--JUST A REMINDER: OUR FIRST ESSAY IS DUE TUESDAY BY MIDNIGHT--
Once your essay is finished, you will upload the final draft at any time on or before the 28th to turnitin.com
If you have not used this site before, you will go to turnitin.com and sign in using your own information. To enroll in the class, you will need the CLASS ID and password. They are below:
CLASS ID: 7498544
PASSWORD: english
Monday, January 27, 2014
Sunday, January 26, 2014
WEEK FOUR BLOG ENTRY
This week, give some advice regarding editing and revision. What are some ways that you revise essays to make them better?
If we run out of steam on that topic, tell a story of a time when you did not revise enough, or when you edited incorrectly and "fixed" a bunch of your own good sentences, or when the dog ate your homework. Think about your own writing experiences. After all, you have been a student for many years now and have been doing quite well at this being a student "game" we learn to play.
And if neither of those strike your fancy, as a last resort, just tell me what you are doing for the Super Bowl next week...
If we run out of steam on that topic, tell a story of a time when you did not revise enough, or when you edited incorrectly and "fixed" a bunch of your own good sentences, or when the dog ate your homework. Think about your own writing experiences. After all, you have been a student for many years now and have been doing quite well at this being a student "game" we learn to play.
And if neither of those strike your fancy, as a last resort, just tell me what you are doing for the Super Bowl next week...
WEEK FOUR READING
Are you a Supertaster? Mindless Eating & Your Taste Buds
Are you a Supertaster?
Are your taste buds to blame for mindless overeating? They may be contributing more than you think.Scientists divide people into three categories: supertasters, medium tasters and nontasters. Supertasters have a much denser distribution of taste buds than medium and nontasters. So supertasters experience food as richer and tastier than other people. It's an explosion of flavor in your mouth.
Approximately, 25% of people are known to be “supertasters,” 50% are medium tasters, and 25% are nontasters.
THE DOWNSIDE
While getting the full pleasure out of food may be fun, supertasters have an increase risk of cancer, particularly colon cancer. This is mainly because they are very sensitive to bitter foods, which may make them avoid certain good-for-you vegetables that are bitter in taste like broccoli. Instead, supertasters are also drawn to sodium and therefore use more salt. In theory, supertasters may be using more salt to mask the bitter taste of foods. This increases their risk for a heart attack.
The upside for female supertasters is that they often avoid sweet, high fat foods, which makes them less vulnerable to cardiac problems and obesity. It makes sense. Supertasters don’t need much sweetness or fat in their meals because a little goes a long way for them. Male supertasters, on the other hand, are more likely to be drawn to high fat foods, which increases their risk of obesity.
If you aren’t a picky eater, you might be a nontaster. Nontasters are more likely to try more foods because their taste buds are less discriminating. Supertasters notice the subtle differences in food taste and textures, which makes them good chefs and food critics. Nontasters experience food as more bland.
THE TEST
If you aren’t sure if you are a supertaster, you can try a simple test to find out. Place some dark blue food coloring on the tip of your tongue. On a piece of paper, punch a standard three ring binder sized hole. Place the paper on your tongue. Count the number of little dots that you see inside the hole. On average, supertasters have 35, average tasters have between 15 and 35, and non-tasters have less than 15. Or, if you know a biology teacher, ask for a PTC paper. Supertasters have a gene that allows them to taste the bitterness of a chemical called PROP (propylthiouracil). If you place the PTC paper on your tongue and you taste bitterness, you know you are a supertaster.
SUPERTASTERS & MINDFUL EATING
So if you are trying to eat more mindfully, consider how your taste buds may be impacting the way you eat. Do you always reach for the salt shaker? Do you find yourself overeating because the taste is so amazing? Or, do you struggle with getting veggies into your diet because you don't like them (which may be due to the bitterness)? Learning to eat slowly and with full awareness can help everyone (no matter what kind of taste buds you have) eat more mindfully. When you are aware of your eating habits and style, you are more in charge of what and how much you eat. Supertasters, for example, are likely to get into the mindless habit of salting their food before they taste it. If you are aware of this, you can stop this automatic habit by taking a small bite and consciously evaluating it before adding salt. To learn more about mindful eating click here. www.eatingmindfully.com
To read more about supertasters: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/06/16/127880219/for-supertasters-a-desire-for-salt-is-in-their-genes
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/16/salt.taste/index.html
By: Dr. Susan Albers, psychologist and author of the new book, 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food and Eating Mindfully.
WEEK FOUR WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ...or, what I expect from you on our first big essay.
Just work on polishing your restaurant review. Here is how you do that:
1. As a descriptive essay, I want to see some strong description. Rather than telling me, show me. What that means is, do not just tell me something tasted good. Instead, explain the feeling of that particular bite on your tongue, the way you had to close your eyes to experience the full sensation of sweetness from a particular dessert, the smoky essence when you breathed in after a sip of an oak aged cabernet sauvignon, or the welled up sense of hatred you felt when the restaurant overcooked your asparagus. Use all senses! Touch, taste, feel, smell, sound...
2. Avoid simple mistakes. I use the term "simple" because I do not want to write "stupid." Woops, I guess it came out anyway. Remember, this is fun writing(I hope it was fun!), but it is a final draft you are turning in. I do not expect you to know and use properly every single comma rule, but I do expect you to fix simple errors as those errors signify a lack of careful editing.
1. As a descriptive essay, I want to see some strong description. Rather than telling me, show me. What that means is, do not just tell me something tasted good. Instead, explain the feeling of that particular bite on your tongue, the way you had to close your eyes to experience the full sensation of sweetness from a particular dessert, the smoky essence when you breathed in after a sip of an oak aged cabernet sauvignon, or the welled up sense of hatred you felt when the restaurant overcooked your asparagus. Use all senses! Touch, taste, feel, smell, sound...
2. Avoid simple mistakes. I use the term "simple" because I do not want to write "stupid." Woops, I guess it came out anyway. Remember, this is fun writing(I hope it was fun!), but it is a final draft you are turning in. I do not expect you to know and use properly every single comma rule, but I do expect you to fix simple errors as those errors signify a lack of careful editing.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
WEEK THREE BLOG ENTRY
This is unrelated to our current theme--savory and sweet deliciousness--but we will see what happens. This week, I want you to talk about the importance of sports in the U.S. Are they simply mindless masses of muscle, these athletes? Do they represent a new gladiator society? Are sports the essence of American culture, the only real locus of culture in a country that has lost its public space? What is the role of sports? Be specific and as personal as you wish. Maybe you were/are a football player, cheerleader, bowler, cymbal player (is cymbalist a word?) in the band, viewer or fan. Or perhaps you sat on the sidelines and scoffed at the whole endeavor. Maybe you awake to watch English soccer at 4am, drive to L.A. to enjoy the Dodgers, or pay exorbitant sums to watch every NBA game of the season. Regardless of who you are, what do all of these games mean? Do a little critical and creative thinking on the cultural meaning of sports.
WEEK THREE READING
Jonathan Gold | L.A. restaurant review: At Willie Jane, a local phenom refined
September 28, 2013
If you follow the restaurant scene in Los Angeles, you have known about Govind Armstrong for years, possibly since he was a teenage cooking prodigy whose mom drove him to stints on the line at the original Spago the way that other moms drive their kids to Little League practice. Or perhaps you know him from his long collaboration with locavore Ben Ford, or from his solo gigs at Table 8 and 8 Oz. Burger Bar. You may have followed Armstrong's short-lived adventure in New York, which wasn't well-received, and his appearances on "Top Chef" and on the list of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.
It is more likely that you noticed his restaurant Post & Beam, which he started a couple of years ago with business partner Brad Johnson and is the most ambitious restaurant ever to open in the Crenshaw District. If you want to understand the power structure of South Los Angeles, you could do worse than to eavesdrop over grits and a Bloody Mary at Post & Beam after church on a Sunday afternoon.
But while Armstrong has been widely discussed as a phenomenon, and his cascading hair still makes teenage foodies swoon, his development as a chef may have been less examined — his style's evolution from California Mediterranean, his work with organic farmers, his burger-bar perfectionism, his streamlined African American menu at Post & Beam. Much of his early cooking was tasty but undisciplined, overgarnished and underthought. At Post & Beam, with a clientele that expected something close to perfection in dishes that reminded them of home (which is quite different from that of uptown customers demanding novelty), Armstrong finally settled into a groove.
At Willie Jane, the new restaurant he runs with Johnson on Abbot Kinney's restaurant row, Armstrong's style has become more refined yet — it's kind of a fantasy mash-up of Low Country cuisine with farm-driven California presentation, heavily reliant on the sharply tart notes that have become his trademark, and heavily reliant on Geri Miller's urban farm Cook's Garden, which happens to be right next door. When the collards and lettuces are grown less than 50 feet from your kitchen, and the farmer is apt to glare if you have treated her peppers with less than total respect, you have to maintain a certain watchfulness. Many of the dishes may have their origins in the coastal Carolinas, but they are grounded in Venice soil.
So in addition to the buttermilk biscuits with soft honey butter, the deviled eggs and the mussels steamed with ham and lemon, there are sliced peak-season peaches with burrata, smoked pecans and a handful of next-door arugula; a heap of milky ricotta with crunchy bits of fried bread and sliced next-door cucumbers; and a spicy watermelon salad with somewhat overcooked shrimp and a scattering of next-door lettuce. You can get a stack of spareribs brushed with a tart hibiscus-flower glaze — Mexicans call the herb jamaica — but it will be sprinkled with peppery yellow arugula blossoms, which is not what they put on the ribs at Bludso's. You may know shrimp and grits as the saucy, hammy breakfast dish you find everywhere in Charleston. Armstrong's version involves chile-marinated grilled shrimp, more Caribbean than South Carolina, with a small lake of organic Anson Mills grits and a kind of roasted pepper ragout. It is as close to Low Country shrimp and grits as New Orleans barbecued shrimp is to barbecue, and when you eat it, semantics don't come into play.
Most of the seating for the restaurant is outside, on patios that back up against the nursery on the other side of the building. The waiters have the ease (and the cheekbones) of models. The bartender rings herb-flavored seasonal variations on classic Southern cocktails like Old-Fashioneds, Vieux Carres and shrubs.
Is the fried chicken crisp, the pan-roasted salmon properly medium rare and the charred carrot as compelling as the hanger steak with which it is served? Indeed. The braised oxtail is compelling in its plainness, little more than fat chunks of tail soft enough to eat with a spoon, served with a lightly curried sauce you may never get around to using (it would be the main attraction at a soul food restaurant in Compton or Willowbrook). The pork chop brined in sweet tea is uncommonly juicy. The cast-iron chicken is sort of a marriage between Tuscan chicken under a brick and Edna Lewis-style pan-roasted chicken, bone out and cooked between two hot cast-iron pans until the juices run clear and the skin becomes about 90% crunch. The greens cooked down with pickled peppers, the black-eyed peas with tasso and kale, and the late-summer creamed corn are at least as interesting as the meat.
You may be tempted by the giant slabs of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, the berry shortcake or the pudding, but the one dessert you must try is the raisin-oatmeal cookie sandwich, as chewy, crisp and buttery as your fondest dreams, and stuffed with cool mascarpone cream.
Govind Armstrong has hit a peak at Willie Jane by blending Low Country cuisine with a garden-fresh California presentation.
By Jonathan GoldSeptember 28, 2013
It is more likely that you noticed his restaurant Post & Beam, which he started a couple of years ago with business partner Brad Johnson and is the most ambitious restaurant ever to open in the Crenshaw District. If you want to understand the power structure of South Los Angeles, you could do worse than to eavesdrop over grits and a Bloody Mary at Post & Beam after church on a Sunday afternoon.
But while Armstrong has been widely discussed as a phenomenon, and his cascading hair still makes teenage foodies swoon, his development as a chef may have been less examined — his style's evolution from California Mediterranean, his work with organic farmers, his burger-bar perfectionism, his streamlined African American menu at Post & Beam. Much of his early cooking was tasty but undisciplined, overgarnished and underthought. At Post & Beam, with a clientele that expected something close to perfection in dishes that reminded them of home (which is quite different from that of uptown customers demanding novelty), Armstrong finally settled into a groove.
At Willie Jane, the new restaurant he runs with Johnson on Abbot Kinney's restaurant row, Armstrong's style has become more refined yet — it's kind of a fantasy mash-up of Low Country cuisine with farm-driven California presentation, heavily reliant on the sharply tart notes that have become his trademark, and heavily reliant on Geri Miller's urban farm Cook's Garden, which happens to be right next door. When the collards and lettuces are grown less than 50 feet from your kitchen, and the farmer is apt to glare if you have treated her peppers with less than total respect, you have to maintain a certain watchfulness. Many of the dishes may have their origins in the coastal Carolinas, but they are grounded in Venice soil.
So in addition to the buttermilk biscuits with soft honey butter, the deviled eggs and the mussels steamed with ham and lemon, there are sliced peak-season peaches with burrata, smoked pecans and a handful of next-door arugula; a heap of milky ricotta with crunchy bits of fried bread and sliced next-door cucumbers; and a spicy watermelon salad with somewhat overcooked shrimp and a scattering of next-door lettuce. You can get a stack of spareribs brushed with a tart hibiscus-flower glaze — Mexicans call the herb jamaica — but it will be sprinkled with peppery yellow arugula blossoms, which is not what they put on the ribs at Bludso's. You may know shrimp and grits as the saucy, hammy breakfast dish you find everywhere in Charleston. Armstrong's version involves chile-marinated grilled shrimp, more Caribbean than South Carolina, with a small lake of organic Anson Mills grits and a kind of roasted pepper ragout. It is as close to Low Country shrimp and grits as New Orleans barbecued shrimp is to barbecue, and when you eat it, semantics don't come into play.
Most of the seating for the restaurant is outside, on patios that back up against the nursery on the other side of the building. The waiters have the ease (and the cheekbones) of models. The bartender rings herb-flavored seasonal variations on classic Southern cocktails like Old-Fashioneds, Vieux Carres and shrubs.
Is the fried chicken crisp, the pan-roasted salmon properly medium rare and the charred carrot as compelling as the hanger steak with which it is served? Indeed. The braised oxtail is compelling in its plainness, little more than fat chunks of tail soft enough to eat with a spoon, served with a lightly curried sauce you may never get around to using (it would be the main attraction at a soul food restaurant in Compton or Willowbrook). The pork chop brined in sweet tea is uncommonly juicy. The cast-iron chicken is sort of a marriage between Tuscan chicken under a brick and Edna Lewis-style pan-roasted chicken, bone out and cooked between two hot cast-iron pans until the juices run clear and the skin becomes about 90% crunch. The greens cooked down with pickled peppers, the black-eyed peas with tasso and kale, and the late-summer creamed corn are at least as interesting as the meat.
You may be tempted by the giant slabs of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, the berry shortcake or the pudding, but the one dessert you must try is the raisin-oatmeal cookie sandwich, as chewy, crisp and buttery as your fondest dreams, and stuffed with cool mascarpone cream.
WEEK THREE WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ
Just work on your restaurant reviews this week. I wanted you to read that review because the language is colorful and exact. But basically, there is nothing to write about in this section this week.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
WEEK TWO BLOG ENTRY
One bite...that's it, just one bite. You have the describe using deep description the best single bite of food you've tasted in your life.
For all of us, this is hard, nearly impossible. But think of those glorious food moments and capture one bite of the moment. For me, I might think about family reunions in North Carolina, and the one bite would be this. Real southern hushpuppies. As I bite into this recently fried, perfectly bready southern delight, the smells of frying catfish fill the air, the hushpuppy so fresh that my tongue feels slightly splattered with hot oil. I can hear my Aunt Muriel's deep southern drawl as she lets out, "I'll declare, them is some good hushpuppies."
Describe your bite and the scene.
Have fun...and prepare to be hungry. Writing and reading about food makes me want to eat...
For all of us, this is hard, nearly impossible. But think of those glorious food moments and capture one bite of the moment. For me, I might think about family reunions in North Carolina, and the one bite would be this. Real southern hushpuppies. As I bite into this recently fried, perfectly bready southern delight, the smells of frying catfish fill the air, the hushpuppy so fresh that my tongue feels slightly splattered with hot oil. I can hear my Aunt Muriel's deep southern drawl as she lets out, "I'll declare, them is some good hushpuppies."
Describe your bite and the scene.
Have fun...and prepare to be hungry. Writing and reading about food makes me want to eat...
WEEK TWO READING: TACO TRUCK
Chef Carlos Salgado's mobile restaurant specializes in food that re-imagines tantalizing Mexican traditions.
January 19, 2012
When food truck fatigue finally set in among the Twitter-equipped some time last year, the mobile movement all but stalled. Gone were the throngs that waited for hours, their attentions shifted instead to newly minted food artisans and itinerant pop-up restaurants. But in a Darwinian twist, only the strongest trucks have survived. And though the thrill of the chase may be gone for some, what remains are by and large the best meals on wheels.
Taco María is a product of that natural selection. The truck is helmed by Carlos Salgado, whose culinary pedigree instantly drove Taco María onto the radar screen of every serious Orange County eater. His has indeed an impressive résumé: Salgado served as pastry chef in some of the Bay Area's top restaurants, including Daniel Patterson's Coi and Oakland's Commis. He returned home to Orange County to help his parents transform the family's taquería. Taco María is what emerged from that reinvention, a truck that's constantly re-imagining lonchera traditions with the techniques and style of Mexican alta cocina.
"My parents' restaurant, La Siesta [in Orange], has been in business for over 25 years," Salgado says. "It was when they started talking about selling a few years ago that I began pointing myself back toward my hometown. Taco María was to be an extension of the restaurant and a flagship for our catering operations.
"Coming to work for a different audience, at a different price point, I've had to simplify my approach and distill the cooking ethics that are most important to me into a method that works within the food truck model. And while I may not have a kitchen full of highly trained, Michelin-quality cooks, a Pacojet, Cryovac machine or a dozen immersion circulators, I do have my family to support me and keep me grounded. My dad is the best sous-chef I could imagine having."
Those at the truck inevitably start with the aracherra taco, made with grilled hanger steak, a blistered shisito pepper, caramelized onion and bacon's smoky quintessence. The taco has both the humble charm of a backyard barbecue and the finesse of a fine steakhouse.
Yet even the most hard-core carnivores ultimately end up ordering the jardineros taco as well: knobs of roasted pumpkin, black beans, cotija cheese and a pumpkin seed salsa de semillas. There's no need for meat — this is a vegetarian taco built not on the artifice of mock meat or incongruous fusion but on the simple rhythms of the market.
If the aracherra doesn't sway you, there's always the carnitas. The slow-cooked pork shoulder is lashed with a bit of citrus and enlivened by the noticeable warmth of cinnamon. The mole de pollo is even more richly spiced — the mahogany mole is as complex as an Indian curry.
But Taco María's ever-changing specials are its signature. The truck's quesadilla de tuétano triggers Pavlovian devotion. It's a dish already cemented in food truck lore: crisp nuggets of bone marrow, stringy queso Oaxaca and a garlic-and-herb paste pulverized in a molcajete. It's predictably rich but powerfully addictive.
Salgado's rendition of esquites is similarly good, chile- and lime-laced corn sautéed with garlic, thyme and epazote in a butter flavored with blackened corncobs and toasty husks.
"I was telling [my] mom about some of my favorite foods and struggling to find a translation for bone marrow," Salgado explains. "She said something like, 'I think we used to make quesadillas [with that].' I was floored and immediately wrote it into our opening menu. What I assumed would be a fringe dish for the adventurous actually turned out to be incredibly popular. My whole staff has cuts and scrapes on their hands from pushing marrow every day just to meet demand."
It isn't brunch without the truck's excellent chilaquiles: freshly fried tortilla chips enrobed in a cascabel chile sauce and topped with pickled onions, queso fresco and a fried egg. Taco María isn't all about masa, either — any taco can be turned into a burrito. And you've really got to try the beet salad dressed with avocado, orange, almonds and charred scallion vinaigrette.
There may be a melon-lemon grass agua fresca to drink, or perhaps one flush with hibiscus and Concord grape. Salgado's almond horchata, however, is what you'll want a jug of, almond milk perfumed with coriander seeds. It's a brilliant addition: fragrant and floral, the coriander is at once unmistakable and ingeniously subtle.
Whether it's by an obsessive need for completion or sheer force of will, you will find room for dessert. Salgado's sweets are every bit as good as his pastry training portends, like the steamed chocolate bread pudding strewn with fried peanuts and glazed with milky caramel. When there isn't dense rice pudding scented with star anise and cinnamon, there's a glorious ricotta flan of homemade ricotta, caramel and a few sangria-soaked raspberries.
Witness the truck's crowds at Orange County's farmers markets and business parks and you begin to understand Taco María's growing cult, a purveyor of precisely the kind of modern Mexican cooking that's destined not for disposable cardboard containers but fine porcelain.
Salgado hints at that future. "It's still too early for us to share details, but we're excited about creating a unique type of Mexican restaurant here in Orange County, where Mexican food is such a large part of our shared experience. Exactly where and when depend on how far our truck, Frida, can take us. What I can say is that the restaurant will remain local, honest and accessible, with a menu that is recognizably Mexican in soul, in a space that is central, warm and inviting and will hopefully become a fixture in our own community."
source: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-find-20120119,0,3934262.story
January 19, 2012
When food truck fatigue finally set in among the Twitter-equipped some time last year, the mobile movement all but stalled. Gone were the throngs that waited for hours, their attentions shifted instead to newly minted food artisans and itinerant pop-up restaurants. But in a Darwinian twist, only the strongest trucks have survived. And though the thrill of the chase may be gone for some, what remains are by and large the best meals on wheels.
Taco María is a product of that natural selection. The truck is helmed by Carlos Salgado, whose culinary pedigree instantly drove Taco María onto the radar screen of every serious Orange County eater. His has indeed an impressive résumé: Salgado served as pastry chef in some of the Bay Area's top restaurants, including Daniel Patterson's Coi and Oakland's Commis. He returned home to Orange County to help his parents transform the family's taquería. Taco María is what emerged from that reinvention, a truck that's constantly re-imagining lonchera traditions with the techniques and style of Mexican alta cocina.
"My parents' restaurant, La Siesta [in Orange], has been in business for over 25 years," Salgado says. "It was when they started talking about selling a few years ago that I began pointing myself back toward my hometown. Taco María was to be an extension of the restaurant and a flagship for our catering operations.
"Coming to work for a different audience, at a different price point, I've had to simplify my approach and distill the cooking ethics that are most important to me into a method that works within the food truck model. And while I may not have a kitchen full of highly trained, Michelin-quality cooks, a Pacojet, Cryovac machine or a dozen immersion circulators, I do have my family to support me and keep me grounded. My dad is the best sous-chef I could imagine having."
Those at the truck inevitably start with the aracherra taco, made with grilled hanger steak, a blistered shisito pepper, caramelized onion and bacon's smoky quintessence. The taco has both the humble charm of a backyard barbecue and the finesse of a fine steakhouse.
Yet even the most hard-core carnivores ultimately end up ordering the jardineros taco as well: knobs of roasted pumpkin, black beans, cotija cheese and a pumpkin seed salsa de semillas. There's no need for meat — this is a vegetarian taco built not on the artifice of mock meat or incongruous fusion but on the simple rhythms of the market.
If the aracherra doesn't sway you, there's always the carnitas. The slow-cooked pork shoulder is lashed with a bit of citrus and enlivened by the noticeable warmth of cinnamon. The mole de pollo is even more richly spiced — the mahogany mole is as complex as an Indian curry.
But Taco María's ever-changing specials are its signature. The truck's quesadilla de tuétano triggers Pavlovian devotion. It's a dish already cemented in food truck lore: crisp nuggets of bone marrow, stringy queso Oaxaca and a garlic-and-herb paste pulverized in a molcajete. It's predictably rich but powerfully addictive.
Salgado's rendition of esquites is similarly good, chile- and lime-laced corn sautéed with garlic, thyme and epazote in a butter flavored with blackened corncobs and toasty husks.
"I was telling [my] mom about some of my favorite foods and struggling to find a translation for bone marrow," Salgado explains. "She said something like, 'I think we used to make quesadillas [with that].' I was floored and immediately wrote it into our opening menu. What I assumed would be a fringe dish for the adventurous actually turned out to be incredibly popular. My whole staff has cuts and scrapes on their hands from pushing marrow every day just to meet demand."
It isn't brunch without the truck's excellent chilaquiles: freshly fried tortilla chips enrobed in a cascabel chile sauce and topped with pickled onions, queso fresco and a fried egg. Taco María isn't all about masa, either — any taco can be turned into a burrito. And you've really got to try the beet salad dressed with avocado, orange, almonds and charred scallion vinaigrette.
There may be a melon-lemon grass agua fresca to drink, or perhaps one flush with hibiscus and Concord grape. Salgado's almond horchata, however, is what you'll want a jug of, almond milk perfumed with coriander seeds. It's a brilliant addition: fragrant and floral, the coriander is at once unmistakable and ingeniously subtle.
Whether it's by an obsessive need for completion or sheer force of will, you will find room for dessert. Salgado's sweets are every bit as good as his pastry training portends, like the steamed chocolate bread pudding strewn with fried peanuts and glazed with milky caramel. When there isn't dense rice pudding scented with star anise and cinnamon, there's a glorious ricotta flan of homemade ricotta, caramel and a few sangria-soaked raspberries.
Witness the truck's crowds at Orange County's farmers markets and business parks and you begin to understand Taco María's growing cult, a purveyor of precisely the kind of modern Mexican cooking that's destined not for disposable cardboard containers but fine porcelain.
Salgado hints at that future. "It's still too early for us to share details, but we're excited about creating a unique type of Mexican restaurant here in Orange County, where Mexican food is such a large part of our shared experience. Exactly where and when depend on how far our truck, Frida, can take us. What I can say is that the restaurant will remain local, honest and accessible, with a menu that is recognizably Mexican in soul, in a space that is central, warm and inviting and will hopefully become a fixture in our own community."
source: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-find-20120119,0,3934262.story
WEEK TWO WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ
I traveled to Portland, Oregon over the break and ate at some great food trucks: a German place called Allengartz was my favorite. If you were going to open a food truck, what type of food would you serve and where would it be? Remember, I am offering you unlimited imaginary funds, so please create exactly the type of rolling food factory that you dream about!
RESTAURANT REVIEW ASSIGNMENT...ESSAY #1
RESTAURANT REVIEW: DUE JANUARY 28TH (20%) Go to any restaurant in town. As you eat, take notes on the ambiance, the food, and the service. You may choose any restaurant (from Taco Bell to Café Med), but you should use this writing assignment to explore your descriptive capabilities. Use sound, touch, taste, smell, and the look of the food and surroundings. The review should be approximately two to three pages in length. You may use the first-person in this review.
Basically, you should go to a restaurant and capture the experience on paper. You may use first person and may write in a fairly informal tone. This is due on January 28th, by midnight.
HERE'S HOW YOU TURN THIS PAPER IN:
Once your essay is finished, you will upload the final draft at any time on or before the 28th to turnitin.com
If you have not used this site before, you will go to turnitin.com and sign in using your own information. To enroll in the class, you will need the CLASS ID and password. They are below:
CLASS ID: 7498544
PASSWORD: english
Once you are signed in, you will click on Restaurant Review, which is the only available assignment right now. You will submit your paper there. That is it. If you have trouble with this, let me know.
Again, that assignment is due on the 28th and will be turned in only at turnitin.com.
Best,
dr. s
Basically, you should go to a restaurant and capture the experience on paper. You may use first person and may write in a fairly informal tone. This is due on January 28th, by midnight.
HERE'S HOW YOU TURN THIS PAPER IN:
Once your essay is finished, you will upload the final draft at any time on or before the 28th to turnitin.com
If you have not used this site before, you will go to turnitin.com and sign in using your own information. To enroll in the class, you will need the CLASS ID and password. They are below:
CLASS ID: 7498544
PASSWORD: english
Once you are signed in, you will click on Restaurant Review, which is the only available assignment right now. You will submit your paper there. That is it. If you have trouble with this, let me know.
Again, that assignment is due on the 28th and will be turned in only at turnitin.com.
Best,
dr. s
Thursday, January 9, 2014
COURSE SYLLABUS/HELPFUL COURSE INFORMATION
Hello all,
Now that most of you have stated to blog, I wanted to post the course policies, assignments due dates, and other helpful information. As always, email any questions that arise out of your reading of this document. But I would also remind you, you will receive updates for every assignment as they occur. If you are one of those people who has to have absolutely every detail spelled out beforehand, then I say to you, ommmmm, relax! This course has worked well for many students and for many years because we sort of slowly plug away at your writing issue in this weekly blog writing and then on occasion have the opportunity to write about some great reading.
IMPORTANT DUE DATES:
BLOG AND WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ: WEEKLY
RESTAURANT REVIEW: JANUARY 28TH
IN CLASS ESSAY: FEBRUARY 8TH
TORTILLA CURTAIN ESSAY: FEBRUARY 26TH
TIPPING POINT FINAL DRAFT: MARCH 17TH
GRADED COURSEWORK:
BLOG: (5%) Each week there will be a question on the blog. You will write at least 250 words(a long and brilliant paragraph) in response to that question. You must also respond to your classmates’ writing at least twice(with at least a one sentence response) each week. The best thing to do is to write your response to the blog prompt, respond to someone else’s blog entry, and then wait a few hours or a day before coming back to see what others have said about your blog entry. Then, respond to that. The more you write, the better. Each week, I will chime in at least once(and usually more) with my own response. Bu remember, this is NON GRADED WRITING. Studies have made it very clear that the more you write in non-judged ways, the better your writing becomes. So simply write!
WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ: (5%) After you read each week’s selection, you will respond to a question about the reading. These should also be about 250 words. You do not need to respond to other’s work in this area. However, you may find someone else’s work so interesting that you want to respond.
PEER REVISION: (10%) ---refer to the email regarding this topic. It will be much later in the quarter and will involve your revision of a classmate's essay on the Tipping Point.
RESTAURANT REVIEW: (20%) THIS IS OUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT. Go to any restaurant in town. As you eat, take notes on the ambiance, the food, and the service. You may choose any restaurant (from Taco Bell to Café Med), but you should use this writing assignment to explore your descriptive capabilities. Use sound, touch, taste, smell, and the look of the food and surroundings. The review should be approximately three pages(typed, double-spaced) in length. You may use the first-person in this review. Again, I will email you this assignment separately, but you might start thinking now about which restaurant you want to try.
TORTILLA CURTAIN "ESSAY": (20%)
TIPPING POINT FINAL DRAFT: (30%) For this assignment, you will email me the final draft copy of your essay. THIS IS FINAL ESSAY OF THE COURSE, SO DO NOT RUSH OUT AND START IT NOW!
The essay should be attached as a Microsoft Word document and should be 4-5 pages in length, double spaced.
There are two essay topics to choose from.
Write a 3-4 page double spaced essay on one of the following topics:
1. How might one or more of the ideas in the book The Tipping Point apply to your chosen profession?
2. Locate a trend [social, political, cultural, other] that seems to exhibit a "tipping point" phenomenon. Provide a brief explanation of why you think this phenomenon meets Gladwell's three criteria for tipping point phenomenon: a) contagiousness b) little causes having big effects c) not gradual but dramatic change.
ROUGH DRAFT OF TIPPING POINT ESSAY MUST BE EMAILED TO YOUR REVISERS AND TO ME BY A DATE ANNOUNCED LATER.
REVISERS, YOU MUST EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS ON THE PAPER BACK TO THE AUTHOR AND TO ME BY A DIFFERENT DATE ANNOUNCED LATER.
IN CLASS ESSAY: (10%)
We will take this in class essay during our face to face meeting at CSUB. This is our one mandatory meeting. Since this course satisfies the GWAR, you must pass one in class essay to be eligible to pass the course. That essay will be given during our face to face meeting. If you do not pass this assignment, you can come to my office to take a “demand” essay.
Now that most of you have stated to blog, I wanted to post the course policies, assignments due dates, and other helpful information. As always, email any questions that arise out of your reading of this document. But I would also remind you, you will receive updates for every assignment as they occur. If you are one of those people who has to have absolutely every detail spelled out beforehand, then I say to you, ommmmm, relax! This course has worked well for many students and for many years because we sort of slowly plug away at your writing issue in this weekly blog writing and then on occasion have the opportunity to write about some great reading.
IMPORTANT DUE DATES:
BLOG AND WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ: WEEKLY
RESTAURANT REVIEW: JANUARY 28TH
IN CLASS ESSAY: FEBRUARY 8TH
TORTILLA CURTAIN ESSAY: FEBRUARY 26TH
TIPPING POINT FINAL DRAFT: MARCH 17TH
GRADED COURSEWORK:
BLOG: (5%) Each week there will be a question on the blog. You will write at least 250 words(a long and brilliant paragraph) in response to that question. You must also respond to your classmates’ writing at least twice(with at least a one sentence response) each week. The best thing to do is to write your response to the blog prompt, respond to someone else’s blog entry, and then wait a few hours or a day before coming back to see what others have said about your blog entry. Then, respond to that. The more you write, the better. Each week, I will chime in at least once(and usually more) with my own response. Bu remember, this is NON GRADED WRITING. Studies have made it very clear that the more you write in non-judged ways, the better your writing becomes. So simply write!
WRITING ABOUT WHAT YOU READ: (5%) After you read each week’s selection, you will respond to a question about the reading. These should also be about 250 words. You do not need to respond to other’s work in this area. However, you may find someone else’s work so interesting that you want to respond.
PEER REVISION: (10%) ---refer to the email regarding this topic. It will be much later in the quarter and will involve your revision of a classmate's essay on the Tipping Point.
RESTAURANT REVIEW: (20%) THIS IS OUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT. Go to any restaurant in town. As you eat, take notes on the ambiance, the food, and the service. You may choose any restaurant (from Taco Bell to Café Med), but you should use this writing assignment to explore your descriptive capabilities. Use sound, touch, taste, smell, and the look of the food and surroundings. The review should be approximately three pages(typed, double-spaced) in length. You may use the first-person in this review. Again, I will email you this assignment separately, but you might start thinking now about which restaurant you want to try.
TORTILLA CURTAIN "ESSAY": (20%)
I put "essay" in quotes because this is not an essay, per se. It is, rather, a synthesis exercise. After you read the assignment below you may say, what kind of an odd assignment is this? And I would respond, yes, quite odd! Through this assignment you will begin to consider the meaning of the book, one sentence at a time.
As you read TC Boyle, number on a page from 1-10. Write out the ten sentences from the book that catch your eye or make you think. After each sentence, give a brief description of what the sentence means to you or why you included it. At the end of those ten sentences comes the more difficult but rewarding part. You are going to write a synthesis. A synthesis is a type of writing where you take various unrelated writings and find some insight drawn from them. It is writing that creates connections between thoughts. You are not comparing the thoughts, but you are using these ten sentences to say one thing. When you examine the ten sentences together, what new insight do you gain that may have been undeveloped just by looking at one or two sentences.
That will be labeled “Synthesis” and will be at the bottom of the numbered ten sentences.
As I said, this is a little weird, but it usually produces good writing. You are simply numbering and writing about ten sentences and then writing about how they are connected.
Since it is a bit odd, I wanted to give you one good example of the synthesis part. The length is right now. I would have maybe included one more sentence as example. But as you can see, the author has located clearly what the one area is that ties his ten sentences together.
I am placing the following model of the synthesis portion. This does not show the student's sentences, but it does give you an idea of what a good synthesis portion should look like.
EXAMPLE
Synthesis:
The similar connection between most of the chosen passages would be the racist or hate aspect. The focus on race or between being Mexican or not is a huge factor throughout the book. It seems as though all the characters want to be or think that they are better than the person next to them. “Fucking Beaners. Rip it up man. Destroy it.” (page 64). This is an example of a quote from the book that shows the anger or animosity towards different races. Most of the quotes are also driven with anger or hate. I found that harsh words were spoken when characters were most upset or seemed to be in some type of turmoil. The unique choice of words Boyle uses for these passages is also a connection between the quotes. It seems as though Boyle chooses words that build some type of emotion or fire within the reader, as if he was aiming to provoke emotion within the reader. At the very least these quotes cause the reader to pause and think or feel the anger or pain the characters are feeling at the time. Another link between these quotes would be their context they are almost all referring to someone other than themselves, or trying to pass the blame a different way. Overall this book and these quotes are thought provoking as well as emotion filled passages that allow a person to feel what the characters are feeling.
The essay should be attached as a Microsoft Word document and should be 4-5 pages in length, double spaced.
There are two essay topics to choose from.
Write a 3-4 page double spaced essay on one of the following topics:
1. How might one or more of the ideas in the book The Tipping Point apply to your chosen profession?
2. Locate a trend [social, political, cultural, other] that seems to exhibit a "tipping point" phenomenon. Provide a brief explanation of why you think this phenomenon meets Gladwell's three criteria for tipping point phenomenon: a) contagiousness b) little causes having big effects c) not gradual but dramatic change.
ROUGH DRAFT OF TIPPING POINT ESSAY MUST BE EMAILED TO YOUR REVISERS AND TO ME BY A DATE ANNOUNCED LATER.
REVISERS, YOU MUST EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS ON THE PAPER BACK TO THE AUTHOR AND TO ME BY A DIFFERENT DATE ANNOUNCED LATER.
IN CLASS ESSAY: (10%)
We will take this in class essay during our face to face meeting at CSUB. This is our one mandatory meeting. Since this course satisfies the GWAR, you must pass one in class essay to be eligible to pass the course. That essay will be given during our face to face meeting. If you do not pass this assignment, you can come to my office to take a “demand” essay.
OTHER COURSE POLICIES:
English 305 Waiting List/Drop Policy Statement
Students enrolled in English 305 must attend the first Saturday orientation session. Students who miss this session will be dropped so that other students may add the course. There is no make-up orientation session.
Students who wish to add the course once the class is full can contact the instructor before the quarter begins and ask to be put on a waiting list. These students must attend the first Saturday session to remain eligible for a seat, and these students can only be added if a spot in the class becomes available.
Course Description:
Passing Grade Requirement: Students must earn a grade of C or higher in this course to satisfy the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR). In addition, this course can fulfill the GWAR only if a student has completed 90 or more quarter units of college work before taking it.
To be eligible for a C in English 305, students must earn a C or higher on at least one in-class writing assignment and a C average on all other course assignments. Since this is an online class, in-class writing assignments may be given at the first meeting or the last.
To be eligible for a C in English 305, students must earn a C or higher on at least one in-class writing assignment and a C average on all other course assignments. Since this is an online class, in-class writing assignments may be given at the first meeting or the last.
English 305 Waiting List/Drop Policy Statement
Students enrolled in English 305 must attend the first Saturday orientation session. Students who miss this session will be dropped so that other students may add the course. There is no make-up orientation session.
Students who wish to add the course once the class is full can contact the instructor before the quarter begins and ask to be put on a waiting list. These students must attend the first Saturday session to remain eligible for a seat, and these students can only be added if a spot in the class becomes available.
Course Description:
An online/hybrid course in effective expository writing. Emphasis on writing as a process. This course counts toward the Teacher Preparation programs in English, Liberal Studies, and Child Development but does not count toward the major or minor. Fulfills the GWAR.
Course Learning Outcomes
Course Learning Outcomes
Students in GWAR courses should advance their mastery of the following learning outcomes:
Goal 1: Reading Skills
Objective 1: Analyze a rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, tone) and how a writer’s rhetorical choices (e.g. bias, rhetorical modes, syntax, diction) inform a text.
Objective 2: Analyze a text’s structure and conventional parts (introduction, thesis, main ideas, body paragraphs, conclusion), and how the parts work together.
Objective 3: Analyze a text’s logic and reasoning.
Objective 4: Effectively critique the effectiveness of a writer’s rhetorical choices, organization, and logic.
Goal 2: Writing Skills
Objective 1: Effectively adapt the writing process to various rhetorical situations, anticipating the needs of purpose and audience.
Objective 2: Analyze more complex and/or abstract writing prompts, and stay on task.
Objective 3: Create effective thesis statements, and use a variety of appropriate and compelling rhetorical strategies to support the thesis.
Objective 4: Effectively structure essays, evaluating how the parts work together to create meaning.
Objective 5: Avoid logical fallacies, and use precise logical reasoning to develop essays.
Objective 6: Use correct and college-level, discourse-appropriate syntax, diction, grammar, and mechanics.
Goal 3: Research Skills
Objective 1: Effectively use summary, paraphrase, and direct quotes to smoothly synthesize sources into own writing.
Objective 2: Master a documentation style, and avoid plagiarism.
Objective 3: Use research methods to find reputable sources.
Writing Requirements
Assignments will gradually increase in difficulty, and each assignment will include both a rough draft and a final essay. Writing assignments may be distributed as follows:
Assignments will gradually increase in difficulty, and each assignment will include both a rough draft and a final essay. Writing assignments may be distributed as follows:
● at least one in-class assignment, during the first or last meeting
● writing to inform
● writing to amuse or move the reader emotionally
● writing to persuade
● writing to analyze literature and/or art
Participation
Students will be required to participate in peer revision and discussion on a blog set up exclusively for this class.
WEEKLY GOALSStudents will be required to participate in peer revision and discussion on a blog set up exclusively for this class.
WEEK ONE
This week I hope you will be able to effectively adapt the writing process to various rhetorical situations, anticipating the needs of purpose and audience. (Goal 2, Objective 1)
WEEK TWO
This week I hope you will be able to analyze a rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, tone) and how a writer’s rhetorical choices (e.g. bias, rhetorical modes, syntax, diction) inform a text. (Goal 1, Objective 1)
WEEK THREE
This week I hope you will be able to effectively structure essays, evaluating how the parts work together to create meaning. (Goal 2, Objective 4)
WEEK FOUR
This week I hope you will be able to avoid logical fallacies, and use precise logical reasoning to develop essays. (Goal 2, Objective 5)
WEEK FIVE
This week I hope you will be able to use correct and college-level, discourse-appropriate syntax, diction, grammar, and mechanics. (Goal 2, Objective 6)
WEEK SIX
This week I hope you will be able to analyze a text’s structure and conventional parts (introduction, thesis, main ideas, body paragraphs, conclusion), and how the parts work together. (Goal 1, Objective 2)
WEEK SEVEN
This week I hope you will be able to analyze a text’s logic and reasoning. (Goal 1, Objective 3)
WEEK EIGHT
This week I hope you will be able to effectively use summary, paraphrase, and direct quotes to smoothly synthesize sources into own writing. (Goal 3, Objective 1)
WEEK NINE
This week I hope you will be able to master a documentation style, and avoid plagiarism. (Goal 3, Objective 2) and Use research methods to find reputable sources. (Goal 3, Objective 3)
WEEK TEN
This week I hope you will be able to create effective thesis statements, and use a variety of appropriate and compelling rhetorical strategies to support the thesis. (Goal 2, Objective 3)
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