Today was the first day of Winter Term, and our class has already learned so much! After doing name games and talking about each of our favorite dishes, we jumped right in. The first exercise we did in class revolved around tasting each flavor: sour, umami, bitter, spicy, astringent, sweet, and spicy. This exercise gave everyone a chance to learn about how to feel and taste each different flavor. After a short break, Miss Clater told us about her trip to Portsmouth, ME where she encountered a jerky shop with all different kinds of jerky, including kangaroo jerky. Though I did not try any myself, the kids in the class who did try it said that it tasted like regular beef jerky:

Class resumed and we began to talk about cheese, types of cheese, and how cheese is made. We wrote down on a work sheet the steps that go into the process of making the cheese that we eat; the stuff that happens after the milk leaves the cows. We then proceeded to watch a video about Parmigiano Reggiano in Italy; I had no idea that my Kraft parmesan cheese wasn't ACTUALLY parmesan! While we watched the video, Miss Chen cut us each up a little piece of cheese. Each cheese was different and we tasted them from mild to strong. 

My favorite cheese was Edan, but I was happy with how much I liked the goat cheese on the cracker. We learned how to get to know the cheese (where's it from? Cow, Sheep, or Goat?), look at the cheese (color? texture? shape?), smell the cheese (strong? milky?), taste the cheese (lasting flavor? smooth? chunky?) and finally score the cheese for ourselves for how much we enjoyed it. After lunch we finished the duration of the video and talked about the future of the class. Learning about taste was very fun, and I can't wait to expand my love for food!