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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR XLVI. VOLUME XCIII. ISSUE III.

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NEWS Food trucks at BU East offer convenient and tasty options that students enjoy as alternatives to dining hall food. p.2

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MUSE The FreeP vs. Food team tests avocado toast at by CHLOE, Tatte Bakery, Sonsie and Trident Booksellers. p.6

SPORTS Senior assistant captain Erin O’Neil discusses lessons she’s learned from both of her passions ­— hockey and cooking. p.11

Activated charcoal: are there any real health benefits?

PHOTO BY CHLOE GRINBERG/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Following the trend of charcoal-based foods, J.P. Licks offers Nano Black ice cream in its stores.

BY ALLEGRA PEELOR

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Instagram feeds and Tumblr timelines from Santa Monica to Williamsburg to London have recently been flooded with another new food trend that is a darker reaction to the current rainbow craze — activated charcoal.

Activated charcoal has traditionally been used in hospitals to help treat drug overdoses or poisonings. It is made from coal, wood or other substances, and becomes “activated” when high temperatures combine with a gas

and expand its surface area, Kyle Landry, a professor in Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said.

Lately, health fanatics have been taking activated charcoal supplements and adding it as an ingredient in food and drinks because of its “detoxifying” potential.

“People are seeking out things that are non-toxic and safe to use,” said Lauren Kretzer, a contributing chef at by CHLOE. “And it’s effective — there is proof that it helps get rid of toxins in your body.”

As a contributing chef at by CHLOE, Kretzer develops recipes to use for their

vegan menus and the blog. By CHLOE sells a juice called “On The Road,” which is made from activated charcoal, lemon, pure maple syrup and filtered water.

J.P. Licks added a soft serve ice cream with activated charcoal to their menu in July, called Nano Black. Vincent Petryk, the owner and founder of J.P. Licks, said he had tried to make a black ice cream before with food coloring, but it did not work. When he heard about the charcoal food trend back in March, he decided to test it out.

Petryk found that two and a half grams of charcoal make the soft serve a nice shade of black without affecting the taste or texture too much. Because of charcoal’s detoxifying qualities, some customers questioned whether the ice cream would affect them.

“It doesn’t hit the high numbers that some of our customers were concerned about it affecting their medications,” Petryk said.

“We put in just enough to get it pretty black, which turns out to not be very much at all.”

Joan Salge Blake, another Sargent professor, said she’s skeptical about the health benefits of consuming activated charcoal.

“I don’t understand the science behind this,” Salge Blake said. “Nobody likes charcoal in their food.”

She also said that this is a just a trend that will blow over in due time and that the idea of detoxing your body is not necessary.

“You have smarter things to do in your everyday life: sleep, be productive, enjoy life,” Salge-Blake said. “You don’t need to do any of this other stuff.”

Landry, who works in the Sargent nutrition department, said that activated char-

coal gets its detoxifying properties because when the ingredients (coconut shells, wood, charcoal) are burned, the substance become very porous, which allows molecules to bind to it.

This is why people who are taking certain medications should be mindful before eating activated charcoal: the substance could bind to medicine, effectively taking it out of the body.

Landry said that, because the foods stores are now offering usually do not contain that much activated charcoal they probably will not affect the body in a good or bad way.

“It’s ridiculous that people are eating charcoal,” he said. “Half these trends are more psychological to make the person feel good.”

On the other hand, by CHLOE’s Kretzer said that charcoal does not have any adverse effects and that as long as people use other methods to reach their health goals, they should be fine.

“As long as there aren’t any adverse side effects, it’s a great thing to incorporate,” she said. “The drink [at by CHLOE] not only has detox properties, but it’s also anti-inflammatory and it’s a good thing to drink after a night of indulgence.”

Petryk said he isn’t sure what to think about the health benefits of eating activated charcoal — but he said he thinks it’s fun to experiment with new flavors and to market an ice cream just based on its color.

“It’s just trendy,” Petryk said. “I don’t know the validity of the claims, good or bad. It was purely just fun for us because you don’t get black ice cream every day.”

Nonprofit grocery store on wheels

BY SHANNON LARSON DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Local nonprofit Fresh Truck is looking to further revolutionize the food truck concept through providing healthy and affordable foods to underserved communities, said co-founder Annika Morgan.

The mobile community market, Fresh Truck, has recently upgraded their bus for the first time since forming four years ago, with the purpose of not only engaging more consumers, but better providing for the specific dietary needs of low-income Boston neighborhoods, Morgan said.

While Morgan’s co-founder Josh Trautwein was working as a health educator

at a center in Charlestown, he said he realized that despite the amount of engagement being done for the local families, there was no viable grocery store for them to shop at, Morgan said.

“We started out with a mobile market that carried fresh fruits and vegetables, all raw and uncut, as sort of a mobile produce option for neighborhoods across Boston,” Morgan said.

Through working with Kipp Bradford, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, as well as collaborating with sweetgreen, Morgan said Fresh Truck was able to implement both technical and design updates.

These changes include a new refrigeration CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

PHOTO BY SYDNEY MAES/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Fresh Truck, a renovated school bus filled with fresh produce, provides healthy food alternatives for residents living in food desert neighborhoods.

2 NEWS

Food for Activists feeds local rally-goers Fresh Truck MOBILE MARKET, FROM PAGE 1

BY SABRINA SCHNUR DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Being a social activist is not easy — it requires coordination, passion and endurance. Boston Food for Activists is a group dedicated to assisting activists with that last requirement — keeping rally-goers’ stomachs full.

Most recently seen catering to ralliers at the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals rally this past Saturday, Food for Activists has been providing free food donated by local restaurants to activists at a number of local rallies since the November presidential election, said Dan Kontoff, the founder of the group.

Kontoff, otherwise known as “Dan the bagel man,” which many of his friends call him, said he founded the group based on his past work with Food Not Bombs, which has been providing food for rally-goers since the 1980s. Kontoff said he worked on and off for Food Not Bombs among other organizations with similar purposes, and helped build the organization to what stands today.

“I’ve been doing food protests for years,” Kontoff said. “I used to work for Food Not Bombs for 15 years. Then I left that group and when I came back to Boston three years … ago it had fell apart so I started a new Food Not Bombs chapter, it took me a year to get the right people and that group is still standing today.”

When Food Not Bombs stopped feeding as many rally-goers as Kontoff would have liked, he set off to make his own group to provide meals at protests.

“My goal was to create a group to feed at all the protests against [President Donald] Trump,” Kontoff said. “I started Food for Activists right after Trump got in the White House. When I came back from [Washington] D.C., I was at the White House and I fed there and organized it and invited people to join, and people did.”

Kontoff said the group does receive backlash from both City officials who try to ban free food at the Boston Common as well as restaurants who do not agree with giving out free food to rally-goers.

PHOTO COURTESY AXEL SIMON

Food for Activists serves food donated from local restaurants to protesters at the Labor Day Rally on Sept. 4.

“The problem is a lot of restaurants don’t want to donate because it’ll make them look bad and lose customers,” Kontoff said. “A lot of restaurants turn us down and make excuses and donate to other things but not to us so it’s tough trying to grow that and get more people to donate it.”

Despite facing some negative criticism, Kontoff said the group receives mostly positive feedback from the community while at protests.

“People say thank you,” Kontoff said.

“They appreciate it. They come in and say we love you, we’ll see you all around.”

Matthew Andrews, co-chair of the Green-Rainbow Party in Massachusetts and a member of The Boston May Day Coalition, the organization behind the DACA rally, said he’s known Kontoff since the early 2000s when the two worked to plan anti-war rallies together.

“He has been a pillar of the activist community for over 20 years,” Andrews said. “He’s very well-known and this is work that he has a lot of experience doing.”

Boston residents who volunteer with Kontoff said that helping serve activists has been rewarding because of the appreciation rally-goers show toward them.

Axel Simon, 24, of Mission Hill, said he met Kontoff at a rally and agreed with his idea of giving food to protesters. Since

then, Simon said he has come to notice that virtually all forms of gatherings had food provided except protests.

“It seemed like just about every public gathering and event that isn’t a protest seems to have food and refreshments and it seemed pretty logical that protests should too since we’re a real lot of hungry people standing out for quite some time,” Simon said.

Simon said he had doubted at first how successful the group would be and if the community would take notice and be appreciative.

“Once people started telling us how they feel when they see us and how thankful they are that we’re there, we realize that we’re really serving a pretty big purpose to a lot of people,” Simon said.

Crystal Campbell, 30, of Dorchester, said she appreciates Food for Activists in their effort to support rally-goers speaking out against hate groups on the rise.

“Helping out anyone who wasn’t one of those insane Nazi … people is always great in my mind,” Campbell said.

Jackie Weatherbee, 27, of Wakefield said she first saw Food for Activists at the Boston Free Speech Rally on Aug. 19 and appreciates what Kontoff is doing.

“Serving activists and keeping them fit to fight for their communities is an admirable job,” Weatherbee said.

Food trucks provide convenient alternatives

BY NOOR ADATIA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Serving as an alternative to dining halls on campus, food trucks on Boston University’s campus are a popular choice for students and faculty to grab a bite to eat during the day, whether it’s slices from Sweet Tomatoes Pizza Truck, waffles at Zinneken’s or ice cream sandwiches at Frozen Hoagies.

While these are all old favorites, a few new food trucks have recently found a regular place to park at BU. Rice Burg, which was officially added to the food truck rotation at BU East outside of the College of Communication, specializes in rice burgers that replace the common bread buns with rice, as well as various unique meat and vegetarian fillings.

“We’re more geared toward the Asian side, so we have Bulgogi shaved steak, sweet and sour chicken and even Szechuan Mala spicy chicken,” Rice Burg owner Jessica Shen said.

Rice Burg’s menu also has vegan options including the shaved shiitake mushroom burger and an imitation version of the chicken found in the Mala spicy chicken burger.

This truck has been serving the BU community since last year on select Saturdays at the former 1 Silber Way location, but it has now moved permanently to the 610 Commonwealth Ave. location, serving lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Mondays.

Shen said she enjoys BU East’s atmosphere relative to other food truck stops around the city.

“There are places for people to sit and eat and wait outside of the truck,” Shen said. “It’s not congested like other places the city provides.”

This is the truck’s second year of business in Boston, with other locations in the financial district downtown, Northeastern University and the SoWa Open Market.

Rice Burg is one of the nine food trucks returning to BU’s campus this year, according to the City of Boston’s neighborhood business manager Prayas Neupane, who oversees the city’s food truck program.

Also new to campus this year is the Kebabish Indian-style food truck, which will stop at BU East on Mondays from 3 to 8 p.m.

Kebabish offers platters and wraps, along with its popular chicken over rice.

Currently, BU East is the only location for food trucks on campus, as the other spot on campus, BU West, is not occupied due to construction near the BU Bridge. However, Neupane said BU West should reopen for the spring semester.

Nevertheless, the BU East location is one of the most popular sites in Boston, Neupane said, attributing this to its convenience for college students.

He added that the popularity of food trucks on campus stems from the variety of options incorporating different cultures and healthy food options.

“When trucks started in Boston, the idea was of getting different healthy food options

in different parts of the community,” Neupane said, “so a lot of trucks value that a lot, so there’s definitely a healthy menu there.”

BU student Jacob Novick, a Questrom School of Business freshman, ordered a sandwich from The Dining Cart before heading to class, saying it was the most convenient option at the time.

“I have limited swipes at the dining hall and I wasn’t close to one of them,” Novick said. “[But] if I’m in my dorm, then it’s easier to go to the dining hall.”

Meanwhile, Questrom junior Anika Dhar, who frequents Zinneken’s food truck for waffles, said she appreciates their new location outside of COM, which makes it easier for her to grab her dessert.

But Dhar also noted the steep pricing for food offered at these trucks. The price for a waffle with toppings from Zinneken’s can range anywhere from $5.50 to $8.50.

“Food trucks can be a little bit pricier, but it’s worth the price because it is gourmet,” Dhar said. “It is readily available at the most convenient spots.”

While she typically opts for the dining hall before food trucks, Rachel Chen, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, said she appreciated the convenience of the trucks. “[Food trucks] are really efficient because they generally prepare food in a short amount of time,” Chen said. “It’s really convenient if you don’t want to sit down for a meal.”

system, in an effort to carry a wider range of perishable items, in addition to a more appealing truck wrap that better advertises the goal of the nonprofit, Morgan said.

Morgan said all of these renovations will aid in Fresh Truck’s mission to further address the multifaceted topic of food accessibility head-on, which they already work to do through weekly markets, pop-up events and their food prescription program, FreshRX. “Our weekly market really is to be that reliable resource in a neighborhood,” Morgan said. “Providing geographic proximity to healthy food, a culturally relevant shopping experience and inventory of items, and then at an affordable price.”

Bradford said Fresh Truck presented the opportunity to create a different food experience, where produce could essentially move directly from the farm to a consumer’s table.

“There’s a lot of hidden energy that gets used or wasted … during all of these intermediary steps,” Bradford said. “To me, what was interesting about Fresh Truck, was the idea of a mobile, community refrigerator.”

Kristina St. Cyr, coalition and advocacy manager for the Massachusetts Public Health Association, said programs such as Fresh Truck are beneficial to those affected by the food desert phenomenon in the state.

“The data from those maps [that MHPA put out] reveal that there are 2.8 million Massachusetts residents, and that includes over 700,000 children and 523,000 seniors, living in low-income neighborhoods with low grocery store access,” St. Cyr said.

St. Cyr said food deserts are areas that lack access to different healthy food options, and they typically impact communities of color and low-income neighborhoods the most, such as Dorchester and Mattapan.

Several Boston residents said they are impressed with Fresh Truck’s initiative to provide a greater variety of healthy foods, but surprised so many communities lacked access to these options.

Dawn Lavallee, 28, of Dorchester, said she used to work at a school in Dorchester that would receive deliveries from Fresh Truck, and voiced appreciation for the nonprofit’s work.

“It’s more economically viable for businesses to be in those neighborhoods as well,” Lavallee said. “I don’t think it necessarily has to be people giving away food.

So there are things the City could do to make it a better business proposition for a grocery store to be there.”

Gabriel Bender, 30, of Kenmore, said the state should use Fresh Truck as a model, so Boston’s communities are served to an even greater extent.

“I’m sure there are food banks that provide this sort of service,” Bender said.

“It’s a fantastic program, and I think that if Boston isn’t currently working on something like that, then tax dollars definitely should be used in some sort of effort as such [to help those in need].”

Bo Redpath, 26, of Beacon Hill, said Fresh Truck’s work to expand fresh produce is an admirable feat. “ T h at ’s def i n itel y m isfor t u n ate [that many citizens lack access to food options],” Redpath said. “I mean healthy foods, ever yone should have. There’s just got to be a way to either get the prices dow n or have something that’s more long -term where they can consistently get those goods because it’s not going to make a difference if they get one meal out of a million.”

NEWS 3

Mei Mei’s Irene Li honored for expertise in hospitality

BY BREANNE KOVATCH DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Need someone to wash dishes for three hours on a weekday or plunge a toilet all while running a full-fledged business? Irene Li, Mei Mei co-founder and now one of Zagat’s National 30 Under 30 finalists, can do it.

On top of running the restaurant business side of Mei Mei, Li said she believes it’s equally important for her to be hands-on and helping her team whenever they need it.

“I make sure, if I can, I’m the person who is doing stuff like that,” Li said. “I really make a point of trying to be as proficient in every department as possible so that I could help out. That’s something that’s really important to me, to make sure that I can support the team and that I can tell them that I really know what the work is like.”

This can-do attitude and her team’s commitment, and dedication to locally sourcing food, has all cumulated to her name being included in Zagat’s National 30 Under 30 list.

This year is the first time that the restaurant rating company has looked nationally for finalists, and the lineup includes some of the most talented millennials in the hospitality industry, according to a press release from Sept. 12.

Never “in a million years” did Li think Mei Mei would come to receive the recognition it has or that she would win this national honor, she said.

“I do this because I love my team and I love the food we make and I really think we can make a difference. To get recognized

for it is just … an ancillary benefit,” Li said.

“They hold down the fort to make me look good and they are all better at their jobs than I ever was at their jobs.”

Mei Mei, which means “little sister” in Chinese, is a Chinese-American fusion restaurant which began in Brookline where the Li family grew up. Li, along with her older brother Andy and her older sister Margaret, started their business back in 2012 with a food truck. Their need for a better kitchen and a desire to provide a better experience for their customers led to them opening their brick and mortar in 2013, which is located in Boston University’s South Campus.

Annabel Raby, a line cook at Mei Mei, said the way Li runs Mei Mei inspires her to rethink what it could be like to be a successful businessperson.

“Irene is very successful and powerful in the Boston community, but her shtick is to be as generous as possible,” Raby said. “That’s so the opposite of how the average business person thrives. It’s inspiring and I really try to emulate her level of generosity, both in the way she acts to people and just literally what she offers to people.”

Whether it’s supporting small businesses or supporting local farms, Li said it’s important to not only help the environment, but to help families around Boston. As an added bonus, the food tastes better when it is locally sourced, Li said.

“As a family business, I can definitely say when a small business gets enriched, it goes into the community, it goes into families, and that’s something that’s super important to me,” Li said. “Local food also tastes

Irene Li the co-founder of Mei Mei, which is located in Brookline, is on Zagat’s National 30 Under 30 list.

better and while I think all food is magical and makes you happy, when you have a connection to the food, it’s even better, the experience is just that much more exciting and personal.”

Jessica Coughlin, a close friend of Li’s and a regular at Mei Mei, wrote in an email that the ambience of the restaurant always draws her back – as well as her favorite items on the catering menu, lamb dumplings and the wheat berry salad.

“Their flavors are so satisfying and creative, vibrantly colored and sustainably sourced,” Coughlin said. “The people who own and work for the business are just awesome, fun and committed to the mission of

PHOTO BY LILLIAN LI/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

using food for positive change.”

As Mei Mei grows a following and Li becomes more recognizable around the city, the pressure to maintain the restaurant’s, and her own, reputation can be stressful. Li said when dealing with this kind of stress it’s important to look to what you have.

“There are a lot of different ways to lose perspective when you are dealing with guests, when you’re dealing with employees [and] small problems can seem like big problems and big problems can seem like impossible, huge problems,” Li said. “It is really helpful to be able to take a step back and maybe to have someone in your organization who can tell you to take a step back.”

Students enjoy Granby Commons dining hall upgrades

BY JORDAN KIMMEL DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Boston University Dining Services upgraded the Granby Commons dining hall on the third floor of the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House over the summer in an effort to enhance the quality and variety of kosher and vegan options available to students, according to Scott Rosario, the marketing director for BU Dining Services.

The upgrades are part of a new dining concept called Fresh Fuel at Granby

Commons, Rosario explained. The updated dining room utilizes two kitchens — one kosher and the other vegan. Dining hall workers prepare a menu that contains meat entrees in the kosher kitchen separate from the vegan remainder of the dining room, which includes the vegan kitchen, salad bar and daily dessert offerings.

These kosher and vegan options are compatible with the unique new concept in the dining hall, Rosario wrote in an email.

“The menu has been created specifically for this new style of service,” Rosario wrote, “and many of the recipes will be exclusive to

PHOTO COURTESY ROBIN EISENSON

The Granby Commons dining hall at the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House upgrades its offerings in time for the Fall 2017 semester.

Fresh Fuel at Granby Commons.”

The vegan food options offered at the dining hall are mostly based on local, plantbased foods, he added.

“The menu has been designed to highlight plant-forward cuisine with a focus on recipes that incorporate more plant-based foods, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils and seeds,” Rosario wrote in an email. “The Fresh Fuel menu also incorporates local, sustainable purchases when available.”

Among the additions to the dining hall is a new chef, Reb Eagle, the executive director of BU Hillel, said.

Reactions to the dining hall upgrades have been overwhelmingly positive among visitors, Rosario wrote.

“Students are enjoying the increased variety available daily,” he wrote. “The atmosphere in the dining room is very inviting and the views of the Charles River are amazing.”

The inclusive atmosphere has led to the Granby Commons dining hall’s increasing popularity, Eagle added.

“Certainly people who keep kosher, vegans and everyone who loves the delicious food [are wanted],” Eagle said. “I think people love it. I have only heard great things.”

Ran Chen, a Questrom School of Business senior who works in the dining hall at Granby Commons, said she thinks the improvements make the Hillel dining hall one of the best on campus.

“I do like the changes,” Chen said. “They redecorated a little bit and it looks a lot better now. I think the vegan food has improved a lot. Compared to other dining halls, we’re small and we don’t have as many options, but I honestly like it better than the other places on campus.”

Sebastian Betsch, a School of Education sophomore who also works in the dining hall at Granby Commons, said a lot of attention goes into the preparation of the

food in order to ensure that its quality and taste are maintained.

“I just think having to give a little more attention to the way you prepare food makes it turn out better,” Betsch said. “[There is] just something about this place that’s great.”

Several students who frequent the Granby Commons dining hall said they think both the facility and the food have improved significantly.

Robin Eisenson, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore who started the Vegan Club at BU, met with fellow members and dining hall staff to provide feedback on the upgrades earlier this week. Eisenson said she loves the improvements because she is guaranteed to get a quality, gourmet vegan meal every time she visits.

“Everyone’s expectations were beyond exceeded,” Eisenson said. “No one had a single complaint, and everyone went back for seconds. If I could stay longer, I would not have stopped eating. The unlimited, buffet-style setting is both a blessing and a curse.”

Evan Armacost, a CAS senior, said he likes the upgrades and wishes he had known about the Granby Commons dining hall years ago.

“Maybe it’s just because I became a vegetarian in January, but the plant-based options are wonderful,” Armacost said.

“Even the meat and fish options are great.

I often wonder where this place has been the past three years.”

Jeff Sagurton, a College of Fine Arts freshman, said he enjoys eating at the Hillel dining hall because of the greater variety of vegan options and the higher quality of the food in general.

“The food is really good and there are a lot of great options,” Sagurton said. “I like the vegan area a lot, although I’m not a vegan.

I think this dining hall, and especially the vegan section, is a lot better than the others on campus.”

4 NEWS

CSC’s Student Food Rescue team fights local food insecurity community partners, they are looking to expand and add more to their roster this year.

Most recently, SFR has partnered with Eataly, an Italian marketplace in the Prudential Center to donate leftover food.

SFR has also started new volunteer shifts with the Daily Table, a not-for-profit retail store in Dorchester, which provides affordable food to residents.

Caroline Kohler, a Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences junior and the CSC program manager of events and education, said SFR is the most direct way that students and donor partners can contribute to cutting down on food waste and food insecurity within the community.

“Food insecurity is basically when a family doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from because they don’t have access to a grocery store or they don’t have money to buy groceries … in their neighborhood,” Kohler said. “The people that we work with and the people that we bring food to sometimes don’t know where to find their next meal, so this helps them bridge that gap.”

Approximately 10 percent of Massachusetts families are labeled as “food insecure,” according to the CSC program managers, and one of their main goals for SFR is to minimize this number while educating volunteers in the BU community about food justice.

“Through SFR, I have learned so much about food insecurity and the impact salvaging food can have in fighting it,” Brown said.

“Almost 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted each year and any way we can curb that is a step in the right direction.”

Sabitoni, who started volunteering with SFR in the spring of her sophomore year, said SFR is a great way to give back and make connections in both the BU and Boston communities.

“It is really easy to get stuck in the BU bubble and not treat the entire city of Boston as your home,” she said. “But SFR encourages

BY MADDIE DOMENICHELLA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Student Food Rescue, Boston University’s student-run food salvage program, is gearing up for another year of fighting food insecurity and waste in Boston.

The program, which is part of the university’s Community Service Center, runs during the spring, fall and summer semesters and consists of about 75 student volunteers who go on 20 weekly food runs, according to student program manager Daniel Brown.

“Each run’s volunteer group, usually three to five students, bonds pretty closely over the course of the semester, creating a smaller community within BU,” said Brown, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. “It’s a great way to connect BU with the larger Boston community in a real, tangible way.”

Donations sites include local bakeries, restaurants and grocery stores, such as Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, Clear Flour Bread and Iggy’s Bread, as well as BU’s own George Sherman Union. Recipient sites include homeless shelters, food pantries and nonprofit organizations such as Rosie’s Place, the Brookline Food Pantry, AIDS Action Committee and Food for Free.

Hannah Sabitoni, SFR’s other program manager, said SFR is one of the largest student-run food salvage programs in the country, salvaging and donating between 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of food every week.

“SFR’s mission is to fight Boston’s food insecurity problem by salvaging food from grocery stores, restaurants, and bakeries that would have otherwise been thrown out,” Sabitoni, a junior in CAS, said. “We are mainly looking to provide an opportunity for BU students to engage with the city, both learning about and addressing food injustice in Boston.”

Although SFR has many longstanding

Major: Education

PHOTO BY KATIE GODERE/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Daniel Brown and Hannah Sabitoni, program managers of Student Food Rescue at BU’s Community Service Center, said they want students to address food injustice in Boston.

building a better relationship with the city and getting to know its different communities and the problems they face.”

Other students involved in the CSC and SFR have had diverse experiences with the program, but said they enjoy SFR because it has a clear and visible impact on the community.

Hailey Branchford, a College of Engineering senior and a former SFR volunteer, recalled when she went on a food run collecting goods from a bakery and delivering them to a homeless shelter downtown.

“The shelters downtown were obviously very grateful for the opportunity to provide their residents with things they couldn’t do such as pastries,” she said. “They were very appreciative because it’s not something they would spend money on and it was more of a luxury item.”

Hana Skwish, a Sargent junior, volunteered with SFR during the school year and collected donations from Iggy’s Bread.

“They would normally give us around four vlarge bags of bread for the drop-off location,” she said.

Skwish also said that she participated in SFR because it was a way to give back that fit in with her busy schedule.

“It’s an easy way to get involved with the CSC,” she said. “It’s not a difficult thing to fit into your schedule since it’s only a two-hour block, and you can choose how many runs you want to be a part of.”

Kierra Bowman, a CAS junior, volunteered with SFR this past summer. On her food run, she said she collected donations from Whole Foods and delivered them to families in transition.

Bowman said she participated in SFR because she wanted to give back to the Boston community. “[SFR] seemed like a cool way to give back to the community,” she said, “and see how something simple can make a big impact in people’s lives.”

Minor: Philosophy

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INBUSINESS

FEATURES 5

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Parlor Ice Cream Co. pops up in Allston, aids growth to small business

BY JENNI TODD DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

While old-fashioned ice cream parlors might be stationary, The Parlor Ice Cream Co. is anything but. Nevertheless, the dessert startup has quickly become one of Allston’s sweetest fixtures.

Since August, Parlor has been popping up at Allston’s Continuum on Wednesday nights. Recently, they announced that they’ll be extending their run there through Sep. 27.

“We have actually sold out almost every week that we’ve been there throughout August and September,” said Jacqueline Dole, founder of Parlor. “It started off with passersby and people coming home ... Now, people really look forward to Wednesdays, and they’ll actually stock up their freezers for the whole week.”

Dole, who said she had years of culinary experience prior to founding Parlor, said her inspiration for creating the company was born from a love for ice cream and an apparent gap in Boston’s food scene.

“I noticed there was a lack of quality, small batch ice cream in Boston, so I founded Parlor to help change that,” Dole said about Parlor’s history.

Dole explained that small batch ice cream is produced in more limited quantities and with less time between production and consumption. “ We spi n ever y th i ng custom.

Everything’s done to order,” Dole said.

“So, you know, all of our ice cream is hyper-fresh, and whatever we bring for catering was made no more than 72 hours before serving.”

Alexis Cervasio, founder of East Boston Oysters — one of Parlor’s business partners — said that when she worked with Dole,

they came up with unusual flavors including pretzels and potato chips mixed into chocolate ice cream.

“We are two small businesses completely supporting each others ‘think-outside-the-square’ mentality,” Cervasio wrote in an email. “Her enthusiasm and creativity is evident as soon as you taste a spoonful.”

Despite their success, Parlor has yet to establish a permanent location, choosing to focus on growth in a less conventional way.

“We do not have a brick-and-mortar.

We are an event-based business,” Dole said.

“Rather than focusing on a storefront, we’re actually going a little bit bigger picture, and we’re getting pints into different markets in the Boston area.”

While she feels pop-ups are often given less credibility in the business community, Parlor’s decision to avoid a brick-and-mortar storefront was strategic, Dole said.

“People often times, especially with pop-up-based businesses, kind of belittle your business model,” Dole said. “When, in reality, I think that in avoiding a storefront, we’ve actually sort of guaranteed our longevity.”

Ian Mashiter, director of Boston University’s BUzz Lab, said the pop-up model could aid growth for smaller businesses, like Parlor, by reducing fixed operating costs.

“They’re obviously testing the market through pop-up stores and food trucks, which keeps their fixed costs down,” Mashiter said. “The cost of renting a store is not only expensive in setup costs but it’s also expensive on a regular rent basis.”

Dole added that the nature of the pop-up model prolongs the experience of novelty for consumers.

“With the pop-up model, it’s really easier for customers to come and say, ‘Oh, it’s a little ice cream stand,’” Dole said. “When,

PHOTO COURTESY OF LIZZY AFFA

Founded by Jacqueline Dole, The Parlor Ice Cream Co. appears at the Continuum in Lower Allston Wednesday nights through Sept. 27.

in reality, they don’t know that we have done over a hundred events.”

Despite the passage of time, Dole said, giving customers that experience of wonderment is still one of her favorite things about running Parlor.

IMPACT

“It’s really impossible to be grouchy when you have an ice cream. It’s nice to turn somebody’s day around,” Dole said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a four-year-old or an 84-year-old. Hopefully, everybody’s really excited about ice cream.”

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Interactive cooking classes emphasize importance of maximizing ingredients

BY RACHEL SILBERMAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

In a Milk Street cooking class on Wednesday, those in attendance were taught the importance of maximizing

the essential ingredients of a recipe — something most college students who are strapped for cash and time can appreciate.

Rosemary Gill, the director of education and class leader, said the class “Less, but Better: Fewer Ingredients, More Impact” used interactive cooking and dis-

PHOTO BY JENNA MANTO/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Brittany Bertrand, attendee of Milk Street’s cooking class “Less, but Better: Fewer Ingredients, More Impact,” uses a mixer Wednesday night while learning how to prioritize cooking healthy meals on a budget.

cussion to teach a method known as subtractive cooking.

“A short ingredient list can become a boring recipe or a spectacular one — and the difference is in knowing how to make the most of our time cooking,” Gill said.

This method of cooking focuses on using essential ingredients to create simple recipes without compromising f lavor and taste, according to the event’s description.

Jordyn Block, a senior in Boston University’s College of Communication, said she applies this method in her kitchen daily. She said subtractive cooking enables cooks to get a larger quantity of food, rather than buying several ingredients and wasting valuable components.

“For example, in sweet potatoes, most of the fiber is in the skin. In salmon, a lot of the healthy fats are found in between the skin and the fish,” Block explained.

While students like Block choose to cook with a “less, but better” mindset to maximize nutritional benefits, others have less freedom.

Ella Tatum, a COM junior, said she has a myriad of allergies that prevent her from being able to use basic ingredients such as dairy, olive oil and gluten. Nonetheless, Tatum has always been an avid cook, and is rarely inhibited by her allergies.

Consuming a diet of mainly fresh produce may sound boring to some, but even professional chefs outside of Milk Street have found that fewer ingredients can lead to a more maximized and satisfying plate.

“When you use less ingredients, your resourcefulness with that ingredient goes up,” explained Jared Goldberg, a School of Hospitality Administration sophomore.

He references a salad in which he used only four ingredients: fennel, orange, avocado and pomegranate. Using every part of each ingredient in a creative way not only simplified Goldberg’s shopping list, but also allowed for an innovative and mouthwatering meal.

“It ends up a simple dish that really brings forth certain f lavors, rather than throwing a bunch of flavors on a plate and overwhelming the taste buds,” he said.

Whether it’s a college student struggling to find time for grocery shopping or a busy parent laboring over family dinner after a long workday, subtractive cooking can be very beneficial.

Gill said, “In the ‘Less, but Better’ class, we hope that students begin to understand that with just a few ingredients and the right know-how, a fabulous dinner can be made no matter how humble the ingredients are or pressed the cook’s time is.”

6 FEATURES

MUSE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

FreeP vs. Food: Avocado Toast PHOTO COURTESY SIMPLY SCRATCH

BY ANTONIA DEBIANCHI, ALEX DEL TUFO, SARA FRAZIER AND KAYA WILLIAMS DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

by CHLOE A hipster’s paradise, the popular vegan restaurant by CHLOE is conveniently located in the Fenway area — next to Target and Saloniki — with another Boston location in the Seaport district.

The decor is eclectic and bright, making it by far the most Instagrammable of the four locations we visited. While by CHLOE is perhaps best known for their lunch and grab and go options, they provide a large quantity of brunch-time options as well.

By CHLOE’s smashed avocado toast is one of their most raved about options on the list of specials. In addition to avocado, their

Tatte

With its daisy-yellow facade and always-bustling radius of eager brunchers, Tatte’s Brookline location seems to maintain something of a gravitational pull, luring customers back time and again for its pastries, coffee and hearty menu items.

Among them is the avocado tartine, their flavorful and photogenic rendition on the standard avocado toast.

The tartine features homemade sourdough bread covered in an evenly-spread layer of avocado and loaded to the brim with

Trident

For an already unique cafe-bookstore hybrid, Trident Booksellers and Café easily snagged the prize for most original avocado toast we tried.

Trident, located on the brownstone-clad, shopping-heav y Newbur y Street, is not your typical cafe. The eatery bookstore is a hotspot where ardent bibliophiles come to get coffee with a side of Freud and polish off their avocado toast with a HarperCollins’ paperback of “Pride and Prejudice.”

Our rating of Trident’s take on avocado toast perfectly and evenly averaged out to a solid A- for one reason: it was different.

Common avocado toast staples include eggs and arugula — Trident throws these

It’s a brunch staple. It’s an Instagram essential. And, according to Australian millionaire Tim Gurner, it’s the reason millennials can’t afford to buy a home. It’s avocado toast, and that classic smear of mashed green on toast is all over Boston. For this edition of FreeP vs. Food, we set out to find the best in all of Beantown on a whirlwind sampling of bread, eggs and everyone’s favorite green fruit. The FreeP vs. Food team took on four locations in this super smackdown: by CHLOE, in Fenway; Tatte Bakery and Café, in Brookline; Sonsie, on Newbury Street; and Trident Booksellers and Café, also on Newbury. Bon appétit! toast also featured arugula, walnuts, red pepper flakes and apple slices — a rather unique approach to the dish.

A major plus of by CHLOE’s avocado toast is that they actually offered a generous portion of the avocado, although the bread itself was not very filling.

This coupled with the fact that there was no egg or any kind of protein made the meal a little drab and unsatisfying.

For a vegan fast food chain whose interior and decor seem to imply quality and freshness, the food that comes from ordering off of a stylish menu board is disappointingly small and suprisingly tasteless.

If you’re looking for an avocado toast that is worth the $10 cost and you don’t care too much about the aesthetic of where you go out to eat,

by CHLOE is probably not your best bet.

Alex: B- Antonia: C Kaya: C- Sara: B+ heaping piles of arugula, radishes, dill and two perfectly poached eggs. It’s easy to see the appeal — and even easier to Instagram it.

Those hoping to indulge in this sunny Sunday-morning staple should arrive hungry and ready to dig in; served on a plate the size of a rugby ball, there’s more than enough food to gorge on.

With a delightful balance between the crisp veggies, smooth — albeit thinly smeared — avocado and just shy of heavenly eggs, this is a clear winner on an already stellar menu, especially at $10 for a hefty portion.

And, with the Brookline location only a hop, skip and a jump from central campus, Tatte is just right.

Alex: A Antonia: A Kaya: A+ Sara: A ingredients off the cutting board, trading in the prototypical brunch food for a plate more reminiscent of lunch.

An open-faced havarti cheese and avocado melt, Trident’s avocado toast was enough to please the taste buds, refreshingly veering away from a brunch taste.

The cheese acted as the perfect safety pouch, covering the entirety of the two slices of bread that snugly kept a generous spread of avocado in tact and inside.

Totaling to $12, Trident’s take on millennial’s favorite treat is pricy, but worth it — especially if you arrive at the cafe hungry for something more than books.

The avocado toast was simple in taste and presentation, but f lavorful.

Mustard was the perfect complement to the two staple ingredients, while a side of chips and veggies gave it the extra kick it needed to pass our avocado toast quest, rounding out to both a hardy and tasty dish.

Alex: A- Antonia: AKaya: A- Sara: A-

PHOTOS BY JACKIE O’BRIEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Sonsie

Sonsie, a classic Newbury Street bistro and brunch venue, produced a rather disappointing take on avocado toast.

Although they are known for their breakfast and brunch, their specialty is their classic egg breakfasts — home fries, toast, the whole ordeal.

The charm and comfort of their openair Newbury location was completely lost when the avocado toast was ordered for take-out.

Sonsie’s avocado toast left an immediate and lasting impression: simply underwhelming. The portion size was small,

with a single piece of toast covered in a thin layer of avocado with two simple poached eggs.

Our photographer, Jackie O’Brien, who tagged along with us said she was “surprised that Sonsie’s toast didn’t have more of a visual impact. In a foodie city like Boston the photogenic quality is expected to be part of the experience.”

After the first bite, our assumptions of lackluster f lavor were confirmed. The avocado had a vinegar-like taste, presumably due to an intended — and unfortunate — choice or an under-ripe avocado. However, the perfect crunch to the bread brought a bit of a saving grace to the dish.

The quality and portion size of such an expensive dish — coming in at $13 — was nothing more than disappointing.

Alex: C- Antonia: B Kaya: B+ Sara: C

Alex: AKaya: AAntonia: ASara: A-

FEATURES 7

Saltie Girl’s fried lobster and waffles puts a Boston twist on the southern comfort food, adding sweet corn butter and thai chili infused maple syrup on top of a lobster bisque.

Boston Burger Company’s monstrous Pigferno is layered with habanero barbecue pulled pork, salsa and beer-battered onion rings.

Strange foods of Boston

Between red-bean brick toast topped with matcha ice cream and fried lobster glazed with maple syrup, there isn’t a dish in Boston you can’t find. We went to five restaurants known for ingenuity in their recipes, twists on classic comfort foods and original presentations.

Here are some photos from Boston Burger Company, Saltie Girl, OliToki, Double Chin and Rice Burg.

OliToki’s totchos are tater tots topped with kimchi, onions, cilantro and cheese, and their ramen fries are made with an in-house seasoning.

Double Chin’s modified brick toast Matcha Ma Call It has matcha ice cream, mochi, strawberries and peaches, red bean, pocky and condensed matcha milk piled on a bed of frosted flakes cereal.

Rice Burg, a Boston University food truck favorite, makes their buns out of rice and separates them with spicy chicken sandwiches and pineapple slices.

Check out the gallery online for more photos of strange food!

PHOTOS BY CHLOE GRINBERG/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF LAYOUT BY SHAUN ROBINSON/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

8 OPINION

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Lexi Peery, Editor-in-Chief Elise Takahama, Managing Editor

t h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t u d e n t n e w s pa p e r a t b o s t o n u n i v e r s i t y

46th year | Volume 93 | Issue 3 The Free Press (ISSN 1094-7337) is published Thursdays during the academic year except during vacation and exam periods by Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc., a nonprofit corporation operated

by Boston University students. No content can be reproduced without the permission of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. Copyright © 2017 Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Alana Levene, Campus Editor

Ellie French, Editorial Page Editor

Rachel Duncan, Layout Editor

Till Kaeslin, City Editor

Lauren Frias, Features Editor

Allegra Peelor, Blog Editor

Matthew Martin, Sports Editor

Chloe Grinberg, Photo Editor

Shakti Rovner, Office Manager

Panera Bread CEO misses the mark on social activism When Panera Bread closed its doors on Commonwealth Avenue in May, many Boston University students were sad to see one of their favorite on-campus eateries go.

In its absence, Panera regulars are having to find somewhere else to eat — and according to the company’s CEO, we shouldn’t be looking to McDonald’s as a replacement.

An article in Bloomberg reported that on Wednesday, Panera CEO Ron Shaich challenged McDonald’s Corp. CEO Steve Easterbrook to spend a week eating Happy Meals — which is part of a long-running campaign Shaich has had against fast-food giants like McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s. In his most recent move, Shaich spoke out against McDonald’s kids meals, saying they are not healthy enough for children to be consuming — specifically the french fries, soda and artificial ingredients that come with every order.

This criticism is not about McDonald’s — it is about marketing, and what’s good for publicity. But as good for publicity as it may be, it’s also petty. It’s an accusation instead of a discussion, and that is fundamentally counterproductive.

Panera is being hypocritical, plain and simple. They aren’t exactly a health food chain — they serve salads and smoothies, sure, but they also serve mac and cheese and cookies. In fact, a McDonald’s Big Mac actually has less calories than a bowl of Panera’s mac and cheese. Of course there are a myriad of other factors that go into whether or not a food is healthy, but the fact still stands that Panera isn’t perfect, not by any standards.

In terms of nutritional value, this sand-

wich-shop-squabble is nothing more than the pot calling the kettle black — however, that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that healthy food is expensive, and a lot of people can’t afford to eat that way. On the other side of the spectrum, McDonald’s — fatty as it may be — has a whole menu of items that cost just $1.

Though it is done unintentionally, by claiming superiority over McDonald’s, Shaich is portraying people who eat at Panera as superior to those who eat at

T

hough it is done unintentionally, by claiming superiority over McDonald’s, Shaich is portraying people who eat at Panera as superior to those who eat at McDonald’s.

McDonald’s. This is a low blow.

Shaich has built up a reputation over the past several years for being a socially conscious CEO. He actively denounces President Donald Trump, and vehemently spoke out against August’s violence in Charlottesville. He even spent a week living off of $4.50 a day in 2013 to raise awareness about the struggles low-income families face in putting food on the table. All of these things are great, and probably great for PR, too, but they are

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Americans, eating McDonald’s every day is just a regular week. When this is someone’s reality, they aren’t eating McDonald’s out of pure choice. They understand it’s unhealthy, but they can’t afford the alternatives. Meanwhile, Shaich can stand to make nearly $400 million for selling his company earlier this year. Who is this multi-millionaire to be passing judgments on people who cannot even afford to buy a sandwich?

In short, calling out a specific company

for their imperfect practices is pointless.

McDonald’s could stand to do a lot better, both nutritionally and otherwise, but so could everyone — every company could be more local, healthy and sustainable. Why dwell on the shortcomings of others when you could focus on working to make your own company the best it can be?

Panera does do a lot of charitable work.

They have several nonprofit branches dedicated to feeding the hungry. Their DayEnd Dough-Nation foundation works to avoid food waste by donating old food to people in need — their Panera Gives program does similar work. Through these methods and others, the company probably helps to feed countless people each year. But could they be doing more? The answer is almost definitely yes.

Panera is never going to donate every cent they make, as wonderful as that would be. That is not the nature of capitalism — wanting more money is just the economic system we subscribe to. But what Panera is doing now is strategic activism. It’s about doing something loud instead of doing something big. That is what the media likes to see, but it’s not the most effective way to be giving back.

At the end of the day, McDonald’s is a scapegoat — and it’s a lazy one at that. Panera and McDonald’s are not each other’s competitors, or at least they shouldn’t be. Panera needs to start leadng by example, and make a big change in the affordability and access of healthy food, especially in low-income communities before calling out companies that are no better than them.

This week’s crossword puzzle is brought to you by Matthew Whitrock

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just surface-level activism. Fighting for kids at McDonald’s to be served healthier junk-food is a good start, but it’s of little consequence when there are thousands of low-income families in the United States who can’t afford to serve their children anything else.

In fact, it’s kind of condescending.

Shaich challenged Easterbrook to eating McDonald’s for a week like it would be a difficulty and a hardship, and maybe even a little bit gross — but for so many

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ACROSS 1. Rant 5. A deep ravine 10. Squad 14. Nile bird 15. A kind of macaw 16. Hindu princess 17. Plant food 19. Egg-shaped 20. Grippe 21. Lollapalooza 22. Brandish 23. Conference 25. A sharp curve 27. A parcel of land 28. Bullfighter 31. Nonsense 34. Narcotics 35. Ribonucleic acid 36. Away from the wind 37. Itty-bitty 38. French for “Wolf” 39. Coniferous tree 40. Asphalted 41. Expire

DOWN 42. A baroque musical composition 44. Ambition 45. Stops 46. Demesnes 50. Discrimination against the elderly 52. Thigh armor 54. Lyric poem 55. Stink 56. Germs in the blood 58. Not in danger 59. Community spirit 60. Mobile phone 61. At one time (archaic) 62. Oceans 63. Applications

1. Jazz ostinatos 2. Poplar tree 3. Infectious agent 4. Eastern Standard Time 5. Stumblebum 6. Heavenly hunter 7. Tease 8. A racing dog 9. Hearing organ 10. Group of three 11. Listen in 12. A Freudian stage 13. Gentle 18. Manner of speaking 22. Troubles 24. Swing around 26. Unrestrained revelry 28. Tall woody plants 29. Burden 30. Sexual assault 31. Dagger handle 32. Hodgepodge 33. Scarves 34. Cause extensive destruction

37. Light bulb unit 38. Tibetan monk 40. Inside of your hand 41. About a US quart 43. Coffin 44. Judge 46. Prevent legally 47. Volumes 48. Ancient Roman magistrate 49. Aquatic mammals 50. Backside 51. Equipment 53. Throb 56. What we sleep on 57. Euro forerunner

OPINION 9

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

The value of food in culture Kombucha: what the heck is it!?

BY ANNA STROINSKI COLUMNIST

When I sit down to eat dinner, there’s a particular formula my family follows. It has nothing to do with etiquette — no one expects me to eat neatly, or to keep my elbows off the table. No, it’s much more profound than that.

If I see ground turkey or beef set out on the counter to defrost, I know we’re having schnitzel — ground meat patties breaded and fried in a sauce pan. If there’s a pack of chicken breasts, we’re eating breaded cutlets with a side of mash potatoes and mizeria — a cucumber, sour cream and vinegar salad with dill on top, that night. For Christmas, it’s always the same menu: beet soup with mushroom dumplings, potato and cheese pierogi, fried carp and cabbage. The food I eat at home is entirely informed by the culture I come from. I am Polish, and that is reaffirmed regularly by the food I eat. Despite having been born here in the United States, it’s a culture I can identify with, and a culture I can connect with when I sit down to eat.

There’s a great documentary on Netflix called “Barbecue” that explores the variance in barbecuing traditions from country to country and from ethnic group to ethnic group. In all cases, barbecues bring people together — they force people to sit down and interact with their families and friends. But perhaps even more than that, each style of barbeque is specific to a certain national or ethnic identity. This allows people to connect to their traditions and to understand and appreciate their pasts as Mongolians or Australians or South Africans, no matter

how distant those identities may seem.

My mom takes pride in eating Polish food. There’s one particular mantra that she always maintains — when there’s no bread in the house, there’s no food in the house. She can eat a loaf of rye and drink a glass of milk for dinner and be satisfied, because that’s how they did it on the farm in the 1960s.

Sometimes, she’ll go above and beyond for Polish food. She’ll drive 20 minutes to her favorite bakery in Passaic, New Jersey just for a specific kind of bread, or for her favorite Polish donuts. Though she’s an American citizen (she was naturalized a couple years ago) and has lived and worked here for 20 odd years, she is also fundamentally Polish, and with that comes indulging in her native country’s food.

She doesn’t only do it for herself, though.

When my mom sends me a package, she always includes Polish candies or cookies or pretzels. When I come home from college, Polish style chicken soup is usually waiting for me. When my mom visits me and my brother, who is a chef here in Boston, she brings kielbasa for him to fry up and serve to his co-workers. We are reminded of our roots regularly, and it grounds us, in a certain respect.

Sharing food customs helps share culture, too. It helps level people, and create bonds between identities. My family regularly shares Polish food with people, and they share their food with us.

In a country that regularly and sometimes violently stresses cultural assimilation, one thing that has remained noticeably distinct is food. Part of the beauty of food is that it differs from region to region. By engaging in different categories of food, we are engaging in culture as a distinct entity. We are acknowledging that it has a right to be distinct, a right to exist with necessarily fusing into a colorless conglomerate with the things around it. There is value, sure, in marrying certain food cultures together (think fusion restaurants), but there is also a value in preserving foods in their respective boxes. And hopefully, that will extend to other aspects of culture too.

BY GRACE HAGERTY COLUMNIST

I first heard of kombucha in the spring of my senior year of high school. My friend Mary Anne drank it in our English class.

She was a vegan, which at the time was incredibly edgy, especially considering the fact that I went to a very vanilla Catholic school. At first, I didn’t know what to make of kombucha and for quite sometime, I forgot about it.

Kombucha (or ‘booch’ as it’s known in my apartment), has certainly become incredibly trendy, even though it’s been around for centuries. Everyone’s drinking it, not just your edgy vegan pals. Some noteworthy celebs that swear by it are luminaries like Reese Witherspoon and Orlando Bloom. But why? Honestly, I started drinking it because it was so hip and I felt like I was being super healthy. But even when I started hopping on the booch train, I had no idea what kombucha was. Let me preface all of this by saying that kombucha is not juice and certainly does not taste like juice. Even though to some it might be an acquired taste, it has proven health benefits that are worth exploring.

Thanks to some research, I’ve figured out why it is that we should all probably drink booch every once in awhile. First of all, kombucha originally comes from China from over 2,000 years ago. Essentially, it is fermented black tea with sugars from various sources, like fruits and sugarcane.

I personally prefer pineapple kombucha.

Kombucha is a probiotic, meaning that it contains good, healthy bacteria. One of

Interrobang

the benefits of consuming probiotics is that they help with digestion. Kombucha contains a colony of bacteria and yeast that initiates the fermentation process, and it’s the fermentation that makes the kombucha carbonated.

Drinking kombucha is great for you because it contains high levels of antioxidants that help detoxify the body. The main selling point for kombucha is that it helps support a healthy gut. Who doesn’t love that? Kombucha isn’t just good for your gut, it’s great for your brain. Kombucha contains vitamin B12 which is linked to increasing energy levels and it helps maintain overall mental well-being. A rather unexpected benefit of drinking booch, is that it seems to help prevent lung disease and it could be used as a treatment method for a lung ailment called silicosis.

Perhaps the kombucha fact most relevant to those who consume other fermented beverages, booch also helps maintain a healthy liver. It’s just a great way to detox — and who doesn’t love a good detox?

My biggest question about kombucha was: “if it’s fermented, does that mean its alcoholic?” According to CNN Health, kombucha contains trace amounts of alcohol. One bottle of kombucha contains one eighth of the alcohol content of a light beer. So in other words, if you’re a serious lightweight, you might feel a slight buzz after chugging eight consecutive bottles of kombucha, and I would not recommend doing that.

All and all, booch is super great. I do feel like a serious dummy for drinking a ton of kombucha just because it’s trendy, but I’m glad to know that it’s actually good for me.

In Boston, craft booch is really popular (the best place to get house made booch has to be Whole Heart Provisions on Cambridge Street in Allston). Vendors at SoWa Open Market sell pricier artisan kombucha, but there’s also a really solid kombucha selection at Star Market — it’s even relatively easy to brew at home. There’s a lot of hype around booch and honestly, I don’t see that hype dying down anytime soon.

CARTOON BY RACHEL CALLAHAN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West recently celebrated their third wedding anniversary at IHOP. We here at the ol’ Free Press want to know — where would BU students go to eat to celebrate an anniversary?

BU Academy : Chuck E. Cheese’s

COM: Anywhere with good lighting

Freshmen: Warren’s Late Nite Cafe

Gym rats: FitRec smoothie bar

Sorority members: Mother Juice

Allston crawlers: Blanchards

Questrom: Top of the Hub

CFA: You probably haven’t heard of it

CAS: Einstein Bros. Bagels

FreeP: UBurger

10 SPORTS

20 food-related questions with field hockey senior Allie Renzi

BY GREG LEVINSKY DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

5. Where do you get inspiration for recipes?

11. Is there any food that you have completely shut out of your diet?

Not only does senior field hockey player Allie Renzi have a passion for the game, she is also passionate about food and nutrition. Renzi sat down to discuss her love of food, nutrition and the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.

Mostly from cravings with junk food. I think a lot of times, as athletes, we tend to get together and be like, “Oh, let’s have Ben and Jerry’s or let’s have pizza or something like that.” So I think, “If we want to have pizza how can I make it healthier? If I want chicken fingers how can I make them healthier?”

No, I think it’s important not to do that.

You shouldn’t cut yourself off of anything.

1. Where did your passion for food come from?

I think a big part of that probably came from my parents. My parents are super healthy.

Then being a girl in this day and age and with social media a lot of eating disorders can be developed from what people see on social media. I just wanted to be someone that was helping on social media instead of hurting.

2. Growing up, what was your favorite family meal?

My dad makes amazing chicken cutlets. It’s basically chicken parm because we put sauce on it, but we just call them chicken cutlets.

3. Why did you start your Instagram, @thegrumblingtummy?

I’m really hoping that once I graduate or once I’m done playing field hockey and I can start doing promotions. I could be a promoter for different types of healthy food brands and hopefully get the chance to travel around the world and cook for different types of companies and be a recipe developer.

4. What are your short-term goals for this Instagram page?

I’m working on generating a loyal follower base. Engagement is really important when companies are looking for bloggers.

6. Is there any food that you despise?

I really don’t like raw spinach. Raw spinach really grosses me out.

7. What’s the most intricate dish you have ever made?

It’s bikini bolognese from the “Inspiralized” cookbook. I just wanted to try something off of there, there’s a lot of good ingredients in it.

8. Why is it important for someone who is not a high level athlete to eat nutritiously?

It’s your whole life. It’s your whole entire livelihood. It’s how you feel, your mood and the way it affects you is incredible. With hormones put in our food and antibiotics and all that it can affect you day-to-day without you realizing it.

9. Chipotle order, go.

I don’t like Chipotle that much. I honestly don’t know, I don’t know the ingredients there.

10. Starbucks order, go.

I don’t drink coffee either, I’m sorry.

12. What’s one nutrition fact that the average person doesn’t know that they should be aware of?

All those fad diets that have to do with cutting out carbs, cutting our protein, or say that carbs are bad. Actually, if you do not eat enough carbs then your body cannot absorb the protein the right way and it uses protein as energy instead to build muscle.

13. Do you cook for yourself, or others?

I normally cook for myself because I get nervous in front of other people, but once I get a recipe completely down pat then I’ll cook for others. Or, I’ll ask my roommates to try things like these coconut cookies I just made. I have them try them and be honest about it.

14. How important is it for you to eat healthy food that has a lot of flavor?

Nutrition comes first for me because I want it to be healthy. To be honest, not all the food I make tastes good but that’s a part of trying different things. Every recipe you make isn’t going to be 100 percent [tasty]. I do the best I can, but I haven’t been trained in any way so sometimes it’s a little rough on the eyes.

15. Who takes the pictures for your Instagram?

Me. 16. What’s the best meal you’ve shared with your team?

We went to our coaches’ lake house this preseason and we had a huge lobster bake.

It was cooked with seaweed, it was so good!

It was like your classic New England lobster bake with seaweed and mussels, hard boiled eggs and potatoes. The lobster was great and it was a fun atmosphere.

17. Who’s the pickiest eater on the team?

I think it’s Grace Boston. Not because she’s a picky but because she has a lot of food intolerances.

18. If you were to open a restaurant, what teammate would be your sous chef?

Probably one of the freshmen, Shannon Ma. She just seems like the type of person who would do a good job at anything and be in a good mood the entire time.

19. Do you like to cook?

I do enjoy cooking, and grocery shopping for that matter.

20. What would the name of your restaurant be?

The Grumbling Tummy.

Instant Replay: Brady’s book

BY SOPHIA LIPP COLUMNIST

Who has two thumbs, five National Football League rings and quite possibly the most boring life of any celebrity athlete in the professional world?

If you didn’t guess Tom Brady and his TB12 method of living, then clearly, you’ve been living under a rock for the past month.

Quite honestly, I’m not surprised that people want to read a book about Tom Brady’s life. Let’s get real, the guy is basically living every 13-year-old boy’s fantasy of playing professional sports and marrying a literal supermodel. But instead of writing an autobiography like most athletes, Brady wrote a book showcasing his ostentatious, pretentious and downright underwhelming way of life.

The book itself, proclaimed by Brady as the “athlete’s bible,” is full of diet plans, workouts and tips from the QB’s personal life. It certainly reads like the bible, with its long lists of things that you can’t do and can’t eat. But, all in all, Brady claims his peak performance comes from pliability, sugar elimination and, oh yeah, an absence of fun. He goes to bed at 9:00 p.m. every night, and his dessert of choice is avocado ice cream — and that’s only if he has a craving. I mean, what?

And yet, the Patriots fan and general NFL junkie in me wonders if maybe, Brady is actually onto something. He’s 40 years old — the prime time for an athletic meltdown, according to other QBs’ histories — and yet, he truly looks amazing out on the field. New England’s first week against Kansas City was rough, but week two against the Saints? QBs don’t perform much better than that in their whole careers, let alone their 40s.

Brady’s statistics are undeniable, and that’s without even counting the rings. Last week, he put up almost 500 yards in New Orleans. He has over 200 career wins with a winning percentage of .771. He’s been elected to the Pro-Bowl 12 times. So, who could possibly argue that this way of life

isn’t the reason that Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time?

Oh yeah, the greatest coach of all time, Bill Belichick.

Look, 40 isn’t that old. Sure, it’s certainly up there for a professional athlete, but Brady has never been one to take hits the way the Manning brothers and Andrew Luck have in their careers. Brady is smart. He barely runs, and when he does, he almost always slides to avoid a tackle. He’s also not shy about arguing with NFL refs, and better yet, winning those arguments, especially when they pertain to holding and roughing the passer. But who is the devil whispering in Brady’s ear from his shoulder, helping him make all those smart choices? Good ol’ Bill.

“We see Tom everyday,” grumbled Belichick in a recent interview. “I don’t really feel like we need to read a book.”

Brady is Boston’s hero, but just like the theater, all the magic happens behind the curtain — or, rather, behind Belichick’s clipboard. For every “GOAT!” exclamation Brady receives, Belichick should receive two, and for every book about avocado ice cream that Brady writes, Belichick should write three about strategy, ferocity and winning, winning, winning.

Belichick has this insane ability to create pro-bowl worthy players out of thin air.

Whenever a Patriots starter goes down, there’s another no-namer to seamlessly take his place.

His motto, “Do your job,” is the equivalent of Auburn’s triumphant “War eagle,” and besides the “F*ck Goodell” shirts, “Do your job” shirts are probably the most sought-after Patriots paraphernalia in existence.

FiveThirtyEight placed Brady and Belichick side by side and compared statistics on statistics on statistics. The conclusion?

We’ve never see Brady win without Belichick.

But, we’ve also never seen the Patriots implode in the absence of Brady — just ask Jimmy Garoppolo and Matt Cassel.

So, maybe the TB12 Method really is the “athlete’s bible,” or maybe it’s not. But if Brady is Jesus, Belichick is God leading him along the Superbowl-lit path.

SPORTS

11

Erin O’Neil looks to cook up some wins for BU’s women’s hockey

BY MATTHEW MARTIN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Senior assistant captain Erin O’Neil can often be found between the goalposts in the Walter Brown Arena, but when she is not blocking shots, she can be found in the kitchen.

The Minnetonka, Minnesota native said that she has been interested in cooking her whole life.

“I’ve been in the kitchen since before I could reach the counter,” O’Neill said. “I got this fond memory of my dad and I in the kitchen cooking and I’m up on like a stepstool and helping him cut stuff and I can’t even reach the counter and I’m already helping my dad out in the kitchen.”

O’Neil said her parents, Bob and Lori, are the biggest inspirations for her when it comes to cooking.

“My dad’s side of the family is really into cooking,” O’Neil said. “My mom and my dad both love cooking so we’re a food forward family.”

Her coach, Brian Durocher, said he is excited about his goaltender’s aspirations to be a chef.

“I’m excited that people find things they love,” Durocher said. “You know how many times people go through school and they may have a defined degree in the end but it still may or may not be the thing they want to do. Right now she’s pretty excited, I think she’s found something she’s enjoyed.”

Among the most challenging meals she has ever cooked was a combined birthday present for her parents, O’Neil said.

“I did an eight-course meal at my house which was ridiculous and probably dumb looking back at it,” O’Neil said. “It was so much fun … There was one dessert, and a bunch of random courses. All together that was the toughest thing I’ve ever done cooking wise.”

O’Neil said that even though she has been cooking a lot of Asian food recently, her favorite foods to cook are “down home American” foods such as fried chicken and burgers. In the past, she worked in a kitchen called Travail, a restaurant that prepares a 16-course tasting menu every night.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life but I put my nose in there and worked as hard as I could and did everything I could to help … I think it’s the same thing for me in hockey,” O’Neil said. “I’ve made my career of working hard and doing what I can to help the team.”

O’Neil started playing hockey in kindergarten when she played both goalie and out. She said that she made the transition to goalie full time when she was in third grade.

Before she was a member of the Terriers, O’Neil had a successful playing career. She was a member of Team USA that finished second at the IIHF World Women’s U18 Championship and the 2014 recipient of the Let’s Play Hockey Senior Goalie of the Year, which is presented annually to the top Minnesota senior goalie in girls’ high school hockey. She was also named to the USA Today All-America Team in 2014.

Durocher said that O’Neil has characteristics that stand out to him on the ice.

“She’s a well-educated goaltender, she’s had good coaches that taught her well, she talks a lot out there on the ice,” Durocher said. “Her big thing is she sometimes doubts herself a little or doubts what she’s doing just a little and that can’t happen. Late in her sophomore year she had a nice run where she did say ‘you’re not getting one by me’... and that sort of needs to be her mindset all the time.”

During her time as a Terrier, she has also continued to play well. She was twice named a member of the Hockey East All-Academic Team, and twice named the Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week and a member of the Hockey East All-Tournament Team in 2016.

She was voted by her teammates to serve as an assistant captain for the 2017-18 season.

Durocher said that O’Neil is somebody who stood out as a player in his locker room last season.

“It’s a proud moment when you get named a captain,” he said. “It obviously signals that you’ve got leadership capabilities. Your teammates have respect for you. But at the same time it has responsibilities that aren’t easy ... A good captain is somebody who leads by example … Erin stood out.”

O’Neil echoed her coach’s sentiments,

PHOTO COURTESY CRAIG HOUTZ

Senior Erin O’Neil discusses how she balances her two passions — cooking and playing hockey.

remembering how appreciative she was to be named a captain.

“It was a really really big honor for me, a lot of my good friends have been captains,” she said. “We have a wall of captains up by the staircase, so when you walk in past that, it’s been a motivating factor for me.

This has been something I’ve wanted since I got here.”

O’Neil will enter her senior season with a 20-11-4 record, including wins over multiple

ranked teams. Durocher said she will more than likely be in net for the team’s first game on Saturday.

“I feel that it’s important to give your upperclassmen the first chance, the first opportunity,” Durocher said. “She’s experienced, she’s played enough, she knows her way around … I hope that will be a good shot, a good start and a good run to a very good final season.”

Nicole Havens contributed to the reporting of this article.

BU nutritionist discusses relationship between food, sports

BY OLIVIA O’BRIEN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Some people think that a healthy diet is associated with achieving fitness goals.

However, not everyone is sure what healthy diets actually consist of. Every athlete has different routines and diets, but when you’re a Division I varsity athlete sports nutritionists are crucial to attain peak athletic performance.

At Boston University, the Sargent Choice

Nutrition Center offers individual conferences, seminars and workshops with practicing sports nutritionists to ensure that BU athletes find success on the field with good eating habits.

Through partnering with BU athletics, nutritionists collaborate directly with athletes and coaches to ensure that players of all different sports teams get educated on nutrition that tailors to their direct sport.

Joan Salge Blake is a clinical associate professor at BU’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She said that it

PHOTO BY DANIEL GUAN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Sarget College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences is home to BU’s nutrition program.

“depend[s] upon the athlete and the sport” when recommending food groups for individuals.

According to her website, Salge Blake has appeared on CBS The Early Show, CNN, Pure Oxygen, NBC News in Boston, CBS News New York and Boston, Chronicle, Sirius XM Radio and other television and radio talk shows to talk about the relationship between food and sports performance.

Depending on the sport, whether it’s soccer, basketball or ice hockey, individuals need oneon-one attention to figure out how food will impact their own play, Salge Blake said.

“It depends upon the activity that your fueling for,” Salge Blake said. “This is why it’s really, really important for someone to sit down with a sports-certified registered dietitian nutritionist.”

According to Salge Blake, it makes a noticeable difference if an athlete does more sprinting types of activities or long endurance type of activities. Thus, a student athlete who runs sprints for the track and field team must each certain times of food in comparison to a student athlete who swims 400 meter races.

Salge Blake stressed that it is important for an athlete’s performance to fuel their body correctly at all times before, during and after participating in practice or playing in a game.

She also noted that it is crucial that an athlete must be aware of their nutrition at all times, even when they’re not active, since it a balanced diet is beneficial to maintain throughout the year.

“We also want to make sure that in between matches or games that you sustain a good diet to keep on fueling the body for practices to get ready for a big game,” Salge Blake said.

While many might say their high performance is due to their genetics, Salge Blake said it takes more than pure skill and their genetic makeup to bring forth good results on the field, pitch, rink or pool and that starts with what an athlete puts in their body.

The sooner an athlete becomes regimented with a healthy diet, the better, Salge Blake said.

But she said it is never too late to make a beneficial change, which is why nutritionists at the Sargent Choice Nutrition Center welcome athletes to help educate themselves on this useful and applicable research for their lives.

In any realm of sports-nutrition concerns like hydration, healthy fueling, recovery, injury prevention and dietary supplements, nutritionists like Salge Blake are at hand at BU to ensure that athletes are ready for a successful season.

“You have to fill the body with good food and nutrients to perform at peak performance. It is beyond just genetic, and more that you have to not only need to feed the body with great nutrition and hydration prior to the performance, but during the performance depending upon the length of your performance, and also most importantly, post performance,” Salge Blake said.

Nicole Havens and Matthew Martin contributed to the reporting.

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