Caltech

Going to the Galleria

As a continuation to my last post, here's the second part of my (last) weekend exploring the area outside Pasadena!

DAY 2: GLENDALE GALLERIA

For those of you who may not know, I really like to shop (much to the chagrin of my parents). I guess the bigger "issue" is that I always like the same thing - blue or green striped polo or argyle designs; that means I end up with all similar outfits in my closet, which obviously is a problem! Fortunately, to get out the shopping bug there is the nearby Glendale Galleria and the Americana at Brand. The Galleria is more of a traditional mall - indoors with lots of stores, a food court, etc. while the Americana is I guess you could say more "California" - outdoors with fountains, nice restaurants, the works. Both are only a short bus ride away from Caltech (or an even shorter drive), and that little bit of distance makes me feel like I'm on a vacation (if even for a few hours!).

This excursion to Glendale allowed me to catch up with an old friend, Amy. We met at the Amgen Scholars program at Tech (more info here), and she graduated last year from USC. We instantly clicked and had an awesome summer together, but even better was that she still was in the LA area, so we've gotten to meet up a few times since finishing the program in 2008. She even helped me edit many of my med school essays!

OK, enough lead-up, you just want to see some pictures - not as much as Friday, unfortunately, but hopefully this will give you an idea of the awesome afternoon I had!

My ride for the day, you can see Amy's hands doing USC's "fight on" sign! 

Fueling up at the California Pizza Kitchen - ironically we both got salad! 

Driving on the highway to Glendale! Over the mountain! 

You can (kind of) see LA through the haze. 

My "haul" - only one shirt but it was on SALE, I promise! 

Wait...where did we park, again? 

What a fun time with Amy! 

So that wraps up last weekend and I'm just getting ready to enter another one! Wow, time flies when you're having fun (or when you don't have too much work and graduation suddenly looms in your future!).

Friday by the Shore

So one of the perks of being a senior is that you have a lot more time on your hands. I've taken this unique opportunity to see more of the exciting places that LA has to offer (with less than 40 days till I may never be in California again, I need to get moving!). So this past weekend, I got the chance to catch up with two different friends with whom I haven't talked in a while and also enjoy the beautiful LA weather off-campus!

DAY 1: CENTURY CITY AND PACIFIC PALISADES

Last Friday, I spent the afternoon with my good friend Allison. You may remember her from my Yankees game post. She's from Long Island, so we had some fun thinking about life back east while enjoying the finer things the left coast has to offer. Our first stop was Century City, which is kind of between Hollywood and Santa Monica, to do some SHOPPING!

Pulling up into the parking lot! 

After eating lunch in Bloomingdale's, Allison couldn't resist taking this picture of me holding the pen "wrong". 

We played with the iPad - SO COOL!! But I still don't know what I'd use it for... 

What a fancy movie theater! 

It's cool how it's all outside. But what happens when it rains? Oh, right... it never does. 

After our lunch and shopping, it was time to head over to Pacific Palisades. It's an area closer to Malibu, and right along the shore. When we got there, the real purpose of our journey was realized - to see Giada de Laurentiis! If you don't know her, she's my FAVORITE Food Network chef, and she was doing a book signing in a local bookstore! I actually went to a booksigning she did last year in the Pasadena Williams-Sonoma, but this year I had to have some help to get to one. If you don't know her, I posted some of her recipes while I was in cooking class! Delicious!

Allison is very happy because we're near the ocean! 

Trying to get a good picture of the Pacific from the Pacific Coast Highway (route 1). 

The innocuous sign announces the arrival of GIADA! 

The crowd begins to assemble down the street. 

It's even packed on the inside! Such a cute bookstore! 

THERE SHE IS!! 

AHH I'm standing right there! 

As she hands me back my book, my time with her draws to an end... 

Now if you're an astute observer, you would see that I have two books! Why is that, you ask? No, not because I'm an excited fan (though I may or may not have all of her cookbooks signed...). But because Mother's Day is coming up! Last year I gave my mom the book signed by Giada, and this year I realized I couldn't top it, so I'm doing it again! So, since I know you read this, mom...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Your book is in the mail (sent it Priority Mail on Tuesday marked fragile so hopefully will get there in time!).

If you zoom in you can see her signature!! Hopefully these other people in line aren't jealous of me already having the books signed! 

And where did we go after? For Italian food, of course! It's not like Giada's (or my grandmothers', for that matter), but it was still good!

Mmmm pasta with sausage, capers, olives, and DELICIOUSNESS! 

Then we returned to Tech in Friday semi-rush hour traffic. Probably not too good an idea...

Allison was focused on driving, so I took my own picture! 

Those lifeguard towers look right out of the "OC" according to my friend Lisa. 

Back to reality... and traffic! 

I just realized this was a SUPER-long post, so I'll save the rest for another one. Let's just say... more shopping was involved... :).

Decisions, Decisions

Hello!

So I'm back from break, and now in addition to my light courseload (see below), I am faced with a very important choice - where do I go for my MD/PhD training this upcoming year? I'll be straight with you guys, it's a three-way decision between University of Michigan, University of Washington, and Tufts University. Currently, that's my approximate preference order, but it ALL could change upon revisiting the schools (my revisit to Caltech's Prefrosh Weekend was actually what made me want to come here over other schools, such as MIT and Princeton).

My first visit is actually this week, to UW. Flying up on Thursday morning, having a packed couple of days, and then flying back on Sunday morning. After that it's off to Michigan - flying out there next Wednesday, flying home Friday night, then back to Tech on Sunday afternoon. It was actually cheaper to fly that way - strange, huh? In talking to my support network here, I've come up with some criteria to look at. Talking to Professor Rothenberg (my bio major advisor, also doing research in her lab) helped me figure out the differences between the research opportunities at both schools, and then talking to Aadel (the Fleming House RA, currently a PhD student on a break from med school at Stanford) put some perspective on this decision (since he made one a few years ago). I'm really glad I got a lot of people here at Caltech that I can turn to when I have these burning questions to ask.

As you'll see in the pictures, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, and this indecision is permeating my life (especially since for my whopping 2 classes all I have to do is read)! More on my visits soon!

Don't worry, I'm filling in the free time with lab work and exercise!

I even made Michigan and Washington Easter Eggs! 

So many good choices! I'm very fortunate. 

Like I said, I am very lucky to have this choice - all of them are great programs and it will be a tough decision. But I think I'm going to have a gut feeling one way or the other - we'll see!

Oh, What a Break!

I can't believe I just am wrapping up my LAST spring break as a Techer!

It feels like yesterday that I was coming home for my first spring break three years ago, after just finishing up pass/fail and preparing to begin a life on grades. Well, let's just say it really sets in the fact that you have to enjoy each and every day cause it goes by so quickly!

Anyway, enough musing and philosophizing - let me tell you what I did on my Spring Vacation (like those middle school projects you used to do but the spring edition). So it started off, as Dannah said, with her visit to my quaint part of NJ. We had a packed itinerary, going to Atlantic City (to eat some good food and try our luck on the slots), New York City (to eat some good food and go see a show), Sunday Dinner (prepared by my mother, for some GREAT food), and then around to "where I grew up." Do you see the common denominator in all those activities?? All in all, a fun (and filling!) trip for her.

Having a bit too much fun with Photo Booth on the plane! 

Taking in some rays in Atlantic City! 

Enjoying ourselves in Times Square! 

As a food critic and participant in cooking class (and as an Italian-American), I FULLY endorse John's Pizzeria in New York! 

The sun sets over a beautiful day in NY, and we're relaxing by The Lake! 

However, when I dropped Dannah off at Newark Airport to head back to San Diego, I did not just sit bored with nothing to do in my house - I got to see lots of other family and friends! I made a trip (again!) to New York, this time to meet up with Lisa, my neighbor in Fleming House (and her friend Gazal), to eat some Korean food and stroll around the city.

Deciding what to get - I enjoyed my bulgogi! 

Either the girls are completely oblivious to me taking a picture or... they are purposefully ignoring me! 

Thanks to my iPhone for finding us a place for some boba! 

But all roads do not lead to New York - I also was able to visit my friend Rachel, who is a senior at Princeton. She's majoring in English (what?! you can MAJOR in that!?) and doing her master's at Oxford. Sounds pretty impressive! Unfortunately, we had a bit of a winter relapse so we were a bit chilly.

Don't let the flowers fool you - it was 40 degrees! 

Who would go to... PRINCETON?? (just kidding, of course!)

All in all a fun afternoon with Rachel! 

Well, I think that's pretty much what I did over this break (just maybe throw in a couple more family meals and such). Now that I've successfully eaten my way through NJ (and NY, too!), it's time to go back to school and begin the FINAL term!

Oh, and don't worry - I'll be posting a med school decision update soon :).

The Grand Finale!

As Nelly Furtado says in one of my favorite songs, "All Good Things Come to an End."

That's what I had to say last Sunday when we took our cooking final. It was a LONG day of prepping and cooking, and it almost felt like I was on Iron Chef! They told us a couple of the "secret ingredients" beforehand, but one was a complete surprise! In the end, we had to use: fava beans, "designer" chickens (such as Jidori and Red-Necked), and bok choy. Each ingredient needed to be used in at least one of our five courses. When we arrived at 11 AM, we had one hour to plan what we would cook, and we also got to see the spread of ingredients we would have to work with!

Lots of meat and dairy to work with! Yummm 

Mmmm lots of vegetables, too! 

Thinking about how to use our secret ingredients! So many fava beans! 

Perusing the amazing spice rack! 

Once that hour was up, it was time to cook! Our final menu was the following.

Fava Bean Dip with pancetta and parmegiano reggiano, served with Chicken Soup

Assorted Tempura

3-Cup Chicken

Rice Balls Two Ways (Japanese and Italian)

Assorted Fruit Cup with Meringue

In the end, after many hours of cooking and tasting and running around, the judging panel (of 30+ people!) did not award us the victory. Though we were a bit sad, it was still a really enjoyable experience, because I got to do one of the things (outside of science) that I love the most - cooking! And don't worry, I'm not discouraged, because my favorite judges are my family and friends :).

Plating our fava bean dip! 

Getting creative with the presentation. 

Jiaqi making her Japanese-style rice balls, stuffed with salmon! 

I had some leftover sauce, so it couldn't go to waste! 

Relaxing a bit before the final course! So tired! 

So many judges! Pretty intimidating. 

Well, that's all for cooking class, so I'll catch up with you soon! :)

Southern Night!

Hey, y'all!

So I've been really slow to update lately, mostly because of Finals' Week and Spring Break (which, if you read Dannah's blog, has been busy, too!). Our final class was about southern cooking, which was something I've never actually cooked before! It's so delicious, though, that I was really excited to learn some tricks of the trade. We had some guests explain how they make traditional southern fare, like biscuits and pulled pork. I never realized how much work went into barbecue (and BBQ is NOT the same as a grill), and that made the final product taste even better! We actually did not have the chance to cook a lot of meat (because it takes so many hours, so they made it for us).

And after cooking up applesauce, biscuits, greens, and some other accompaniments, it was time to EAT. But before that, we got schooled on the details of BBQ sauce (we had over 5 types to choose from!) and how different states do BBQ (Tom showed us a really funny video to explain it, but I can't find it - maybe I will soon). But most importantly, it was time to EAT! Delicious, of course. And we also had a lot of visitors enjoying our food, too! Tom said there were over 70 people crammed into his house that night!

Having trouble visualizing...? Time for pictures!

Our honored guest demonstrating how to make biscuits! 

"Sampling" the cinnamon biscuits - can I have another I wasn't sure if it was good the first time... :P 

Frying up some green tomatoes! Truly southern fare! 

Nina is making apple sauce using the food mill. 

Sorry, vegetarians, not really the best night for you! 

Pulled pork, brisket, BBQ sauce, and cheese grits! 

One final thing to post about cooking - the FINAL EXAM! Talk to you soon!

Spices Galore!

Good morning, chefs!

I apologize for the delay since my last post, even though I'm a senior I still have had a lot to do leading up to Finals' Week! So I want to take this time to update you on what we were up to in class last week - as you may be able to guess from the title, we were cooking fare from the subcontinent - India, that is. Let's just say I learned about spices I never had actually used before - we definitely don't use too much turmeric in Italian cooking! Now one complication from this day was that Indian food is something that usually takes a while to cook, which meant we didn't get to let our dishes stew for hours and hours on the stove (we didn't want to get out that late!). However, I will say that our results got approval from my Indian friend, Mallika - she's from Mumbai, so I think that's a pretty big deal. :)

To expedite matters, we each made a different combination of a meat and vegetable. My group made Rajasthani-style beef (the formal name escapes me) and saag. The beef was delicious, with an amazing amount of spices! The saag was a bit different from vegetables I usually had (there were mustard greens in it, and I'm honestly going to say I'm not a fan), but at least I got my vitamin K! Other groups made Chicken Korma (something that comes to mind easier when I'm thinking of Indian food) and Daal (a more creamy side dish). Oh, and of course we prepared some Naan! We decided to spice things up and put garlic in it. Like I said for Italian week... you can NEVER have too much garlic! :D

Well, below are the pictures from this week - I'm excited for this last week because it's Southern Night! And I hear it's the best one - so we'll see how it is!

Pretty color-coded directions! 

Stirring the Saag - TOO MANY GREENS! 

Jiaqi with all the naan we had to prepare! Mmmmmm!

Recipe of the week: Sorry, no time this week... stay tuned for more!

Formally Yours

Good evening. I'm Andrew, and I'll be your host tonight as you visit Fleming Formal Dinner.

...OK so unfortunately I can't actually send you over the food we ate at our delicious formal meal, but I can definitely tell you about it! Each term, every House gets to have one formal meal, and it's so fun to dress up and get to eat some gourmet food. Ours was last Friday, and it's so nice to see everyone dust off their suit or go out to buy new dresses for the occasion. What's also really cool is that we can invite not only our fellow students from other Houses, but also professors, post-docs, grad students, even alums or the Deans! It's really neat to have a forum where you can informally talk with those in charge of your education at Caltech, and it's also nice to see them outside of their class/lab/offices. Sometimes they even bring their families, and the young blood makes it even more fun!

What was on the menu (since I'm always concerned with the food, of course). Well, here 'goes!

Fillet mignon with brazed oxtail served over polenta cakes and seasonal vegetables

Cornish game hen with port balsamic sauce with carrot and turnip puree and garlic roasted Brussels sprouts

Winter vegetable pave with Spanish romesco sauce

Dessert: Chocolate Guinness cake with Irish cream sabayon

Yum! I had the vegetarian entrée (because it was a Friday during Lent), and everyone said their food was delicious. And chocolate cake for dessert can never be a mistake. ...Picture time!

The sophomore girls are looking pretty! 

I decided to skip the suit this time... I already have worn it too much! 

Everyone's waiting to eat - getting HUNGRY! 

I'm a food reviewer... so of course I took a picture of my meal! You can see some others in the background, too. 

It's not stealing the flower arrangements if they let you! 

It's all kind of bittersweet, since it's my second-to-last formal meal. However, it was so fun that I'm not too sad yet! Have a great day!

Cruisin' on the Mediterranean

Hi there, chefs (and prospective ones)!

We had a really interesting day in cooking last night learning about Lebanese food! I never really had exposure to it before, so this was a good chance to try something new and different! If I could describe Lebanese food in a word, it would be aromatic! When we were cooking and eating everything smelled like cinnamon and allspice (two of the staple spices), and it was scrumptious!

Think of Lebanese food, if you're not familiar with it, as being a cross between Greek and Middle Eastern cuisines. The Greek influences I would say are the use of phillo dough and feta cheese in some dishes, along with yogurt; the middle eastern influences seem to be more in the aromatics and spices that are used along with the dishes. What also was really neat was having a native Lebanese teacher come in to show us the ropes (and demonstrate how to make hummus! mmmmmm). Enjoy the pictures!

Using the mandolin to finely slice cucumbers. 

I learned that Lebanese food has lots of PARSLEY - we chopped cups and cups of it! 

They don't trust us to sharpen the knives, so we had Ben do it for us!

Our guest chef demonstrating how to make hummus! 

Everyone in the class anxiously awaiting to eat our delicious food!

Next week... we're going to the Far East - India! I'm looking forward to a good curry (among other delicious things, of course).

Recipe of the Week: Pasta with Ricotta and Tomato Sauce. The recipe follows below. It's one of my favorite quick pasta dishes, and like many of these other recipes, it's perfect to make on a busy weekend night when you want something delicious but not time-consuming! For a variation with a bit more bite throw some peas into the pasta water for the last couple minutes of cooking time!

1 lb pasta (preferably rotini or farfalle - something to hold onto the chunky sauce)

15 oz. tomato sauce (preferably Hunts or similar brand that is not already seasoned)

1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 clove garlic, minced

Olive oil

1/2 cup ricotta (part-skim or lowfat is fine, no need to have the extra calories!)

Salt and pepper

Grated parmigiano reggiano (or your favorite Italian hard cheese)

Bring salted water to a boil and cook the pasta till al dente.

While that is going, cook garlic in oil over medium heat until a bit toasty (a minute or so). Then add the tomato sauce (be careful it doesn't splatter!) and seasonings to taste. Heat through.

Once the pasta and sauce are done, strain the pasta (leaving some of the starchy pasta water) and add the sauce to it. Stir in the ricotta, and then add the grated cheese to desired level of cheesiness. Enjoy!

Mamma Mia!

So as I alluded to in my last post, we cooked Italian food tonight in class! Now I'm fourth-generation Italian (my beloved Nana came over from Sicily in 1914, and my other great-grandparents at different times), so I do know a thing or two about Italian cooking. I was trying to channel my grandmas and my mom when I was in class, so I hope that helped my group out in making our dishes!

We made lots and lots of pasta, which was of course good, except I would have liked to have cooked more meaty dishes. That's because in Italy, pasta isn't ever really a main course, but instead a "Primo Piatto" (first dish). My favorites are chicken saltimbocca (recipe below) and the perennial Italian-American favorite, chicken parmesan. So that would have been nice, but, alas, we spent the whole night making sauces.

The sauces we made were marinara, pesto, and alfredo, and they all were pretty delicious. I love making pesto in the summer when our fresh basil plant at home is in full bloom, and it's so easy to make! The marinara we made was a bit un-traditional, because it was spicier than I would normally make and we added sugar! I definitely should have tasted it before adding those ingredients... Our alfredo had some trouble thickening, so we added lots of extra cheese! That's never a problem for me, though. Oh, speaking of that, here are my rules for Italian cooking, if you were curious.

1. You can never have too much basil.
2. You can never have too much garlic.
3. And, most importantly, you can never have too much CHEESE!

Anyways, enough talking, more pictures! Mmmmmmm, though not as delicious as the homeland, I'll admit :).

Lots of tomatoes to make our marinara! 

Ben offering assistance to my team in changing the propane tank! Don't want a fire! 

Thickening up the alfredo sauce! 

Putting finishing touches on the caprese salad! 

Time to eat! And they treated us to Valentine's Day candy! 

Till next time... happy eating! I hear we're going across the Pacific to Asia next week, so I'm definitely excited!

Recipe of the Week: Chicken Saltimbocca: Saltimbocca translates to "jumps in the mouth," and this is such a flavorful dish it will do just that! It's also really easy to make, and is a delicious addition to any meal you want to prepare. Use frozen spinach and dry it off really well - it'll make everything much easier to work with and you won't have to worry about sandy spinach leaves!

I just realized all of these recipes have prosciutto in them, so I'll try to switch it up next week, especially for those who can't eat/don't like prosciutto!