Another One Bites the Dust

10/17-10/23

Chocolate Brownie Truffles from Brazil

This week was a bit more exciting then the last one.


I have a group project that is looking at designing a new way to dry cocoa beans for a chocolate company called Valrhona.  I will be traveling to Valrhona on Tuesday to meet with a representative and talk over what they expect from the group as a final product.  This week the final report and the presentation of the production line for the Chocolate Gelified Milk was this week.  It was a little stressful, but it is over now and it is now time to move on to other projects that are due.

At school we had a Buffet des Saveurs du Monde.  This was a buffet for all the students at ISARA to come together an try food from other countries.  My favorite part was these chocolate brownie truffles from Brazil.  I also tried this Durian coconut candy from Vietnam, dumplings from china, and another dish from Brazil with chicken and cheese.

Appetizers

This week I also went to a Lyon restaurant with my host sisters and we had a lot of Lyon specialty foods. The restaurant is called La Mère Jean.  I ate way to much (but #worthit)!  The first part of dinner was lentils, ham with a mustard sauce (bottom left), this yogurt sauce with herbs with vegetables (dish at the top), then an onion tart (bottom right).  The main dishes were served and I have scalloped potatoes, beef with a mustard sauce, chicken, liver, and this fancy fish stick with a cheese sauce (not pictured).  Then for dessert I had a lemon tart, and Praline.  This was a fun night of trying a lot of different foods.

Dessert + cheese at Clara's 

Another thing that happened this week was I was invited over to Clara's house for lunch.  I got to meet her family and have a wonderful meal.  For lunch I had blanquette.  It had carrots, mushrooms, and calf in a soup with rice.  Then we had cheese that her mom had gotten at a farmers market.  I really liked this cheese with ashes that are rubbed on the outside.  After the cheese we had a dessert called île flottante (floating island). Her mom was a fantastic cook, and everything was amazing.  To top the afternoon off, Clara and I planed at three day vacation to Barcelona!  I am so stoked that I get to travel a little bit while I am abroad!

Today I cooked pancakes and bacon for brunch.  I was a bit worried that the pancakes would not turn out well, but they ended up being really delicious.

Another amazing thing that happened this week was that I got to skype two of my roommates back home and chat with them for one and half hours.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with them and talk about life!  I can't wait to have our roommate movie nights/dates again when I get back.

This week at dance there was a substitute teacher and he was crazy.  The bonus side is I learned a new word.  He had us doing crazy combos with weird transitions between moves.  On Saturday morning I could barely move. I haven't been this sore since my last state practice for dance team.  He was also the type of teacher that didn't consistently count for each exercise.  He would start off counting, then switch to saying tiens (this was the new word), then just to sounds.  He would also switch from showing the combo with his feet, to just using his arms.  Those of you who are reading this and have danced before understand the struggle.  It also didn't help that I didn't know what tiens was for most of the lesson.  

Well this was my week, I hope you enjoyed reading this!

The main course 

Pancakes + Bacon for Brunch