The Food Issue: The Spectrum Volume 63 Issue 44

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UB expands health care options for students Survey finds students struggle to maintain healthy diet

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SINCE 1950

ubspectrum.com

Fueling the bodies that fuel UB’s athletic endeavors

monday, february 3, 2014

Food Lab takes steps toward a healthier Buffalo University research leading the way in eliminating hunger in communities nationwide The Food Lab is a student- and faculty-run university facility that focuses on increasing food accessibility in struggling communities. By examining urban planning techniques, the staff members are working toward improving the health and sustainability of the Buffalo region and beyond.

Asst. News Editor

It’s easy to miss the Hayes A. Annex building on South Campus. The small aluminum-sided warehouse, nestled in between Diefendorf Hall and the Health Sciences Library, resembles more of a temporary construction site than a research lab with a nationally award-winning staff. Yet according to the staff of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab, or the “Food Lab,” the research being conducted in the facility is anything but quaint. It is aiming to reinvent the way urban centers function across the country. The Food Lab “conducts research, builds capacity of planners through education and training, and engages in communitybased efforts to build sustainable

SEE FOOD LAB, PAGE 2

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Local Japanese restaurant offers entertaining, offbeat dining experience Creating a miniature onion volcano like the one pictured is just one of the many talents a hibachi chef possess. Originally called “shichirin,” hibachistyle cooking was introduced to the United States by Japanese chefs as an innovative way to cook using a charcoal-burning brazier with a grill.

ERIC CULVER

food systems and healthy communities,” according to its website. Researchers at the Food Lab believe there is an opportunity to lead the professional community into the next generation of urban structuring. They think using smart planning as a way to address one of the most critical issues facing urban and rural communities – an inaccessible food market for the poor and underprivileged – could be effective. Maryam Khojasteh, a master’s of urban planning student and employee of the lab, said planning with public health and accessible food systems in mind is essential when it comes to proper city development. This, however, is a lacking quality in many modern planning techniques.

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Saké! Saké! Saké!

Staff Writer

MADELAINE BRITT

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Volume 63 No. 44

Courtesy of Kyoto Restaurant

Kelsang Rmetchuk, The Spectrum

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“Saké, Saké, Saké!” a hibachi chef yells, pouring a stream of the Japanese alcohol into a customer’s mouth using a condiment bottle. This is the beginning of a typical lunchtime meal at Kyoto Japanese Restaurant, which is a fiveminute drive from North Campus. The out-in-public chefs use the hibachi grill for two reasons: to prepare their patrons’ meals over flames, and as a stage to perform. With over 50 customers in the hibachi area, employees scurry around. They place orders and roll around carts that are filled with condiments, rice, mixed vegetables, lo mien noodles and meats. “Are you ready?” a hibachi chef asks a man at his table. The man, engaged in the performance, nods.

“All right, here we go,” the chef proclaims, and with his stainless steel spatula, he chops up broccoli and catapulted the bits into the man’s mouth. Other customers approach the grill to witness the exciting style of cooking. It is not only a meal. It is an experience. Located on Maple Road, Kyoto brings in patrons for the food and to observe the chefs, who use their lightning-fast hands to sculpt a miniature volcano of onions with meticulous and elegant technique. “My favorite thing would be the different style that each [chef] has,” said Evelyn Chang, a senior interdisciplinary social sciences major. “A bunch of hibachi chefs do the same things, but when one of them does something new and different, I’ll remember that.” SEE Saké!, PAGE 2


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