A Guide to Being Classy (While Eating)

Years ago, in order to ascertain the pledges’ social savvy, fraternities gave them olives but did not provide them with a place to put their pits. While pledging has changed since then, it is good to have a couple tricks up your sleeve to be able to manage cocktail parties and events that serve food so you can remain as elegant as ever.

When you arrive, do not head straight to the hors d’oeuvres table. The purpose of any social function is to make connections and foster conversation. When you do arrive at the bar or food station, do not linger. Choose a couple of hors d’oeuvres and move on. Concentrate on meeting and listening to people rather than eating your way through the queso. You do not go to a cocktail party expecting to eat dinner. Of course, you should not drink alcohol on an empty stomach, and you should not drink so much as to become inebriated. You will be memorable for all the wrong reasons. Lastly, when you do have hors d’oeuvres or something to drink, keep your right hand free to be able to shake hands with someone. It is always awkward to juggle food and drink during introductions.

Quick Food Tip:

• If food is provided on toothpicks or cocktail sticks, do not leave the sticks on the table or, even worse, on the serving tray. If no containers are available for the sticks, wrap them in your napkin and dispose of them.

• Try to avoid filling your plate to the brim. While people do not mind multiple trips to the cocktail bar, they do notice the person who loads up his cocktail plate. 

• Never re-dip any food. Regardless of whether it is crudités or a shrimp or a potato chip, never put that piece of food back into the sauce or dip after you have taken a bite.

• Bite carefully into puff pastries and cherry tomatoes to avoid messes. 

• Finally, if you discover that your hors d’oeuvre has a terrible taste, discreetly transfer it from your mouth to your napkin and find a trashcan immediately. You don’t want to meet the man or woman of your dreams while holding a wad of chewed food.

Ultimately, when at any sort of social function, remember to be confident and have a positive attitude. Cocktail etiquette should never overshadow your experience and with these tips, you can be tasteful and chic while eating. Oh, and the last tip: Olives with pits are eaten in several bits and then discarded on the side of the plate or a napkin.

-Liz Elder (photo courtesy of fibroblast)

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LaDurée and a Macaron Fad

Walking along the streets of New York over Fall Break, I was surprised to see a line forming outside one of the fashionable shops on Madison Avenue. The elegant gold letters above the door read “LaDURÉE” and the store window displayed a beautiful arrangement of pastel boxes and artfully arranged macarons. The inside was equally exciting, with gorgeous decorations and cases of macarons in a multitude of colors and flavors. Not being a tremendous macaron-connoisseur myself, I googled "macarons" and "LaDurée" to discover what was so particularly enticing about this store.

Macarons—not to be confused with coconut macaroons—are small cookies made principally of egg whites, sugar, and ground almonds. While the simple macaron biscuit dates to the 16^th century, the sandwiched macaron filled with ganache was invented in the 20^th century by LaDurée itself. The macaron has enjoyed enormous prestige in France and across Europe as a whole, although the United States generally has had less of an appreciation for them. However, recent days have seen a surge in American macaron consumption with shops opening across the country and Bon Appetit declaring the macaron “the new cupcake.” The New York LaDurée is the first to be opened in North America. Lines like the one I saw continue to form out the door even though it has been open since late August. One newspaper article even reported that a woman in labor had her husband stop on the way to the hospital to run into LaDurée and buy macarons.

Part of what makes the macaron so special is the variety of colors and flavors they come in. LaDurée invents a new flavor each season. Existing favorites include vanilla, pistachio, strawberry-mint, rose, chocolate, blackcurrant violet, and caramel with salted butter. The two seasonal New York flavors thus far have been green apple and cinnamon raisin. Each flavor also has a correspondingly unique color. Not all flavors are globally accepted, however. One variety, the licorice macaron, was not granted FDA approval and thus is not sold in the US!

Although prices are steep at $2.70 each, the dainty boxes with arrangements of the colorful cookies make a beautiful gift. The macaron itself is light and sweet. So the next time you’re in New York, hazard the lines for a taste of something deliciously French!

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An Apple a Day...

These days farmers markets are few and far between, and in a world filled with artificial everything, the freshness of farmers market produce is hard to pass up. Just simply standing at the corner of 36th and Walnut on a Wednesday afternoon among the tomatoes, grapes, and, of course, the apples, it was easy to forget that I was in a big metropolis.

Being from Miami, I especially couldn’t get over all of the different varieties of apples that I don’t get to experience at home. I was overwhelmed and baffled because most of my life I grew up with a very narrow apple frame of mind, only ever enjoying the juicy goodness of Red Delicious and Granny Smiths. So, in that moment, I couldn’t contain my apple curiosity.

For all you other apple lovers out there, here’s a brief list that’s sure to tantalize every taste bud:

For those with a sweet tooth check out Pink Lady, Golden Delicious, and Sundowner varieties.

For those who are looking for a more sour bite, explore Jonamac, Jonagold, Sierra Beauty, and Winesap varieties.

And for all you Penn farmers market lovers, be sure to check out the market in front of the bookstore (at 36th and Walnut) on Wednesdays from 10-2 pm. A little farther away is the Clark’s Park farmers market on 43rd and Baltimore that’s open Thursdays 3-7 pm and Saturdays 10-1 pm. Enjoy!

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Muffin or Cupcake?

Growing up, there are so many similar foods to distinguish between, it can drive youngsters, and even adults, insane! You’ve got the sweet cookie and the salty cracker; the green broccoli and its white counterpart, the cauliflower; the Coke and Pepsi twins; the celebrity cucumber and its zucchini lookalike; the cabbage and its leafy lettuce impostor; and of course, the classic sweet potato and yam doppelgangers.

Thankfully, as time goes on, most of us can differentiate between cucumbers and zucchinis. And for others like Coke and Pepsi, sweet potatoes and yams, you just nod and pretend you know the difference when asked, and everyone believes you.

There’s still one final mystery that has pestered me since the age of six at Molly Greenberg’s birthday party, and hopefully, for the sake of my post’s relevance, it’s been bothering you, too (even if you weren’t invited to Molly’s birthday party, which by the way, wasn't all that great).

The muffin and the cupcake. What really is the difference?

As it turns out, nowadays, there isn’t much.

Cupcakes, called fairy cakes in some parts of the world, were first made by bakers because they required less time in the oven than a standard cake. They were originally called cupcakes because of the way bakers measured the ingredients for their preparation. Whereas the ingredients for “pound” cakes were weighed, “cup” cakes were made of ingredients measured out in cups. These tiny delicacies were also once called number cakes, 1234 cakes, or quarter cakes, because their recipe originally called for one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs.

Muffins, on the other hand, are a very different species. These baked goodies are typically much larger than cupcakes and are meant to be less sweet. In fact, muffins were once the pioneer healthy snack choice, laden with various vegetables and grains. However, for these healthy choices to withstand their shelf life, muffins were soon baked with lots of sugar. This, of course, was pretty counterintuitive, and contributed to today’s muffins tasting a lot like cupcakes.

But wait! The convergent evolution is even stronger than that! With the growing market for baked goods, cupcakes have increased in size dramatically, resembling their muffin cousins more and more. Today, it seems that there’s really only one deciding factor: frosting. If your mushroom-shaped goodie’s got it, it’s a cupcake; if not, you’ve got yourself a muffin.

For those of you still confused, just eat it and don’t ask questions.

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Fun Food Fact!

Truffles are some of the worlds most expensive foods. Ironically, the latin origin of the word truffle comes from the latin word tuber, which means "lump." Well, these lumps of deliciousness can go from anywhere between $130 to $2,000 a pound and come in four main varieties: white truffle, black Truffle, Chinese truffle and black summer truffle.

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Fun Food Fact---The Blueberry Mystery

Two summers ago, I took a week-long course mainly based in agricultural and food sciences at Cornell University. All of the students enrolled in the course visited the university's blueberry orchard.  As we sampled the many varieties of blueberry, we were treated to some unexpected blueberry-related information. It turns out that the majority of a blueberry's flavor lies in its skin. A neat trick that any skeptics out there can try is to carefully peel the skin off the blueberry as much as possible, rinse the remaining part of the blueberry, and then eat it. The fruit should no longer have its distinct blueberry flavor. What is more interesting, however, is to ask someone else to close their eyes as you feed them the blueberry. You may be surprised to find that many people cannot tell what they are eating! 

Photo by  Zachary Wasserman

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Fun Food Fact----Cranberries!

This deliciously tart fruit  was named "crane berry" by Dutch and German settlers after the shape of the fruit's blossoms. When the vines bloom in the late spring and the flowers' light pink petals twist back they have a resemblance to the head and bill of a crane.  Eventually, linguistic laziness worked its magic and the word "crane berry" became cranberry.

Also, 20% of the 400 million pounds of cranberries grown in the United States each year are consumed during Thanksgiving.

Source: http://www.oceanspray.com/about/cranberry_history2.aspx

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Fun Food Fact---Pineapples

Pineapples contain an enzyme known as bromelain - an example of the class of enzymes called proteases. Proteases degrade proteins, which is why bromelain is one of the primary ingredients in commercial meat tenderizer. Never add fresh pineapple to jello, as the bromelain in the pineapple will degrade the gelatin, preventing the jello from setting!

Photo by Becka Lefkoe

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Fun Food Fact!

Did you know that carrots were originally purple in color?  The characteristic orange color of the carrots we know today first appeared in the Netherlands during the 17th century.

Source: Wikipedia

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Food Fact

Saffron is the world's most expensive spice - costing up to $5,000 per pound! Saffron is made up of the stigmas from the crocus sativus flower. Each flower has only three stigma and require hand harvesting. It takes 13,125 stigma to make just one ounce of Saffron spice.

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Fun Food Fact

Did you know that honey is the only kind of food that never spoils? The unique composition of honey makes it suitable for long term preservation. As long as it is properly stored and sealed, honey can last for centuries. In fact, honey has been found in the ancient tombs of Egypt! A little definitely goes a long way when it comes to honey.

source: www.funtrivia.com

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Fun Cheesesteak Facts

Philadelphia's most famous sandwich, the cheesesteak, started out as an alternative to hot dogs. In the 1930s, Pat Olivieri and his brother Harry had a hot dog cart in South Philly, but one day Pat got tired of hot dogs and wanted to eat something different for lunch. He sent Harry down to the butcher to bring back some beef. When Pat got the meat, he cooked it up on the grill and put it on a hot dog roll. At this point, a cab driver who came for lunch saw the sandwich and wanted one. He asked Pat if he could have one, and Pat either sold him the sandwich or gave him half of his. Either way, the cab driver supposedly said afterwards "You should stop selling hot dogs and sell these things". The first West Philadelphia steak shop, Jim's, opened up in 1939. Cheese, the final essential component, was first put on the steak sandwich by Joe Lorenza, an employee at Pat's on Ridge Avenue.

Source: Philly Mag

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Fun Food Fact!

Chef George Crum created the first potato chip recipe at Moon's Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York, on August 24, 1853.

Source: Wikipedia

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Rachel Beller on The Today Show

Our resident nutritionist, Rachel Beller, was recently featured on NBC's Today Show! Check out this clip for some tips on simple ways to lose weight, and remember, we are always accepting your nutrition questions for Rachel to answer. Just email them to pennappetit.nutritionQandA@gmail.com and you'll see them answered on the blog!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Like what you see? Visit Rachel's website at www.bellernutritionalinstitute.com for more.

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More Than a Loaf

Everybody eats it, most people love it, but few ever realize that they’re participating in a custom as old as the human race. It’s all about bread- people have been harvesting and eating wheat since the Stone Age, although back then the wheat was chewed instead of ground into a meal. It wasn’t until the Egyptians starting crushing the wheat into a paste and heating it over a fire that bread was first developed. This created a flat, hard bread. Archaeologists have discovered remnants of this bread from 5,000 years ago in Egyptian tombs. At about 1000 B.C. yeast cultures began to be directly added to the dough and bread as we know it was formed.

As the humans moved up and out of Africa and migrated throughout the world they took their bread with them. Every culture has its own unique take on bread. The Middle East, for example enjoys khubz adi, the flat round bread known in the West as pita. The pita evolved as a way to soak up sauces and the remnants of the main dish and eventually became an essential aspect of the meal. The characteristic pocket inside pita is created by cooking the bread at a high temperature causing the dough to puff up. Then when removed from the oven the pita deflates while the dough inside separates.

In Mexico they indulge with pan dulce, or sweet bread. Panaderias crank out a variety of these sugar-coated sweets all morning long as families bustle in an out. The most common and popular of these treats are called conchas, Spanish for seashell. They consist of a basic bread base with a thick covering of crispy sugar on top. The sugar coating is dyed to produce a variety of bright, cheerful colors, the most popular being pink and yellow and is arranged in various swirls, making the bread resemble a seashell. One of the most amusing types of pan is the puerquito, or little pig. It genuinely resembles in shape a tiny pig and surprisingly tastes like gingerbread. Mexican pan is a wonderful blending of cultures as each unique piece was influenced from a different region. Mexican soldiers brought back foods from the areas they were positioned during the Mexican Revolution and worked the flavors into their own recipes. Not to mention the French influence, responsible for the many pans that have a variant of the whipped cream filling. This introduced to Mexico by Emperor Maximillian’s French wife Charlotte.

Even the Irish have their own special bread- Irish soda bread. Traditionally served in the US in honor of St. Patrick’s Day it first appeared in Ireland around the 1840’s with the introduction of bicarbonate of soda. Ireland’s northern climate makes it difficult to grow hard wheat, which is processed into a flour that easily rises with the addition of yeast. The Irish replaced yeast with bicarbonate of soda as the leavening agent in bread, and soda bread was born. It quickly became a quintessential part of the Irish diet. The bread isn’t complete until the customary cross is imprinted into it. Whether this is done to allow the cooking bread to expand or to ward off evil is still debatable. Traditional soda bread contains only flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. However over time the bread has been redeveloped into a sweeter form, with sugar and raisins, also known as “Spotted Dog."

Whether it’s our Americanized white sliced bread, the crunchy baguette, or the soft and buttery naan, bread is everywhere. Throughout history bread has been a staple, providing nourishment and flair where ever it goes. It has permeated our culture, uniting us in our shared dependency.

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Grande Mocha Frap? No, Thank You. I'll Have A Grande Tea.

By the end of the 1990’s Starbucks was a household name. They lined the streets in almost every major metropolitan area, supposedly offering some of the most unique coffees and lattes and espressos in a fresh, hip setting. The Starbucks brand became ubiquitous with caffeine. Chains like Saxby’s, Juan Valdez, and Seattle’s Best subsequently began sprouting up around the country trying to mimic Starbucks’ success. Ultimately, they helped make coffee the next “it” thing. Celebrities started toting cups around as their new favorite accessory and businessmen and women lined up before work for their daily fixes.

is tea the new coffee?

photo by Alice Gao

But now, in the twenty-first century, coffee and coffee drinks are no longer so desirable. People are trying to cut back their spending because of the economy, and they're watching out for the calories that all that cream and sugar carries. Instead, an ancient form of beverage that has existed for centuries seems to be taking the spotlight, maybe even becoming the next big thing. That beverage is, of course, tea.

Tea . . . is it the new coffee? Well, it’s significantly less expensive than coffee, carries almost no calories or fats and provides great benefits like antioxidants. In the health-conscious, budget-aware consumer world we live in nowadays, we want something that is cool yet cost effective yet high quality. Im most fields and products, this may be hard to find. But tea seems to have it all. It can be combined and produced in a variety of flavors, from orange to plum to ginger to chocolate, is available in large quantities, and is simple to find and make.

To emphasize this, many new century figures - pioneers of the hip - are turning to teas instead of double espressos. Digg.com founder Kevin Rose, according to a recent article by Wired.com, began spending up to a thousand dollars a month on tea for his employees. He acknowledges the benefits of the beverage and the potential it has in making people productive and energetic which, unlike the caffeine in coffee and energy drinks, is something that seldom wears out. Being a product that is natural and literally from the Earth, many people are drawn to the prospects of specialty teas. There’s no need for hundred dollar coffee makers or gallons of creamer when all you need is a tea bag, some water and maybe a teaspoon of honey.

It seems the world is quickly catching up on this. To replace the tired old coffee shops, tea bars are popping up all across the country, from the Silicon Valley to right here in Philadelphia. Tea, it appears, is fast on its way to becoming the new, healthy social lubricant. Even coffee retailers like Starbucks have picked up on the trend and now offer a wide range of teas along with the standard lattes and mochas. Here in Philadelphia, one can also find quite a few specialty shops offering nothing but organic, wholesome teas. Remedy Tea Bar (16th and Sansom Streets) owned by sisters Kristen and Courtney has become a gem in the city, providing innovative ways to make tea appealing to both skeptics and long time connoisseurs. The Hill Tea Bar (6 East Hartwell Lane) in Chestnut Hill offers a scenic English garden in which to sip your tea, in case the bustling city crowd isn’t you thing. Midtown Village’s chic T-Bar (117 S. 12th Street) serves the yuppie and hipster crowds with rare and distinct blends, as well as offers great tips and recipes for do-it-yourself drinks. And, of course, there is always the simplest option - buy a box of tea for a few bucks, brew it at home, sit back and enjoy.

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Relearning to Savor Olive Oil

Olive oil has become such a routine presence in our everyday lives that we often forget it’s there. Not only is it so commonplace, but standard issue extra virgin olive oils often taste like little aside from a nominal olive-y overture. But when is the last time you tasted an olive oil that you could actually savor, an oil whose taste you enjoyed purely for the joy of tasting the oil and the bread with nothing else? An olive oil whose strength of flavors burst through the liquid over your tongue and made you stop and think about where it came from? What kind of olives produced such flavorful oil? How was it made? What makes this oil lighter or darker than others? Why does it taste like olive oil?

Photo by Audrey Farber.

Grab yourself some simple, high quality bread, hunt down an olive oil of interesting provenance (an unremarkable aisle in fluorescent-lit Fresh Grocer doesn’t count) and taste away. Try to find an olive oil other than an Italian variety, and forget about cold-pressed extra virgin. Some high-end kitchen stores (not Williams-Sonoma) such as LeRoux Kitchen in Portland, ME, Portsmouth, NH, and Martha's Vineyard, have olive oil tasting sections where you can taste oils from places as disparate as Portugal and Syria. See if you can find one of these shops, or just seek out an interesting-looking oil on your own. I'd also be psyched if someone wanted to organize a tasting . . . hint hint.

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Life is Like a Box of Chocolates…

What's the first thing you turn to when you end a long relationship? Or when you’re pretty sure you just failed your midterm? Or when you have two papers due in an hour? I’m sure a few would immediately say their moms or their best friends. But let’s be honest. We take a trip to Wawa and buy the biggest bar of chocolate we can find. Throughout history, chocolate has been considered a mood-booster. The Aztecs even believed that it had the same effects on the body as falling in love. Well, they weren’t too far off.



Every year, lovers around the world indulge in nature’s greatest gift to mankind. Last Valentine’s Day, over 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate were sold, bringing in over $1 billion. This extraordinary figure is a result of the universal love of chocolate. In fact, in a recent survey, most women said that they preferred chocolate over flowers on Valentine’s Day, especially women over 50 (so guys, take note). Even if you find yourself alone on Cupid’s day, chocolate can easily replace a significant other. It isn’t an aphrodisiac, but it does trigger the brain’s production of natural opiates. What those love-struck Aztecs were feeling was the effects of phenylephylamine, the same hormone that the brain triggers when you fall in love. Chocolate also has a decent amount of caffeine—enough to perk you up, but not enough to leave you feeling shaky. In addition, this addicting comfort food stimulates endorphin production, giving a feeling of pleasure, and contains serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant. Cocoa even contains cannabinoids, substances that mimic the effects of marijuana. But don’t get excited. A 130-pound person would have to eat 25 pounds of chocolate all at once to get the effect of marijuana. And I’m pretty sure heart disease would set in before that happened.

But maybe not. Chocolate has an undeservedly bad reputation as a “guilty pleasure”. Chocolate actually contains natural antioxidants called flavonoids, which can help prevent heart disease and lower blood pressure. It only takes 40 grams of milk chocolate to obtain the same amount of antioxidants as a glass of red wine. Dark chocolate is even more beneficial, containing almost as many antioxidants as a cup of black tea. But a warning to chocoholics: don’t go thinking that you can stuff your face with chocolate and not feel guilty. Trust me; I’ve already tried it. Chocolate is a pretty high-calorie food, so although it’s a good idea to incorporate it into your daily diet, make sure you create room for it. You only need about half of a dark chocolate bar’s worth of antioxidants to receive the benefits, so don’t go overboard. And don’t try to trick yourself this winter into thinking that a cup of hot chocolate is doing you some good. Hot chocolate only has about half of the antioxidants of milk chocolate because of its dilution. But hey, after a long day, throw some marshmallows in and just enjoy. In addition to antioxidants, one study even found that a specific substance in cocoa helps the body process nitric oxide, which contributes to healthy blood flow and blood pressure.

For those of us who aren’t fans of technicalities, let’s sum it up: chocolate relieves anxiety, increases energy and alertness, provides antioxidants, reduces pain, and provides a feeling of pleasure. So who even needs a significant other? If you find out that your roommate is now dating your ex-girlfriend, who’s also actually sleeping with your current girlfriend, don’t get upset. There’s always chocolate.

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