Spring 2020: The Green Issue

S P R I N G

THE

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GREEN ISSUE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MANAGING EDITOR EDITORIAL STAFF

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS CREATIVE DIRECTOR DESIGN STAFF

PHOTO DIRECTOR PHOTOSHOOT SUPERVISORS PHOTO STAFF DIGITAL CONTENT DIRECTOR DIGITAL TEAM

CULINARY DIRECTOR CULINARY TEAM

MARKETING DIRECTOR MARKETING TEAM FINANCE DIRECTOR FINANCE TEAM

WEBMASTER COMMUNICATIONS

Xander Gottfried Grace Leahy Louis Hoffman, Sarah Finkelstein, Justine Seo, Sophie Quaglia, Leah Wang, Kelsey Warren, Helen Wu, Yana Yadav Melissa Ogle Saranya Das Sharma Malia Kealaluhi Jonah Charlton, Lily Druker, Ryan McLaughlin, Donna Liu, Hailie Goldsmith, Sonia Shah, Sharon Kuo, Eli Nathan, Jacqueline Bruder, Alaina Chou Emily Yao Justine de Jesus, Alan Jinich, Peter Ribeiro Christy Wu, Frankie Li, Jean Chaoiro , Erica Xin, Minna Zheng, Ria Vieira, Danielle Gin, Alaina Chou Shaila Lothe Janet Lee, Emily Liu, Michelle Kwon, Sophie Meinen, Julia Lammers, Shreya Subramanian, Jasper Huang, Yasmine Mezoury, Samuel Kesler Alyssa Furukawa Lisa Moshiro, Alan Dai, Ryan Dharma, Lulu Schmitt, Aliris Tang, Jessie Zou, Sharon Dong, Yujung Lee, Sydney Sariol, Matthew Li, Max Tsiang, Grant Li, Margaret Drummond, Sarah Bernstein, Alex Kassouni Elle Cagnoli Ilyssa Delos Reyes, Liam Cook, Sylvia Goldfond, Melissa Plambeck , Daniel Huynh, Chae Kim, Frankie Li Diya Sethi Chloe Barshay, Ben Kreuzer, Rebecca Wirtschafter, Eli Adler, Ashley Leoni, Christine Zhang, Michelle Yeung, Alina Zhao, Rebecca Jiang Lisa Yang Maggie Tang

SOCIAL IMPACT CHAIR

Stephanie Yoon

SOCIAL IMPACT STAFF

Ashley Kim, Nancy Zhu, Grant Li, Julia Fiedor

EVENTS CHAIR

Josephine Cheng

EVENTS STAFF

Sahitya Mandalapu, Allison Chen, Anna Oros

Foreword: We’re approaching the six-month mark since COVID-19 took 20.5 million Americans’ jobs — 5.5 million of which were in the restaurant industry. And while Center City streets are full of tables and chairs and DoorDash drivers, many restaurants and small businesses remain shuttered.

Penn Appétit cannot ignore the massive ripples that have been caused by not just COVID-19, but by Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements. We have seen industry leaders held accountable and black-owned businesses highlighted, but we continue to see increased food insecurity and disproportionate injustices against minority communities. Across the board, we have a ways to go.

We as a publication will aim to stay lished in April of 2020. Now it’s Sepas informed and as transparent as pos- tember, but it remains pressing. Since sible by 1) seeking to educate ourselves Philadelphians have been in quaranand readers, and 2) taking bigger steps tine, they’ve produced 30% more resto engage with the community of Phil- idential waste — much of it food. We adelphia by working with and spotlight- wanted to publish our still-relevant maing underrepresented chefs, restaurants, terial (produced either pre-quarantine and businesses. or socially-distanced) so that we could COVID-19 isn’t over, and its effects are begin to look to the future. far from gone. We need to support each As we continue to spend more time other however possible. So maybe make at home than usual, it is critical that a reservation at that place you drove by we learn to be good to the earth, be last week. If you aren’t comfortable go- good to each other, and be good to ing out, order in. Wear your mask when- ourselves. ever you interact with your server or deliverer. Find some cool merch. Like and All the best, share on social media. Smile from under Penn Appétit your mask. (People can tell.)

The Green Issue would’ve been pub- Board

Letter from the Editor One thing remained consistent across the many houses that endured our family of six — everything happened at the kitchen counter. In the mornings, we sipped from mismatched mugs. At night, we crammed together to do our homework and talk to Mom. When I go home now, we catch up over dirty dishes, while blasting seventies karaoke. During the workweek, we’d eat peanut butter crackers with Dad on his lunch break.

So, when my childhood best friend Eamon makes the trip to check out my family’s new home, it’s only natural that we settle in at the kitchen counter, flanked floor-to-ceiling by Mom’s motivational signs. He’d spent a semester in Germany studying environmental science, and we’re getting the play-by-play.

Mom, ever-attentive, turns on the stove and whisks a bowl of eggs under her arm. (My sister, an “aspiring vegan,” opts for some leftovers.) A few minutes later, she doles out the paper plates, precursing with, “I know, I know. The girls always give me a hard time for these, but I promise this is the last time. I always recycle them.”

Eamon looks up, and mutters: “Actually, those can’t be recycled.” Mom freezes. “What?” Her jaw drops as Eamon explains, and this single thread of conversation lasts us hours, covering everything from the eco-friendly Germans to “that vegan pro-athlete in The Game Changers.” We’re shocked to find out how many thousands of liters of water go into a pound of beef, and how the average meal travels over a thousand miles from factory to table.

For my first semester as managing editor, I thought we should put food, something of both survival and excess, back into the context of where it comes from — our planet — and put the issue of sustainability back in our minds and on our kitchen counters.

Here’s to being green!

Grace

M E N U Masthead Foreword Letter from the Editor What We Are Watching On Green Wine The Herb Controversy Portion Sizes: A Problem Verde: Taste of Home Treat Your Greens Beyond Meat Meet the Plastics It’s Not Easy Being Green Cinnamon Pecan Zucchini Bread Pancake Recipe Milk-Made

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Soy Milk Recipe

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Green Juics: As Green As It Seems?

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It’s a Match(a)!

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Basil Green Apple Macaron Recipe

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Sustainable Check: Meal Kits

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All-or-Nothing Veganism

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Throw Away Wasteful Living

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Green Onions Four Ways

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Bar Bombón

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Let’s Talk Tofu

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Quiet Hunger: The Issue of Food Insecurtiy

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Sustainable Products

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Zoodles n’ Kale Pesto Recipe

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Truths & Trends of Farm-to-Table Eating

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Spoiler Alert: Mold Isn’t So Bad

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Vedge: Victory for Vegetables

Missed a semester? Didn’t go to Penn?

All of our past issues are online! issuu.com/pennappetit

hillstone.com/careers

BY RACHEL WECHSLER ILLUSTRATION BY MALIA KEALALUHI

M

ost of us who end the week by launching Netflix, opt to rewatch an old favorite or scroll through the “Recently Added” tab in hopes that another iconic movie or series has made its way onto our computer screens. But a few weeks ago, in anticipation of the Green Issue, I pivoted away from my habitual reruns and clicked Sustainable, a documentary I’d been eyeing for ages.

Sustainable isn’t about the logistics of sustainability and the technology that both obstructs and permits progress, but rather it’s about nurturing our food and the places from where it came. Within the first few minutes, the James Beard Award recipient Chef Rick Bayless appears on the screen and asks a question that sets up the progression of the movie: “How am I going to make great food if I don’t have any connection to the people that are growing that food?”

Sixty years ago, the norms that surrounded agriculture promoted a relationship between consumer and farmer. There was a strong bond between people’s produce and where it came from. They knew where it was grown, and they knew exactly what was in the foods that they bought. There was no veil of bright neon-packaging that promised the consumer “low-fat!” and “sugar-free!”. But that was before the era of processed food, and the massively industrialized plants that reproduce fruits in a highly efficient, yet unsustainable way. This system uses agriculture to cultivate a profit, promoting quantity over quality and efficiency over sustainability.

But the external costs of these industrial farming plants are far more drastic than one might think: in 2019, Agriculture was the number two cul-

prit in climate change. The agricultural market is often about yield; pillaging the soil and diluting the crop to get as much product as possible. But these methods aren’t sustainable. Although it is the foundation of all food and plant life, we lose around 6.9 tons of soil every year because of erosion. At this rate, many of our farms have been degraded and destroyed. Through erosion, nutrient runoff, and the overuse of resources, it is the agricultural industry that is responsible for advancing pollution and accelerating climate change.

The problem is that we don’t put a price-tag on environmental damage.

We’ve gotten so distant from food that we only think about it as a commodity.

But it is so much more than that; it’s our nourishment, a conduit for human interaction, a building block for community and culture. How do we regenerate our soil so that it can produce food for future generations? How do we shift the way that food is produced in our country?

These are the questions that the farmers and chefs are trying to answer in Sustainable. Through mutual collaboration, these agricultural leaders are implementing a new perspective on farms which hopes to rebuild the food system one acre at a time. “Regenerative Organic Agriculture” is the idea that trades short term gain for long term stability.

When you treat the soil with better care, you improve the agricultural efficiency by making the crops sustainable for generations instead of decades.

Sustainable illustrates a collaboration between chefs and farmers, a coalition that helps each other commit to more sustainable mechanisms. The creativity inspired by these partnerships has marketed sustainability in a delicious way, and has made food that actively helps

the agricultural system. This documentary shows us why “farm-to-table” is not just trendy but it is important, and how this new vision will continue to help feed the world for generations to come.

The Green Issue is Penn Appétit’s way of demonstrating our commitment to promoting sustainability and keeping our planet green. We aren’t the only ones taking part in the rising awareness of this issue, and there are dozens of informative new opportunities in and out of Penn Appétit. If you are interested in watching more films about climate change and the ways it is intertwined with the food industry, we have a few more recommendations:

Cowspiracy, which exposes the secrets to the most compelling environmental issues we are facing today.

Netflix Explained!: “The Future of Meat” is a twenty-three minute documentary that exposes the unsustainable reality of the United States’ meat production facilities.

The Game Changers, which combines the knowledge of a UFC fighter and several acclaimed scientists to figure out the real impacts of meat on the human diet.

Wasted! The Story of Food Waste was Anthony Bourdain’s production that centers around the 1.3 billion tons of food that are wasted each year.

Along with other filmmakers, Bourdain explores the reasons behind this mass amount of waste and searches for potential solutions.

On

GREEN e

BY LEAH WANG PHOTOS BY ALAINA CHOU

A

Win

t second glance (since the first was wasted by my weak eyes in searing light), Portugal is just miles and miles of sunshine and blue sky, palm trees and heaps of people jammed into the busy parking lot of the Lisbon airport. Our Uber driver takes one look at my baggy eyes and baggier bags. “Tourist?” He spends the ensuing car ride squeezing through tiny, near-vertical streets and explaining what he loves most about his city. As I get out, he gives me one last piece of tourist advice: “In Lisboa, you eat pastéis de nata, gelato, and drink vinho verde, okay?”

First things first: Vinho Verde means green wine, but the wine itself isn’t actually green – just named after the region in which it’s produced. It’s really only common in Portugal, but it’s really common there. In my six weeks, green wine showed up on almost every menu, lunch to dinner, fancy to hole-in-the-wall, and had its own shelf in every grocery store that dotted my neighborhood.

I was in Portugal for two months to take a class, but I can’t attest to how much I actually learned. All I can tell you is that the country is definitely worth a visit, if only for the incredible variety of flavors that live there. One week in, I’d completed two of the three tasks the Uber driver had set out: I tried the famous pastéis de nata (like an egg tart, but divine) and ate gelato five times a week (how I met the one great love of my life: stracciatella). But I’d been too busy taking advantage of all the exciting cocktails that Lisbon offered – mojitos and tequila shots and Sex on the Beach – to seek out green wine. I spent my weekend distracted by Lisbon clubs, robotically bobbing my head to foreign European music and trying to convince myself the one dress I’d brought didn’t look that out of place among all the fancy Portguese clothes.

The next weekend, my classmates and I branched out a little, venturing to the beach to battle five million summertime tourists for a dinner table. While we waited, we ordered a few pitchers of Green Sangria – vinho verde mixed with green grapes, lime, and mint – and played Uno. That first sip of green wine was bright and foreign, accompanied by the fizzy feeling of making new friends.

Green wine is usually a white wine, but it can also come as red or rosé, since the only defining qualifier is that it’s made in the Vinho Verde region. Most varieties, however, share a unique bubbly taste, which comes from the carbon dioxide that gets trapped during the bottling process. Technically, this is considered a wine fault, but it works so well with the light, tart taste of fruit and flowers that winemakers now add carbonation artificially. Green wine is actually “green” in one sense of the word: it’s young, released only months after the grapes are harvested, and thus typically pretty light on the alcohol content. Because of its fizziness, it’s a wine paired well with seafood, at lunchtime, or in the summer.

For me, though, that bubbly, tangy taste is best served with a new place and new faces. I won’t ever be able to reassemble that enchanting summer in Portugal, but I did find a bottle of Vinho Verde in Penn’s very own liquor store. Each sip brings me back to that last day in July – green grass and green wine, paper cups and paper cards, knees and feet and smiles joined as a circle in the most beautiful place on Earth.

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THE HER CONTRO HERBS? HARD PASS

BY XANDER GOTTFRIED Does anyone really, truly, enjoy herbs? Or have we all just been tricked into thinking they’re amazing? My hot take? We’ve all been hoodwinked.

Don’t try telling me herbs are for crunch, too, Louis!

To start, herbs are a pain to buy, clean, store, and use. Unless we’re buying dried herbs—and we want our stews to taste stale—herbs are a hassle.

If we don’t dry our herbs right away, they’ll immediately rot in their own water, suffocated by their plastic bag until mushy and brown. But try to take away the plastic, you ask? Instantaneous wiltage, satisfaction 100% guaranteed or your money back.

Let’s say our herbs made it through shopping and storage and now we’re ready to cook. Here’s a question: to wash, or not to wash. We’re told to wash our lettuce, but how would one even wash, say, a chive? Way too floppy. Awkward situation all the way around. The restaurant cook in me says not to wash: if they’re dripping with water before chopping, instead of distinct flecks, we’ll end up with a freshly-mown-grass mush.

But let’s say we do wash. Time to dry. We could either give them a violent shake back and forth, flinging water over every available surface and losing a handful of stray leaves along the way (think: wet dog), or, we could pull out the salad spinner. One Whole Production later, we have a bunch of dry herbs (yippee!) and a bunch of herbs stuck in between the grates of the salad spinner basket. Try picking those out.

Cooking time! The best part. Time to whip out your sharpest knife—I’m sure you went to culinary school, so rock out those chiffonade skills, it’s time to get to work. However you chop your herbs, make sure to toss the stems: they’re crunchy and get stuck in people’s teeth.

(Whoops, I guess half of what we paid for just got thrown out!)

Now that we all know how amazing cooking with herbs is, I’d like to conclude with a list of first impressions of a handful of common herbs. Spoiler alert: no one wins.

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Louis Hoffman most especially.

RB OVERSY HERBS? YES PLEASE

BY LOUIS HOFFMAN

“Herbs are the friend of the physician and the pride of cooks.”

- Charlemagne Yeah, Xander. People do like herbs. That “hot take” of yours - it’s not just hot. It’s f***ing scalding - not to mention, false.

Every culture’s cuisine has its own unique set of herbs that serves to take a dish the extra step towards gustatory bliss. For the Greeks, it’s a healthy combination of parsley, mint, marjoram, and dill. In Vietnam, expect plenty of lemongrass, culantro, and sweet basil. Herbs are universal, and a necessary foundation and/or garnish to many dishes. Let’s break down why.

Herbs have two primary functions: taste and color.

Taste. It’s pretty simple: herbs make nice on your tastebuds. Depending on the herb, they can add a fresh component to an otherwise heavy dish (think: bright chimichurri spooned on top of thickly-sliced ribeye), or delicate and rustic undertones in a meal (sage butter under the skin of a Thanksgiving turkey). Despite what my herb-adverse friend Xander says, you in fact can use herb stems for a number of things. Reduce your waste by chopping up some cilantro stems and throwing them into your guacamole or pico de gallo. Flavor your chicken stock with leftover parsley stalks. Spend less thyme hating on herbs and spend more learning how to use them.

Second, color. Simple, but underappreciated. Herbs are green. Bright green. When done tastefully, they can boost the plating of a meal exponentially. Just imagine what the slightest sprinkle of chives could do to boost the appeal of a plate of eggs benedict — Green Eggs and Ham that would make Dr. Seuss proud. Herbs appeal to the senses, providing refreshing taste, aesthetic, scent, and texture.

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You can sprinkle it on top of your food like the *chef* you truly are, or throw it into soup as a bouquet garni to add *flavor*. Bouquet what? I prefer roses, thank you very much.// Pretty standard, but pretty good. Mainly about adding balance to a dish.

And definitely the epitome of “fresh.”

Gingerly sticks hand in air: Ever heard of me?

Anyone? Louis?

//I don’t know what this is either, but I bet it’s pretty dope.

Mint chip is by far the best ice cream flavor, but I take my mint exclusively with frozen dairy. // What are you talking about? Mint ice cream doesn’t even taste like mint. But garden mint ice cream will rock your world.

Tarragon Parsley

Mint Pick the leaves from the stems? Yes please, I’d love to spend my next hour doing that. Missed a stray stem? You have a literal branch stuck in your teeth at your romantic, splurge-y steak dinner, but, oh well.//As Gordon Ramsay has shown, no butter-basted steak is complete without some garlic and fresh thyme. Thyme is subtle and elegant, unlike Mr. Gottfried’s article.

Only an honorary herb. Actual professionals disagree on whether or not it has flavor. //More like “bae” leaf. Yeah, I made that joke twice.

Fight me bro. A requisite ingredient in all soups and stews.

Thyme

YES PL HA

Bay Leaf Oregano

Rosemary

Just go pick a branch off your old Christmas tree, why dontcha, and see if you like the taste of that!!

You only ever find it dried, already a major con. Sprinkle on takeout pizza or bust. Everywhere else, totally uncalled for.//I think you mean, “orega-yes” — take some fresh oregano and crumble that s**t onto literally anything Italian. A pizza fresh from the woodfired oven. Some rigatoni with sausage ragù.

Endless potential.

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Question for you Louis: do people like woodsy food? //I’d like to father Rosemary’s Baby. It’ll give your pork or potatoes that woodsy, rustic vibe that you’re looking for. Be careful not to overuse it — Xander, take notes — but nothing perfumes a dish quite like some fresh rosemoney$$.

Okay, so purple basil is legit cool, but the regular stuff is only good on pizza, charred past all recognition. (Pesto just means “pounded” in Italian, so...)//More like “bae-sil.” Italians love it. They say tomatoes and basil form the best duo since Mario and Luigi. Legend even has it that the red and green in the Italian flag are meant to symbolize these two…

That awkward cousin we never talk about.

Was super hip back in the ‘80s or something, but now just washed out. // See left but with curls.

There are two types of people at Penn: those who think cilantro tastes like soap, and those who simply put up with it because, “Mexican food.”

You can’t even tell it apart from parsley and then OH NO IT’S TOO LATE soap mouth ;( // I won’t fight you if you don’t like cilantro. I know there are plenty of you out there. But when you’re a staple of Mexican, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Indian, Mediterranean, and Southeast Asian cooking, you must be doing something right.

Curly Parsley Basil

EASE/ R D PA S S

Cilantro Chives

ILLUSTRATIONS BY DONNA LIU

Dill

Sage

It’s furry!? But actually low-key a darkhorse candidate for best herb on this list.//Ok so yeah, I also think dill is kind of gross.

Cursed to garnish every *cheffy* plate that ever existed. Excellent way of disguising the mediocre, so please proceed with caution. Bane of every line cook’s existence ever. You try slicing two quarts of chives for service.

Thin. No, thinner. // Chive cream cheese on an everything bagel.

Maybe throw a little nova lox on that baby, with some thick juicy beefsteak tomato slices, a little cucumber, red onion… someone stop me before I lose my mind.

Um, is that mold? Or fuzz?

If it’s not frizzled in brown butter I have absolutely no idea how to cook it. (Also tastes like soap, but probably because soap companies intentionally make sage scented soap. So. Not. Helpful.)// A wise sage once told me how delicious he was. I proceeded to eat him and I agreed.

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Portion A PROBLEM

izes...

S

BY YANA YADAV, ILLUSTRATION BY MALIA KEALALUHI You’ve heard about it. People complain about it. But is it really true? And if it is true, what are the consequences?

No, I’m not talking about UFOs, the Russians, or Climate Change. I’m talking about portion sizing. We often blame it for America’s issue with obesity, however, its ecological effects are formidable and irreversible. Don’t believe me? I’ve observed this from across the Atlantic. I have that outsiders’ perspective: an exchange student from New Delhi, living in London, and now studying here at Penn.

No exaggeration: the first thing I noticed when I came to the states was the difference in portion sizes. I expected a difference, but indeed there is a BIG one. Upon my first visit to the on-campus Pret, it was clear that I was not in London anymore. It wasn’t just the heartbreaking fact that my beloved foods weren’t on the menu, but the realization that a salad box was double the size I was used to. I’d never be able to finish it in one sitting. I’d be wasting half of it.

To put this margin in perspective here’s a simple example: Since 1998, the average size of a bowl of pasta has more than doubled its calorie count, from 500 calories to 1025. Though it’s all the same ingredients, it’s double the size. A universal issue, excessive portioning is very much central to America.

The average American is bigger than the average European (14% margin in obesity rates), and it isn’t genetics... It just comes down to portion control.

Going big or going home mentality of portion sizes may result in all of us not having a home. Smaller portion sizes will better your health and let you

live longer, but they’ll also lend the world a few years. This portion sizing issue’s direct consequence is food waste. The food structure is the largest consumer of natural resources and emitter of greenhouse gases. A third of all food produced is NOT consumed, which means that the energy used to produce it such as water, light and land are wasted. The United States aside from being the leader in many great fields happens to also be the leader in food waste. About 3040 per cent of food supply is wasted.

Most of this food waste can come from over purchasing.

The takeaway here is that it is actually the fast-food chains that indulge in large portion sizes. The appeal of reduced cost for a large portion is understandably attractive when you have bills to pay, so here’s what you can do while being cheap but also keeping yourself cheery.

First, sharing is caring. Split the meal if you can to avoid food waste. If that’s not your vibe, go for the saving method.

There is a reason everything is served in takeaway boxes. Split your meal with yourself: divide one Chipotle burrito bowl or an Ivy leaf salad between lunch and dinner or even breakfast for the next morning. If you’re an absolute legend and you cook at home serve yourself in individual plates that way you can gage how much you actually need to consume and how much less (or more) you need to prepare for.

Climate change is real and food is scarce.

This is just a small step in the right direction.

Written above are only about a small per cent of the facts that tell you the adverse effects of food waste, so here’s what we at Penn can do to help.

The options on campus are limited, regardless, here’s where small portions rule in retail: Retail: - HM Street cart for a health kick with regular portion sizing.

- Ginger@Spruce! for a regular bowl of rice.

- Bento for a sufficient helping of sushi at Bento.

- Starbucks is best for a quick bite with its bite-sized eggs and garb and go breakfast sandwiches.

- Pret soups, sandwiches and wraps are controlled in portions and delicious. plus can you beat that cute box of mac and cheese?

Dining Hall Etiquette: Follow one simple rule: take small portions, less is more?

Return for seconds. This will help you gauge the amount of food you will actually consume and nothing will go to waste.

Off-Campus : Head to Franklin’s Table: most stalls here specialise in one or two dishes and have great portions.

Goldie gives you a delicious but controlled portion of sandwiches and salads.

Double Knot lets you mix and match sushi boxes and rice bowls.

High Street Provisions provides the perfect sized sandwiches and salads plus meal combos!

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VERDE TH E

TAST E

O F

H OME

BY MELISSA OGLE PHOTO BY MALIA KEALALUHI Ascending the weathered stairs of our family’s home, I could smell the distinct aroma of bitter Andean café brewing in our kitchen and, from the sizzle of the frying pan, I knew that my mother was making bolones de verde — fried green plantains. My grandpa and uncle gathered around our family-style table, slowly peeling papayas, patiently waiting for the coffee to stop dripping and, most importantly, the bolones to develop their distinctive outer crust.

It was a special morning. Normally, my mother and I would have strolled the cobbled streets of Quito to our favorite cafeteria.This morning, though, my grandfather had an art exhibition, so we wouldn’t be able to follow our normal routine. Knowing how much I loved my café con bolón de verde, Mom had decided to make it at home.

It’s a laborious process marked by boiling, mashing, chopping, sculpting, and frying the balls of plantain filled with cheese and chicharron -- but it wouldn’t feel like an Ecuadorian morning to me without it.

For me, bolones are the taste of my roots; the delicate crust and salty, mashed inside softened with a sip of coffee brings back childhood memories of my grandfather’s native Ecuador. Over the years, though, through traveling and meeting new friends, I’ve come to realize that verde tastes

like home to people all around the world. From West Africa to the Caribbean to India, plantain is an ingredient we have in common.It can be boiled, fried, grilled, mashed, sliced, or cubed.

It can be served by itself or simmered in stew. There’s no doubt that it’s a versatile fruit, but how is it that the green banana came to be such an integral part of so many geographically diverse cuisines?

Turns out, the history of plantain is as complex as its applications. Despite its widespread use, plantain is believed to be indigenous to Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands where there’s evidence of its cultivation upwards of 8,000 years ago. While it remains uncertain whether plantains originated in Oceania and spread to mainland Southeast Asia or vice versa, it is clear that they were brought to East Africa long enough ago for indigenous African varieties to develop. From there, Arab traders, especially with the advent of Islam, spread plantain from Eastern Africa to the Northern and Western regions of the continent. Europe first got a taste of the green fruit when the Moors brought it to Spain during their rule. However, it wasn’t the Spanish, but the Portuguese that first introduced bananas and plantains from Africa to the Americas.From Brazil, they meandered their way to other coastal

areas in South America while simultaneously being transported to the Caribbean islands and Central America.

The plantain has thrived in almost every tropical climate, and, by doing so, has become a regional food the world over.

The resilience of the plantain in new ecosystems has allowed it to become a locally sourced ingredient wherever it grows. In most cases, the fruit can’t travel far before it begins to turn yellow, so its green color (hence, verde) is an indication of geographic proximity.

In Ecuador, verde usually comes from the Coast where it’s an important component of coastal dishes such as tigrillo. Ripe plantains, referred to as maduro, is also delicious, but is more often used to make sweet snacks. Either way, the plantain typically doesn’t travel too far before it makes it onto the plate.

All over the globe, plantain is a part of people’s day-to-day diet, but it’s also a reminder that the foods you consume are indicative of where you come from.

To me, plantain is a food that joins the history of my heritage with Ecuador’s contemporary cuisine. It’s the taste of waking up on a crisp, Quito morning surrounded by family, talking and laughing while we sip our fresh coffee.

Verde is the taste of home.

Here’s how it’s cooked in some other countries: INDONESIA Pisang Goreng: usually battered, deep fried plantain fritter common through Southeast Asia

GHANA Kelewele: popular street snack covered with various spices and fried

NIGERIA Boli: roasted plantain served with a peppery fish stew

PHILIPPINES Turon Saba: fried plantain spring roll filled with jackfruit and topped with caramelized sugar

INDIA Kela Upkari: South Indian plantain curry

PUERTO RICO Mofongo: seasoned mashed plantain served over chicken soup and fried meat

TANZANIA Ndizi Na Nyama: plantain and beef stew

COLOMBIA Cayeye: breakfast food of mashed plantain cooked with sofrito and served with fresh grated cheese

JAMAICA Jamaican Plantain Tart: sweet pastry filled with a ripe plantain filling penn appétit 21

NEVER BOIL YOUR VEGETABLES. NEVER. NOT EVEN IF YOU HATE YOURSELF. DON’T. Parboiling and blanching are fine. Both include some minor boiling action but neither process completely cooks the greens through. Parboiling is like reverse searing, mostly cooking vegetables through to shorten the cooking time. Blanching, for those inquiring minds out there, involves immersing the greens into boiling water for a few minutes before immediately shocking them into an ice bath to halt the cooking process and getting rid of any residual heat. This brightens the vegetable itself, both in regards to taste and color, and removes some of the toughness and can town down the earthiness.

Let’s start with function. Greens are used in dishes not only for their nutritional value, but because they can balance out dishes with their texture, color, and taste. As for flavor, the lightness and peppery-earthy flavor of greens like arugula and mustard greens often serve as a way to cut through the richness and fattiness of a dish. They’re also a great way to add acid to a plate by dressing them lightly with a squeeze of lemon juice or with a vinaigrette.

Leafy Greens:

Cooking Greens:

Cabbage Greens:

Leafy greens include mesclun, spinach, arugula (or rocket), mustard greens, and lettuce. These greens don’t necessarily need to be cooked and can be eaten raw, generally in salads or as garnish for brightness.

If you’re not into raw, these greens can be thrown into soups and cooked in the residual heat of the pot. They can also be mellowed out by sauteing them, which makes spinach, for instance, more palatable.

The tough, dark, fibrous greens (kale, collard greens, and mustard greens) which, as the name suggests, need a bit of tender love and care before they’re usually more palatable. Their thinness can make roasting too intense for these greens, but kale and collard greens can withstand baking in an oven to make chips. Blanching and sauteing are all great methods to soften these greens and take the bite out of them.

Cabbage greens include the typical green and red cabbages, but also napa cabbage, bok choy, and brussel sprouts. Because of their density and, typically, high water content, these vegetables are the epitome of why you shouldn’t be boiling your greens. They have a great texture and can be crisped up by baking or roasting. For a gentler option, steaming and sauteing these greens will soften them up without making them mushy.

Do: Eat raw, sauté, and add to soup Don’t: Boil, blanch, steam, or roast

Do: Bake, blanch, and sauté Don’t: Boil, steam, or roast

Do: Eat raw, sauté (excluding brussel sprouts), bake, roast, and steam Don’t: Boil! Never!

Ribbed Greens:

Root Greens:

These greens are those leafy fellows with tough stems that run through the entire leaf. In most cases, it’s best to prepare these greens by separating the ribs from the leaves and cooking them separately when possible, due to personal preference, or starting on the rib before adding in the leaves.

The greens of root vegetables! It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to find out that the tops of root vegetables such as turnips and carrots are edible too.

These can be treated just like leafy greens and make great additions to salads or pestos.

Do: Blanch, sauté, and roast (ribs) Don’t: Boil or steam

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Do: Eat raw (cut), sauté Don’t: Boil, steam, or roast

TR

e

a

T

Y O U R

Re N S G e

BY SARAH BERNSTEIN ILLUSTRATION BY MALIA KEALALUHI

Beyond Meat

Sloppy Joes RECIPE BY ALYSSA FURUKAWA PHOTO BY ALAINA CHOU Ingrgedients:

1 package beyond meat ground “beef” or 1 bag of beyond meat beefy crumbles 1 can tomato sauce 1 small to medium white or yellow onion, diced 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced 1 tbsp tomato paste ¼ cup ketchup 1 tbsp dijon mustard Juice of ½ lemon or lime 1 tbsp brown sugar 1 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper For assembly: Martin’s potato rolls Sliced cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice) Half a red onion, sliced ¾ cup of red wine vinegar Before starting the meat, place the sliced red onions in a bowl with the red wine vinegar. These will create a “quick pickle” as you make the rest of the dish.

Start by browning the beyond meat in a pan with some olive oil.

Use a wooden spoon to tear apart the meat into little chunks.

Once browned, after approx. 5 min, add the onion and minced garlic to the pan. Cook until onions soften and become translucent.

Add the tomato paste. Stir and cook until tomato paste is distributed into the meat.

Add ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, and lemon/lime juice. Stir to combine.

Add tomato sauce until desired thickness. (I recommend adding about 25-50% of the can to start, stirring, letting it cook, thicken, and combine with the meat. If you want it more saucy, add more tomato sauce, stir, and let thicken again until desired sauciness. I added about 75% of the tomato sauce can.)

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Toast your buns in the toaster or on a pan. Add the cheese at the end of toasting to let it melt slightly.

Assemble the sandwich by placing sloppy-joe filling onto the bun, topping with pickled red onions to finish.

24 penn appétit

M E E T

T H E

PLASTICS PLASTICS PLASTICS PLASTICS PLASTICS

BY JUSTINE SEO PHOTO BY FRANKIE LI

A

case of the freshman plague kept me in bed for 72 hours earlier this semester, and like any sick, sedentary teen, I ordered a substantial amount of Door Dash to minimize any exposure to the outside world. After I got better, I washed out all the plastic containers my food had come in, only to realize that most of them weren’t recyclable. When I looked at the mountain of styrofoam and plastic utensils around me, I was confronted with the harsh reality that my week of delivery had really hurt the environment.

The restaurant industry is responsible for an exorbitant amount of waste in the form of single-use plastics and other non-recyclable waste. According to WRAP, a waste research company, the food service and hospitality industry produces about 2.87 million tons of food and plastic waste per year. To keep ingredients from spoiling, they use tons of plastic wrap. For both sanitary and convenience reasons, restaurants go through thousands of boxes of plastic gloves, ziploc bags, and other single-use items every month. And, of course, they send out take-out and delivery items cased in styrofoam, with the nature of the service itself making it near impossible to replace containers with reusable products.

Many restaurants and cafes have already adopted some initiatives to re-

duce single-use plastic usage, such as paper straws and strawless lids. While these are moves in the right direction, restaurants still produce a lot of waste behind the scenes. According to most places, the biggest obstacle with going waste-free is suppliers: oftentimes, they package to their own accord, using huge plastic bags to transfer a small amount of food. Because produce expires quickly, distributors often resort to wasteful but convenient practices such as putting a couple avocados in a huge plastic bag to make sure every shipment is fresh.

Going fully reusable, therefore, is no small feat. Spring, a fine dining restaurant in London, is one establishment that has tackled this challenge headon, refusing to buy from food suppliers whose ingredients come in single-use plastic and switching all their kitchen tools – such as plastic wrap and paper cups – to reusable or compostable alternatives, including beeswax and clay. Although the switch has been a hefty one, with transitions costing about $45,000, owner Skye Gyngell states that the restaurant’s move to sustainable products will end up saving them money in the long run, noting that they have already saved $2,100 from quitting industrial plastic wrap.

Groups such as the True Zero Waste Certification Program act as a guide

for restaurants to become fully sustainable, rallying for the prevention of solid, non-decomposable waste production by focusing on how restaurants can save on operational costs if they transition to sustainable practices. The numbers show that they really can—a study done on 700 food retail, hospitality, and service companies that implemented waste reduction programs showed that 99% of the companies had positive returns on their investments. If more restaurants implemented these programs, they would not just reduce their footprint immensely, but be more cost effective.

As consumers, we’re still faced with the difficulty of finding eco-friendly options when eating out. Although the most sustainable course of action is 1) avoiding restaurants that don’t have environmentally friendly practices or 2) outright quitting waste-producing services such as ordering take out, it’s difficult and inconvenient to put these into practice. Because there will always be a market for restaurants and eating out, it is up to us to define the conditions under which we will continue to support this industry. So yes, we can modify our practices, but the restaurant industry has to as well.

Changes come from within.

penn appétit 27

It’s not easy being green. I love a good steak as much as the rest of the planet. Nice medium-rare, Golden Brown Delicious crust. Actually, maybe I’ll take one that’s black and blue, nearly charred on the outside but basically rare on the in, with blood dripping down my fork, and flaky salt providing crunch and sodium. On the inside, perfectly tender yet still somehow chewy.

The marbling just warmed through so it’s supple but not rendered, coating my mouth in the most…

Alright, hold it right there Mister Carnivore. I think you’re getting carried away.

Weren’t we talking about being gre n? After all, about one quarter of yearly carbon emissions comes from the food industry, whether that’s farmers, transportation, packaging, or restaurants.

Changing what we eat can have a significant effect.

Let’s start with protein. If you eat enough calories, you’re probably getting enough protein. It’s that simple.

Rice has protein. Cauliflower has protein. It’s everywhere, and unless you’re bodybuilding, there’s no need to obsess over it. That said, protein is often the centerpiece of the meal. So how do the various proteins stack up?

Beef is the worst, to be blunt. Deforestation and flatulence are the biggest culprits when it comes to emissions.

Poultry and pork are more sustainable, but beans and nuts take the prize.

The single best choice you can make, though, is to eat less meat. Period. Full

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stop. Already planning your bean-y dinner? Awesome, so was I. Pass the sour cream, would you?

Hang on a second!

If you’re replacing meat with dairy, think again. Some cheese can be worse for the environment than pork—consider the raw material it requires and the time it takes to age (and raise those cows!).

I guess we’re going full-on vegan, then. Be right back. Just have to run to the store for some almond milk — gotta feed my milk addiction somehow!

Woah there, cowboy. Better check which alternative milk you’re buying.

While the carbon emissions for ‘plantbased beverages’ are significantly lower than those for dairy milk, many alt milks require excessive amounts of water. That almond milk you’ve been drinking? Not great. Oat and soy are more sustainable choices.

Giving up dairy was too hard. I’m reverting to pescetarian. Shrimp and grits tonite, coolio?

Seafood has its own problems.

Some—like that shrimp—have a large impact because of the fuel these large fishing boats guzzle up. Wild fish is generally a great option, but we’re approaching wild fishing capacity— there’s just not much left out there. The future of seafood is probably farmed.

It’s hard to pick the most sustainable choice, but mollusks generally get an A+. Think oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops. They’re low-carbon choices and even filter out seawater to clean

our oceans—twice the bang for your buck!

Time to stock up at Trader Joe’s.

Brown paper bags!

Kind of a shocker, but: paper bags are worse from an emissions standpoint than one of those yellow smiley-faced single-use plastic ones. You have to cut down trees! Which not only takes machinery, but also has a compounding effect of removing trees in the first place. We all know plastic bags stick around for, like, forever, so pick your battles. Get one or two tote bags and bring them everywhere you shop.

Fine. So I leave TJ’s with some meat, and a lot of green things. Organic green things. Finally, I can go home and eat in peace.

Not quite. In some cases, organic food is worse. Organic farms often require more land, more water, and more labor.

Plus, chemicals are still allowed— just different ones. To label something “organic” is an expensive luxury that many sustainable but small farms simply can’t afford. Support farmers markets if you can, but at the end of the day, it’s your ingredient choices that matter. Beef from the Philly suburbs could be worse than bananas from Chile.

It seems like it’s impossible to win.

Right? Wrong. Winning won’t happen overnight (and it won’t happen with just our food choices), but it will happen. Food is delicious. Food is complicated. Let’s just do our best to stay informed.

I T ’S N OT E A S Y

B E I N G GREEN

BY XANDER GOTTFRIED

ILLUSTRATION BY MALIA KEALALUHI

30 penn appĂŠtit

CiNnamon PeCan ZucChinI BrEad PancAkeS

BY JEAN CHAPIRO PHOTO BY ALAINA CHOU

Prep time: 10 min Cooking time: 10 min Total: 20 mins Servings: 4

Veg

an!

Ingredients Wet: 1 cup of shredded zucchini (with excess moisture removed with a paper towel) 1 large egg 2 tablespoons maple syrup, honey, or agave 1 tablespoon of melted and cooled coconut oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk ¼ cup chopped pecans (alternative: chocolate chips)

Dry: 1 cup whole wheat flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 ¼ teaspoon cinnamon ¼ teaspoon nutmeg ¼ teaspoon cardamom ¼ teaspoon salt

Dir ections 1.In a large bowl, combine whole wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and salt.

2.In another bowl, mix together the shredded zucchini, egg, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and almond milk until you get a smooth consistency.

3.Add the pecans and/or chocolate chips to the wet mix.

4.Combine the dry and wet mixtures until you create a homogenous batter.

If the batter looks too thick, add a splash more of milk. If it’s too wet, add another tablespoon of flour.

5.Coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle with coconut oil and place over medium heat.

6.When the skillet is hot, pour 1/3 cup of batter into the center (?) and

spread out a bit with a spoon if necessary. Cook until bubbles appear on top. About 1.5 minutes.

7.Flip pancakes and cook until golden brown on both sides.

8.Repeat the process with the rest of the batter.

Enjoy while warm and serve with maple syrup or topping of choice. (I recommend almond butter and cinnamon.) penn appétit 31

MILK-MADE

BY YANA YADAV, PHOTO BY DANIELLE GIN

T

hat pearly white drink that we’ve all been forced to reckon with since we were children. The thing that went from being a singular thing – a ‘whole’ thing – to having a multitude of variations. Those very variations that get on some of our nerves when others obsess over them in the Starbucks queue. The milk debate is very much one that has been at the forefront of our generation.

Let’s face it – milk is a godsend. Without it we wouldn’t have most of the foods and treats we love; cheese, yoghurt, ice-cream, and butter! It’s a versatile product found in every food product ranging from simple shakes to complex desserts and savoury dishes. Plus, it’s a college dorm staple; just buy a pint of milk with some cereal and breakfast, lunch and dinner are served!

But is milk good for you? If it is, then which one is the best for you? Not only does regular milk now differ in its quantities of fat (whole, 2% & skimmed), but there are actually other variations people may not know of within different countries – if milk refers to cow’s milk in America, some other countries rely on buffalo’s, camel’s and goat’s milk. Thus, each region has their own preference. And if this wasn’t complicated enough – the land of veganism and a movement towards healthy eating and sustainability produced one of its finest gems: the milk substitutes.

If you think you can name all of them, think again. Let’s start with the ones that have been around for a while and what the boomers may refer to as ‘real’ milk.

penn appétit 33

The OGs WHOLE> cow’s milk with full-fat content.

Nutrients; Per cup: 8 g fat 106 mg sodium, 12 g carbs, 12 g sugar, 0 g fibre, 8 g protein, 150 calories.

How it’s made: milk taken from the cow and later pasteurised and homogenized.

Taste and Texture: Creamy, heavy and naturally sweet.

Ideal for: Oatmeal Why have it: why not? It’s the tastiest and actually satiates hunger the best.

2% (SEMI-SKIMMED)>: cow’s milk with reduced fat content.

Nutrients; Per cup: 5 g fat, 125 mg sodium, 12 g carbs, 12 g sugar, 0 g fiber, 8 g protein, 122 calories.

How it’s made: whole milk is put through a cream separator and 2% of the fat removed.

Taste and Texture: smooth, rich, not too heavy.

Ideal for: Hot Chocolate Why have it: for reduced saturated fat and low cholesterol.

SKIMMED> cow’s milk with zero fat.

Nutrients: Per cup: 0 g fat, 125 mg sodium, 12 g carbs, 12 g sugar, 12 g fiber, 8 G protein, 80 calories.

How it’s made: similar to 2%, except all fat is removed.

Taste and Texture: Creamy, heavy and sweet.

Ideal for: Cereal Why have it: gives extra protein and calcium without fat.

LACTOSE-FREE> cow’s milk without glucose.

Nutrients: Per cup: 5 g fat, 115 mg sodium, 12 g carbs, 12 g sugar, 0 g fiber, 8 g protein, 122 calories.

How it’s made: Whole milk hydrolysed to break down and separate lactose from mixture.

Taste and Texture: similar to whole but sweeter.

Ideal for: having it by itself.

Why have it: if you can’t handle those complex sugars but it’s still got calcium.

The Millennials OAT> Nutrients: Per cup: 7 g fat, 100 mg sodium, 9 g carbs, 2 g sugar, 1 g fiber, 2 g protein, 100 calories.

How it’s made: Made by soaking oats in water and then blending and straining the mix.

Taste and Texture: creamy with a distinct taste.

Ideal for: Lattes Why have it: get that high protein.

SOY> Nutrients: Per cup: 3.5 g fat, 115 mg sodium, 12 g carbs, 9 g sugar, 0.5 g fiber, 6.5 g protein, 105 calories.

How it’s made: made by soaking dry soybeans and grinding in water.

Taste and Texture: closest plant-based version to cow’s milk. Rich, creamy and sweet.

Ideal for: Smoothies Why have it: to get good fat and high protein and carbs.

HAZELNUT> Nutrients: Per cup: 3.7 g fat, 8 mg sodium, 19 g carbs, 14 g sugar, 110 calories.

How it’s made: nuts are soaked overnight in water then blended with water and sieved.

Taste and Texture: nutty and sweet.

Ideal for: coffee or just by itself Why have it: it tastes like Nutella!

ALMOND> Nutrients: Per cup: 2.5 g fat, 173 sodium, 1.5 g carbs, 0 g sugar, 0 g fiber, 1.5 g protein, 37 calories

How it’s made: made by toasting and grinding almonds and blending them in water.

Taste and Texture: flat/thin, semi-sweet and rich Ideal for: baking with bread like french toast and bread pudding Why have it: high in vitamin E, low fat

COCONUT> Nutrients: Per cup: 48 g fat, 29 mg sodium, 6 g carbs, 4.5 g protein, 445 calories.

How it’s made: made by shredding the meat of a freshly opened coconut and simmering it in water.

Taste and Texture: fatty, distinct taste, very thick and creamy.

Ideal for: Curry, Thai red or green curries.

Why have it: the best cooking alternative.

RICE> Nutrients Per cup: 2.5 g fat (0 g sat fat), 94 mg sodium, 22 g carbs, 13 g sugar, 0.5 g fiber, 0.5 g protein, 113 calories.

How it’s made: boiling rice and blending and adding brown rice syrup and brown rice starch.

Taste and Texture: Rich and sweet.

Ideal for: cereal as a plant-based option Why have it: if you have allergies to soy or nuts.

CASHEW> Nutrients: Per cup: 0 g fat, 160 mg sodium, 1 g carbs, 0 g sugar, 0 g fiber, 25 calories.

How it’s made: raw cashews are soaked in water and then blended in water.

Taste and Texture: thick and creamy, not sweet or bitter, nutty.

Ideal for: Salad Dressing- Ceaser!

Why have it: it contains healthy fats and protein. boosts immunity.

P.S: Some of the names of the OG’s change names while crossing the Atlantic. So if you ever find yourself in a Starbucks line 2% is called semi-skimmed.

PHOTO BY DANIELLE GIN RECIPE BY ALAN DAI

S OY MILK

GREAT FOR DRINKING AND ALSO A REALLY GOOD BASE FOR TOFU MAKING

Passive time: 8-12 hours Active time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS

200g dried soybeans 8 cups water (at least)

DIRECTIONS

1. Cover your soybeans with at least an inch of water

-Let it soak overnight or 8-12 hours.

2. Strain out the soybeans and save the soaking liquid.

3. Add water to a large pot and increase the liquid volume to 8 cups.

4. Blend soybeans with enough water to cover. (This can be done in batches.)

5. Add the blended soybeans and water to a nonstick pot.

6. Bring to a boil and cook on medium-high heat till the astringent flavor is gone. About 10 minutes.

-Make sure to continue stirring, especially

when it starts to foam.

7. Strain the soymilk through a cheesecloth-lined strainer.

8. Let cool and store in containers. The fresh soymilk lasts 5-7 days, and can be reboiled after a few days to extend its lifetime by a few more days.

penn appĂŠtit 37

BY JUSTINE SEO ILLUSTRATION BY MALIA KEALALUHI Green means healthy, right? Not necessarily.

The verdant appearance of green juice brings to mind all the leafy greens that we’ve been conditioned our whole lives to see as the pinnacle of health.

Its categorization as a “superfood” seems to have bled into our general understanding of what is good for us.

“Food On The Go” vlogs on YouTube almost always start off with some variation of green juice, showing the vlogger shoving more spinach than could ever fit in a fridge into a Vitamix blender. Juice cleanses, a diet in which you exclusively drink juice for a day or a week, have become increasingly popular, causing juice stores to pop up on many city street corners, such as Sip-nGo, Bimini, and The Juice Room. But is this sudden green juice cult following well-deserved? Is green juice actually as healthy as it seems?

For many, green juice fills the role of a meal replacement perfectly, presenting itself as a magic concoction that can instantly provide all the vitamins, vegetables, and fruits you need and can be consumed quickly on-the-run, all while being as palatable as possible.

However, its ability to fulfill this sector of our daily food intake is often grossly overestimated.

When juices are pressed and when you’re no longer consuming the entire ingredient, you lose a lot of fiber: one of the main reasons why vegetable consumption is so important. Many store-bought green juices are chockfull of apple, pineapple, watermelon,

38 penn appétit

and other fruit juices. While fruit intake is important, the high amount of sugar being extracted from these fruits makes it a far less nutritional choice than just eating the fruit itself.

Perhaps the most common misconception about green juice is that it’s a good way to fit in your leafy greens.

Most people find it challenging to eat a good amount of dark, nutritious greens every day, as they rarely appear in onthe-go dishes and can be difficult to store. Further, it’s difficult to ditch the mindset that green-eating is a chore, something to force oneself through in order to be rewarded with other, more tasty options in the future. Green juice, therefore, has become a tasty and convenient way for many to assume they are getting in their greens. The vast majority of green juices, green smoothies, and other assorted “green” drinks, however, mostly consist of juice from water-heavy produce, such as cucumbers, pineapples, and carrots, and only contain a small amount of juice from leafy greens such as spinach or kale, since even large quantities of these make very little juice.

Green juice’s eruption in popularity stems from the notion that food’s main purpose is solely as a nutrition providing fuel — a belief that has become more widespread in today’s fast-paced world. It’s also possible to point to a growing interest in diet culture, with juice markets proudly free of classic diet-blasphemy ingredients: fats and

carbs. When I hear the word green juice, a million other images instantly pop up in my head: early morning yoga class, a music festival that you feel like you have to look perfect for, and fitting in an extra spin class whenever you can in the day.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a green juice. Like any other drink, it can be tasty, fulfilling, and is usually best when made at home. But the belief that it’s an all-powerful substance that can replace meals is an idea that should be reconsidered. You wouldn’t eat tomato sauce as a replacement for a pasta dinner, so you shouldn’t replace all your vegetables and fruits with a drink.

GREEN U C : JUICE:

AS GREEN AS IT SEEMS?

penn appétit 39

Move o Ther ver, coff e e in to ’s a new e! w d nam n and h iva e is M er ATCH A.

IT’S A MATCH(A)!

BY KELSEY WARREN PHOTO BY CHRISTY WU

PROFILE Personality:

She’s green. Like, really green. But if green isn’t usually your type, fear not.

She’s a type of green that makes you feel good about yourself because she makes you a better version of yourself (see “Why is she better than your ex?” section below). What’s better, she’s versatile and can be found hanging alone, with milk, with ice, or bumbling with excitement. There’s really nothing like her.

Family history:

Matcha’s legacy goes back to the Tang dynasty of the 7th-10th centuries. Tea leaves were formed into easily-transportable bricks, which would then be prepared using water and salt. During the Song dynasty , The Japanese Buddhist monk Eisai brought the green tea leaves used for matcha back to Japan where Zen Buddhists developed a method for cultivating the leaves under shade to increase its health benefits.

Already in love?

SHE ALSO:

Provides antioxidants

Boosts metabolism and burns calories

Acts as a detoxification agent

Calms the mind and relaxes the body

Is rich in fiber, chlorophyll and vitamins

Enhances mood and aids in concentration

Provides vitamin C, selenium, chromium, zinc and magnesium

Prevents disease

Lowers cholesterol and blood sugar

Why is she better than your ex (coffee, black tea, etc.)?

Like green tea, matcha is made from Camellia Sinensis leaves. But, to make matcha, the entire leaf is ground into a powder, making it more concentrated than a bag of green tea. In fact, Matcha has ten times the nutritional value of regular green tea and up to 137 times the amount of antioxidants.

Think you might be a good fit?

Here’s all the places you can find her.

United By Blue Matcha latte with almond milk — $4.36 If you’re looking for matcha on Penn’s campus, look no further than “UBB.” The matcha latte here has a cult following. Its dark green color and smooth taste reflects the UBB brand well by showcasing its characteristically bond flavor profile. It’s smooth yet tangy, and goes well with any milk option provided.

Res ipsa Matcha latte with almond milk — $5.94 Continue east on Walnut and find Res Ipsa. They serve another bitter, concentrated matcha latte. It is more powdery than UBB’s and tastes thinner. Res ipsa also serves great food to accompany your latte (check out the breakfast sammies).

Shakespeare and Co. Lavender matcha latte with almond milk — $4.86 Once more, continue east on Walnut to Shakespeare and Co., two streets east of Rittenhouse Square. This bookstore makes a reinspired traditional matcha by adding a pump of lavender sweetener. It is smooth, sweet (but not too much so) and honestly, deserves the hype.

Bluestone Lane Matcha Latte with almond milk — $5.94 Bluestone Lane is just south of Rittenhouse square. Their matcha is green, tangy, and a little pasty. Grab an avocado toast or salad with your matcha. It’s a great spot to study or grab brunch with a friend.

Nook Matcha Latte with almond milk — $5.35 Given its unglamorous roadside appeal and eclectic interior off of Market St on 20th in the financial district, I was not expecting to spend 5+ dollars on matcha here. But, once again, an overpriced matcha is purchased and get more green goodness. Nook’s matcha tastes “leafy” (if that is even a taste), and isn’t grainy like other matchas. Its leafiness makes it taste lighter, like a green juice.

Happy (Match)a-ing! penn appétit 41

Basil Green Apple Macarons

Equipment:

Prep time: 30 minutes Baking time: 2-3 hours Total: 4 hours Yields 18-20 macarons

42 penn appĂŠtit

-Silicon baking mat (with macaron template or regular) *If regular mat, white printer paper and pen -Rubber spatula -Fine sifter or mesh strainer -Small-size saucepan -Medium-size saucepan -2-3 mixing bowls -Whisk or electric mixer -Pastry/Piping bag -Round tip -Another tip with shape (open star, etc) - optional

Ingredients:

Macaron coques (cookies): 300g almond meal 300g powdered sugar 112g egg white A 250g granulated sugar 75g water 110g egg white B Green food coloring Basil buttercream: 70g milk 54g egg yolk 20g granulated sugar 200g unsalted butter 1 Tbsp dried basil Green apple marmalade: 150g green apple 30g granulated sugar A 25g lemon juice 15g granulated sugar B 1 tsp pectin

Before we begin...

-Let the butter soften at room temperature about 3 hours prior.

-Preheat the oven to 302°F. -If you don’t have a silicone macaron mat or baking sheet that already has a

uniform circle template on them, draw 4cm-diameter circles onto sheets

of white printer paper, about 3 cm apart.

-Mix Granulated sugar B and pectin in a small bowl and set aside.

Directions ON NEXT PAGE

Directions: MACARON COQUES -Sift almond meal and powdered sugar into a bowl, and use a spatula to mix with egg white A and 4 drops of green food coloring. Add extra drops of coloring until desired green color is reached.

-Pour in water and granulated sugar into a saucepan, boil until it reaches 118° C. -Meanwhile, lightly beat egg white B until foam begins to form.

While continuously beating the egg whites, slowly pour the sugar mixture into the egg whites and whip until it becomes smooth and glossy, forming a sharp peak when you lift your whisk up from the mixture. (This is an Italian meringue, which will give the

macaron cookies a chewy texture.)

-Fold half of the meringue into the mixture from step 1 with a spatula. Fold in the rest as well.

The batter will have a relatively thick consistency at this point.

-Using a spatula, press down on the batter to the side of the mixing bowl. Repeat until the batter drops and folds into a ribbon-like shape when you lift up your spatula.

-Put the batter in a pastry bag with a round tip. Place the template paper under a teflon/ silicone baking sheet and pipe the batter into uniform circles using the paper as guidance.

-Let the piped batter sit for at least an hour, until a thin barrier (dry shell) forms on the surface and doesn’t stick to your fingers.

-Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven, and cool completely.

-Pair up coques that are similar in size and shape.

BASIL BUTTERCREAM -Pour in milk and dried basil into a saucepan.

-Place on medium heat just before it begins to boil.

-In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolk and granulated sugar until the sugar granules are completely dissolved and the egg mixture is pale yellow in color.

-Pour in the warm milk from step 1 into the egg mixture and whisk gently.

-Pour this new mixture back into the saucepan and stir on low heat until the mixture thickens and becomes crème anglaise (custard cream).

-Chill until cold.

-Mix in the room temperature butter and whip until the cream is light and fluffy.

-Put the cream in a pastry bag with a tip (round, open star, etc)

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GREEN APPLE MARMALADE -Peel the green apples, and cut them into 0.2-inch cubes.

-In a saucepan, combine the apple cubes, sugar A, and lemon juice.

Boil over medium heat, while stirring to prevent sticking and burning.

-Mix in the pectin-sugar mixture, and take the pan off heat when the granules are completely dissolved.

-Cool completely in the refrigerator.

This procedure called macaronage adjusts the consistency of the batter so that it is not too thick or runny. Simply put, it is a step to partially get rid of the tight air bubbles that gave the Italian meringue its stiffness.

HOW TO ASSEMBLE YOUR MACARONS 1. Pipe the basil buttercream along the edge of a coque, leaving a space in the middle for the marmalade.

2. Using a small spoon, add the green apple marmalade in the middle of the coque.

3. Place the other pair of coque on top. Gently press to make it stick to the butter cream on the other coque.

Tip: To better enjoy your macarons, let the assembled macarons sit in the freezer overnight, and transfer them into the fridge. Take them out of the fridge at least 15 minutes before eating.

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SUSTAINABLE MEAL KITS

BY SARANYA DAS SHARMA ILLUSTRATION BY SONIA SHAH

If you’ve ever been on social media, you’ve probably heard of the meal kit. Touted by influencers and hailed by busy people, meal kits like HelloFresh and Blue Apron provide all the pre-portioned ingredients to make delicious recipes, all conveniently delivered to your doorstep in a cardboard box.

At first glance, this looks wasteful. Each ingredient, from spices to pasta, comes individually wrapped in plastic packaging, requiring an ice pack and a giant truck for transport. It seems like meal kits are adding to our growing environmental problems.

However, the truth is a little bit different. A University of Michigan study found that meal kits like BlueApron actually generate 33% less food and package waste than buying the same things from a traditional grocery store. Every year, consumers throw out 1.3 billion tons of food waste, creating a carbon footprint bigger than every country in the world except China and the US. And this waste isn’t cheap: it, leading to a loss of $750 billion annually, the same as the GDP of Sweden. The majority of food waste in America is back-of-the-fridge produce and leftovers that busy people aren’t able to finish. Especially with increasingly busy lifestyles, people aren’t able to finish up their groceries in time (I know I’m definitely guilty of this one). However, since meal kits come perfectly portioned, you get as much produce as you need to cook the meal, which means you’ll never end up with moldy tomatoes or funky dressing again. The second largest reason for food waste is due to ‘attractive’ produce being tossed out and people buying more aesthetically pleasing produce that they might not need. Because people don’t choose their produce through a meal kit, this is no longer a problem. Moreover, since meal kits are transported on large communal trucks, they’re much more environmentally friendly than families taking individual grocery store trips multiple times a month.

CHECK: What about that wasteful packaging? The packaging of most meal kit services is actually recyclable. HelloFresh’s liners are usually made of cotton, jute, and BPA-free plastics, while the boxes are made up of recycled jute and virgin fibers.

Even the ice packs are recyclable: they’re filled with a water soluble gel that can be emptied into the trash. Their website also has detailed recycling instructions and can help you find places where you can recycle your packaging. Blue Apron provides detailed recycling instructions specific for each meal as well — you can even ship most packaging back to their own recycling centers. Some meal kits go even further: all of Sun Basket’s packaging is recyclable, and Purple Carrot gives instructions on how to recycle every individual piece of packaging.

Critics of meal kits argue that their prices make them inaccessible and pay no attention to their environmental benefits. I decided to do some digging: Is getting a meal kit really worse than buying the ingredients to make the same meal from the grocery store? My meal of choice was zucchini cous-cous, which I got in my last HelloFresh box. I surveyed WholeFoods for the ingredients I needed (zucchini, grape tomatoes, chickpeas, cous-cous, etc.). My bill for the meal came to a staggering $38.38, while my HelloFresh box was around $40 for four meals. Moreover, I now possessed a pound of zucchini, enough garlic to ward of Dracula and a giant bottle of paprika when I needed much less. I recognize that WholeFoods is a pricier option, but because HelloFresh’s foods are organic, non-GMO and 75% locally sourced, I felt like this was the best corresponding grocery store.

So maybe next time your fridge looks empty, swap out your uber to Trader Joe’s for a quick online meal-kit order. Both the planet and your wallet will thank you.

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BY SOPHIE QUAGLIA ILLUSTRATION BY MALIA KEALALUHI

W

hen I was five, I staged a protest on Thanksgiving over the cruelty of a holiday based around eating an animal. Since then, I’ve realized that eating a turkey is just one of many protestable aspects of Thanksgiving, but regardless, I’ve been a vegetarian ever since.

I’ve been vegan at several points in my life. I know that I’ll continue to be vegan at certain moments, but that I will probably never become ‘vegan’ in the strictest sense of the word.

Why not? I love ordering eggs when I go out for brunch, and I can’t pass up penne in vodka sauce for dinner. I think this is okay. 90% of what I buy at the grocery store, keep in my fridge, and eat on a daily basis is without animal products of any kind. Yet, I would never call myself vegan. In fact, I may even actively avoid calling myself vegan to avoid the social stigma associated with the label.

There are more labels for dietary choices in today’s world than I could conceivably list on this page. Whole30, Keto, Paleo, Mediterranean… the list goes on. There is a distinct difference, however, between the way veganism is viewed and how these other diets are perceived.

Labels make eating decisions easier.

“I can’t, I’m doing Whole30,” or “No thanks, I’m on Keto,” all elicit sympathetic smiles that acknowledge your suffering. Veganism, however, carries a stigma. People like to knock vegans down by classifying them as “hipsters” or belittling the overall environmental impact of their individual decisions. In

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short, people like to justify for themselves why they aren’t making the obvious choice for both their own health and the environment (which I can say without being preachy because I have to justify this for myself as well).

There are several reasons why people choose not to become vegan. Veganism makes it difficult to eat at restaurants or to grab food on the go, which can be a necessary part of college life.

Although the number of vegetarian and vegan options on menus has notably increased over the past few years, this does not mean that there still aren’t many restaurants where it’s difficult to find even one vegetarian option, much less a vegan one. There’s also the general conception that veganism does not provide enough of certain nutrients, such as protein and iron, which can be especially deterring for athletes.

But of course, the more crucial issue with veganism is that, frankly, it’s incredibly difficult. If the idea of giving up cheese, chicken, brownies, or whole milk lattes fills you with dread, you’re not alone. Veganism isn’t a “thirty day cleanse” or a “spring break diet.” Veganism is, supposedly, a lifestyle choice, and once you’re sucked into it can be mentally taxing to choose to break with the behavioral choice that you’ve built a community around.

Additionally, as much as labels are useful to find a group of likeminded people, they can also be discouraging.

Being labeled as “vegan” can be socially excluding, and can result in jokes and backlash from family and friends.

Judgement surrounding veganism,

however, comes not only from the outside of the community, but also from the inside. Identifying as vegan and subsequently breaking your veganism is met with ridicule and disdain, whether real or imagined. To ask the waitress for a vegan dinner menu only to order tiramisu for dessert can result in a reaction anywhere from confusion to scorn, especially if the waitress had previously related to you over your shared veganism.

Yet, this more “flexible” veganism is what I argue that we adopt as a societal norm. Friends of mine lament that they’d become vegetarian “if only they didn’t have to give up chicken.” My response? Become a vegetarian who eats chicken. If you can’t give up milk in your coffee, then don’t. If you can’t bring yourself to stop ordering steak at a restaurant, then keep ordering it. You don’t have to keep any in your fridge.

Personally, I will gladly limit the amount of cheese in my diet, but I will not give it up completely. On the other hand, making the conscious decision to switch from whole milk to almond milk was much less hard. I know what I can give up, and I know what I can not. I don’t judge myself and I don’t judge others.

As a society, we’ve allowed these all-or- nothing dietary labels to become the only options available to us. Instead, I suggest that we all start to make these labels fit our individual preferences and needs, while still giving legitimacy to our dietary choices.

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THROW THROW AWAY AWAY WASTEFUL WASTEFUL LIVING: LIVING: TIPS ON EATING ZERO-WASTE

BY LEAH WANG

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limate change is real, and it’s worsening, a force of nature that’s becoming harder to battle day by day, emission by emission. The mantra of reduce, reuse, and recycle may no longer be as effective a weapon as it once was in fighting the war against rising temperatures. So a new movement has begun that takes the three R’s to their extreme: the zero-waste lifestyle.

It’s a way of living that strives to avoid producing anything that contributes to landfills. The idea is a circular material flow: to completely reduce the amount of resources one consumes into materials that can be reused. Recycling comes as a last resort, since many products are actually downcycled (made into products of inferior quality) in this process until they, too, eventually end up in landfills.

Zero-waste can be implemented into all aspects of one’s life, but of course, at Penn Appétit, we’re most interested in how it applies to eating.

If you cook, look in your trashcan. The two greatest sources of trash it contains are probably plastic packaging and food waste. The latter is an issue that plagues our entire country: up to 40% of food goes straight into landfills. Letting precious, edible food go uneaten is bad enough, but this food breaks down and releases methane into the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas that has an even worse impact on the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

So, if we want to reduce our waste, the first step we can take is to reduce the amount of food we throw away.

Let’s start with leftovers. If you find that you’re forgetting about food before it goes bad, try rearranging your fridge’s real estate to better showcase items that are nearing the end of their lifespan. Periodically check for older food and put it front and center so you’re reminded of what you should eat now. Putting leftovers in clear containers allows you to see exactly what is inside them, so you associate them as something you can eat instead of some amorphous black-box that happens to be sitting in your fridge.

Food scraps are a subtle contributor to the foodwaste problem as well. Think like a medieval peasant during a bad harvest and try to use every part of the produce that you buy. Simmer unwanted peels, stalks, ends, and other bits of vegetables to make your own vegetable broth. Put some leftover ingredients into a pasta sauce or an omelette. Broccoli stalks, it turns out, make good pesto. There’s a whole world of zero-waste recipes floating around on Google, from blogs like Going Zero Waste or Zero-Waste Chef.

If you’re no cook, you can fulfill your sustainability quota by eating at environmentally-friendly restaurants. In Philadelphia, there’s White Dog Cafe and Square 1682, which source from local farms and use renewable energy. If you happen to be going to New York City, check out west~bourne and Rhodora, restaurants that operate completely zero-waste.

Consider bringing your own utensils to these— and other—eateries. Metal straws have become a big trend now, but what if you kept a complete set of metal forks, spoons, and knives so that you don’t ever have to use their plastic brethren? Instead of using disposable take-out boxes, try bringing your own reusable containers instead. Take your own tumbler to coffee shops — Dunkin’, Starbucks, and Wawa even offer discounts when you BYOC. And of course, to reduce the amount of plastic bags and packaging, carry cloth bags to grocery stores and bring mason jars to buy things that come in bulk bins, like nuts and spices.

This is just the tip of the zero-waste iceberg (while we still have some that haven’t melted yet), and I know these are suggestions that aren’t always easy to heed in our busy, makeshift lives. But even just implementing a few changes now creates habits for later, and all that positive environmental impact accumulates throughout the course of our entire life.

These tips won’t be able to single-handedly stop climate change, but they do provide us a weapon to join in the fight.

Step 1: Leek Chips 1 Leek Olive oil Preheat the oven to 425° F. Cut the green parts of the leek into even, 1-inch-wide rectangles.

Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Spread evenly on a baking sheet and cook for less than 15 minutes. You want most of them crispy but not burnt black.

Step 2: Roasted Green Onion Puree 1 bunch green onion 4 garlic cloves 1 tbsp yogurt Preheat the oven to 425° F. Roast green onion and garlic cloves (skin on) until brown but not burnt or dried out.

Peel garlic. Cut green onion into smaller pieces.

Add the garlic, green onion, and yogurt into a blender. Add a drizzle of olive oil.

Blend until smooth. Add water if you want a thinner consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Step 3: Pa Kimchi (Fermented Green Onion) 1 bunch green onion 2 tbsp gochugaru 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 tsp sugar ½ tbsp minced garlic 1 tsp grated ginger Combine everything but the green onions.

Mix the seasoning and green onion. Make sure to evenly coat all green onions.

Pack them into an airtight container. Try to push them down and squeeze out the air.

Ferment at room temperature for a day before putting it into the refrigerator. You can continue to let it slowly ferment in the refrigerator. Let the marinade meld together with the green onions until it resembles a kimchi-like product.

Step 4: Grilled Green Onion Green onion bunch Separate into singular stalks of green onion.

Rub olive oil on each stalk with your hands.

On an outdoor grill or stove-top grill pan, grill the individual stalks for 5-7 min on each side on high heat. Each side should have grill marks.

The onions are done when they have char marks on each side and are tender and slightly limp.

Once cooked, season with a shower of salt to finish.

Step 5: The Finished Plate Start by swiping on a thick swoop of the roasted green onion puree onto the plate.

Next, lay 2-3 stalks of the grilled green onion on top as the centerpiece of the plate.

Create 3 small piles of the fermented green onion around the plate.

Lastly, finish by sprinkling the crispy leek chips on top and around the plate.

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The Green Onion 4 Ways showcases a creative expression of the versatile and earthy spring onion in four different ways bringing together crunch, fermentation, creaminess, and char into one flavor-packed plate.

Often, green onions or scallions are sliced and added as a garnish, but this dish showcases it as the main character, the supporting cast, and the extras.

GREEN GREEN ONIONS 4 ONIONS 4 WAYS WAYS RECIPE BY ALAN DAI

Servings: 1 Prep time: 30 Cook Time: 40 Fermentation Time: at least 24 hours

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Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

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alking into Bar Bombón on a rainy day is like walking into a vibrant, palm-treed oasis. Pinned between high-end Rittenhouse restaurants and looming luxury hotels, “la esquina,” as it’s lovingly called, invites hungry passers-by in for a flavor-packed Latin-fusion experience. An experience that also happens to be vegan.

We’re warmly welcomed past the bustling bar and into the dining room, where tables are dotted with candles. Colorful tiles and orangey-red walls are eye-catching, but it’s the black-and-white photos lining the walls that really stick with me. They’re all of founder Nicole Marquis’ family back home in Puerto Rico.

As we take our seats, reggaeton competes with conversation floating in from the bar, even at 4:30pm on a Wednesday. As soon as the food arrives, we get it: happy hour is not to be missed. Don’t skip on an order of empanadas, plantains, and a spicy-rimmed margarita— grapefruit, beet, or original lime.

The cocktail list hits favorites from signature “Puerto Rico Punch,” to a solid Mexican mezcal, to a glass of Chilean Santa Rita wine, to a Brazilian caipirinha (a certain Penn Appétit photographer’s favorite).

But one question remains: How doesBar Bombón achieve this meatless yet authentic Latin American cuisine? Nicole agreed to fill us in on this and more.

Well, I’m a hometown Philly girl in my 30’s. I’ve been vegan for a long time and I opened my first restaurant, HipCityVeg in 2012 because it was the best way I could do what I love and promote a plant-based lifestyle.

Can you give us a short history of Bar Bombón? Is google translate correct when it says the translation is “chocolate bar”?

Chocolate bar is close, but I interpret it a little more broadly, like a “tasty little treat,” which is the way I think of this cute little restaurant. As a child I spent summers in Puerto Rico and my mom raised us with the traditional style of cooking handed down by her mother. So I created BBB as a sort of homage to my mom and her side of the family and to the great open air restaurants in Old San Juan and the Caribbean.

I feel like meat is a staple of Latin American culture.

What motivated you to make Bar Bombón vegan? How did you develop the menu?

Latin food is very meat-centric, but I wanted to use the Latin inspiration to help create a new plant-based cuisine that is faithful to the traditional flavors but bold enough to riff on the foods that I loved as a child.

Everything is always so fresh and natural. How do you maintain that standard while still having so much foot traffic?

Freshness and skill in execution are the baseline that you start from in any good restaurant, so you put that first and build around it. I really have to give credit to the great chefs I’ve worked with: Michelle LaVigne for her skill and creativity and to Niema Womack and her staff for all of their hard work executing these dishes.

What do you do/what do you think the restaurant industry as a whole could be doing to reduce its environmental footprint?

Animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to global warming, so avoiding animal products reduces your environmental impact right from the start. Another step is to eliminate petroleum based packaging, which we do with take-out.

What is Bar Bombón’s role in the fast-growing Philly food scene?

Our restaurants, HipCityVeg, Charlie was a sinner and BBB have been an important part of the transformation of Philly from the cheesesteak capital of the world to one of the very best vegan cities of the world. We are very proud of that.

Switching gears to lime green. We’re fans of your margaritas: what is it that makes them special? Any cocktail-making tips for us aspiring connoisseurs?

I would say only use fresh squeezed juices, make your own elixirs and other concoctions, use excellent liquor and make sure your drinks have a nice kick. Making cocktails is a lot like cooking – you want somebody who is really good at mixing your drinks.

BAR BAR BAR BAR

BOMBÓN BOMBÓN BOMBÓN BOMBÓN

BY GRACE LEAHY P H O T O B Y E M I LY YA O

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Let’s Talk Tofu Not your mother’s meat substitute.

BY HELEN WU, PHOTO BY CHRISTY WU, ILLUSTRATION BY ELI NATHAN

Trendy fast casual concepts like Sweetgreen, Dig Inn, by Chloe and other restaurants line urban streets, adopting tofu as their alternative meat. Despite being accepted among vegetarians and vegans as a viable source of plant-based protein, loyal carnivores and ambivalent omnivores (like me) avoid it vehemently whenever it’s not in an Asian restaurant. I have made the mistake of excitedly ordering tofu only to be let down by something that is bland, dry, and texturally questionable.

Frankly, I’m disappointed by these flavorless preparations, usually due to a lack of trust in tofu as an ingredient in the United States. I believe that we can correct the misconception of tofu as second-class meat and redeem it to the nuanced and versatile delicacy that it is.

Tofu originated in the Anhui province of China, where it was created roughly 2,000 years ago by a chef who accidentally curdled soy milk by adding seaweed. Now, it’s popular all across Asia and has an emerging market in the United States and other European countries that have seen an increase in demand for sustainable protein. Generally, tofu is made from soy beans ground up with water that is heated to make soy milk. The soy milk is then

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solidified with minerals, pressed into a block, and strained to form tofu. This simple process yields a wide variety of textures when the water content is varied. The categories of tofu range from silken, which is so soft it will fall apart like jelly in your hands, to extra firm, which is dense and packed like a semihard cheese.

American tofu is vastly different than the tofu I know and love. Instead of being served as a cohesive dish, it is scooped into a container as the protein add-on to a salad. I will only say this once: tofu should never – I repeat NEVER – look like a white, shapeless mush.

Correctly prepared, it should resemble a shape (rectangular prisms, cubes, layered rounded grooves), be well-seasoned, and complement other ingredients in the dish. I know tofu seemed like a brief food fad in the U.S., but I can assure you that tofu is here to stay.

Tofu has always been a staple in my family’s repertoire of home-cooked food. We typically don’t serve it in place of meat, but rather as its own dish alongside the spread of other plates.

Often, tofu is prepared with crab roe and meat, since it perfectly adopts the flavor of seafood. Another comforting dish is silken tofu with mushrooms, which is a healthy and hearty meal

when mixed into rice. It might be clear that tofu can easily be the highlight of a meal. This is reflected in the names of the dishes as well. When members of tofu-loving cultures address tofu, we use its name respectfully — mapo tofu, soondubu jjigae (soft tofu stew), stinky tofu, etc. Oftentimes, tofu dishes come with a sauce or side that consists of a bit of ground pork or other meat.

While this may be troubling for vegans and vegetarians abroad, this method of preparation showcases tofu as the star of the show with meat as a compliment rather than it subbing in as a sad meat-substitute. Across Asia, there is a wide spectrum of preparations: think deep fried skewer of stinky tofu dunked in chili paste from a street stall, wrinkly and thin fried pieces of tofu skin that become flexible and permeable when you dip it into hotpot stock, or delicate cubes served in an eye catching “red” sauce of chilis, anise, and other spices.

Tofu is truly an underappreciated ingredient. I believe in its abilities to transcend cultures, menus, and preparations. I am hopeful that, one day, even meat-lovers might opt for tofu at a fast casual joint because they consider it truly delicious.

JU YU

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A healthy, vegan-friendly alternative for cream and dairy lovers.

EE

Prep time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 40 min - 1 hr Total: 1.5 hours Servings: 1

REC IPE

BY

Tofu Cream Pasta by Yujung

Ingredients

150g tofu (silken or regular firm) 100mL milk (regular/soy or any plantbased) 100mL heavy cream (can be replaced with 50mL plant based milk) 4 portobello mushrooms Âź onion 2 strips of bacon (optional) 50g whole wheat pasta 1 tsp Minced garlic Olive/avocado oil 1 egg (only the yolk) Salt Pepper Paprika powder

Directions: 1. Place tofu on a paper towel or cheesecloth to remove excess moisture.

2. Fill a large pot or a pasta pot about 2/3 full of water. Boil the water and add two tablespoons of salt.

3. In a blender, blend the tofu, milk, and a pinch of salt together until creamy and smooth.

4. Once the water is boiling, place the whole wheat pasta into the pot and cook until al dente. (Time varies depending on the type of pasta. Refer to the packaging, or try chewing on a strand of pasta if you are unsure.)

5. Thinly slice the onion and portobello mushrooms. If adding bacon, cut the strips into half-inch wide slices.

6. Place a medium-sized skillet on medium heat. Give it 2-3 minutes to heat up.

7. Drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of olive or avocado oil on the pan to coat the surface, and toss the minced garlic and julienned onion into the pan.

8. Stir them around until the garlic slightly browns and the onion becomes a little translucent.

9. Put the mushrooms (and bacon) into the pan and cook until the mushroom becomes soft, darker

in color.

10. Pour the tofu-milk mixture and heavy cream (or additional 50mL of plant-based milk) into the pan, and raise the heat to high.

11. As the mixture begins to boil, sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

12. Place the cooked pasta into pan, incorporate the pasta into the sauce, and cook until the sauce is thickened to desired creaminess.

13. Place the pasta onto a dish, top with an egg yolk (optional), and sprinkle paprika powder on top.

Garnish with green leafy vegetables such as arugula and fresh Italian parsley. penn appĂŠtit 57

BY LO U I S H O F F M A N , I L L U S T R AT I O N BY M A L I A K E A L A L U H I

Ask

Susie on the street what she thinks is the greatest threat that faces America today. She might say it’s Iran.

Or the growing national debt. Or maybe even the Coronavirus. Sure, these are all very legitimate concerns. However, an issue that is vastly overlooked in today’s culture is hunger.

We’re facing an epidemic: across the United States, forty million people annually struggle with food insecurity — the state of being without reliable access to healthy and affordable food.

Although this issue has worked its way into the spotlight in recent years, there still exists a general lack of knowledge and/or urgency across the nation with regards to the issue.

Hunger is quiet. It exists in places we don’t always expect it to.

According to Long Island Health Collaborative, in 2014, one out of every four adults in Long Island was affected by food insecurity — and despite its reputation as one of California’s most lavish counties, well over a quarter of a million residents in Orange County face inadequate access to food every day.

A couple of years ago, I came across a statistic that food insecurity had a 10% prevalence rate in my hometown, a generally wealthy district just outside

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of Philadelphia. It wasn’t just the figure that disturbed me – it was how oblivious I had been to the issue around me.

In an effort to help tackle the issue directly, I founded an organization, Food for a Friend, dedicated to fighting food insecurity in the Philadelphia area by teaching children how to cook for themselves using affordable and sustainable ingredients. What initially started off as a small project quickly gained traction and spread throughout the community. People are extremely receptive to the cause once educated – but the struggle to bring attention to food insecurity lies within creating legitimacy and urgency.

Make no mistake: food insecurity exists here in West Philly. Despite Penn’s status as a hub for future Forbes headliners, members of surrounding communities still find themselves affected.

I wanted to learn more, so I decided to sit down with Victoria Meng, a senior in the Wharton School and a former Rodin College House Research Fellow. For her research, she studied the impact of food insecurity across Philadelphia.

“It’s not always just about the issue of money,” Victoria told me. “You have to consider how long it takes to get to supermarkets, for example.” It turns

out Philadelphia has the second lowest concentration of supermarkets per capita among major urban areas – and with less than one car per household, intra-city travel can be incredibly difficult for some. “Imagine having to carry six grocery bags home on the subway because you don’t have a supermarket nearby,” she says, with genuine empathy. Food insecurity can present itself in different forms, and affects people in ways we may not realize.

Another issue: for many minority immigrant populations, it can be difficult to find familiar ingredients in local grocery stores. Many find themselves unable to adhere to their desired diets because their needs are not met by conventional American supermarkets.

So what can we do to help? For starters, we can help ad-

dress cases of food insecurity at Penn.

Donating unused, end-of-the-semester meal swipes is “the easiest thing for every Penn student to do,” Victoria says. Even more generally, we should try to be more conscious of our food wasting habits, and be careful not to take our good fortune for granted. It’s easy to get lost in the Penn bubble, but we have to remember that we are only a small part of the West Philadelphia community.

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5 Sustainable Products for the kitchen

BY SARAH FINKELSTEIN ILLUSTRATIONS BY SONIA SHAH

When we think about food and “green,” most people think about broccoli and kale. Those of us that do think about the environmental connotation of the word probably cite an image of baby turtles and reusable straws.

But the list of amazing new products to help you have greener eating habits does not end at metal straws or tupperware containers. After this unusually warm winter, it is important to do what we can to take a stand against climate change. Here are 5 amazing products to help you keep your kitchen green:

1

Reusable Coffee Mug

Just bringing your own mug to the coffee shop can help decrease the amount of single-use paper and plastic in use. As an extra perk, many shops will give you a reward for bringing your own mug, for example—shameless plug—at William’s Cafe we charge every drink served in a reusable mug as a small, no matter the size! This one even collapses to save space in your bag, check it out: MoKo Collapsible Silicone Travel Cup, Portable Foldable Coffee Mug, Reusable Leak-Proof BPA Free Water Bottle 450ml, 15 oz (Amazon, $8.99)

2

Reusable Shopping Bag

Think about how much plastic is wasted just from bagging your groceries. There’s a simple solution: BYOB (bring your own bag).

One of my favorites folds up into a tiny pouch—perfect for backpack storage.

KNALLA Shopping bag, black and white (IKEA, $1.99)

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3

Reusable Water Bottle

I’m surprised every day by the number of plastic water bottles in circulation. Getting a reusable water bottle is not only more convenient for you, but also incredibly important for the environment.Think about how much money you’ll save! A win win!

Here’s one of my favorites: Simple Modern Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Double-Walled Wave Bottle, 17oz (Amazon, $15.99)

4

Silicone Food Savers

You’ll never have to buy Saran wrap again. Not only do these dishwasher-safe, food-saver gadgets help you use less plastic, but they also help you reduce food waste by keeping your half-eaten produce fresh longer!

Food Huggers Reusable Silicone Food Savers (Amaon, $12.95 for 5)

5

Reusable Ziploc Bags

Just put your food in, zip them up, and take wherever you need!

When you’re done, just rinse or dishwash and start again!

15 Pack Reusable Storage Bags (Amazon, $15.95)

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ZOODLES N’ KALE PESTO A healthy alternative to pasta with a nutrient-loaded pesto sauce

BY LULU SCHMITT PHOTO BY ALAINA CHOU Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 5 minutes Total: 20 minutes Servings: 4-5

Ingredients Zoodles:

6 small zucchini If you don’t have a mandoline or a spiralizer, buy ready-made zoodles at your local supermarket (ie: Heirloom on 34th)

Kale pesto:

3 cloves of garlic 3 cups torn kale with stems removed (or else you will end up with a very bitter pesto) One squeeze of lemon ¾ to 1 cup of water ½ teaspoon of salt A pinch of pepper A pinch of chili flakes ¼ of a cup avocado or olive oil Optional: add a tablespoon of truffle oil ¾ of a cup plain, unsalted toasted almonds or cashew nuts ¼ of a cup grated parmesan cheese

If you are vegan, the recipe still works without the parmesan cheese!

how to cook 1. Use a mandoline to cut the zucchini’s into ribbon-like strands. Set aside.

2. Combine the kale and the garlic in a food processor or blender, and pulse until smooth.

3. Continue to pulse while slowly adding in all of the oil along with ¾ - 1 cup of water 4. After the mixture is smooth, add the toasted nuts, cheese, lemon, salt, pepper, and chili flakes.

5. Pulse until well-blended.

6. Mix the zoodles and the pesto in a large bowl.

7. Heat a pan on medium. Add the zoodles with the pesto.

8. Sauté for 3-4 minutes.

9. Do not sauté for longer or they will become too soft!

Serve with freshly grated parmesan. Enjoy!

THE TRUTHS AND TRENDS OF

farm

to

table

EATING

BY SOPHIE QUAGLIA GRAPHICS BY HAILIE GOLDSMITH

Farm-to-table: the term conjures images of local farms, with cattle and chickens freely roaming sprawling fields, and children running happily as they pick produce off plants their family grew from seeds.

But is this the reality? Well, maybe. But not necessarily. “Farm-to-table” has no official definition, meaning any restaurant can self-identify as “farm-to-table” if the term fits their marketing angle.

Taken literally, all restaurants are farmto-table, since the produce or meat must have started on a farm somewhere and, in most cases, ends up being eaten at a table setting.

Typically, however, the label has the specific connotation of being local– that is, as defined by the USDA, coming from within 400 miles. It also has an association with restaurant offerings that

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change based on what’s fresh and what local farms are selling at that time of year.

The moral gratification of eating at a farm-to-table restaurant makes it an appealing label– who doesn’t want to support that adorable family? It feels as though you’re making a choice that is environmentally-minded and supports small farms, and that’s exactly the moral allure that restaurants intend when they choose to market themselves this way. This appeal dates back to the origins of farm-to-table.

The 1940s brought a mass-exodus from farms, as farmers either packed up and moved to the city or joined the Army, which resulted in a necessary increase in new agricultural technology, which led to increased productivity for decreased manual labor. This

flight resulted in a halving of the total number of farms in America between 1950 and 1970. As farms disappeared, the split between the American people and the food they consume emerged.

Packaged food sales, specifically of canned goods, peaked in the 1950s, and processed food continued to increase in popularity until the 1960s, when the hippie anti-industry counterculture movement invaded the mainstream, bringing with it a cultural shift towards local and organic food options.

By the late 1970s, farm-to-table options had started popping up in restaurants across the United States.

Farm-to-table as it exists today is a social movement. As environmental awareness increases, so does enthusiasm for food that is local and sustainable. Evidence of this can be seen

“

through the rise in popularity of farmers markets over the past six years. If you Google the farm-to-table options in Philadelphia, you’ll find that they all have one commonality: high cost. Each of them is an upscale, expensive dining experience, including the likes of Talula’s Garden, which advertises itself as a modern take on traditional mid-Atlantic cuisine, and FARMiCiA, a continental restaurant focusing on healthy, creative cuisine. As eating farmto-table has grown in popularity, however, it has also increased in accessibility: think of Sweetgreen’s chalkboard-wall listing the sources of their local ingredients, or Dig Inn, which advertises its local partners.

White Dog Café’s University City location was the first restaurant in Philadelphia to fit the standards that we now associate with being farm-to-table: that is, the idea of sourcing food from local farms, and changing menu offerings seasonally based on what is fresh. The restaurant, however, does not self-identify as farm-totable, instead choosing to emphasize its “environmentally sustainable, organic and local foods from farms within 50 miles.”

Very few restaurants, even the more commercialized chains, use the term farm-totable as a descriptor. Instead, the term is generally used by the public to describe the local, sustainable appeal of a certain restaurant.

Farm-to-table has become not only a social movement, but also a marketing strategy to attract the environmentally minded consumer. This is not necessarily a bad thing: it’s an important acknowledgement that consumers want to eat fresh and

Farm-to-table as it exists today is a social movement.

As environmental awareness increases, so does enthusiasm for food that is local and sustainable.” take the environment into consideration.

This desire from consumers then leads to an increase in restaurants that prioritize locally sourced ingredients, an important aspect of a restaurant’s environmental considerations and overall environmental impact.

So next time you’re choosing a restaurant: make sure to read the full description if you’re looking for the serious farm-to-table experience.

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SPOILER

ALERT

MOLD ISN’T SO BAD

BY SARAH FINKELSTEIN PHOTO BY SHU-YUN YAO

While we’re on the topic of the Green issue, there’s a certain shade of green most of us hate to see on our food: mold. When people see moldy food, they throw it away, slam the pantry door, lose their appetite after having seen what happens to food unattended. I don’t blame them—most molds are dangerous to consume. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t trust moldy yogurt either, but there’s more to mold than meets the eye.

However, this image of evil green and white creeping over a loaf of bread or a month-old apple gives mold a bad rap. Sometimes, the greener thing to do is to reduce waste by cutting around the mold and eating the rest — maybe just a slice of the bread is contaminated, or only a spot on the apple has gone bad.

According to the USDA, there definitely are strains of mold that can make people sick. For example, I definitely would not recommend eating a cup of yogurt with visible mold on it or a steak that has clearly gone bad. These foods have high moisture content, so the mold that appears to be on the surface has actually penetrated throughout.

However, the USDA also stresses that foods with low moisture con66 penn appétit

tent such as cured meats, hard cheeses, veggies, and firm fruits can be eaten even when there is visible mold. Just scrub the mold off the surface of your salami or cut an inch around the mold on your strawberry and enjoy!

40% of food in the United States ends up as waste in a landfill. It’s important to note that for every bit of food thrown out, we’re not just wasting a meal that’d be in-

valuable to someone in need. We could also be better using the land it was produced on and avoiding emitting unnecessary carbon into the air during its harvest and shipment. That’s a lot of waste for one onion with a spot of mold…

Aside from reframing mold in terms of reducing our food waste, as chemists and biologists of the kitchen, chefs have been harnessing mold and bacteria for

centuries in order to ferment foods for preservation as well as to build new and interesting flavor profiles with classic ingredients. Mold and bacteria are the agents that create the sharp saltiness of overtly green blue cheese, the cool, refreshing bubbles (and alcohol) in beer and kombucha, as well as the cutting umami of soy sauce and acid of vinegar. Without the helping hand of harmless strains of mold and bacteria, these delicious foods we know and love would not be the same.

Innovative chefs continue to push the boundaries with mold, bacteria, and fermentation. It’s Alive, a Youtube series with Brad Leone of the Bon Appétit test kitchen, highlights the powerful flavors and creative uses of fermentation and molding. In one episode in particular (Brad Uses Moldy Rice (Koji) to Make Food Delicious), Brad uses koji—a traditional Japanese ingredient consisting of rice inoculated in mold—to cure steaks, chicken, and shrimp. The koji gives the meat some extra “funkiness” (in a good way, don’t worry) and helps it caramelize faster while it is cooked. Koji is usually used

in making miso, however using the mold in this way transforms a dining experience and creates a new flavor profile for these simple proteins. Brad also uses fermentation to make other unusual recipes such as pickled egg yolks and tepache: a fermented pineapple beverage.

When we think about the uses of mold to create new flavors in delicious dishes, we can also think about fermentation as a way of reducing our food waste. Fresh produce that often gets thrown out because of mold contamination can instead be fermented or pickled, increasing its shelf life as a bonus of deepening its flavor. Fermented foods can last anywhere from 4-18 months when stored correctly, as opposed to fresh produce which only lasts a couple days, or a week if you’re lucky.

Molds will not kill you and they’ll definitely make the world stronger.

So take it from someone who loves bleu cheese and has definitely eaten a strawberry whose neighbor in the box had mold on it: I can confidently say that not only was I A-OK after eating them, but they were delicious!

VICTORY FOR VEGETABLES: VEDGE REIMAGINES FOOD AS WE KNOW IT

BY KELSEY WARREN, ILLUSTRATION BY MALIA KEALALUHI “It’s like throwing a dinner party every night...and then waking up the next day and doing it again,” remarks Chef Kate Jacoby of Vedge when I ask what it’s like to own a restaurant. For Kate and her husband, Rich Landau, multiply this by three: the husband-wife duo are the head chefs and owners of Vedge and V-Street in Philadelphia — along with Fancy Radish in Washington DC. Jacoby and Landau have been finalists for numerous James Beard Awards, establishing themselves as trailblazers in vegan cuisine, but also in the restaurant world at large.

When I ask Kate about her approach to curating dishes at Vedge, she tells me that she encourages her culinary team to think: “What is this vegetable saying to me?” The answer lies in the vegetables themselves, in thinking about the seasonality and flavor profiles that make a given vegetable so delicious. Through conversations with farmers and the culinary team of the restaurant, Chef Kate seeks to reimagine the everyday preparation of vegetables for an extraordinary dining experience.

When discussing Vedge,Kate doesn’t lead with the label “vegan” to describe their food. Instead, she leads with the idea of creating vegetables that excite.

She tells me that she’s chosen a vegan lifestyle due to the damaging characteristics and effects of the animal products industries. However, she assures me that she never wants to force these values onto her guests. Instead, she focuses on creating memorable experiences with vegetables to illustrate to her guests the boundless potential of vegetables themselves, not as a lesser alternative or “world of sacrifice” to meals with meat or dairy. Instead — and this becomes clear once I go to Vedge myself — a vegetable-based version of most of these dishes tastes even better.

After getting to know Chef Kate, I’m eager to experience the magic of Vedge for myself. I recruit my friend and Penn Appétit photographer, Alan, to join me on a mission for a Wednesday-night vegetable-tasting feast at Vedge.

Vedge’s aesthetic embodies that of a traditional brownstone: classy and important, yet inviting. Like stepping into a nice home, Vedge’s entryway is welcoming and impressive — the space was built in the early 1900s to serve as the Princeton Club of Philadelphia. The residential-feeling interior is classy and polished, but it is this feeling that the space could double as a townhome that makes it feel so comfortable.

We walk through the foyer, past the bar, and through a hallway to a larger area with two rooms — one that looks like an in-home traditional dining room, and the other (where we’re seated), which has compact seating for parties of two on one side, and the kitchen on the other. It’s intimate and cozy — I certainly feel like I’m at the dinner party Chef Kate had mentioned in our conversation.

Our dining experience doesn’t disappoint. From the service upon arrival, to my final scoop of matcha and pineapple sorbet, I’m impressed at how purposefully the vegetables are prepared.

For example, many of the dishes, such as the cabbage and caraway soup or the rutabaga fondue, are creamy. Alan and I are stunned: How is this possible without dairy products?...Yeast! We learn that yeast is used to create this texture, which we continue to see in sauce and dressing as we eat our way through the rest of the meal.

One of the most surprising tastes of the night was the fancy radishes — rolled radishes with yuzu avocado, shiso, cucumber, and smoked tamari inside. The smoked potato crepe is also a new taste — a potato tortilla with vindaloo, corian-

der, and chickpea chutney. Both are incomparable to anything I’ve ever had before.

We were especially interested in the dishes that use vegetables in the place of meat. On Brussels sprouts lie crispy shiitake in the way the dish might be served with bacon. Similarly, the eggplant braciole is beautifully assembled with sliced eggplant, roasted in olive oil, wrapped around rice, cauliflower, and more eggplant. The preserved lemon salsa verde and cured olive provide a rich sauce to compliment the subdued taste of the eggplant.

The wood-roasted carrot is the final delight. A huge — I mean huge — roasted carrot sits atop carrot mustard and a pumpernickel slice, with a crush garbanzo on top (instead of sauerkraut). The carrot serves as a surprising substitution as the corn beef in a vegan twist on a classic Rueben. But, it doesn’t feel like a substitution. Instead, it feels like it’s meant to be because it tastes...so good.

While there was plenty of “green” in my meal from the Brussels sprouts to pesto sauce, “green” shows through in Vedge’s approach to sustainability and innovation more than anything else. I wouldn’t expect a carrot to replace beef in a Reuben or to enjoy rutabaga fondue, but they both made an impression on me that vegetables are more dynamic — and can be more delicious — than we give them credit for. What’s more, Vedge is able to lead with vegetables in a classy way, without assuming or preaching an agenda. Their strength yet subtlety are what make this restaurant and its leaders so special.

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