You Are Eating a Pomegranate by 826nyc

YOU ARE E AT I N G A P O M E G R A N AT E FOOD WRITING BY 826NYC S T U D E N T S AT P. S . 3 1 6

826NYC Books 372 Fifth Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11215 You Are Eating a Pomegranate: Food Writing by 826NYC Students at P.S. 316 © 2022 by 826NYC and the authors. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. First 826NYC edition April 2022 Manufactured in the United States of Brooklyn 978-1-948644-92-1 The writing in this book was produced in the 2021-2022 school year at 826NYC’s Young Writers Publish project at P.S. 316 Elijah G. Stroud Elementary School. The classes were run by Willie Filkowski with the support of Rindala Alajaji, Clara Do, Natasha Radix, Emily Welsh, Colin Williams, and Adrian Young.

Designed by Kelly Gatesman Edited and proofread by Amy Linstrom, Michelle Haska, Nicholas Martinez, and Dave Rublin Printed by Bookmobile This program is supported by 826 National, the Amazon Literary Partnership, The Jane Friedman Anspach Family Foundation, Con Edison, The Find Your Light Foundation, The Hawkins Project, International Paper, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Kettering Family Foundation, The Minerva Foundation, The Resnick Family Foundation, The Yelp Foundation, and Youth, Inc. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The program is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support comes from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. 826NYC is grateful to the many individuals who support our work. To see our full list of supporters or make a donation, please visit 826nyc.org/donate-us.

826NYC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages six to eighteen with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Our services are structured around our belief that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Class 502 The Cheesy Goodness and Crispy Birds

By Demoya Bryan

Chopped Cheese Can Make You Floss

By Alexander Celestine

The Over-The-Top NYC Chop Cheese

By Jerome Foster

The Purrrfect Food, Better than God’s Favorite Dish

By Mikyle Frazier

EXPLOSION OF CURRY!

By Zaire Frazier

Faithe’s Most Extraordinary Ackee and Saltfish with Fry Bake

By Faithe Esther Iorfida

STRETCHY CHEESE!!

By Dana James

The Legendary, Magnificent, Mighty-Fine, Extraordinary 25 Taste of the Homemade Chili Cheese Dog By Dillan James

Terrific Turkey Time

By Ronald Johnson

The Cheesy Cold Case

By Seriah Joseph

The Legend of the Best Dumpling Soup in the Universe

By Ellion King

Greasy Fried Chicken

By Javien Knight

The Exquisite Legend of Chop Cheese By Aaron Lewis

The Squishy Meat to Make Taste Buds Jump!

By Kevin Lindo

I Got Slapped in the Face with SOUSE

By Milania Marshall

A Luscious, Delish, Crispy Day

By Trinity Marshall

Grandmother’s Oxtail: A Flavor Eruption of Spice and Textures

By Alexia Mohabeer

Pizza Brings Happy Tears to My Eyes

By Yaqob Nagi

Yummy in the Shush

By Amiyah Pass

The Chicken Salad That Will Help You Find Out Why the Chicken Cross the Road

By Ariel Paulino Jr.

The Hotty Takis

By Giana Purvis

Bake of Paradise

By Evan Robert Scott

Crumble Crumbs

By Kaylani Sawyer

Takis Make Your Mind Blow into Flames

By Dakota Solomon

Try Avocado Toast! It’s a Superfood

By Matthew McKie

Class 503 A Billion (and More) Foods in One

By Skye Ambrose

Strings of Me

By Alani Augustine

The Perfect Match Mix

By Avery Bryson

Culture Is Key

By Ryleigh Campbell

Porridge Tastes RICH!

By Kohl Cruickshank

The Multiverse’s Best Ice Cream

By Rylee Denoi

Heaven’s Most Wanted Candy

By Azana Deshong

Creativity Is Prime at Chipotle

By Jadir Edwards

Eat Spaghetti or You Will Never Be Happy

By Amir Francis

Dun Dun Dun. . . Hoagie

By Tristan Gibson

Spaghetti Has the World in a Loop!

By Jayla Holford

Jerk Chicken Should Be Acknowledged More

By Xaria Irving

Ramen’s Grace By Joseph Ross-Jones

The Food of the Future

By Olivia Mills

Sour Patch Kids

By Emily Newport

Statue of Liberty Now Holds Pizza

By Makel Piverger

Pomegranate Feels Left Out from All the Other Fruits. You Must Take Action.

By Julius Rinzel

The Meal That Makes the Afternoon

By Chloe Jones

Italy Changes the Flag to a Painting of a Pasta Bowl and Destroys Any Good Pizza Places Left Even Though There Aren’t Any

By Miqueas Santiago

Water is My True Savior!!

By Leila Seaton

The Ultimate Food: TACOS

By Eli Stewart

The Food of the Century

By Aiden Thomas

GARLIC BREAD . . . YEA THAT’S IT

By Liam Thompson-Francois

Class 504 Don’t Waste Your Day, Eat Ramen Noodles at a Buffet

By Sanai Acuna

The Family of Lobster

By Pablo Ambrister

Shrimp Is Magical

100

By Amyiah Anderson

The Most Delicious Plantains

102

By Bella Bell

A Magnificent Meal From Another Planet

104

By Zaiden Boykins

Fried Rice and Shrimp Will Save Your Life

106

By Synthia Dorlean

Burgers Are Pretty Tasty

108

By Max Epstein

The Best Pizza Place: My Pizza Place

111

By Patrick Gill

Shake Shack Is So Good I Wanna Hug My Dog

113

By Jamel Gordon

Gummy Pizza Is Magical

115

By Jacob Herrera

Jerk Chicken Will Save Your Life!

116

By Ariella Howell

Taco Bell Can Be Healthy And Delightful

118

By Isaiah Lewis

Pasta Is Out of this World! By Peter Lin

119

“French Fries Are Greater Than Good”

120

By Josiah Mathieu

The McDonald’s Crispy Chichen Deluxe and Large Fries Is the Most Spectacular McDonald’s Meal I Ever Had

121

By Noa Metivier

THE HAMBURGER IS BETTER AND DELICIOUS

122

By Tracy Palacios

Bakes Are So Good That It Made Me Jump into the Sun 123 By Takira Ricketts

Asoupo is a Supreme Stew

125

By Nelly Rosario

The Spectacular and the Extra Awesome Chips

126

By Guiliana Sabin

DRAGONFRUIT IS A CACTUS EXPLOSION

128

By Caleb Schaper

Sushi Is Better than BEST!

129

By Nikolas Schultheis

Chocolate Chip Cookies are Magical

130

By Ansam Shahbain

M&Ms Are The Best

132

By Wardah Shahbain

My Love for Cheeseburgers

133

By Booker Washington

Ice Cream Is So Delightful!

134

By Kayla Higgs

Dear reader, This is my fourth year at P.S. 316 Elijah G. Stroud Elementary, and these students—with wonderful teachers Ms. Do, Ms. Radix, Ms. Welsh, Mr. Young, and Mr. Williams—are never short on opinions. This collection is a wonderful testament to the depth and breadth and sheer enthusiasm of these hungry, hungry students and the foods they love. During our workshops together, I dared the students to stake out positions on questions like, What is the definitive New York City food? What food best represents you? Is a hot dog a sandwich? What is the most delicious thing you ever ate? I wish you could have heard the delightful, screaming OOOOHs and AAAAHHHs and UUUHHHHs that filled the room during this generative process. The students collected in this volume translated that tasty, exclamatory urgency into the essays you find here. And we might think of this book as a great big stew—or salad? sandwich? burrito?—of their answers. I hope you enjoy this book. I hope it makes you hungry. And I hope, when you’re finished reading, you dip this book in barbeque sauce and eat it. Willie Filkowski 826NYC Teaching Artist February 2022

p f

p CL A S S 2 50

The Cheesy Goodness and Crispy Birds By Demoya Bryan

Fried chicken and mac ’n’ cheese are the perfect match. I remember the first time I had mac ’n’ cheese. It is a memory that stays with me. I can already see the extra cheese with the seasoning. I can already taste the soft cheese hitting my tongue all at once. I can just feel the crust of the mac ’n’ cheese, feeling the cheese melt in my mouth. I can feel the aroma scent drifting in my nose—just feeling it is appetizing. The way it bubbles in the oven looks wonderfully exquisite. Just looking at it was out of this world. I was just waiting for it to be accomplished. But I didn’t even look at the stove. Then I saw fried chicken on the stove. It was the most unique experience I ever had. Mac ’n’ cheese with fried chicken is the most attractive dish ever. One reason why fried chicken is so delectable is because it has so many different types of seasoning, and the texture is crispy on the outside and firm and juicy on the inside. Let me explain. The way it looks is so magnificent. The way it sounds when I hear it sizzle on the stove is so delightful. I can just imagine the seasoned bubbles popping because of the hotness. The steam smells so brilliant. The scent fills the entire house. I can just feel the crispy skin in my fingers and being so smooth and soft on the inside. I just know it will be unbelievable, just looking at it turning into a crispy chicken is remarkable. The pleasing sound is so enticing, the dazzling crispy chicken is so delicate. That is why fried chicken is the finest dish. Another reason why this food mac ’n’ cheese was so honorable is because the mac ’n’ cheese bubbles were dried onto the cheese, making them small. The scent was captivating. I just wanted to feel the cheese

melt when I dive my fork into the mac ’n’ cheese just to see the cheese melt, just seeing it is pleasing. Let me talk about mac ’n’ cheese. It is cheesy luscious so pleasant, I can feel it hitting my tongue. The aroma smell was just mouth-watering, the touch was satisfying, and seeing all that cheese becoming one. The extraordinary amount of cheese was well done, just seeing it so incredible . . . I can already hear the soft crunching. The sound was so considerable, I can just keel over. I can just imagine the sound being so exceptional. All of the squishyness, the whole way it would look when it got out of the oven would be striking. That is why mac ’n’ cheese is outstanding. But it was ready. I picked up my fork and started to dig in. I saw the cheese melting when my fork went into it. It was so good, like the tears from an angel. I put it in my mouth and it felt so flavorful. The chicken looked so! I went in to try the first piece. All of the precious seasonings hit my tongue all at once. I felt so blessed to see that chicken being torn apart. The skin being so seasoned was so breathtaking. I could dive into it. The way it tasted, them both at the same time, was outstanding. It’s like Gordon Ramsey’s cooking. When I think about mac ’n’ cheese and fried chicken, my taste buds fly off. It’s not just my stomach that celebrates this glorious dish, but also my heart. This food will make you beg for mercy. So the next time you feel like treating your tastebuds pleasingly, you should try mac ’n’ cheese with fried chicken. It will make you feel immortal, you won’t regret it. The next time you are looking to eat, try mac ’n’ cheese with fried chicken!

Chopped Cheese Can Make You Floss By Alexander Celestine

Chopped cheese is the best tasting thing in the world. This should be on the school menu because it tastes like a rainbow coming out of the sky. The meat in the bread tastes like fire coming out of your mouth. Don’t forget about the cheese, the nice, sticky cheese. The tomatoes are nice and soggy. When all these parts meet in your mouth, it will make you jump for joy. All of them together, and you get chopped cheese. It smells like your mind will explode. The smoothness on the bread feels like a fluffy cloud in the sky, and when my mom starts cooking it, I can hear the meat and the cheese bubbling in the pan. It looks so creamy, just like a volcano exploding in the sky. That’s what I see, that’s why chopped cheese should be on the school menu, and don’t forget to buy chopped cheese.

The Over-The-Top NYC Chop Cheese By Jerome Foster

Chop cheese is the greatest sandwich ever! I remember when I got my first chop cheese. It had a crispy bun, it was fresh and still hot when I took the foil off the beautiful sandwich. It was still steaming. The steam was like an angel floating. I took a bite. It was like biting into a cloud. When my mom saw it, she took half of my chop cheese! It was the most special experience I ever had! The chop cheese is from God. It’s a blessing. Every time I get the sight of a chop cheese I start to drool, my mouth starts to water and my stomach starts to grumble. My eyes started to light up. It was like going up in a cloud, just melting. One reason why a chop cheese is so special is because it’s the best dish to represent NYC. Let me explain: NYC has a lot of different dishes that can hold that title, but a chop cheese is the god of NYC. People that are in NYC get it all the time. The sandwich is like the mascot of NYC. It comes with peppers, bacon, cheese, beef, mayo, lettuce, and a nice crispy bun. The bun can be different things like a bagel, a hero, and much more. This shows that a chop cheese is the best dish because it represents my city. Chop cheese is like my best friend, or I’m always thinking about it. I remember I told my dad I was hungry and I said, “Can I get a chop cheese?” so he went to my deli and got me a fresh and hot chop cheese. I eat chop cheese so much, my mom knows how to make it now. One reason why chop cheese is so special is because you can make it anywhere. You can make chop cheese homemade; you don’t always have to go to the deli. When you make it at home, it can taste better because you have the nice home seasoning—and my mom is from Trinidad—so

she adds a little flavor to it. She adds this pepper sauce that makes it so much better than the deli. This shows that you don’t always have to get your chop cheese from the deli. When I think about chop cheese, my taste buds just melt off my tongue. It’s not just my stomach that celebrates this glorious dish, but also my heart. This food just makes me want to pass out. So next time you feel like treating your taste buds, you should try chop cheese; you won’t regret it. The next time you’re hungry, get a chop cheese at your local deli.

The Purrr-fect Food, Better than God’s Favorite Dish By Mikyle Frazier

The best food is bacon dipped in cheese in a roll with hot sauce. It makes me die and revive again. When I smell it, it sends me to space and back. It tastes like god taking over my body for a moment. Even the best chef can make it taste good. And it makes me purr like a cat eating tuna. Gordon Ramsay would say, “This is purrr-fect.” It is the cat’s meow of sandwiches. When I eat it, it also makes me feel as hot as the sun. My stepfather makes it. You must have a roll, cheese, bacon, and butter. Sometimes eggs are in it, and might have sausages, but it always tastes good. It always makes me happy when I am upset. The next time you want a good sandwich, you should try this one.

EXPLOSION OF CURRY! By Zaire Frazier

My nose opened wide and my mouth dropped to the ground. When I ate it, I felt like I was in a new world. This was the first time I ate curry chicken. This curry chicken will have you bouncing off walls, flying around the world, running way faster than you can imagine. When my dad puts the spice in, it makes me run over there and smell the whole pot. I can tell when he puts that seasoning in. I know this because you hear the bubbling noise. When I see that steam on the pot top, I will lift it up and take the biggest sniff I can, and I will be in a new world. His curry chicken will have you wanting to bounce off the moon and dive down to earth. This curry chicken will have you jump off a plane and still survive. With curry chicken scents flying all around me, I am feeling so very hungry. When my dad puts the white rice in, it will make your stomach sing. The rice looks like snow melting in hot chocolate. This will have you flinging yourself like Spiderman. When you eat this, you will run anywhere you want. This curry chicken will have your mouth thinking, How is this made? Where did this come from? Curry chicken is something that you should try because when I ate that, my house was destroyed with goodness. I was bouncing on chairs, beds, couches, walls, windows, and the ceiling. Facts on how curry chicken is made: in its simplest form, curry is an Indian gravy or sauce that is used in tandem with meat, tofu, or vegetables. It’s served over rice, most popularly Basmati rice, and contains many different kinds of spices. Depending on what your recipe calls for, you could have a mild curry or a curry that’s super spicy.

Faithe’s Most Extraordinary Ackee and Saltfish with Fry Bake By Faithe Esther Iorfida

Now I know everyone has a favorite food but mine . . . Mmm mmm mmm. I can taste it in my mouth right now but anywho. Let’s take a big bite into my ackee and saltfish with fry bake . . . Mmmm just look at that nice crispy fry bake. It looks like a mountain of Trinidad and Jamaica land but just made into a dish. It smells like an ooowee goodness volcano just running up my nostrils; it’s making my mouth water. It tastes like a whole bunch of different flavors melting into my mouth. It feels like a whole bunch of perfectly cooked vegetables with ackee and saltfish dancing in my mouth. There is a slight crunch from the crispy golden brown fry bake. I can tell it’s freshly made right out of a home cooked kitchen. Normally, I’ll try not to eat all of it at once when my mom will buy it on a Saturday morning. I’ll try to save it for later, but that is really hard because it is so magnificent. Next time you’re feeling adventurous trying a dish from Trinidad and Tobago, you should try ackee and saltfish with fry bake.

STRETCHY CHEESE!! By Dana James

I remember the time when my parents ordered my favorite food, pizza. When my mom took the pizza box, l was fully excited; I was gonna faint for a few seconds. When my mom was taking out the first slice, I rushed to get it first before my other siblings could. My mom gave me the first slice, my mouth was watering so bad that my tongue was about to drown. One reason why this food is so special is because the cheese on the pizza is so stretchy, gooey, and tasty. Also, the tomato sauce is so yummy, creamy, and salty. The crust and the dough are pretty sweet. It also tastes like the fancy and sumptuous foods in a restaurant. When I look at pizza, it looks flat as always. Another reason why this food is special is because it smells like the whole thing is going to dance. When you’re about to take a bite, your teeth feel like they’re about to dance; you feel excited and your head’s gonna explode wanting to take your bite. When you touch it, it feels tough, stringy, and chewy. When I think about pizza, my tastebuds are turned on to one hundred percent power to food craziness. It’s not just my stomach that celebrates this glorious food, but my heart. So next time you feel like treating your tastebuds, you should try pizza.

The Legendary, Magnificent, Mighty-Fine, Extraordinary Taste of the Homemade Chili Cheese Dog By Dillan James

I remember when I first tried the best thing that I’ve ever taken a bite of. It was an extraordinarily tasty spicy dish. It was called a chili cheese dog. A chili cheese dog was the best thing I have ever eaten. It’s a hot dog with chili grind meat with hot sauce and grated cheese on top. I eat it almost everyday. It was the most spicy experience I ever had in my childhood, when I was five years old, because that was the first time I’ve eaten something so spicy. A chili cheese dog is the most legendary, magnificent, extraordinary, mighty-fine homemade dish I’ve ever had, and let me tell you, it’s pretty easy to make. Let me tell you about it. A chili cheese dog starts off with a sausage, then you put it on the grill. Then when the sausage is fully cooked on the grill, you put it in fresh hot dog buns. Then you put it down somewhere to cool. So while your hot dog is cooling down, you start chopping and grinding up some meat, then you put it into a frying pan, and then you stir it around. When the meat starts to fry up in the pan, you can get any hot sauce or spicy product and put in any amount of hot sauce in the chopped grind meat. And then when the chopped grind meat is fully cooked, you get your hot dog and scoop the chopped grind meat with a cooking spoon, and pour the spicy topping all over the hot dog. Then you grab a bag of grated cheese and start spreading the grated cheese on the chili dog, and then you have an incredibly tasty, spicy, and stretchy chili cheese dog. Another reason why the chili cheese dog is so special is because the spicy sauce is just so juicy. When I’m biting into the crunchy buns, it’s like a dragon blazing the buns with blazing hot fire. And when I bite into the cheese, it’s like dipping a chili cheese dog into the cheesiest macaroni

and cheese, and those are the main reasons why the chili cheese dog is such a magnificent dish to me. When I think about chili cheese dogs and my tastebuds, it’s not just my stomach that celebrates this glorious dish, but also my heart. This food is the food that you can add any topping to, and you can add fresh cooked onions or cooked beans to go with the chili grind up meat. So the next time you’re looking for a magnificent dish, you should try a chili cheese dog, but I recommend you make your own homemade chili cheese dog because it’s always good to be creative and try something new, or something that you never tried, or maybe something that you thought of doing yourself. So, like I said, if you’re looking for something to treat, you’re looking for something mighty-fine, extraordinary, magnificent, legendary, you should try the mighty-fine chili cheese dog, and also the next time you want to get a chili dog from a place that you’ve always wanted to visit, you should go to Los Angeles, California, because that’s the city that made the CHILI CHEESE DOG. You won’t regret it at all, no matter what.

Terrific Turkey Time By Ronald Johnson

Do you want to know about the first time I ate turkey? I was two years old and the family got together for a special dinner. That was the first time I ever saw my family say what they were grateful for. I was kind of confused about what was happening, but my nose wasn’t. All I smelled was the best turkey ever with onions and stuffing, but I just sat there, and that was the first time I sat there and ate turkey with my family. That turkey is the best food ever! When my mom makes it, I start to drool because of how fantastic it looks. It would look so wonderful when it comes out of the oven, freshly baked, and the popping sound is so nice to hear when my mom puts in the peppers and onions and stuffing, and when it’s on the table, I look at it and inhale softly, and say, “It’s so amazing that God can’t believe that he made that, and I know that because it’s going to explode in my mouth.” Then I would look at it so hard that I had to remember that it might get cold, and I didn’t want it to get cold, so I would taste the explosions in my mouth. Cooking turkey is very special; it brings people together. Sometimes I get lucky, and I get to cook and make the drinks with my sister. When we make it, it feels so smooth, and then when we put it in the oven, it smells so fantastic. We would make something like smoothies and milkshakes with oreos. Then everyone would sit at the table and eat the food. When we are done, we play a family game like Sorry. Turkey time brings people together with peace. The next time you are looking to eat turkey, you should think of how it brings people together; it’ll taste even better.

The Cheesy Cold Case By Seriah Joseph

Anytime you ever get hungry for easy-made but tasty macaroni salad, this would be why you should try my mom’s macaroni and cheese salad. You should try it because one time when I was seven, my mom was in the kitchen cooking up something that smelled so immaculate it made my nose run, and would make yours run, too. I sprinted out of my room and quickly asked her what in the world is she cooking that’s making my nose runny, and she said it was a special macaroni salad. I took my Cinderella plate and made sure to get the macaroni bunches with tons of cheese while shaking to go to the table. Right before you know it, I’m sitting there admiring the smoked cheese-covered Cinderella plate with ranch salad on the side, ready to pick up the spoon, but I just could not stop looking at the golden, perfectly-crisped yellow cheese. I picked up the spoon with my snotty little hand, and almost fell out of the chair because I was so excited. I scooped a big spoonful of the golden yellow macaroni and started eating like a vigorous hyena. It was a theater in one spoon, and my taste buds were screaming while suffocating in the cheese and salad, while the macaroni was getting devoured by my little baby teeth. I loved it too much to leave the table; my stomach was so full, I couldn’t even get my box of apple juice. I just slouched in my mom’s chair, drank the sour but tasteful apple juice, and fell asleep in the chair while my mom fed me more the next day. So every time I have that special macaroni salad, I fall straight to slumberland. She doesn’t tell me the recipe, but she definitely knows

how to make me go to bed, which is why I think you should try my mom’s macaroni.

The Legend of the Best Dumpling Soup in the Universe By Ellion King

My favorite food is a soup with vegetables and dumplings. Eight dumplings in the soup makes the vegetables taste ten times better. The soup keeps everything warm as I impatiently look at the microwave as the numbers go down. It’s finished. I open it and steam shoots out of the microwave. I lift up the soup and grab a fork, and start to dig in. It is so satisfying. One reason why this food tastes so good is the golden dumplings taste so good. I can’t stop eating. I feel like fainting. The outside of the dumpling is plain, but the inside tastes so good. It is the golden king. Even the vegetables taste good, and I like to drink the soup. Another reason why this food is so special is there are eight dumplings, so if you have three siblings, you can give each two and keep two dumplings for yourself. (Plus the vegetables in the soup are healthy for you.) When I think about the best food in the world, I instantly think of golden creamy dumpling soup. My mouth instantly starts to drool and my stomach starts to growl. It’s not just my stomach that loves this delicious dumpling soup, it’s also my mouth that loves that golden dumpling soup with vegetables. So, the next time you feel like treating your tastebuds, you should definitely try this wonderful dumpling soup. You won’t regret it.

Greasy Fried Chicken By Javien Knight

I remember when I first had fried chicken. It was one of the best things that I had tasted. It all started when my mom had made it. She makes some delicious food. When I saw the fried chicken on my plate, I wondered what it would taste like. I always love the smell of fried chicken. The heatness of the chicken flows up in the sky. It makes me want to drool like a waterfall. As the heatness cools down, I touch the chicken with my bare hands. I look at the chicken. It’s all fried up like a sunny day. As I take a bite of the chicken, the crunchiness makes me want to do the Orange Justice dance. After I finish my tasty fried chicken, I always want to get another piece. The crunchy goodness and the greasiness tastes beautiful. It makes my stomach growl real loud like a bear, wanting more. The chicken’s tasty greasiness and tender meat makes me want to take off my shirt and dance all around while licking the tasty goodness off my fingers. I always smile when I eat fried chicken. Every time my mom cooks chicken, I get excited and joyful because one of my favorite foods is about to be made.

The Exquisite Legend of Chop Cheese By Aaron Lewis

I remember when I ate a chop cheese from the deli. When you cut it in half, you could see the cheese filling BUSTING in your eyes, and it would take your taste buds flying to the moon. When you open up the chop cheese, you can see the ooey goodness of chopped meat. When you see the chop cheese, it will make your mom go, “Yum, yum, yum.” It was the most special experience I ever had in my life. It was the greatest dish ever. When you take a bite of it you will see the ooey gooey great goodness of the cheese melting in your mouth like a volcano fire just splashing open into your tongue. You will ask for three million more— worth your work bank account going into the negative thousands or ten thousands or even millions. One reason why chop cheese is so special is because the flavor feels like honey bun sugar with the frosted flake. Let me explain it: chop cheese will make your belly sing. It starts with beef burger patties and onions, which are chopped up while on the grill into small pieces. American cheese slices are added on top, and melted before the mixture is transferred to a hero bun and dressed with the toppings of your choice, typically lettuce and tomatoes. That is why it is better than an egg and cheese sandwich or whatever you eat from a store or supermarket. Another reason why this is so special is because it smells better than perfume and it feels better than a fluffy toy and lotion. Let me tell you about it: when you cook it, you can hear the grilled sizzling from when you feel the chop cheese. You can feel the grease and butter on your hands. That is why your mom will trick you into biting the chop

cheese. She will say, “Let me see the sandwich,” and then she will take a bite out of the melted cheese and the greatest beef you want in your sandwich. When I think about it, my taste buds go crazy, like it’s not just my stomach that celebrates this sensational dish, but also my heart. This food will tell your mind, let’s party. So the next time you feel like treating your taste buds marvelously, you should try chop cheese. You won’t regret the taste bud out of your stomach. Chop cheese will make you get it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Go try the chop cheese. They will give you a plate or foil, it will make your mouth feel like cheese filling into your mouth, you won’t regret it. Next time, you are looking to eat, try a chop cheese.

The Squishy Meat to Make Taste Buds Jump! By Kevin Lindo

Oxtail comforts your taste buds like an umbrella fighting off a storm. A memory I have is of eating oxtail for the first time. When I was four, I went to a birthday party for one of my cousins, and my mom said I should try oxtail. First, I tried the pieces of squishy meat. It was cooked perfectly with the sauce from the meat dripping down the white plate when I ate it. This meat was so good for a minute. Thinking back, eating this was like getting your first Fortnite World Cup Royale or winning four million dollars. It was perfect. It was like winning the lottery of taste. I can see you, the reader, drooling right now, thinking of trying this tasty food. Let me tell you about the sauce that makes you go drooling. The sauce is dark brown. It smells like a trip to the ocean. Everybody that sees this meal is drooling because of the sauce. It takes you to the Caribbean. That’s why you should eat oxtail! Eating oxtail is like floating on a cloud of my taste buds. One reason why oxtail is very good is because along with the dripping sauce is the billion dollar tasty meat. It’s like a medium rare steak made by Gordon Ramsey himself. When you touch the cooked meat, it feels like a comfy cloud in the sky. You can hear the great sizzling of the meat. The smoke coming off the meat as it cooks to perfection. It’s like the celebration LeBron does by throwing powder in the sky. That’s what the smoke from the meat looks like. Another reason why oxtail is special to me is because it was the first meat that ever made me want to eat it again and again, because of the taste. It was like finding a four leaf clover of how lucky. It was like getting valedictorian. That’s why you should eat oxtail! Or at least try oxtail.

My last reason why you should eat oxtail is because of the tasty meat, but it depends on how you make it. There are three ways you cook oxtail: burned, medium made, and well made. When you eat oxtail and you look inside the meat, the texture looks so good, it’s like the oxtail is doing the Nae Nae and the sauce is going down a water slide, and the water is the sauce dripping down the white plate. It’s like getting off the plane and driving to the beach, and seeing the beautiful view of the ocean. The sand on your feet, the warm water on your legs. Sunscreen on your face, fish in the ocean. The flavors melted down my tongue. In conclusion, you should try oxtail. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. If you live with anybody, you can ask them to try oxtail to see if anybody else would want to eat oxtail! Next time you’re about to eat dinner, you should ask whoever is making it for dinner. Ask them to try and make oxtail!

I Got Slapped in the Face with SOUSE By Milania Marshall

I am so lucky to have this type of food! Everytime I get this dish, it always has some type of spicy, gooey flavor. One day, I was going to my grandma’s house for a party. I went into the train station and I heard rats, yelling, and trains going to their stops. I can’t wait until my mom gets a car. I finally get to my grandma’s block past the corner store, the Chinese restaurant, and the hair salon. I get to my grandma’s house where the party is, and right where I’m by the food, my favorite dish slaps me in my face. SOUSE! I drool immediately. I just imagine myself being in spicy land and seeing souse all over the world. I snap out of it immediately and wipe my mouth. I saw a long line of people, but I heard the pig’s feet dropping into the water and saw it bubbling. I see another person cutting the cucumber into pieces. I see another person making the juice for the souse to have some flavor, the best part! I can’t wait until it’s my turn to eat the juicy, spicy, gooey souse! You should try it yourself, only if you like spicy things. But it’s my family dish. Everytime I go to a party, souse is there, like always. Finally, it was almost time to get my food. Once it was my turn, I got a great smell and I knew that it was the souse. I ran to the table and got my food. I went back inside to eat it, I opened the jar and dip my hand into the juice and lick it. I took a cucumber and took a huge bite. It was spicy. Time for the actual pig feet. I took a big bite and it was spicy! It tasted so good though, I couldn’t stop eating it and once I finished, I went to go get another one.

After the party was over, my stomach started to hurt. I think I ate a little bit too much souse. That’s not good! Next time I don’t think I should eat that much spicy, gooey pig feet. I think I’m going to throw up!

A Luscious, Delish, Crispy Day By Trinity Marshall

I remember a time on a warm, sunny day at my mom’s house, and to this day, I remember the taste of shrimp, rice, and noodles. Here is a short story of why shrimp, rice, and noodles is the best meal I had in a while. I was in my room and heard my mom calling me for dinner. As I walk out of my room, I smell a warm heat of cheese and rice. I watched the noodles bubbling with the rice and watched my mom placing it onto my plate, watching the shrimp sizzling, and hearing my stomach singing for food. Meanwhile, my mom handed my plate in my hands, and I gasped. Staring deeply into my plate with excitement and joy for shrimp, rice, and cheesy noodles. I thanked her and tried not to explode into tiny pieces. The smell is just the smell of a volcano of shrimp, rice, and cheesy noodles, big noodles smashing into the hot rice. The steam of the shrimp blasts into my face. It felt like a warm, hot, sunny day in the sunlight. My mouth watered and my eyes got weak. I just wanted to smash right in the delish treat. I grabbed my fork and smashed it into the cheesy noodles. Grabbing a shrimp and sucking all the flavors. Placing my fork in the rice and watching the steam in the air. Taking a bite of the rice, I felt my heart had stopped. The nice sweet taste in the rice is like if I took a fresh cupcake from a unicorn. I got curious and took a scoop of each portion. I took off the shrimp shell, sucking off all the flavor on it, and placed it with the rice and noodles. And when I took THE BITE, my heart stopped for a second. I actually gasped at how flavorful it was. The cheesy noodles have taken

my soul and left my body. Tasting the salt and special sauce takes over inside my mouth. The shrimp was very crunchy and had lots of flavor, feeling the pepper in my bones. Taking a bite of the rice felt very hot and warm inside. Feeling the crunch and burning hotness inside. I took my last bite and it was out of this world. Literally! I felt my mouth watering and left my body. It felt and tasted very different, like I had gotten a plate from the heavens. I finished the scraps of my plate and asked for another dish. As soon as I took a bite, it tasted much, much different than I expected. It tasted like more excitement than usual. It was more dainty than usual. It felt like I had gone up to space and stayed on the moon. I took a bite, and it felt like I got eaten by a dinosaur. Feeling myself getting taken out of my body and back, thanking my mother for the flavorful plate of heaven. I finished my second plate and placed it in the sink, still smelling the shrimp. Washing my plate, smelling the amazing kitchen smell of shrimp and noodles. Still remembering the luscious plate of shrimp, rice, and noodles. That’s why rice, shrimp, and noodles are the best meals to me. The next time you feel hungry or don’t know what to eat for dinner, eat rice, noodles, and shrimp.

Grandmother’s Oxtail: A Flavor Eruption of Spice and Textures By Alexia Mohabeer

Mmmmmmmmmm. I remember when I first ate my grandmother’s oxtail. Mmmmmmm. The flavor of the spicy sauce that she put on the side. I could smell the aroma of the oxtail from downstairs. My grandmother told me to come downstairs to eat. When she put the plate in front of me, I could see the sauce dripping off the oxtail and the white rice. I just had to put some of that spicy delicious sauce on top of the rice. I could still see the big pot of oxtail in the kitchen; I could hear the bubbles popping. It was the most special experience I ever had in my life. My grandmother’s oxtail is the greatest dish in the world! The creaminess of that thick sauce. And when everyone is asleep, I sneak down into the kitchen and take a little piece . . . mmmmmm. I took one more piece, and the meat was already falling off the bone. I felt like jumping for joy. One reason why my grandmother’s oxtail is the best in the world is because she told me that this recipe has been in the family for over seventy years. I love learning new recipes expressly from my grandmother and my aunt. Let me explain: sometimes, not often, but when the air is cool and the sun is covered by the big clouds in the sky, and when the snow falls down, she looks out and says, “It’s time.” We all know what that means. She takes out the biggest pot in the cabinet. She takes out the oxtail from the refrigerator. She washes the oxtail and takes off the excess fat so it does not get too greasy. She gets all kinds of spices like curry, cumin, peppercorn, basil, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. She puts the spices over the oxtail and lets it sit overnight. The next day, the osha would pour a teency bit of water (teency: a little bit) and pour beef

broth in the pot. Then she put the oxtail in the broth and the spices. She lets the oxtail cook in the pot for three hours and makes a sauce or gravy. It takes one hour to cook, sooooo loooooong. Finally, it is done. After hours and hours of cooking, it’s finally done. My grandmother puts the plate in front of me. In a blink of an eye, I was already finished. It tastes like a smooth, spicy cloud. The next time you are looking to eat something spicy and with a good texture, come to my house, and you can get a plate of good stuff.

Pizza Brings Happy Tears to My Eyes By Yaqob Nagi

I remember when I went to a restaurant with my parents and ordered a pizza. The smell of the pizza was coming all the way from the kitchen. The smell was like the smell of honey bees hunting for cheese. It smells like a pizza that has never been touched before. It smelled like red roses from a garden. One reason why this food is so special is because the sound of the oven makes me so hungry. The sound made me taste it already. The sound of the oven made my eyes water. The sound made me fly to the moon. The sound made my ears hungry. The sound was like a spaceship running into the moon. Another reason why this food is so special is because when the pizza arrived, it was shaped as a triangle. It was so gooey and cheesy. The pepperonis and the mushrooms just made my mind explode. The crust was burned and crispy, which made aliens come down and join me. Another reason why this food is so special is because when I took the pizza to have my first bite, it felt like I had a million dollars in my hand. The cheese was dripping down the side of the pizza. It was hot like a bucket of lava. It felt like a dinosaur that had no arms. It was so soft, it felt like I was holding a flower. My last reason why this food is so special is because it makes me remember the flavors of the pizza and how it was melting in my mouth. The mushrooms were perfect with cheese and sauce. It was one hundred percent better than going to the moon with aliens. The crust was crunchy, like you just took a big bite of chips. The mushrooms with the pepperoni was bussin.

The next time you’re looking to eat pizza, make sure you go to LaRustica Pizza. Because the pizza will make your mind explode. So if you are ever looking to go to Los Angeles, make sure you visit LaRustica Pizza.

Yummy in the Shush By Amiyah Pass

I remember when I was at my dad’s house, and I smelled something I never smelled before. It was sushi. It was called 黒 (fa-po-e). And I tell you, that was the best thing I ever ate. Once I ate it, I felt like I fell out of the sky. Yeah, it was THAT good. But one problem I have with it is that it NEEDS to be everywhere, because it’s not. It’s only available in China. Anyways, I think you should have 黒 with rice because it’s one thousand times better than the best food in America, which is apple pie. But I asked my dad how he got it, and he said that he got it from his friend, so I hope that his friend gives my dad some more. But it’s just fried fish with dough and some hot sauce. Anyways, I really think 類 needs to be everywhere because I think a lot of people will like it, wait, no, I mean LOVE it, but I won’t really say a lot of people because it’s really spicy because you know . . . because it has hot sauce. I do know that if you put in soy sauce, it won’t be THAT spicy. What it tastes like is fish. But guess what: I don’t really like fish, so I have no idea how I like 類. It smells like a really good restaurant, or even better than that, maybe heaven. I really think that you should tell your mom or dad, or whoever lives with you, because they will like it, I guess. Did you know that 類 was first made in 1959? Yeah, I know it’s old. Well . . . not that old. Anyways, so since we are talking about 類 being old and whatever, I know who made it. It’s my favorite grandma. My grandma was born in 1922, so she was, I think, a teenager. Her mom started to help her make them in 1996.

The Chicken Salad That Will Help You Find Out Why the Chicken Cross the Road By Ariel Paulino Jr.

Now I know everyone has a favorite food, but my favorite food is chicken salad. The answer to why the chicken crossed the road: The last time I ate this was last Sunday. I loved this so much, and it feels so special like I was in a restaurant. Everytime I eat this, I will always take my time so I can keep the moment going forever. One reason why this food is special is because the salad adds magic to the chicken, giving it more flavor. If you put salt in it, you will love it because it’s tastier than the sauce. The chicken salad is sour, spicy and hot. I wouldn’t put in hot sauce because the salt makes it good. The chicken mixed with the salad and eaten together is so incredible!!!!! The incredible food that you never had like this! Another reason why chicken salad is so good is because of the seasoning in the chicken. You will act like you have been blessed with food by Jesus Christ in person Himself. You will act like your favorite food is the chicken salad. You will act like you have been baptized, and you will feel so good, you will act like you just drank/ate energy drinks/ food, and you will have so much energy. If you ever tried chicken salad, and if it’s wonderful, please be my friend! Why does this chicken salad make you feel so amazing? If you ever try it, you will feel lucky like the guy in the Lucky Charms picture. If you ever tried it, you will feel like you just won so much money against ninety-nine other people. YOU WILL FEEL LIKE YOU GOT ALL A+s ON YOUR REPORT CARD. YOU WILL FEEL LIKE YOU JUST WON THE LOTTERY, EVEN THOUGH YOUR NUMBERS

WERE ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX. YOU WILL FEEL LIKE YOU BECAME SUCCESSFUL. What does this crispy, salty chicken salad look like? It looks so wonderful, like when you’re done cooking the chicken salad, you will feel like you’re looking at gold. It looks so glorious, the chicken is so well cooked, it’s cut, the salad is so green, the chicken looks so crispy, so crunchy, that’s how you know it’s very, very flavorful and crispy, and salty. How does the smell of a chicken salad smell so good? It smells so good that you feel like you’re smelling a Chili’s restaurant, and I’m telling you, the chicken tenders they have on the salad are the chicken tenders that will be smelling good at Chili’s! Chicken salad smells like chicken with honey mustard. It smells like the summer. It smells like a hotel with a fresh hot tub inside. It smells like you left a restaurant but you can still smell the food following you, and it makes you want to smell it all night. What I do is I take a fork, put the chicken and the salad on the fork, and I eat half of the chicken on the fork and all the salad, then I put in some salt, shake the bowl, and then I taste it, and it tastes AMAZING! I eat it at home for dinner, and I would have it on Mondays, Sundays, or Thursdays, and I would take so long just so I can eat more and more. I eat it at my house at 8:00 every dinner on Monday, Sundays, and Thursdays, and I sometimes eat it at my dad’s house when they cook chicken tenders with salad. How does the chicken on the chicken salad sound so poppy and greasy and satisfying? You don’t really hear anything but the water in the salad when you mix it a little bit. The only time you hear something is if you microwave the chicken tenders, you hear a bubble sound from it. When you feel it,

the salad is so watery that it makes your fingers/hands wet. The chicken tenders are very crispy, and so hard that lots of crumbs get left on your fingers, and you can feel the crumbs, and all I feel is crispy chicken tender.

The Hotty Takis By Giana Purvis

A long, long time ago on a hot summer day, I was walking to the corner store with my grandma. She told me to pick a snack. Then I saw a purple bag that I have never seen before. I was curious, so I picked it up. The name was Takis. I could not wait until I got home to eat it. Good thing I lived very close; my grandma and I walked into the building. I ran up the stairs so excited. I finally got in the house, ran into my bedroom, took off my shoes, and turned on my lights. I got my water just in case my mouth would get on fire. I opened the bag and the smell just busted out. I wished I could just go back in time and smell it again. This memory is the first time I ever had Takis. Then I picked one up and ate it. I ran to the kitchen and took an ice cube, and put it in my mouth. It was flaming hot. It was so worth it, though. I went back to my room and ate more and more, then years later, I finally got used to the heat. Takis look like a stick of flavor, like a hotty Taki. It smells like a fresh new Sharpie. The best part is it tastes like a hot, flaming lemon, and a hot pepper. The texture is like a hard stick when you crunch into it, then the crumb just melts onto my tongue. After I ate Takis, I decided to research it, and found out that Takis are said to have been invented by someone named Morgan Sanchez, although the spicy snack was invented in Mexico in 1999, and introduced to American audiences in 2006. And I also found out that my favorite Taki flavor is Nitro. I say this because I love cucumbers, and my favorite food with my snack is like a spicy cucumber.

Fuego: hot chili pepper and lime

Nitro: habanero, lime, and cucumber

Crunchy Fajita: intense spice and fajita flavor

Guacamole: spicy guacamole

Xplosion: chili pepper and cheese

I love the Nitro one because my favorite food is cucumbers. Believe it or not, I eat them raw. Then my favorite food with my favorite snack? It’s like a juicy volcano. When my uncle comes to pick me up every Monday and Tuesday, I ask to go to the corner store to get Nitro Takis. I eat it up in five minutes, with no hesitation.

Bake of Paradise By Evan Robert Scott

My grandma makes the best fried bake ever, and no one can beat her golden disc of heaven. I remember one time, I saw the fried bake cooling. I asked if I could get one, she said, “No,” so, when she wasn’t looking, I took one! Then I ran out of the kitchen. That was the start of the bake burglar career; that’s how good it looks, that you must have it. While I ran out of the kitchen, while I was running, I stopped. I looked at it and its warm feelings—feels like one-thousandth of the sun is in this fried bake. It looks so crispy you can hear the crunch even before you even bite. I can see the air pocket in the fried bake making me think that inside of the fried bake, the air is thinner than the actual air. One reason why fried bake is so special is that you can put it with anything. Let me tell you about all the condiments that go with the fried bake. For example, butter, cod-fish, salt-fish, and cheese. First, we have butter. When you melt the butter on the bake, how it oozes out and you taste the red sea, change its name to the buttery sea. Then we have the cod-fish, you put it in your mouth, it’s like time never stops. You keep on chewing and chewing and it never stops. It tastes so fishy, it takes my entire body to the ocean. Second to last one, salt-fish. When you bite it, it will take your taste buds on a sugar rush and high calorie trip. It will make you say, “This is salty, but just fine.” Lastly, we have cheese. When it’s freshly-cut refrigerated cheese in the bake, it tastes cold and hot. When you melt it a little bit, put it on the bake, it’s like melted goodness. It’s like a tsunami of cheesy goodness. The bake texture is rough but when you squeeze it you would think it would break but it won’t.

Bake smells like french fries, but does not smell salty, just fresh. Bake smells like you just smelled the greatest thing in your life, like your nostrils are taking a walk in the park, and you smell the great flowers. When the bake comes on the table, you feel the steam on your face, and you smell the freshness with it. I drool just because I smelled it. I reached to get it, but it was not time for dinner yet. It smells like the hot spring, and the water is so hot you can smell the water as if it was fresh rain that had stopped and made the air fresh.

Crumble Crumbs By Kaylani Sawyer

I remember when I was little, like five years old, my grandma was making some sweet corn bread in the kitchen. When I inhaled the cake batter, I immediately started running like a cheetah to the kitchen. Then I looked at the oven, and started drooling. I was drooling so hard that I fell on the floor, still staring at the oven. When I got up from the floor, I saw a huge puddle of drool from where I was staring at the oven, like a lion staring down its prey. When I finished cleaning my drool, I looked at the oven again. The corn bread was rising like the sun. My stomach said, “boo boo rumble boo” as I watched it. My grandma walked by me staring at the oven, almost where I opened it. She stopped me to tell me to sit down; I watched her like an eagle. She said that the corn bread was a part of history or something. I wasn’t paying any attention to her. I was just sniffing the air, inside my nose my booger was dancing for a closer smell. “Ding,” the timer went off. I jumped and ran as fast as a cheetah. Then my grandma opens the oven, and the smell of roses comes out. She cut me a slice of cornbread. I just stared at it: the color was goldish yellow, and there were little pieces of chocolate chip. When I took a bite of the corn bread, I felt like I was walking on the clouds to a soca concert. I put it down, and a good amount of crumbs fell out. Then I licked my white plate. It was the most special experience I ever had!! My great grandma’s cornbread is the greatest dish ever, trust me. One reason why my great grandma’s cornbread is special is because of its history. Let me explain. So, when my grandma and her dad were in the kitchen making something for her mom, she had an idea to make corn bread because her mother loves cornbread. After she told her

dad, he ran to the attic to get a box from his mom. When she opened the box, he pulled out a magical recipe. He handed it to her and the date was May 14, 1954. She said, “That was over twenty-eight years ago.” Her dad smirked at her. “Yes, that was twenty-eight years ago, but my mom was only fifty-four years old. At that time, I was nineteen. Me and your grandma were in the house looking for ingredients because on this day in 1954, lawyer Thurgood Marshall scored a landmark victory as the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Your grandma found something to use like: two cups cornmeal, two cups all-purpose flour, half a cup granulated sugar, six teaspoons baking powder, two teaspoons salt, half a cup vegetable oil, two-thirds cup of milk, four eggs, one cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, one-quarter cup semi-sweet chocolate chips for sprinkling.” So then they used all of the instructions that were on the paper. They finally got a perfect chocolate chip cornbread. That is why my great grandma is the best!! Another reason why this food is so special is because the special ingredients are LOVE. Let me tell you, the word love has many ingredients like:

•

L is for lemon honey curd so we can put it on top of the chocolate chip cornbread

• • •

O is for oat milk as an ingredient V is for vanilla extracts, the special ingredient E is for eggs as an ingredient

Sometimes in my family, love is an ingredient to food, or it’s a feeling that we give to people that makes us happy. That’s why my great grandma’s chocolate chip cornbread is the best. When I think about my great grandma’s chocolate chip cornbread, my tastebuds are dancing like they were excited that they went to

Disneyland on vacation. It’s just not my stomach that celebrates this glorious dish, but also my heart. This food will make you drool until you get a puddle. It also makes you hungry for a thousand seconds. Lastly, it makes your boogers dance inside your nose. The next time you feel like treating your taste buds, you should try my great grandma’s chocolate chip cornbread. You won’t regret it!!!

Takis Make Your Mind Blow Into Flames By Dakota Solomon

Takis are the best chips ever!!!! Takis have different shapes, two different colors that are blue and red. Some of them have different tastes. My mom buys me takis everyday. Takis are good. Everyone should try them! When you open the bag, the taki dust is all around. After I eat the takis, I look at my fingers and see all the dust on my fingers, and when I don’t want to wash my hands, I just lick them. The takis are so good. I like to lick the spicy dust before I bite it. But when I bite the takis, it feels hard, and after you bite and chew all the way, it tastes so good. When you bite them, it feels like you’re dreaming of good life floating on tortillas. Takis smell good. When you smell something bad, you can smell the bag of takis. It will make you feel better and comfortable. I used to hate takis because when my brother came to me and told me to try takis, and then when I tried it, it was too spicy for my mouth because I was a little too young at the time. The takis are the best. Dust on the takis is the best, it smells so strong. When you try it, it feels so hard like a rock. When I bite through the takis, it feels so hard. When you bite the takis, it feels hard when you bite it, but when you chew it, the takis feels soft. CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! Biting through the hard takis. Red little dust all around the takis, it sticks all on my hand like glue. I would love to take a bite of that. It’s like biting through a rock, and then a little after, it feels like you’re biting through a soft tortilla. Overall, I really love takis. They’re my favorite chips in the whole wide world!

Try Avocado Toast! It’s a Superfood By Matthew McKie

Have you ever had avocado toast? Avocado toast is my favorite food. It tastes great, and it is healthy. Avocados have lots of vitamin K. They also protect your eyesight. Avocados also help your teeth stay strong and healthy. I love pizza too but pizza will make you fat. If you eat lots of avocado toast your teeth and eyes will stay healthy. Avocados are also great for your skin and put you in a better mood. Avocado toast is a superfood because of the avocado. It tastes delicious and it will make you healthy. All you have to do to make avocado toast is mash the avocados, add a little salt and lemon juice, then spread it on toast like peanut butter. Try it! You will love it. It will help your body stay healthy, and our new mayor, Mr. Eric Adams, will be proud of you because he wants us to eat healthy foods.

C AS S L 503

A Billion (And More) Foods in One By Skye Ambrose

Other foods you are forced to buy and they aren’t sold for free, but this food is free all over the world and has over a billion different flavors, can you guess what it is? No it’s not ice cream, you have to pay for that, buster! (Unless there is a sketchy man giving it away in a white van for free, then enjoy!) (Please don’t listen to her, she’s delusional.) But anyways, air is the best food yet! I shot up from my uncovered pillow all drenched in sweat. I was scared and couldn’t tell if I was sweating from the bundle of covers I had been sleeping in—practically truck loads of covers (even in the middle of summer she slept all bunched up in covers, psychopath vibes)—or if it was because of the horrifying dream I had while in slumber. I felt like a wet, hot rag that had been used to clean the toilet seat. I hopped out of bed and tip-toed my way into the dark and gloomy kitchen in search of a small snack to send myself back to bed and hopefully forget about the dream (more like a nightmare). I searched up, down, left, and right, but the kitchen was bare, similar to a bald man’s head (so, yours?). I was losing hope, until I checked the fridge. The solution sat right in front of my face, it oozed out of the fridge (more like floated). It was nice, fresh, cold air streaming out of the fridge. Being a slow thinking eight-year-old, I quickly grabbed a cup and scooped some out of the fridge and enjoyed it with a spoon. I was feeling more refreshed now so I headed back to bed and had only pleasant dreams, not ones where my family is getting chopped up with a chainsaw by some psychotic psychopath. More things about air are that you can feel it, but you can walk through it without any openings so you won’t bust your head unless you

fall. You also are provided this delicious substance by trees (the tall rotten looking things that resemble broccoli) that provide us with air, and we give them carbon dioxide, this is their air. Air has a windy feeling to it, it’s like a mixed emotion, rough but soft. Cool but steamy. It can also smell and taste different depending on your environment and where you are in place and time. (You’re probably at home chilling, must be nice, I’m stuck with an insane ten-year-old!) (Just ignore her, she’s hangry.) So to end this off, I have a challenge for you! Take multiple different foods and taste the air they provide, then rate them from zero to ten (or zero to one hundred, if it’s as bad as she is). All right, our journey ends here! See you soon.

Strings of Me By Alani Augustine

Many people say things like pizza best represents them, or chips just because they taste good and people enjoy eating them. But really a food that best represents YOU should be a food that can relate to you. A food that when you eat it you can hear the food screaming your name. That should be the food that best represents you. One special food that best represents ALANI ZAMARA AUGUSTINE is . . . ramen. When you eat ramen you feel relaxed and calm. The warmth from the ramen makes you feel all cozy. Most of the time I can relate to ramen because of the way it is and the way it makes Alani feel. When I eat ramen I feel as if I am on a cloud floating around and I can watch my favorite show, and whatever food I can imagine it’s in my presence right in front of me. When you eat it it’s as if all your problems are solved with one singular bite. Even though life is not really that way, eating ramen makes you think it is. Sometimes when I need to think things out I just heat up some ramen. Sit on the couch and eat. Sometimes when you feel like you need to think, just make some ramen and it will be okay. SO IF YOU NEED TO THINK OF YOU TAKE “STRINGS OF ME.”

The Perfect Match Mix By Avery Bryson

Many people like food a lot and say the food that describes them is just a food they know is very good to other people like pizza or candy or chips. But what if they were all wrong, yeah you might see others might like food but is it really what describes you? The food that describes me is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is something I hate. I think they taste like licking a trashcan and make you wish you never heard about them. I might dislike their taste but it is what describes me because this is not about taste this is about my personality. My personality matches with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I don’t like it so that is why it matches my personality. It shows I don’t like some things about my personality. The peanut butter is something most likable so it is my sweet, nice, and caring side that everyone wants to see in me so this is the side you would really like to bite into and enjoy a lot. The jelly is the part most people dislike about me because this is my side you don’t really want to get into because this is my rude, sassy, and angry side. Bite into me and enjoy. I will be very sassy and rude to you. When you mix them together you get Avery and when you bite into me, it depends on how you act on how I’m going to react with my sides.

Culture Is Key By Ryleigh Campbell

Culture is key. Mexican food is key. So why don’t you come eat nachos with me! NOT just nachos . . . tacos, chips, and dip. Have lemonade. Take a sip! Mexican food is AMAZING. I might not be Mexican, but I love the crunch when you bite into a heavenly taco. Mexican food has got to be the best (next to soul food and West Indian food). I think it’s one of the best because, when I eat Mexican food it makes me happy. Why I feel happy when I eat Mexican food is because I think of where the food originated from and why it might be native to the place. For example Mexican street corn. I bet if I go ask P.S. 316 scholars, I might just get the answer of “Corn is American,” or “I put butter, salt, and pepper on my corn.” To prove my case I am going to ask my friend Olivia Mills where she thinks corn is from and what to put on it. “Olivia where is corn from?” “Would it be American or Mexican?” See, she was correct about Mexico but her first choice was America! Next question is, “What do you put on corn?” “I don’t put things on corn. If I were to, I would put ranch dressing on.” Again, she had no idea about Mexican-style street corn with mayo and chili powder! YUM. I want to get a second opinion from my friend Azana Deshong. “Azana, where is corn from?” “Um, New York City.” Therefore I think corn’s “heritage” should be recognized more. “What do you put on corn?”

“I put sugar, especially on popcorn, to make kettle corn.” Another person that did not know about Mexican-style street corn. I feel like fast food and American hot spots are overrated, not saying that they do not have a story or authenticity too. But they are overrated because they have many customers and new odd things to try. For example, “TRY OUR . . . CARROT FLAVORED FRIES.” Why have new flavors (not saying it’s bad or anything) when you can have original food with fascinating stories? Therefore I think that Mexican food and restaurants should be noticed more.

Porridge Tastes RICH! By Kohl Cruickshank

Porridge is the best thing that I have ever eaten. My mom makes the best porridge. If I sold this porridge, I’m sure we’d be rich. Though many people may think that porridge is bad or maybe even disgusting, I’d ask them to reconsider their thoughts and try my mom’s porridge. I believe that my mom makes the best porridge in the world. I only say this since I love my mom’s porridge, and cannot wait until the next weekend that I have it. The second that I put the spoon of porridge in my mouth, my tastebuds are like “Suh-weet!” I’ve always enjoyed almost everything about porridge. One time there were lumps in my porridge and I had no idea what it was. I still don’t know what it was up to this day, but other than that, I still love porridge. I wonder if YOU have tried porridge. If you haven’t, try my mom’s. As I said from before, she makes the BEST porridge. I love it so much I could kiss it a million times. Maybe you should consider drinking porridge the next time you get the chance. It’s not THAT bad . . . but seriously you should try new things, and even if you didn’t like porridge before, I believe that my mom’s porridge will change your mind. Give it a try! Porridge tastes RICH. It should be worth one billion dollars to be honest. That is how much I love porridge. It is the best thing that I have ever tasted. If you have tried porridge, do you agree? At least you know my opinion, now. Porridge tastes RICH, and porridge is the best. I think you should have porridge for your next meal. Try it out! I think you will love it.

The Multiverse’s Best Ice Cream By Rylee Denoi

Others’ favorite ice cream flavors might be chocolate, vanilla, butter pecan, cookies n cream, and mint chocolate chip. I recently started to love cookie dough ice cream. The cookie dough is hard but then it melts in your mouth. The taste is indescribable. Let me tell you how this obsession started. My mother and I went downtown to a Häagen-Dazs store. I had Häagen-Daz before but it was just vanilla ice cream. While we were driving I realized I don’t eat other flavors of ice cream, just vanilla, which we all know is basic. Might I add, the reason we were going to Häagen-Dazs was that I had just done a show (because I’m a dancer). So I decided in my mind I should get something out of the ordinary. We waited twenty minutes in a line because there were two people in at a time. It was also a weekend in May and it was HOT. So that ice cream would be the perfect reward. I had finally got inside and looked at the menu. I saw cookie dough ice cream and decided since I like cookie dough and vanilla, they together sound good. I got the magical ice cream and was kinda nervous to taste it. I have a certain routine/normalcy I like to follow and when I step out of the routine/normalcy I’m stepping into a galaxy where there are a bunch of stars and every new star is a new adventure or possibility. I don’t like to step out of my comfort zone, but of course, I still did it because I live life to the fullest. So anyway back to the story: I had got medium-sized ice cream. I opened it, squeezed my eyes shut, and quickly like I was running a race, stuck my spoon in and ate it. Unsurprisingly it was good—actually, not

good. It was delightful, tasteful, and scrumptious. So this time I tried it much slower. I got to bite into a cookie dough ball. It was so good I can’t put it into words. Ever since then, cookie dough ice cream has been my favorite and I’m convinced it’s the best ice cream in the multiverse.

Heaven’s Most Wanted Candy By Azana Deshong

One day two friends with a sour and sweet personality walked into a lab. The young females thought, Let’s make candy that can relate to us and people all around the world. They decided to call it Sour Patch Kids. At the start they’re sour, then near the end they’re sweet. Sour Patch Kids remind me of kids around the world who sometimes have sweet energy and sometimes sour energy. Sour Patch Kids are shaped like little humans in a gummy suit with lots of different colors and flavors. Why are Sour Patch Kids heaven’s most wanted candy? I’m glad you asked why Sour Patch Kids are heaven’s most wanted candy. It’s because they taste like a popsicle or cold water on a hot summer day. This candy reminds me of myself because sometimes most people say I’m as sweet as cotton candy. But I’m actually as sour as throwing twenty Warheads in your mouth. Try not to make any faces. Since people all over the world enjoy Sour Patch Kids I wanted to ask my classmates if they liked them or not and yes, twenty-five out of twenty-five kids are in love with this gummy candy coated with sour seasoning. I really enjoy the Sour Patch Kids candy because they don’t have only one type and flavor, they have many different flavors including normal, watermelon, fruits, cherry, sour apple, peach, blue raspberry, Christmas, connectors, chillers, Xploders, Soda Popz, Heads and Bodies, and Extreme. There are also many berry-flavored Sour Patch Kids. I didn’t try most of these but I feel like they’re really good. I also think other people should try Sour Patch Kids because they’re really good and if you love

sour candy like me, YOU WILL LOVE SOUR PATCH KIDS. Sour Patch Kids is one of the number-one top sour candy in the entire whole world! Sour Patch Kids even have their own whole store.

Creativity Is Prime at Chipotle By Jadir Edwards

On a dark, rainy day on a busy street in Midtown Manhattan, identifiable as a “better Burger King” in some people’s opinion, but we can say that construction on this building has finally finished. All eyes are drawn to the location of the finished construction, and all wonder, “What’s this going to be? There is a McDonald’s just across the street, so what is this going to be?” And to answer that, that is going to be the greatest, firstrateness, prime, and mountainous restaurant ever! People seem as if they’ve seen a ghost, not knowing that the menu has all sorts of cool things! People will say, “This place has the most!” And, I know what you’re thinking to yourself: “What is this heavenly place?” Well my friend, it’s Chipotle, creative Chipotle. This is not only the best food in New York, no no no! This is the best food in America for crying out loud! It is so good that it goes beyond just saying to yourself, “Mmmm,” and pretending to like the food, but it really sucks. It goes beyond realities and expectations. It is so good that your discontentedness and dissatisfaction turns into glee or entrancement just because of this food. You can stop by and eat when you are ten minutes late to a business meeting or a promotion. The warm smell of this food when you walk in is just like your seventh heaven in real life. There are many reasons why Chipotle is satisfactory, but I will just list a handful of reasons. Chipotle is a salad-bar type restaurant, which means you can get all sorts of crazy and creative ideas at Chipotle, meaning you can’t just have the same food as someone else, you can have an unique mindset. So if you do have the same idea as someone

else, you just amuse me. And, you get to see what they do and how they kinda make the food, it’s like you have a backstage pass. Another good reason why this is heaven on earth!

Eat Spaghetti or You Will Never Be Happy by Amir Francis

The best food I ever had was my mom’s spaghetti and meatballs. If you have not eaten spaghetti and meatballs, then you are missing out. My mom can make it at lighting speed with perfection in every bite. The meatballs are like a soft cloud, and when you bite them, all the good flavors sit on your tastebuds. The flavors are so indescribable, there are no words you can use to even describe how delicious it is. The spaghetti is soft like a pillow and flows like a river into your mouth and into your stomach and it is like it hits you in the face with the speed you can eat it at. The taste of the whole meal together is like winning a soccer game 10-0 and being the MVP of the game of the team that you are on, or being first in a race against the fastest people in your class. When you are able to eat it you want more and will always want to come back to where you got the spaghetti and meatballs from.

Dun Dun Dun . . . Hoagie By Tristan Gibson

A hoagie is like the best sandwich in the world. It should be served to everyone in the world, that’s how good it is. But the best part is getting it from a Wawa convenience store because the way they make the sandwich is with love and fresh ingredients. But the hoagie itself is a long or short sandwich that is shaped like a sausage. The hoagie to me has a very interesting name. My hoagie has ham, cheese, and lettuce with bread toasted one time. The hoagie cheese melts in your mouth like you’re going down a rollercoaster. The ham is like having a hotel made out of gold bricks. The lettuce is like eating every unhealthy food you like but it’s very good for you. The bread is like getting straight A+ and one hundred percent on your test. And the toast brings it in like getting a new sneaker. Did you know hoagies have been around longer than paninis? Did you know that Wawa has had hoagies since 1992? I asked two people if they like hoagies, and one likes hoagies because they can toast them, and I agree. You can customize a hoagie with toppings and add all types of different meat or different types of ham. Another pro about a hoagie is that it’s easy to make. All you do is add bread, some type of meat, and maybe something healthy. But overall the hoagie is still one of the most popular sandwiches and a very popular item on the Wawa menu.

Spaghetti Has the World in a Loop! By Jayla Holford

If spaghetti is not the greatest thing I’ve ever eaten, I wouldn’t know what is. The first time I had ever eaten spaghetti, it had been absurdly dry. The most helpful thing is, you can use whatever toppings you like. Other people might think that spaghetti sauce is the only topping that belongs on spaghetti. They’d be wrong. The most delicious topping you could ever have on spaghetti is cheese (grated, of course), sauce, and maybe meat. Your toppings on your food will most definitely vary the tasting experience. Toppings are probably the most important and needed things when it comes to foods like pizza, spaghetti, and more. Eating spaghetti may get you loopy! The noodles are very long. The way some people eat spaghetti is not usually popular, but you should always try different eating styles. I think spaghetti is way too overlooked. While other similar foods like pasta, ziti, and more are just as great, spaghetti is ten times better. Spaghetti is definitely one of the most delicious foods I’ve ever eaten. I think spaghetti is the most delicious food because I cannot get over the feeling I get when eating it. While depending on what you have as a topping, spaghetti is good no matter what. Even though spaghetti is a great food, the most disgusting course of action you could do with it is eat it dry. Bare spaghetti is the most stomach-churning thing to ever be served. Many brands sell different styles and different types of spaghetti. They don’t taste the same but the righteousness is definitely still there. Food critics are beyond any doubt what the world needs. Foods like spaghetti are very popular in the critic community.

Buying contrasting types of spaghetti will vary your style of cooking. Depending on said cooking style, the way your spaghetti tastes also varies. Many people forget that ramen noodles and spaghetti noodles are very, very different. Others also forget that there are different ways of eating spaghetti. Eating noodles will put you in a loop! Assuredly, eating will set a mood. Spaghetti will set a better mood, though! I think that the process of making food is definitely more to one’s liking than the process of eating the food. With spaghetti, the food-making process is just as enjoyable as the tasting experience. Eating thin foods like spaghetti, the taste is very infrequent. Spaghetti is a very important food to some. Spaghetti is even a cultural food. Others might find spaghetti as an occasional food, I do too. Even though spaghetti is a great, great food, I can not imagine eating spaghetti regularly. As I said, spaghetti is a very overlooked food. Most do not have much education on why spaghetti is a great food, and why it has the world in a loop!

Jerk Chicken Should Be Acknowledged More By Xaria Irving

I’ve had jerk chicken as many times as I can remember. So anytime there’s leftovers in the fridge (though very rarely) they always hide them in the same place. On the bottom shelf, in the back of the fridge. So when I get midnight cravings I know where to find it. As soon as I lay eyes on the transparent microwaveable bowl, I do my best happy dance. Trust me, it smells WAY better than it looks. It smells like a hot summer day out grilling. It’s like chilling out on the veranda on a hot summer day with a chilled glass of lemonade. It’s like your nose, a gift of joy. Jerk chicken is something that you’ll smell as soon as it hits the grill. It looks glossy and the burnt crispy skin makes you wanna start doing your best happy dance. The skin glistens in the sun while it’s on the grill. It looks like a sacred gift STRAIGHT from the heavens. And I can guarantee you it tastes so good!!! The jerk chicken has a smokey delicious taste that just makes your taste buds jump for joy! It tastes like it heals my tongue from biting it too much. It makes you automatically say ”MMMMM!” Now you know how much of a treat jerk chicken is. I wouldn’t be able to live without it. So try it! You won’t regret it!!! And it could possibly be your new favorite food. So don’t wait, try it today (TODAY) and don’t even wait another second.

Ramen’s Grace By Joseph Ross-Jones

Ramen is a food so good that it grants immortality. One gulp of broth, BOOM! Three years added to your life; take a slurp of the noodles coming out the broth, KACHOW! Two years added to your life. You may be asking, “Oh my! How does this work?” Your body enjoys the taste of ramen so much it forces itself to stay together and keep working longer so it can keep tasting the grace of ramen. Ramen comes in big giant meals bigger than the ocean or cup like servings to keep on ya in case you need the sweet taste out your pocket. Although be careful, there is a riddle, ramen isn’t all miracles nor grace, ramen has downsides to its upsides. Just like, you finished making ramen ready to take a bite then SPLASH! Hot water is sinking in your skin as you yell from the deed the ramen just did to you. And when you’re gonna take a slurp of the nice hot broths and boom! Your ramen is as cold as Mount Everest. This feeling makes you feel so unsettled it takes one year from your life! Be careful with ramen; some people can’t handle its grace. Have you heard of the tribes who worshiped ramen’s grace? Each year they go to the shrine and take a sip of broth; only those who are worthy and pure can taste its grace. The leader of the tribe was said to be the one who made ramen! Did you know that?

The Food of the Future By Olivia Mills

Have you ever wondered what future food might be? Wonder no more because the food of the future is molecular ramen. It is incredible! It’s technological, it’s so good that there are no words to describe it. You might ask what molecular ramen is? Well it hasn’t been invented… yet. But it will be the most advanced type of food ever and I will make sure of it. You may not believe such things but I will survey my best friend and other people to see what they think. “What do you think about molecular ramen?” “I think molecular ramen is a great idea. Ramen already tastes good but molecular ramen would be even better.” I want to make food that people love. I want to make a food full of technology and power. To describe my food: it looks flavorless but when you put it in your mouth it melts and becomes a burst of delicious flavor. Embedded in the ramen is a flavor chip (it’s edible) and when someone puts the molecular ramen in their mouth it activates and bursts into a sweet and warm flavor. In conclusion, molecular ramen will be the food of the future and I hope all people will love my future kind of food. Thank you for reading about food of the future.

Sour Patch Kids By Emily Newport

Lots of people say, “You’re so sweet,” but I’m a Sour Patch Kid! Think about a bite into a lemon Sour Patch Kid. But wait, you’re biting into me. Anyway, “Blech, sour, eww!” Don’t call me sour just me yet, you don’t know me. “Okay, she tastes a little more sweet.” Okay, when people say, “Oh, she’s so sweet,” I’m thinking to myself, “Have you not known me for ten years?” I have bad days. Sometimes, I will make your eyes water. Sometimes, I will make me happy. Don’t start judging all chocolate Emily. Judge me by how loud you yell: “Sour!” Let me tell you a story. First, close your eyes. Think about a bag of Sour Patch Kids. You started eating and you’re fine. You take a yellow one. “Dun, dun, dun…” Your walls are folding in with you. “HELP ME!” Wait, stop everything. Why in the world would you eat me? When I eat a Sour Patch Kid, I think, “MMM. That’s so good.” To some it would be, “Sour! Help me!” Some Sour Patch Kids are not very sour because I know that I’m eating myself. But because I’m eating myself, I feel like I’m becoming more of myself. I don’t really eat Sour Patch Kids, but I always feel good about myself when I think about the thought of Sour Patch Kids. These were all the reasons I would consider myself a Sour Patch Kid. When I need to I will make your eyes water. I will also be sweet like sugar. But whatever the situation, just know, I’ll be right there for you.

Statue of Liberty Now Holds Pizza By Makel Piverger

I have had pizza in MANY different places but New York is the best place to be. I say this because when my grandparents came to New York from Pennsylvania they said, “Let’s get pizza,” and we did. About thirty minutes later the doorbell rang and I knew just what was awaiting me at the door. My grandma opened the pizza box and said, “Why is the pizza so big? This is twice the size of a normal slice.” When they took a bite they knew what they’d been missing out on. The most wonderest food I ever ate was pizza. It smells like a hot summer day out of the oven. I eat it with my hands and afterwards they are as greasy as the wet water in the ocean. It tastes like a cloud just flew into my mouth and all of my problems are solved. I asked Julius Rinzel, who is the author of “Pomegranate Feels Left Out from All the Other Fruits. You Must Take Action.” He said that it isn’t the best food ever but it is the best food if it is from New York. I agree with him on the New York part but I disagree with when he said it wasn’t the best food ever. Many people can have different opinions but it is still okay.

Pomegranate Feels Left Out from All the Other Fruits. You Must Take Action. By Julius Rinzel

You go into the kitchen, and you find fruit. You grab a knife and cut this beautiful fruit in half. You grab a spoon and put it in this juicy ball of tart. You pull out a mound of seeds, put them in your mouth, and eat them. You are instantly astounded by how good what you are eating is. You are eating a pomegranate, ever tried one? No? That’s the point. Pomegranate is the most underrated fruit. More people should try pomegranates. Pomegranate is the most underrated fruit because barely anyone eats pomegranate. Out of twenty-two kids in my class six said that they have eaten pomegranate. One person yelled, “What’s pomegranate?” When I asked if the people that had eaten pomegranate liked it, one person put their hand down. This indicates that pomegranate is the most underrated fruit because not a lot of people eat it. Another reason pomegranate is the most underrated fruit is that people don’t intend on trying it. I interviewed my friend, Makel, author of “Statue of Liberty Now Holds Pizza,” and he said that when he sees a pomegranate in the store or supermarket, he thinks it looks disgusting. I also interviewed my friend Aiden and he said that he has seen a pomegranate and it looks gross. This indicates that pomegranate is the most underrated fruit because people do not try it. Other people might say that it is too hard to get pomegranate seeds out, but I have the perfect solution. Use a spoon. Both my friends and I use spoons to take out the pomegranate seeds. We are able to take out the explosions of flavor and eat them.

In conclusion, pomegranate is the most underrated fruit because people do not try it, people do not intend to try it and it is hard to get the seeds out.

The Meal That Makes the Afternoon By Chloe Jones

Hardee’s is my best friend. He provides amazing Chinese food that melts in my mouth. It looks like a Friday afternoon, where I can relax and enjoy food after school. The sigh of relief after walking all that way for my food. The fried shrimp is crispy and the rice tops it off. This food is a huge enjoyment to me because of the people making it. They are the amazing, nice people who don’t mind making my order. Hardee’s is the name of the shop, the red sign popping out from the store. My eyes are happy every time I see the sign. It smells like the joy and love put into it by the chefs. It smells like my appreciation for my sister when she spends her money on my food. It smells like my happiness that I was presented with beautiful Chinese food. This food doesn’t just have fried shrimp with plain pork fried rice, it has the saucy, delicious barbecue sauce. It glides over my food like heaven. It makes me feel like my job is finally complete. But my delicious barbecue sauce has an understudy. The duck sauce. It adds a bit of sweet but salty to my food, and I love it for that. Hardee’s is always a place that I will enjoy, it is like my second home. It makes me feel relaxed after a day of school, and it makes me full so I have food to eat. Thank you for that, Hardee’s. No Chinese food store can compare to it. Sweet and sour chicken, fried shrimp, and plain pork fried rice. Who could ask for more?

Italy Changes the Flag to a Painting of a Pasta Bowl and Destroys Any Good Pizza Places Left Even Though There Aren’t Any By Miqueas Santiago

I think that pasta is the most Italian food ever and the best food ever. Some people might say pizza is the most Italian food ever but pasta really is. Did you ever wonder why the Italians are famous for pasta? They created it! Before the Americans were free from the British, the Roman Italians created pasta. Later they came here to the United States and gave us pizza ingredients and recipes. Pasta is made from wheat. It tastes like bread but slightly blander. Because it’s so bland you MUST EAT IT WITH BUTTER otherwise it will taste like wood pancakes without any syrup. There’s a way to eat pasta for everyone. There’s angel hair pasta, bowtie pasta, bucatini pasta, ditalini pasta, fettuccine pasta, fusilli pasta. I like to eat pasta in the way of spaghetti and meatballs and tomato sauce. It is so good, it tastes like a water slide extravaganza. Pizza is good but not as good as pasta. There’s a kid in my class who is allergic to pineapple. Guess what they put pineapple on . . . a kind of pizza! Pasta doesn’t have pineapple, only tomato sauce and meatballs. Some people’s stomachs can’t have cheese and what is one of the main ingredients in pizza . . . cheese! Pasta you can have without cheese or any dairy products and it will still taste as if you just got a million bucks. Don’t eat pizza if you want to have no allergic reaction. Try pasta. It’s really good and I think you will love it. Pasta is so good, when you swallow it is like a sweet and sour candy melted into a golden caramel mix. We all know that pizza is famous in New York but

pasta is so much better. If you are a true Italian then eat pasta and don’t eat pizza. I took several surveys to find out about a few questions I had. My first question was how many kids have had pasta. The results were: twenty-five out of twenty-five, everybody has had a kind of pasta. My second question was, do you like pasta? The results were: twenty-five out of twenty-five, everyone liked pasta. My third question was what is your rating on pasta. Most people said five out of five or ten out of ten. My last survey was: Do you think more people should eat pasta? Lots of people said yes. Pasta is amazing. Pasta brightens people’s day. So eat pasta to be happy. In conclusion, most people will say pasta is cool and spectacular but for those who still disagree: it doesn’t matter that pizza has more places to eat it, it’s not about that, it’s the love, care, and respect that you get when you eat pasta. The people that make it, make it especially for you. Pizza is made with no respect for anyone. Pizza can be made terribly and they will still sell it to you. They don’t care about allergies or diarrhea, they just sell it to you like nothing matters. For those that might be now convinced, try pasta. I am telling you it is the most important, delicious, godly, magnificent, magical food in the known universe. It turns frowns upside down.

Water Is My True Savior!! By Leila Seaton

I can remember when I was playing in the water then a whole bucket of water splashed in my mouth. This is the time when I fell in love. You may think how water represents me. It’s not food, not even an object, it’s just a thing that flows. But the reason why I think I represent water is because it’s calming and also very helpful. I think that water represents me because it helps us survive. Sometimes I help people who are struggling with problems and other personal things. Also, when friends or family are upset or sad, I calm them down by doing kind things. The last reason why water represents me is because sometimes water flows and never stops like how I never stop talking and playing around. If you think water is boring and it’s not helpful you’re wrong because water is the most important source of life, more than food. You can survive a few days without food but you cannot survive without water. I used to think water was worthless. But when I heard about the problems that people were faced with when they did not drink water, I changed my mind. Now I drink lots of water today. The movements of water remind me of emotions. When water is mad we see a storm getting stronger, the sea is unforgiving, it’s in so much rage. This reminds me of how I get mad when people are being annoying or disrespectful. Another emotion that water has is happiness. This makes me think of when it’s hot and everyone is coming to visit the ocean. This reminds me of when someone does something nice for me. Water will be the only thing that will represent me. I will always stay true to water. Water is everywhere, in your body, around the world,

and places you didn’t even know where it could be. When you’re ready to join me into the light, water and I will be waiting for you.

The Ultimate Food: TACOS By Eli Stewart

Tacos are truly a great food, perhaps the best in the known universe . . . the ultimate food. Not a single food matches the taco in flavorful power. EXCEPT RAVIOLI! But that’s another story. The crunch is perfectly crispy, the sour cream and guacamole, adding more to the flavor, and the cheddar cheese on the beef, perfecting it. It’s truly amazing how it’s made. The flavors, mixing in your mouth, and amplifying. Now then, you’re probably thinking about where I found the taco shop. I’m honestly not sure of the name, although I do know where it is. From the school (P.S. 316), go to the one hundred percent NEAREST Starbucks, and it should be across the street. It is a small place. Honestly, I think EVERYONE should try their food, they even have nachos. Multiple types. And of course, you get to pick what type of meat you want in, well, everything on the menu. The first time I’ve ever had it was when I was with my brother, because he was taking me home from school. I didn’t know where we were going but then, when I got in the place, I didn’t think much of it. When I got home however, my doubts ERASED themselves, and I enjoyed the tacos. In conclusion, I want you, yes you, the reader, to try their tacos, because they are the ultimate food, staying unmatched. (Except for ravioli, that’s a tough competition.)

The Food of the Century By Aiden Thomas

Have you ever tasted food from Guyana? Let alone South America? Have you ever eaten food with melted butter? Or what about tasting a kind of bread that you have never seen or heard of before? Well, when you add all of these together, you get: Guyanese bread! People need to try this food more because it has more flavor than American bread, it is round unlike American bread, and unlike American bread, Guyanese bread goes better with butter. Other people might think that American bread is good, but really Guyanese bread is better! One reason people need to try this food more is because it has more flavor than American bread. I don’t know about you, but I think that American bread tastes plain. But don’t worry; because Guyanese bread has so much flavor! Have you ever put sugar on American bread and eaten it? Because that’s what Guyanese bread tastes like. If you don’t like plain bread, Guyanese bread goes great with melted butter and/or melted cheese. The second reason why more people need to try Guyanese bread is because it has a very interesting shape. Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America which makes the country unique. Guyanese bread takes on a very interesting shape, which makes it unique. While the shape of American bread is a square, Guyanese bread has the shape of a sphere flattened a bit. If you like trying interesting foods with all kinds of texture, then Guyanese bread is for you! The final reason why more people need to try Guyanese bread is because it goes better with butter than American bread does. You might think that American bread with butter is the best combo in the universe,

right? But you are totally wrong! The best combo in eternity is Guyanese bread and butter microwaved for thirty seconds! Biting into it is like biting into a melted jolly rancher, and dissolved like cotton candy! If you like candy, then you will like Guyanese bread! In conclusion, I think that Guyanese bread is better than American bread, and if this book made you want to eat Guyanese bread, I hope you think so too. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you go to the nearest store that sells Guyanese bread!!

GARLIC BREAD . . . YEA THAT’S IT By Liam Thompson-Francois

Garlic bread is a delicious dessert when you eat your spaghetti. When you eat it, it makes you wanna slap your mama’s knee. One reason that this side dish will make you slap your mama’s knee is because of the juicy, crunchy, garlic smell and the best thing about this side dish is the taste. The taste is on a whole nother level, the sweet taste with a little bit of sugar, that garlic bread will taste like you are an angel floating around and around. Garlic bread can go with any type of food, like spaghetti, steak, and many others. It’s just the way my mom makes the garlic bread, it’s just so good the way that it is toasted in the pan and sometimes the oven. Even though we get it from the supermarket my mom makes it taste like she made it from scratch. My mom always makes the garlic bread with her own spices that she makes with her own hands. The spices just add to the garlic bread more taste and not just garlic on the bread.

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Don’t Waste Your Day, Eat Ramen Noodles at a Buffet By Sanai Acuna

What should I feed some hungry laptop? . . . RAM-EN. Ramen noodles are lifesavers. I remember when I first tried ramen noodles, after I ate the ramen noodles I fell in love and I ate it for two weeks straight. Ramen noodles are one of the cheapest staple foods in a grocery store. Fun fact: Momofuku Ando invented ramen noodles. Ramen noodles look like skinny, squiggly spaghetti. There are different flavors of ramen noodles, such as chicken flavor, beef flavor, shrimp flavor, soy sauce (vegetarian) flavor, chili (vegetarian) flavor, and hot and spicy beef flavor. The ramen noodles’ chicken flavor tastes like the chips’ hot fries. According to ejjiramen.com, “Miso ramen was born in Sapporo Japan around the mid-1950s.” Did you know that ramen noodles were once considered a luxury item? According to spoonuniversity.com, “Ramen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word lamein.” However, Japan created ramen specialities, such as broth, saltiness, the noodles, and the toppings, according to spoonuniversity.com. According to spoonuniversity.com there is a food museum in Chicago. Japan has got the museum of instant noodles covered. The noodle length inside an instant ramen packet is 51 meters as claimed by spoonuniversity.com. Ramen feels like slime or putty. In my opinion slurping ramen is the best. Ramen noodles are special to me because they make me calm and attentive. Ramen noodles can be made in an oven or microwave. I remember one day my mom had left overs for me to eat because she didn’t wanna buy any food. I didn’t want leftovers, my parents are not

together and don’t live together. I called my dad to buy me ramen noodles with chicken flavor. When my dad arrived with the ramen I ate it like I didn’t eat in years. Ramen will make you pleased and joyful. If you want to know what the special ingredient is, kansui. Kansui is the added ingredient in ramen noodles. “Kansui is a mix of mineral water, sodium carbonate, and potassium carbonate and is responsible for making ramen noodles springy and chewy,” as reported by bitemybun.com. According to bitemybun.com, “Kansui is what gives ramen its unique flavor and eating experience.” December 12, 2021, I went to this place called Hibachi for my tenth birthday. I ordered Hibachi’s ramen noodles. When I got the ramen noodles and took a bite it was GROSS! I spit out the food very fast. When I got home I was cheerful. I got home and made myself ramen. It was so tasty. The correct way to cook ramen, according to cooking. nytimes.com, is to bring two-and-a-half cups of water to boil in a small saucepan. After that, make sure to add the noodles and cook for two minutes. Add the flavor packet, stir, and cook for another thirty seconds. Ramen noodles are the greatest food ever. I recommend you try them.

The Family of Lobster By Pablo Ambrister

Did you know that lobster is one of the most common foods in my family? My family loves it because we have a concoction of seafood with seasoning that makes it spicy. It tingles in my body, and makes my stomach feel like a dog rolling over for a treat. In my family, seafood is a good, blessed meal. Did you know that the most meaty part of lobster is the tail? The tail is big, so it has more meat there. The reason this food is special to me is because when I go down south with my family, lobsters are all over the place. We always eat lobster. Another reason why this food is important to me is because I’ve been eating lobster since I was a little kid and I have never eaten anything more divine. The seasoning brings out the flavor of the lobster so it tastes like magic. A memory I have is when I went to my aunt’s house and she made a big bowl of lobster. Oh my god, oh my god! I can’t wait for this to get cooked. Though I felt sad for the lobster, I still ate it. Another reason why I love lobster is because when I was a baby, my mom let me eat lobster. I did not taste anything for a while, but as I got older everything started to be more flavorful. LOBSTER. I thought I was in heaven. It tastes so good. My last reason that I like lobster so much is that it’s so soft, it tastes so good and it has flavor. It tastes like a spicy chip and I just drank milk. It feels so relaxing. Every time I go somewhere with my family, I know we are eating lobster. At this point I’m even surprised if we don’t eat lobster, because my favorite food is lobster. Lobster tastes so good I just want to fall down, get back up, and

spin around. If you have never tried to eat lobster you need to try it. It is so good it makes me feel like I want to dance. It makes me feel like I want to jump over a car. You don’t even know how good this tastes with seasoning. You need to try combinations on lobster because if you do not, you are missing out. This lobster is so good that it makes you want to jump over the Empire State Building. This lobster is so good that it gives you superpowers. It is so delicious that you will black out. These lobsters die for you to eat. There are so many types of lobsters. Two days ago, I went to Red Lobster for my nephew’s birthday and I saw five real lobsters. They were sleeping, and one was moving, and it was right next to me and yeah, they looked very cool.

Shrimp Is Magical By Amyiah Anderson

My favorite food to eat is shrimp. Once, my mother was cooking shrimp and my senses were locked onto its sweet, tingly smell that swept right past my nose. I could smell the juicy goodness spilling onto the plate. I was drooling, and I counted four sheep jumping over a fence. Everyone in my house looked like shrimp ready to be eaten. After I eat shrimp, it feels like I am in a dream where I don’t want to wake up. My parents’ culture is Jamaican, but shrimp didn’t originate from Jamaica. But that still doesn’t stop me from eating those magical shrimp. Shrimp is a seafood that I loved when I was younger. However, Jamaicans are inspired by shrimp. Jamaicans actually make their own style called the curry shrimp and pepper shrimp. I never tried this style before, but it sounds interesting. Shrimp is also special to me because of the memories. When I was around four years old, I hated shrimp. Even when my mom or dad cooked shrimp it never blessed my senses. But, when I was around seven or eight years old, I started to like it. Now shrimp and I are one. Another reason why I love shrimp is because my mom makes it. Whenever my mom makes shrimp, it makes me want to jump over the Empire State Building. It’s unbelievable whenever my mother prepares it. First, she buys the slimy, liquidy pale shrimp. After my mom seasons the shrimp, she leaves it overnight, so the shrimp can absorb all the juicy goodness. The next day, when my mom takes out the shrimp, it has a sweet smell of spices that tickles the tip of your nose. When you bite into it, you have a feeling that you’ll be blasted away. Shrimp is a magical thing and my favorite food because the flavors

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are perfect. In fact, everyone in my family loves shrimp. I eat shrimp with white rice or rice and peas. I think that more people should try shrimp because it’s a good side dish, it’s one of the best types of seafood, and you can cook and season it in all different types of ways. Shrimp can send you out of this world.

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The Most Delicious Plantains By Bella Bell

Plantains are tasty and the most delicious thing in the world, in my opinion at least. Plantains can differ by taste, size, and texture. Did you know that, according to gardenguides.com, it is believed that Alexander the Great discovered this fruit in 327 B.C.? One day, my mom bought these things that looked like bananas, but they tasted different and looked kind of different. I fell in love with plantains that day, and I still love them. According to britannica.com, plantains are believed to have originated in Southeast Asia. There are also two groups of plantains: Horn plantains and French plantains. They both grow in India, Africa, Egypt, and tropical America. Plantains are special because my mom and grandma always make them for my brother and me. My grandma lives in Florida, so while we are there, we find the biggest plantains—maybe the size of a puppy. Grandma puts them in a bag for like a week to ripen. When she is done making them, they taste so smooth and heavenly. When my mom makes them, they are smooth and crunchy at the same time. They are absolutely amazing. Another reason why I like plantains so much is because they can be sweet, sour, crunchy, or kind of hard if you burn them a little bit. I also always eat plantains with my family at the dinner table at my house and at my grandma’s house too. I love the sweet plantains. They taste like cotton candy as they dissolve in my mouth. I could eat them all day everyday! When my mom or my grandma is making plantains with olive oil with the pan and a meat fork to pick them up, they’re sharp. They smell wonderful, and it feels like I am actually eating, at least in my head.

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When I am at my grandma’s house I always eat them. My grandma finds lots and lots of big plantains. I remember once when she bought like ten big plantains when we went to the plantain store. My grandma also goes to Walmart all the time to get them since they have lots of plantains there too. She makes lots and lots of plantains for the family. I am a savage when it comes to getting the plantains to my plate before everyone else does at the dinner table, especially when there are a lot of plantains available. I like to eat my plantains with pasta, kielbasa, couscous, rice, beans, chicken, the list goes on and on. I like the sweet plantains more than any other plantain. Today, I told you why I love plantains so much using reasons with examples. These are my questions for you: if you also eat plantains, what do you like to eat your plantains with? What type of plantains do you eat? Where and with whom do you eat plantains? Have a nice day or evening, Bella out.

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A Magnificent Meal From Another Planet By Zaiden Boykins

My grandmother’s famous pork fried rice with potato salad is the most magnificent meal to ever reach Earth. One memory I have with this meal is from 2017, when I had just gotten home from a long day at school. I opened the door, and smelled something that made my tastebuds smile. And it tasted way better than it smelled. It was crazy good, and was the best meal I have ever had. This rice is so good it makes my teeth jump out of place. Pork fried rice was created during the Sui Dynasty in the city of Yang Zhou. Fried rice is a popular component of Southeast and Eastern Asia and certainly Asian cuisines more broadly. There are many different types of rice such as borio rice, basmati rice, black rice, jasmine rice, brown rice, red rice, sushi rice, valencia rice, and long grain white rice. All of these kinds of rice are delightful, but my grandma’s famous pork fried rice with potato salad is out of this world. This food is special to me because it has an unimaginable taste to it. This was the first food I ever tried; I looked at it and thought that it was awful and weird. Then I took one bite, and after eating three bowls, I passed out. But it was worth it. Another reason why this food is so special is because my grandma said it is made with a secret sauce. I have never found out what it might be. The sauce makes the fried rice taste like a meal from God. This meal was made in heaven, with the receipt dropped by an angel who was banned since the meal was so magnificent. Another reason why this food is special to me is because it’s been in my family for years. Also, I’ve eaten this meal for years, and it has

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never lost flavor. Many of my classmates have enjoyed the fried rice when my mom brought it in for parties since my grandma couldn’t come. I like it because it tastes like food from another planet. In conclusion, my grandmother’s famous pork fried rice with potato salad is the most amazing meal to ever touch Earth. I wonder if there is any other food that tastes like this. I learned more about the ten different types of rice, and that rice was created in Yang Zhou during the Sui Dynasty. The Great Wall of China is held together with sticky rice. Rice is good for years, unless it is brown. Wild rice isn’t rice. All white rice starts to brown. Rice is grown on every continent except Antarctica. Americans eat more than 20 pounds of rice every year. The largest bowl of fried rice was fed to pigs.

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Fried Rice and Shrimp Will Save Your Life By Synthia Dorlean

My mom’s fried rice and shrimp is the most magical food because it makes me feel like I’m flying. One time, my mom was cooking and I snuck into the kitchen and took a shrimp. When I took a bite out of the shrimp, it was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. It tasted like lemons seasoned with sweet honey. The Spruce Eats article “All About Chinese Fried Rice” says, “while the exact origins of fried rice are lost to history, it’s believed that it was invented some time during the Sui Dynasty (A.D. 589-618), in the city of Yangzhou in eastern Jiangsu province.” Did you know that fried rice is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat? Fried rice and shrimp is special to me and my family because we used to eat it together for dinner. However, when my parents got divorced it was one of the memories that made me happy. I enjoyed being together with my brothers during those dinners. The fried rice and shrimp tasted so lemony, with honey and plantains on the sides. When my mom or her aunt would make fried rice and shrimp, they sometimes put in the hottest peppers in the rice and shrimp to give it spice. And when I first took a bite of the spicy rice and shrimp, my tongue burned with heat. I had to drink six bottles of water so my tongue would cool down. Fried rice and shrimp is special to me and my family because my mom’s aunt used to make it for dinner for us. But she died, so eating fried rice and shrimp now makes us feel closer to her. It’s like she’s eating with us. She fried the rice and shrimp separately, and the smell would

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always fill our home. She’d season the shrimp with honey and peppers, and when she finished frying the shrimp, I’d always try to take one. She’d always catch me. The dinner always tasted like lemons and peppers with honey. The lettuce had the lemon’s sourness, and tasted sour and crunchy. The rice and shrimp was spiced with yellow, green, and red peppers. My mom’s fried rice and shrimp is the most magical food because it makes me feel like I’m flying. This dish is important to me and my family because it reminds me of when my parents were together and when we lived together. It also reminds me of my mom’s late aunt, who used to make us fried rice and shrimp for dinner. Ever since my mom’s aunt died, her fried rice and shrimp has been my favorite meal.

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Burgers Are Pretty Tasty By Max Epstein

Hello everybody! Today, I will talk to you about the hamburger, a much praised and beloved food. It has become iconic over time, and is probably the most famous food in the world. This is all thanks to . . . well, there is much dispute over who created the hamburger. This dispute mainly derives from whether or not the hamburger is from Germany, the United States, or Denmark. People who think Germany created the hamburger say that credit goes to Otto Kuase. The story for Otto Kuase goes that in 1891, he served a “burger” at his lunch counter made of fried ground beef patties with mustard and Bermuda onion between two slices of bread, with a pickle on the side. This claim is endorsed by the famous fast food restaurant White Castle, an argument used by Otto Kuase supporters: if such a popular fast food chain is supporting this argument, it must have some solid ground. Also, Otto Kuase was born in the German city of Hamburg, so it would only make sense for him to name it a hamburger. One example of Germans naming foods after cities in their homeland is the famous Berliner, which is a jelly donut. It is also thought that the hamburger was brought to America by German immigrants. Fletcher Davis is another person that people think created the hamburger. In this story, Davis made the hamburger in his luncheonette in a small town in Texas, and then began serving it to the general public at the 1904 World’s Fair. Many of the inventions we have today are from the 1904 World’s Fair, and that could very well include burgers. However, the case for

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Fletcher Davis creating the hamburger has no evidence outside of speculation, making this theory probably the least supported of them all. The third suspect for who created the burger is actually two brothers. Charlie and Frank Menches supposedly created the burger after they ran out of sausages at their sausage stand at the 1885 State Fair. They improvised with a grilled ground beef sandwich, and when fair attendees asked what the food was called, they named it after the town holding the fair—Hamburg, New York. The timing of the Menches Brothers story is impeccable, but just like Fletcher Davis’ claim this argument is only seen as speculation, with no solid facts. Also, the Menches brothers also claimed to have invented the waffle cone, which does not help their credibility about inventing the hamburger. Louis Lassen is another person many back as the creator of the hamburger, and he is backed by many trusted and respected sources such as Food and Wine Magazine and the Library of Congress. In 1900, customers asked Lassen to make them something quick and delicious at his lunch counter. Lassen put a steak in a sandwich and covered the steak with cheese. There are other disputes about who made the hamburger, but only Louis Lassen and Otto Kuase have solid factual evidence. But who knows? Enough with that history jibber jabber blah blah blah. Now let’s talk about the actual food and why I like it. I like burgers for the same reason that I like any other food: they taste good. But with burgers, they are not just tasty . . . THEY ARE SPECTACULAR. It is special to me because it is so delicious you might KILL for it. The melted cheese and then the nice fat ground beef patty with the BACON on top. Oh so delicious. I have eaten many burgers in my life. Actually, on Sunday night I ate a delicious burger, but that is off-topic.

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What I want to talk about next is a nice burger memory. It is a very cold night in upstate New York. I was coming back from a trip to Vermont, and returned to New York State on a ferry across Lake Champlain. I was very hungry, and I was craving a nice juicy burger. So we drove on a quest to find a delicious burger place. On the trip, we almost hit a family of deer with our car, and we also stopped to say hello to some very cute sheep. I wanted to throw a snowball at the sheep, but Dad said no. We finally stopped at a place in a very dark town where you could see nothing. I had high hopes for it and so did my dad. The food was delicious, as it should be after we had been starving. Overall, it was a very nice trip and will definitely stay in my memories. Though I have had better burger memories, this one was the first to come to mind, probably because it was the most recent. I think the conclusion we can come to from this essay is that burgers are delicious, burgers have great history and most of all . . . WHERE IS MY BURGER?!

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The Best Pizza Place: My Pizza Place By Patrick Gill

One sunny day when I woke up, I had the need for pizza and asked my dad if we could get some. “Sure buddy.” He told me to put on my clothes as fast as I could. I jumped into my clothes. The pizzeria was run by Spanish speakers, and I was amazed at how they could speak such fluent Spanish. They even taught me how to say “Hi” in Spanish. My dad asked for a pizza with extra cheese that looked like marshmallows flowing up. I took a bite and I could taste different dimensions. My dad ate the pizza like The Flash, but me, no, I was admiring the pizza. According to pizzolis.com, “pizzerias go through 55 boxes of pizza a day.” This pizzeria is important to me because I got to go there all the time with my dad. I loved my dad and did everything with him, learning how to walk, talk, DJ, ride a bike, even how to start conversations. Every one of those things I did . . . I won’t be able to live again after nine years, all of these memories I keep to myself. This food is also important to me because my whole family loves pizza, and when I eat pizza it brings back memories from when I was little, of how much fun I had with my dad running around and having a good time. The way pizzerias make the pizza is fabulous because they let you see how it’s made. They make vegan pizza and any type of pizza you want, so they don’t only care about their business: they care about their customers too. It’s funny how pizza made it this far. It’s crazy good tasting cre-

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ations and places to get it. This is why I call the pizza place my place, because I love it as much as it loves me. PS: This is dedicated to my dad resting in peace.

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Shake Shack Is So Good I Wanna Hug My Dog By Jamel Gordon

My favorite food ever is a burger from Shake Shack. The buns feel like a shower after you just finished a workout. The melted cheese tastes like cheese and crackers with a Sprite. And when you put the cheese on a bun with meat, forget it. The combo that I usually get has french fries with ketchup, and two burgers when I’m super hungry. My favorite things to order are two burgers, both with cheese and Shack Sauce on the burgers. Shake Shack is next to the Barclays Center and next to another restaurant named Chick-Fil-A. The burgers are always so delicious because you can put on a lot of different toppings such as sausages, tomatoes, and lettuce. The Shake Shack burger is special to me because of how it tastes. It tastes like a chocolate chip cookie fresh out of the oven and a fresh chocolate apple. Shake Shack started off as a hot dog stand before becoming one of the most popular restaurants in the world. The burgers are so good because Shake Shack uses some of the best beef in the world to make them. You can customize your burgers by adding onions to make them better. Another Shake Shack memory I have is when my mom and I were having a mother and son date at Bounce U and decided afterwards that we should go and get some Shake Shack burgers. We had a lot of fun. I think you should try Shake Shack because the food is really good and you can have a lot of different things to eat. I recommend all of the burgers because of how good they are. The cheese is almost like glistening diamonds on a cheeseburger. The meat is impeccably seasoned, and according to the Foodicles article “8 reasons Shake Shack Is Better Than

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Everything Else,“ Shake Shack grinds the burgers fresh every night from the best cuts of beef, which comes from the muscles and never the trimmings. From my trips to Shake Shack, I can testify that Shake Shack’s real life ground beef is really great with a pinch of nice salt and pepper. The buns feel soft and juicy with all of the ingredients. When you put all of these together, the burger is very good. My favorite thing on the menu is the two cheeseburger deluxe combo. I like it because you can get two cheeseburgers for the price of one. I go to Shake Shack almost three times a month because of how much I like it. I like to go to Shake Shack with my mom and sister because we always eat good food and crack a lot of jokes.

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Gummy Pizza Is Magical By Jacob Herrera

Gummy pizza is pizza that is a gummy candy. A gummy pizza looks like a regular pizza, but much smaller. Gummy pizza tastes like pizza but not quite. It is because you can taste the different texture of the candy toppings, the gummy sauce, and the gummy bread. Gummy pizza is a magnificent dessert. It has these different types of flavor toppings. According to Pizza Today, you can customize your own gummy pizza. Gummy pizza was made as far back as 1864. Hans Regal, the owner of Haribo, first manufactured gummy candies in America in 1982. This food is special to me because my grandpa made it for me before he passed away. It tasted like real pizza but it was made of gummies. My grandpa made the candy first, and then he got the candy toppings. When he made it, he had to put the candy toppings on the gummy pizza. And then you’re finished. Another reason this food is special to me is because I got to go to the candy factory. I went there so that I could get my gummy pizza and look at other gummies. Gummy pizza is a candy that you can customize. It is also a candy that you can bring anywhere so you can enjoy it.

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Jerk Chicken Will Save Your Life! By Ariella Howell

Did you know that the jerk style of cooking chicken is native to Jamaica and that jerk chicken is a national staple? One evening, my mother cooked jerk chicken for dinner. This was my first time trying it. When I took my first bite into the chicken, the spicy seasonings made the chicken taste so delightful. Jerk chicken is amazing because it has so many impeccable and delicious flavors: I tried jerk chicken before, and it tasted scrumptious. Also, jerk chicken has different seasonings to make the chicken taste delightful. When I went to Jamaica, I went to a restaurant for dinner. There was jerk chicken on a plate with a label in front of it. According to britannica.com, “jerk chicken is a spicy grilled meat dish mostly associated with Jamaica but common throughout the Caribbean.” Britannica. com also says that “in Jamaica, jerk chicken is famous.” According to jerkchicken.club, “jerk chicken can stand up well to strong, robust flavors while still maintaining it’s own natural flavor.” Jerk chicken can be cooked in different ways. Some people cook it on a huge grill. My mom and aunt make it in the oven. I think that jerk chicken is so amazing that it can save your life. You can eat it with many different sides. One night for dinner, I was having jerk chicken and instead of having the jerk chicken by itself, I decided to have macaroni and cheese with it. Jerk chicken with macaroni and cheese tastes so good, it can make you jump over the Eiffel Tower. The jerk chicken had so much gravy, it tasted so delightful. Another time when I ate jerk chicken, I had it with rice and salad. The chicken was so incredible that as soon as you took a bite, you could taste the nice spice

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and different flavors in your mouth. In Jamaica, they serve jerk chicken with festival (which is a fried sweet bread), corn, or hard bread. Another reason why jerk chicken is so delicious is because it has different seasonings. Some people also add extra hot or barbecue sauce to give their jerk chicken extra flavor. Jerk chicken is so fantastic with all the different seasonings and flavors, it tastes like heaven in my mouth. Also, the spice from the chicken in your mouth is like the sun shining on your face on a sunny day. Jerk chicken is delicious and people should try jerk chicken if they never have before. The chicken has so many delightful and delicious flavors, you can eat it with different sides, and it has different seasonings. I learned that jerk chicken is famous in Jamaica, and that the style of how they make it is Jamaican. If you’re ever in the Caribbean for vacation, you should stop by the nearest restaurant and see if you can try the delicious jerk chicken.

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Taco Bell Can Be Healthy and Delightful By Isaiah Lewis

My favorite food is a Soft Taco Supreme with a Blue Raspberry Freeze from Taco Bell. Did you know that Taco Bell is healthy to eat because Soft Taco Supreme doesn’t have many calories? Surprisingly, a Blue Raspberry Freeze has 120 calories, and the Soft Taco Supreme is only 196 calories. Taco Bell can be a healthy fast food place because it uses lots of vegetables inside the tacos. You can find Taco Bell restaurants in the United States, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. And if it wasn’t for the Mexican people, we would never have Taco Bell. And Taco Bell has the tastiest slushies, which are only about 120 calories each. Taco Bell tastes so delightful that when you eat their Soft Taco Supreme, it makes you want to levitate. It won’t get you super fat because the Supreme has less than 200 calories. If you’re curious, we ate these tacos in 2020. Taco Bell’s Blue Raspberry Freeze is so delicious and sweet. It tastes like I put sugar in water and then blended six blue raspberries, mixed the blended blue raspberries and the sugared water, put it in the freezer, and drank it. It is so good that I could chug the whole drink. It tastes like I drank sweet blue raspberry freshly picked from a garden straight. In conclusion, Taco Bell has the tastiest drinks and tacos. It is a healthy fast food place because it has low-calorie, high-protein, and vegetarian options.

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Pasta Is Out of This World! By Peter Lin

Hey there! Do you know about pasta? Pasta tastes so good that it feels like you’re in another world. There are also so many types of pasta; it’s literally almost endless. So today, I will talk more about pasta and why you should try it. Pasta is one of the best foods in the entire world. Millions or even billions of people eat pasta every year. Pasta is an Italian food. To make pasta, you boil noodles in water. Then, add some tomato sauce to the noodles and BOOM, the pasta is now ready to eat. You can also eat pasta with other foods too. If you like pasta now, great! You can add some food into the pasta. All you have to do is add the food with the noodles into the boiling pot of water. There are also lots of types of pasta. You can add a bit of salt to make pasta even more wonderful, and its simple cooking process means it doesn’t require such a long time to make a meal. My first memory about pasta is from when I was in a restaurant. I really wanted to try pasta, so my parents ordered it. After that, it only took ten minutes to cook it. And when I tried the pasta, I felt like I was in a dream right there. Yeah seriously! The pasta was that amazing, it blew my mind. Remember, you don’t always have to eat pasta in a restaurant; it can be suitable anywhere and anytime. You can eat it at home, in the park, on the subway, even in another country—if possible—and many more places. Basically, if you are hungry and don’t have too many other choices, go for pasta. It is very delicious and is very quick and simple to cook. You can eat it anywhere and anytime. You can even eat it outside with your friends and family. Just remember to eat it before it gets cold.

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“French Fries Are Greater than Good” By Josiah Mathieu

Fun fact: French fries were first made in the 1600s, and are not from France but actually from Belgium. But I don’t care where they come from. They taste good; that’s all I need to eat it. French fries taste great with cheese or ketchup, and will taste differently depending on the potato used to make them. Fries are referred to as “chips” in the United Kingdom and Ireland. One time, I was going home from school when my brother asked me if I wanted to try Shake Shack and I said, “Yes.” I tried the fries, and it tasted like heaven in my mouth. This is why french fries are greater than good.

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The McDonald’s Crispy Chicken Deluxe and Large Fries Is the Most Spectacular McDonald’s Meal I Ever Had By Noa Metivier

One time, I went to Brooklyn Bridge Park with my friend Tristan to play basketball. When I shot the ball, it went swish in the net. On our way home, we were both feeling hungry. So, of course, we pulled up to the best fast food restaurant—McDonald’s. Did you know that there are three different types of Crispy Chicken sandwiches? And that the Deluxe is the biggest and best-tasting one. Now for the fries: did you know that McDonald’s fries are world famous? One reason this food is so special to me is because of the day I went to Brooklyn Bridge Park with my dad and my friend. When we left we were feeling really hungry, so we decided to get McDonald’s. When we took HUGE bites into the meal, we decided it was the greatest McDonald’s meal in history. Another reason I love this meal so much is because of how the fries taste. I say this because the fries taste like salted rocks sizzling in your mouth. One time, I was with my best friend Tristan and he ordered a large fries with the McDonald’s app. When he got them, he ate ten fries and I ate all the rest. That’s how good they tasted. This whole story explains why McDonald’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich Deluxe and large fries is the most spectacular McDonald’s meal!

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THE HAMBURGER IS BETTER AND DELICIOUS By Tracy Palacios

The hamburger is as delicious as falling for a raindrop. Hello! Today, I am going to tell you about my favorite food: the hamburger. What I like most about the hamburger is the melted cheese and the tomato, even though I don’t like when a restaurant puts pickles on it. The name of the hamburger comes from the German city of Hamburg. The first use of the word hamburger dates from the year 1884. The perfect place to eat a hamburger is in the park. When I eat a hamburger, it is as if I am traveling to another world. This food is special to me because I have memories of fun times when I went to the park to eat hamburgers with my mom and sister. I played with my sister, and then mom bought us McDonald’s. McDonald’s reminds me of the time I spend with my family. I like hamburgers because when you eat a hamburger, you get happy. When I take the first bite of a hamburger, I feel like I’m in a pool full of floats with funny faces.

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Bakes Are So Good That It Made Me Jump into the Sun By Takira Ricketts

My favorite food is bakes. Bakes are something my mom makes once in a while. You could also eat them any time, like how pancakes are not just for breakfast. You can also put different kinds of stuff on a bake, like chicken or any type of meat! It tastes fantastic even when there are no toppings! Nothing! It’s literally a delightful golden brown food you can have any hour, minute or even second. What else can you ask for?! Bakes are from Panama, and almost every one in my family makes them. To make bakes, you need flour and water. That’s it! Only two things! The bakes don’t really need sugar; but if you choose to add sugar to them, that’s fine! Once you make the dough, shape the dough into a flat circle and fry it. It smells so wonderful! Then you make it cool down and when you finally get to take the first bite, it’s magnificent! To be honest, I don’t know any history about the bake, but I do know my mom has been making them for a long time. Bake is most special to me because of the memories from making bakes. I can tell thousands of stories when my mom and I were making bakes, but I’m only going to tell you one. When my mom and I made bakes together, I did everything except put the bakes in the pan. I made the dough, rolled it up, flattened it, and my mom put it in the pan. Another reason bakes are special to me is the way they’re made. Bakes always come out fresh when you follow these steps. First you make the dough, roll it up, and flatten it, then put it in heated oil in a pan. It tastes spectacular when it’s fried and cooled down. I think bakes are the best food in the world and my favorite food. I

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think you should try bakes too. They are easy to make, you can eat anything with them, and you could also eat them any time day or night! This is why bakes are my favorite food. I do wonder what it tastes like with meat or powdered sugar on it.

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Asoupo Is a Supreme Stew By Nelly Rosario

Asoupo is the number one stew. According to delishdlites.com, asoupo is “Puerto Rico’s national soup.” Asoupo first appeared in the 1880s in restaurants in Puerto Rico. From there, it has become a great phenomenon in most Puerto Rican restaurants, both big and small. Most chefs even have their own recipe for asoupo. The food is special to me because my grandma cooks the best asoupo in the world. One week ago, my grandma created her famous (to me it’s famous) asoupo. You’re probably wondering, “what does it have in it?” There is chicken, lemons, seasoning, c-shaped, rice and brown water. Another reason I like asoupo is because we bond over asoupo. My grandma and I talk about school, work, and how the asoupo tastes. It looks like brown soup; it smells like lemons. The lemons and seasoning with the c-shaped rice are very delicious. The texture is like a lemony stew, which makes it supreme. Another memory is from last month (on January 21 or 22 I think), when I remember eating the c-shaped rice. When you go to a Puerto Rican restaurant, order asoupo because you will be saying “Mmm, mmm, mmm! This is so good!”

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The Spectacular and the Extra Awesome Chips By Giuliana Sabin

My favorite snack is spicy guacamole chips, because they’re not like any other type of chip in the world. When you taste them your mind will explode. Spicy guacamole chips are spicy, crunchy, and flavorful. These chips are better than Doritos. I started liking these chips when I was watching a show on television, and my mother came in and asked me to try them. I was a little scared, but I took a bite. My eyes lit up, and after that I snatched the bag out of my mother’s hands and started eating. That was when I fell in love. According to natashaskitchen.com, the guacamole used to make the chips has avocados, jalapeno, peppers, and white onions. According to mentalfloss.com, the avocado that we use to make the guacamole goes back thousands of years. The avocado was called the “achuate.” It was eaten in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Spicy guacamole chips are so good, they make me want to climb up a mountain just to get them. I serve them by getting a small white ice cream bowl and pouring the chips into the bowl. I would share it with my mother and Auntie Sharon. I would go into our living room to watch television while eating. The chips taste like hot pepper with sour cream. It is crunchy, like when you step on a “fresh out of the bag” chip. It tastes like a rainbow of guacamole flavors. Once, I was with my mother and I said, “It isn’t a world without spicy guacamole chips.” My mother agreed with me, and I invited my brother to watch Hotel Transylvania 4 while eating spicy guacamole chips. We enjoy spicy guacamole chips so much that when we want a

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snack, we get those chips. I think that if everyone would taste spicy guacamole chips, everyone would love them. In my opinion, spicy guacamole chips would be the most popular type of chips in the world!

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DRAGON FRUIT IS A CACTUS EXPLOSION By Caleb Schaper

Do you know what a dragon fruit is? I’ll teach you about the strangest cactus of all time. Dragon fruit originated in Latin America, but was transported to other places. There are different varieties of dragon fruit. The dragon fruit has no culture as far as I can tell. The dragon fruit is actually a cactus, and not a fruit. Never eat a dragon fruit that’s red on the inside. Don’t eat dragon fruit skin. My favorite part about dragon fruit is the taste. It has an unusual taste: it tastes like . . . nothing! That’s why it’s a definite must-have. Sometimes, it does have a taste. Your taste buds will have a break when you eat dragon fruit! Another thing I like about dragon fruit is a memory I have with this cactus. One day, my mom bought a dragon fruit that was fresh, white, and covered in tall, hollow, sharp, and wide spikes. It didn’t taste like anything, but it was still delicious and amazing. If I were to say something about dragon fruit, it would be, “I just want more!” Now you know what dragon fruit is. It’s a good snack to eat. Are you hungry for dragon fruit?

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Sushi Is Better than BEST! By Nikolas Schultheis

I think sushi is a bomb of yummyness! One night, I went into the kitchen when sushi was delivered, to help prepare the table. The sushi was begging for me to eat it. I couldn’t help eating an atom-sized bit of rice while putting out the food. Did you know that according to kobeteppanyaki. com.au, while sushi is often seen as a Japanese invention, “it was actually created in Southeast Asia.” You use fish and seaweed to make sushi rolls, called “uramaki.” There’s a cylinder of fish with paper as thin as seaweed wrapped around it. Outside the seaweed, there’s a thin layer of rice. You make wasabi out of a green stalky plant that looks like a fat piece of asparagus. Other kinds of sushi are made from avocado and other ingredients. There’s also “nigiri,” an extremely rectangular block of rice with a long pencil-thin slippery piece of fish on it. This food is special to me because it’s so good, I would jump out of a window for it. It is spicier than spicy, which makes it extremely good. The uncooked food has its own special flavor. It’s also special to me because of the grand amount of spice. The unbelievably spicy wasabi, the spicy salmon rolls and the soy sauce altogether is spicier than one hundred million suns. So, I have decided sushi is better than life, because of the spiciness and the best-flavored raw fish and the rice that looks like fat pieces of sand and, of course, eating it with family.

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Chocolate Chip Cookies Are Magical By Ansam Shahbain

Hey! Ever wondered what kind of dessert is the best? Well, you came to the right place! Chocolate chip cookies are the best dessert in the world. Eating a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie is like going to another dimension. Today, you are gonna be learning all about chocolate chip cookies. According to nytimes.com, the person who invented chocolate chip cookies was Ruth Wakefield. Here are some more things you didn’t know about chocolate chip cookies. According to epicurious.com, these cookies were created by accident. Yeah, shocking, I know. You see, in the 1930s, Ruth Wakefield added a broken chocolate bar piece into her cookies, thinking it would melt. And chocolate chip cookies are America’s favorite cookie: fifty percent of Americans prefer chocolate chip cookies over peanut butter cookies. Chocolate chip cookies were first called “Butter Drop Do Cookies.” The first chocolate chip cookies were the size of a quarter. Chocolate chip cookies are the best because their taste is just so out of this world, no words can explain it. Another reason why chocolate chip cookies are the best is because they’re like lucky charms. Now you might be wondering how, so let me explain: every time I eat chocolate chip cookies, the day I eat them always becomes the best day ever. I remember one time when my older cousin and sister made chocolate chip cookies. It was a mess. When you got to the kitchen, you would turn around and go straight back to your room. On the other hand, when they were finished, the smell of cookies fresh out of the oven filled the air. It made me feel like I was flying to another dimension

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filled with thousands and thousands of chocolate chip cookies. When I tasted them, they were even better than they smelled. That day was the best day ever. Now that you know what dessert is the best, go ahead and serve it for dessert for you and your family. By the way, here is a tip: if you want your chocolate chip cookies extra magical, try making them at home with your family. Remember: chocolate chip cookies are the world’s best dessert, especially homemade ones.

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M&M’s Are the Best By Wardah Shahbain

The best kind of chocolate you will ever taste is a chocolate candy called M&M’s. It’s the best chocolate in the world because when I eat it, I feel like I went to another place. Anyone will love it. Also, no one can argue that any candy or chocolate is better than M&M’s. It is the best chocolate. Nothing I write or say can describe just how delicious they are. Here are some facts about M&M’s: according to lovefood.com, M&M’s stands for “Mars and Murrie.” They were the men who created M&M candies. M&M’s also have Hershey’s chocolate in them. The idea for M&M’s came from Spain, and the first M&M’s factory was built in New Jersey. They originally came in cardboard tubes and the original color selection included violet candies. When I was with my aunt, we went to the Ponds and bought M&M’s. Then, we came home and watched TV and ate M&M’s. It was a beautiful day. If you hate M&M’s, I hope you’ve changed your mind about them now that you know why M&M’s are the best.

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My Love for Cheeseburgers By Booker Washington

My favorite food is a burger with fries and ketchup. I like cheeseburgers with no pickles or onions. I love cheeseburgers, but the McDonald’s cheeseburger is in my top four. I love meat. It is not so hard to bite into and I love it! Did you know that there are different kinds of burgers from McDonald’s, such as the Double Cheeseburger and the Big Mac? But I like the regular cheeseburger. It is amazing. I love this food because it tastes like cheesy heaven. The cheese sticks to the patty while the bun kinda slides off. Sometimes, I like to divide a cheeseburger in two because then I get to add the ketchup to the patty and cheese. Because the patty is a little hot, I like to add more ketchup. Plus, it’s fun to squirt all the ketchup out of the packet. McDonald’s even has the seasoning done so well. The ketchup to the cheeseburger and fries is my sugar to candy, my chocolate to marshmallow, my syrup to pancakes, my soul to my body. I love it. These burgers taste amazing! Maybe you can add different sauces, too. I also love cheeseburgers with fries because they are so salty. The fries taste like pretzels, that’s how salty they are. They taste so good that my siblings and I fight in the car for them. But I also go for my brother’s cheeseburgers because he doesn’t really want them.

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Ice Cream Is So Delightful! By Kayla Higgs

Ice cream is so delightful! It’s creamy and can come in over 600 flavors! According to PBS Thirteen, ice cream was first made in early 1686. According to the website Kitchen Stories, ice cream comes from China. A fun fact I learned about ice cream from Mochi Blog is that it takes fifty licks to finish an ice cream cone. The cone is made with many flavors, like almond, butter, chocolate strawberries, bananas, and so much more. It’s a tasty snack too! Ice cream is special to me because ice cream is made with love and it tastes so good. Also, ice cream is special to me because I have great memories about it. One time, I was waiting for my mom to make ice cream. It took almost an hour. She added coconut pieces and vanilla flavor. It was tasty. At that point, I found my favorite ice cream. Another reason I love ice cream is because there are all types of ice cream flavors, from Bacon All The Way to Unicorn ice cream. According to UCSB Science Line, ice cream only melts because of the higher surface area. I love this fact because it explains why ice cream melts. I think ice cream is good because of the coldness. The coldness makes the ice cream so good. I think it’s best to have ice cream in the afternoon or as a nighttime snack because it’s sweet and scrumptious. I love ice cream and you should too! Another memory I have of ice cream is when I was relaxing at home wishing that I had something cold to eat. Just then, I hopped onto Fortnite to play with my friend Booker. My brother ordered something. An hour later, a bag with something was brought to my house. I was minding my own business, and then my brother put something in front

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of me. It turned out to be ice cream. I was jolly because it was strawberry ice cream covered in chocolate. I took a bite and it was so pleasant, I finished the whole thing! I learned that ice cream is more than just creamy goodness. It has a long history. I also learned that ice cream comes from China. Ice cream is like going to the Arctic and having cold milk.

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a d

y ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgments In our Young Writers Publish program, 826NYC develops creative writing projects with classes of students and teachers in schools throughout New York City. During the winter of 2022, fifth grade students from P.S. 316 Elijah G. Stroud Elementary School explored argumentative essays via food writing, bringing their strongest opinions and most convincing arguments to bear on all things delicious, from pizza to pomegranates. You Are Eating a Pomegranate is a compilation of the original work of these students. A huge thank you to the 826NYC teaching artist, Willie Filkowski, for creating classrooms where students were able to take their descriptive language and use of sensory details above and beyond to create truly original descriptions and make wildly compelling cases. Your support, encouragement, and consistency helped our young writers tap into their imaginations and taste buds to produce such delightful work, and your care in helping them brainstorm, write, and revise throughout this project was invaluable. We are particularly grateful to Clara Do, Natasha Radix, Emily Welsh, Colin Williams, and Adrian Young for their support of this project. Thank you for inviting us into your classrooms with such enthusiasm and care, and facilitating such a smooth collaboration. Your hard work and steadfast dedication to your students allows them to flourish as young writers and thinkers. Enormous gratitude as well to Rindala Alajaji for translating lesson plans and writing tips into Arabic. At 826NYC we depend on the dedicated volunteer editing and design cohort that make our publications a reality. Thank you to Vanessa Friedman for overseeing the editing, proofreading, and design of this book. Thank you to Kelly Gatesman for designing such a beautiful book for our students. To copy editors and proofreaders Amy Linstrom,

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Michelle Haska, Nicholas Martinez, and Dave Rublin for their careful attention to each student’s piece, thank you. For their ongoing support of 826NYC’s school-based programs, huge thanks to 826 National, the Amazon Literary Partnership, The Jane Friedman Anspach Family Foundation, Con Edison, The Find Your Light Foundation, The Hawkins Project, International Paper, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Kettering Family Foundation, The Minerva Foundation, The Resnick Family Foundation, The Yelp Foundation, and Youth, Inc. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The program is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support comes from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov. 826NYC is grateful to the many individuals who support our work. To see our full list of supporters or make a donation, please visit 826nyc.org/ donate-us. Thank you especially to the 826NYC staff for their behind-thescenes support of this project, from curriculum development and the book-making process to volunteer recruitment. Finally, thank you to the students at P.S. 316 for taking risks with your writing, trying new and challenging things, and sharing your words with us. Your dedication to your craft, your vision, and your food preferences shines through in these pieces. We are all excited to see what you’ll write in the future!

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ABOUT 826NYC

826NYC Location and Leadership

826NYC and The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. 372 Fifth Ave Brooklyn, NY 11215 718.499.9884 www.826nyc.org

Staff Joshua Mandelbaum, Executive Director Jesusdaniel Barba, Programs Coordinator Janna Cisterino, Development & Communications Manager Rico Denard, Store Associate Chris Eckert, Store & Operations Manager Vanessa Friedman, Publications Associate Julianna Lee Merino, Programs Coordinator Summer Medina, Volunteer & Programs Coordinator Stella Raffle-Wax, Store Associate Mandy Seiner, Volunteer & Programs Manager Naomi Solomon, Director of Education

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Teaching Artists J’miah Baird David Ewalt Willie Filkowski Daniel Goulden Varud Gupta Daniel Jackson Jaydra Johnson

Board of Directors Michelle McGovern, President Ted Wolff, Vice President Ray Carpenter, Treasurer Kathryn Yontef, Secretary Michael Colagiovanni Jen D’Ambroise Liza Demby Jamal Edwards Amir Mokari Sheila Peluso Katie Schwab Danielle Sinay Andrew Sparkler Alyson Stone Maura Tierney Thom Unterburger Sam Valenti

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826NYC Programs Write After School Reading and writing go together like peanut butter and jelly. Write After School students work alongside 826NYC staff and volunteers to build their reading, writing, social-emotional skills and unleash their imagination as they play and learn about the power of language. Three times a year, students revise their creative writing for publications that are printed in English and Spanish and shared with families, volunteers, and community members at celebratory readings.

Write Away Workshops Young writers come together in Write Away Workshops to explore a multitude of genres and subjects and to develop their voices. Groups write freely and participate in imaginative writing activities and lessons. Whether it’s a song, a piece of climate justice sci-fi, or a nature guide, young writers leave the workshop with a piece to be proud of, as well as a newfound understanding of the topic, and new friends.

Write All About It In Write All About It, reporters from grades 5-8 learn how to conduct a great interview, how to write a classic news story, and more importantly, how to sniff out where the great untold stories of Brooklyn are hiding. We focus on hyper-local news to see how it connects to what’s going on across the country and around the world. Student work is published regularly in The 826NYC Post on 826NYC’s Medium page.

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Young Writers Publish Turn your classroom into a creative writing lab. During Young Writers Publish residencies, 826NYC teaching artists collaborate with educators on creative, impactful, curriculum-aligned projects that transform students into published authors. Residencies run from six weeks to a full year, depending on the project. Each Young Writers Publish culminates in a book, newspaper, zine, podcast, film, or performance featuring your students.

Write Together 826NYC hosts classes across New York City for Write Together: an interactive writing experience that encourages creative expression, explores the elements of storytelling, and strengthens writing skills. Elementary-aged classes collaborate on illustrated children’s books, middle schoolers choose their own adventure, and high schoolers learn the art of memoir writing during a fast- paced and whimsical 90 minute narrative program.

Teen Writers Collective Teens are the next generation of literary leaders. That’s why we launched the Teen Writers’ Collective. The collective brings together young writers from around the city to explore the art of writing and literary citizenship. They are a community of passionate and creative peers, serve as 826NYC youth leaders, and inspire younger students and peers across the network.

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Dungeons & Dragons & Writers Dungeons & Dragons, the epic fantasy role-playing game where players craft characters to take on magical quests that can change with the roll of the dice, has a home at 826NYC. A band of adventurous authors in grades 5-8 play out an entirely original tale and chronicle their fantastical deeds in character point-of-view journals, histories, and scene writing. Sometimes the greatest gift is the friends we make — and make up — along the way.

Student Publications Through our programs, our volunteers work with students to help them create stories, poems, and ’zines. Because we believe that the quality of students’ work is greatly enhanced when they are given the chance to share it with an authentic audience, we are committed to publishing student works. By encouraging their work and by guiding them through the process of publication, we make abundantly clear that their ideas are valued.

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a Y O U A R E E AT I N G A P O M E G R A N AT E is an invitation into the hungry, tasty, spicy, salty, ooey, gooey, melty, crunchy world of P.S. 316 Elijah G. Stroud Elementary’s fifth grade creative writing students. This volume includes argumentative essays on the definitive foods that represent them, inspire them, and make them drool. Inside, you’ll find essays about a diverse and stomachrumbling array of foods including, but most definitely not limited to: sushi, oxtail stew, Takis, chopped cheese, molecular ramen, spaghetti and meatballs, jerk chicken, water, pomegranates, and lobster! Join us on this delicious adventure.

Proceeds from the sale of this book benefit 826NYC, a nonprofit organization encouraging the exploration of endless possibilities through the power of writing.

ISBN 978-1-948644-92-1

9 781948 644921

You Are Eating a Pomegranate

Articles inside