our joints and our physical tone.

The need for outlining these foods and their share on a balanced diet, this pyramid arose. This is based on the proportion of nutrients that made up the Mediterranean diet. It is a graph showing the type and quantity of food that can be taken. Each region has a climate crops and food is also different. Thus a pyramid can be adapted to each of them, but in all cases remains a general outline with the proportion that may be consumed.

Bread and pasta as the main source of carbonyhidrates. So carbonydrates should provide 50% of total dairy energy intake.
Vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes contribute to be a higher fiber and antioxidants diet. Fish, poultry, eggs and dairy products as the main source of protein. So proteins provide 15% of the total energy.
Lower consumption of meat and animal fats. By this, fats or lipids contribute about 35%of total energy intake.
These foods and culinary treatment lead to a lifestyle that complements habits that invite the climate, such as trips on the sun, gatherings or the nap.

By María José Gómez

University and food in Spain!

As we all know,  due to the strange and very long timetables we have, we are obliged to eat at University. In this post I am going to show different ways in which we can combine this necessity with the obligation of studying!

Refectories:  normally, all the universities or faculties have refectories in which students and professors can eat. You can choose a first and a second plate, an a dessert, with bread and free water included. It doesn’t cost too much (around 4€).

Take away: if you don’t like what the cafeteria/refectory offers, you can go to a bar or a restaurant and have something there. It will probably be more expensive, but food may be better there of course, and you can take it away and eat it wherever you want!  

Tupperware:  maybe because of the crisis (or because you prefer your own food) you also can bring tupperwares and eat on the grass with your mates. There are also some places enabled to eat, with tables and chairs!

If any of these options satisfies you, you can return home and have something there if you have time enough! 

As you see, studying and eating are perfectly compatible! 




By: Ángel Barbecho Ortega