Flavours of the World

After a nice week of summer break, during which I finally managed to catch up on sleep, we've been back to class for a week now. Since it's at a campus that's slightly further away, I've had to get up earlier, or else skip some things I usually do in the mornings. The class starts off in one of the demo kitchens. We've had the chance to look at all kinds of salt, as well as try our hands at figuring out what different foods were on our various taste challenges. (Or should I more accurately say our mouths?) Yesterday was the day for mustard, and I must say that my team did well, but lost by half a point. Oh, well. I'm very proud that we got cranberry mustard though. We've also had a couple of chicken dishes to try, as well sausages and fruits, over the last few days. Quite a strange thing to be eating stuff like that for breakfast.
It's nice being in the main campus. I've spent a lot of time in the open labs, and even gotten some very good pictures. I was also able to help a student take food pictures for a competition. I think that I've learned a lot more in lab. We made gravlax the other day, which we tried in class yesterday morning. We also had fruit, which is much better for the morning.



We've had to keep journal entries, and also organize our notebooks into certain sections. It's actually nice. I taped samples of salts in mine. I finally got to see fleur de sel. Also got to taste and smell some other ones. So far the smokey flavoured one is my favourite of the new salts we've come across.
We've got to do better at our team challenges.
Speaking of teams, I was put into a team with the same person that I had trouble with back in the last class. I asked to switch, and so far I'm a lot happier.
I've also had some good and not so good things to eat in the student lounge area.
In this class we have a test every Friday. Our first one wasn't so bad though. At least from my point of view, the chef might as well have handed us the answers. Then again, I know very well that my own weakness is not the academic side, but rather the knife skills. So I must practise more on that, especially if I'm to do well on my finals. I am by no means going to get complacent.