The Bowdoin Gourmet

Tonight in Thorne I enjoyed this brilliant dinner:

Salmon is one of my favorite foods, and it was particularly well done tonight. I liked how the spiciness of salsa contrasted with the rich flesh of the fish, as well as the brilliant red color that it lent to the dish. The sliced cucumber and minced parsley were both artful and delicious garnishes.

The vegetable side was also a standout; it defied the reputation of zucchinis as flavorless vegetables and demonstrated their full culinary potential. The key, I think, was that they were roasted just the right amount of time: long enough to make them tender-crisp and to bring out their savory flavor, but not so long as to destroy their integrity. That timing in combination with some superb seasoning made for a tasty side.

The pesto-tossed pasta with roasted vegetables, in the rear of the dish, was also excellent. I loved the earthy flavor of broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and asparagus that dotted the pasta, as well as the bright, savory flavor of the fresh pesto. Its almost a metaphor for the Maine spring; at the same time having elements of both winter (the roasted vegetables) and summer (the basil pesto).

Altogether, I’d say that tonight’s great meal was one fitting with which to close the year. This dinner was a classic example of the delicious and healthful food that distinguishes Bowdoin’s foodservice.

I’ve had a great time writing the Bowdoin Gourmet, and your readership has made it a particularly special experience. Thanks for reading, for commenting, and for your interest in Bowdoin’s dining services and food at colleges in general. Campus dining is experiencing a sea change nationwide, and I’m thrilled to have been able to chronicle some of the leaders of that change right here at Bowdoin.

As I close out this blog’s last post, I’d like to offer a final thanks to the Bowdoin Dining Service employees. I’ve spent most of the space here this past year writing about the food, but my experience has taught me that its the employees in Thorne and Moulton that are ultimately responsible for Bowdoin’s great dining experience.

In a recent post, Bowdoin Gourmet reader Julie suggested that I try one of her personal favorite salads. I’m really glad that she made the suggestion and that I gave it a try, because this salad is awesome.

Julie’s original suggestion called for greens, sliced grilled chicken, sliced apples, shredded cheese, sunflower seeds, craisins, balsamic vinegar, and a pesto topping. I mostly followed Julie’s suggestions in making this salad, but I substituted raisins for craisins (no craisins in Moulton), omitted the sunflower seeds (I have a strong aversion), and left out the balsamic vinegar (I wanted to try the salad first without this very strong flavor). The net result:

What a brilliant mix of ingredients! I honestly didn’t have high expectations for this eclectic combination, but it really does make for a great salad. The pesto topping in particular was delicious and I especially liked it with the red apples. When I make this at home in the future (and I will), I think I’ll trade the red delicious apples you see in the picture for my personal favorite variety – the pink lady. The pink ladies are sweeter, crisper, and have the added bonus of not browning after being cut. Their almost magic. Like this salad.

You’ve heard a lot of my thoughts on Bowdoin’s food. Here are what some other students wrote on comment cards in Moulton:

“Espresso Bar = Awsome!!!”

“Please don’t put out so many good entrees on one night”

“Pork tacos…”

“Moulton Union dining hall hell yes!!!”

“I really like the Golden Cheese Soup! Mmmmm.”

“Could you put raspberries in the lemon-poppyseed muffins?”

Well there you have it – the students have spoken.

As much as I like the food from Bowdoin’s dining halls, sometimes I enjoy making a little something for myself.  I came up with these pita sandwiches last summer and have been making a lot ever since.

The sandwiches are simply halved pita breads stuffed with a tossed salad.  I made today’s salad with romaine lettuce, carrot, green onions, tomato, button mushrooms, and shaved roast beef, all tossed in a zesty Italian dressing.  I also like to make a similar sandwich in which I substitute salad shrimp for the roast beef and ginger-soy dressing for the Italian.

Making these sandwiches is as easy as making a tossed salad – which is to say very easy.  You can even make a complete meal out of them because they have bread, veggies, fruit, and meat.  The next time you’re looking to make an easy, healthy, and delicious meal, give these sandwiches a try.

I’m just finishing up the fall semester here at Bowdoin and getting ready for the winter break. To commemorate the end of the semester, I’ve put together a little collage of pictures from my favorite posts on The Bowdoin Gourmet.

Enjoy the holidays and I’ll see you next year!

A few weeks back I wrote on this blog about some very tasty chocolate chip pancakes. I didn’t think that any pancakes could top those. I was wrong:

Nothing wins me over like fruit, and this pancake dish doubled up on fruit sauces: strawberry on the bottom layer and blueberry on the top. The two sauces taste even better together than they would on their own; the strawberry’s bright, sweet flavor perfectly complements that of the less sweet, more pungent blueberry. I’ll definitely be looking to try this delicious duo of sauces on French toast and waffles when I get a chance.

Today was the last day of the breakfast pastry taste test. I sampled a few more pastries this morning and then chose a winner from all of those I had tried throughout the week.

Today’s new contestants:

3. Pina Colada Muffin – I’m not sure what to make of this muffin. The muffin itself was OK in terms of texture, moisture, and sweetness, but the combination of pineapple and coconut flavors was bizarre and out-of-place. I appreciate the bakery’s effort to create an eclectic pastry collection, but this recipe needs some work.

2. Raspberry Strudel – My great experience with the raspberry muffin built my anticipation for this pastry with a raspberry filling. The strudel itself was great: tender, light, flaky, and perfectly sweetened, but where the muffin was bursting with genuine raspberry flavor, the strudel was filled with an overly sweetened, jelly-like paste. Overall, it was pretty good, but the raspberries deserved better treatment.

1. Following up on my promise in the comments section of a previous post, I gave the blueberry muffins another try. Today’s was actually quite it bit better; it was lighter, with a well-formed muffin cap, less sweet, and had more blueberries. However, the flavor of the blueberries themselves was too subtle. If these blueberries tasted as good as they looked, this muffin probably would have won the overall taste test.

And the winner of the breakfast pastry taste test is…

The raspberry muffin – The key for me with this muffin was the genuine fruit flavor. Several other pastries were otherwise comparable to the raspberry muffin, but none of them captured the brilliant essence of their namesake ingredient like this one did.

On one hand, I’m glad that I conducted this taste test. I go to try a lot of different breakfast pastries and in the process discovered a new favorite. On the other hand, I’m pretty tired of pastries at this point. I’m taking a hiatus from them for a little while so I can try some of the other breakfast options, especially all the great fresh fruit. Pastries are nice to have on occasion, but they can’t consistently form the basis of the most important meal of the day.

In day 3 of the breakfast pastry taste test (see the other days’ reports here and here) a surprising contender emerged; the low fat pumpkin muffin.

As soon as I saw this muffin I suspected it would be good and the taste test confirmed my suspicions. The muffin was light, airy, tender on the inside and slightly crispy on the top, and had a great pumpkin and autumn spice flavor. It was a little dry, but not unappealingly so, and in fact its dryness made it taste even better with the honeydew melon I was also eating. In general, this low-fat pumpkin muffin tasted better than the regular one I had tasted earlier. This muffin will contend strongly in the breakfast pastry taste test finals.

This morning I considered two more contestants for the ongoing breakfast pastry taste test:

2. Chocolate Chip Muffin – This poorly shaped muffin looked sorry to begin with, and it did not taste much better. It was dense and heavy, the crumb of the muffin did not taste fresh, and the chocolate chips were numerous but mediocre. The spotty quality of this muffin surprised me because it seems like a very straightforward one to make.

1. Raspberry Muffin – I love fresh fruit, and this muffin really succeeded in showcasing raspberries. The pockets of gooey berry burst with a complex, tangy flavor in my mouth, complimented but not overpowered by the muffins moderate sweetness. Indeed, I think that Bowdoin used real, whole raspberries in the muffin because I could actually see the fruits’ seeds. Also, the muffin was well shaped, light, moist, and had an interesting contrast of textures between the soft crumb and slightly crunchy top. The raspberry muffin will surely be a strong competitor in the taste test finals.

A few days back, I submitted a comment card in Moulton suggesting that they serve Canadian bacon more often at breakfast. They’ve read the comment, replied to it, and posted it on the public comment board in the dining hall, along with several others. I’m happy to report that they will now be serving more Canadian bacon!

I think it’s really great that Bowdoin is so open to suggestions and transparent about what other students are saying. It demonstrates that they take a lot of pride in their work and that they believe they are doing a truly outstanding job. Now, lets see how well they follow through on their promised change.

Bowdoin provides a lot of choices of pastries at breakfast. To determine which of the many available pastries are the best, I am conducting a systematic breakfast pastry taste test. Over a few different days this week, I will have a taste test involving all the pastries available on that particular day. Since the selection varies daily, I’ll try at the end of the week to have a final taste test showdown between the finalists from each of the preliminary taste tests. Then, I will know the supreme breakfast pastry at Bowdoin.

Today there were 5 different muffins and one sweet roll available at the breakfast bar. I tasted a few bites from each and evaluated them on their flavor, texture, and visual appeal. In general the muffins were very good; not surprisingly given that they are baked fresh daily on the Bowdoin campus. Below are the results of my individual evaluations, with my least favorite at the beginning and my best liked at the end.

6. Chocolate Muffin with Peanut Butter Chips – This muffin disappointed me terribly. In general I like the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, but this muffin completely botched it. It was poorly risen and therefore too dense. The crumb was way too dry. Neither the chocolate flavor nor the peanut butter tasted fresh. And it looked pretty sad, with no “muffin cap’” and peanut butter chips so sparsely dispersed most bites had none. This was a surprising disappointment from Bowdoin’s bakeshop.

5. Orange Roll – Eating this enormous, rich, and dense pastry in its entirety would constitute a full breakfast in itself. Don’t be tempted by its shinny orange glaze and silky white frosting, because this pastry is over sweetened, way too rich, and tastes strongly of artificial orange flavor. I like the idea of an orange pastry, but this one needs serious reworking. I’d like to see it more like a cinnamon roll, with a fluffy, slightly dry interior and a really appealing aroma.

4. Pumpkin Muffin – It comes in at #4, but I still really liked it. Though it did not appear to have risen particularly well, the crumb was adequately light. Also, the crumb had a perfect level of moistness. I really appreciated the modest amount of sweetening, because it let the fresh and genuine pumpkin flavor come through.

3. Pumpkin Muffin with White Chocolate Chips – The intense pumpkin flavor mostly overpowered that of the white chocolate, but when I got several chips in one bit the flavor was great. I also liked the visual contrast that the white chips provided against the orange muffin.

2. Blueberry Muffin – I really like blueberries, and I thought before the taste tests that this muffin would take the top spot. It did have an interesting fruit flavor, a moist and fluffy crumb, and an appealing shape and appearance, but the sugar coating on top made for slightly too much sweetness. A sweet muffin is good, but not when it detracts from the more interesting flavors in a pastry, as it did in this case with the blueberries

1. Lemony Poppy Muffin – This is the archetype of muffin excellence: perfect shape, light and moist interior, attractive appearance, and a dynamic combination of sweet, tangy, and savory flavors. In particular, I love how the modest sweetness allowed the fresh lemon and poppy flavors shine. I’ll be enjoying this muffin again in the pastry taste test finals.

At Bowdoin college we are very lucky to have two farmers markets within walking distance of the campus. In fact, many students take advantage of this great opportunity by visiting the markets regularly. In part because I constantly hear great things about Crystal Spring farmers market from my friends, I went today for the first time since the spring of last year.

I found that even at 9:00 a.m., when most of the Bowdoin campus is asleep, the market bustles with activity. Brunswick residents mill around between the dozen or so farmers’ tents, browsing a wide variety of locally raised and organic fruits, vegetables, baked goods, seafood, poultry, meat, and prepared foods. The fresh produce available during this time of year is particularly impressive, as it’s the height of the Maine growing season.

I’ve said before that I like fruit, and in fact apples are my absolute favorite. So I am quite excited that the Maine apple season is getting started. I particularly like the smaller, more intensely flavored apples that you are more likely to find at farmers markets.

When I asked the market’s apple farmer how the apple crop was this year, he enthusiastically replied, “Good, real good. Though there a bit on the tart side, because it’s the first picking.” Undeterred, I bought three. The McIntosh apples I tasted were indeed tart but nonetheless very good. The skin was tender and the flesh juicy and crisp, while the tartness made the apples that much more refreshing in the summer heat. I’ll definitely be back in the future looking for more delicious apples.

Later I was perusing another stand in the market when I came across this wild looking Bell pepper. In terms of ripeness, it was halfway between an unripe green pepper and a ripe red pepper, which gave it its unique appearance. It was literally the only pepper like that in the entire farmers market, so I had to buy it and taste it. Indeed, the flavors of tart green and sweet rep Bell peppers combined and balanced perfectly in this delicious snack.

The Crystal Spring farmers market was definitely worth the Saturday morning trip. I look forward to coming back to this market and also to visiting the farmers market in downtown Brunswick. The next downtown market is on Tuesday, so check back then for another farmers market post.

Visiting the Crystal Spring farmers market put me in such a good mood that I decided to take this picture of some beautiful flowers across the street from the farm. A nice way to start one’s day, isn’t it?

The Moulton breakfast menu varies considerably, but it includes one thing every day: “Eggs cooked to order”. While I have read that menu item a few hundred times over the past year, today was the first day that I actually took advantage of being able to get eggs cooked to order.

I was planning for this ahead of time, so I got to Moulton early to beat the crowds. That way there would be no excuse for the staff to be too busy to help me. Indeed, a very kind lady gladly obliged when I asked for “2 eggs over easy please.” While she prepared those on the big flat-top grill, I toasted some whole wheat bread for an egg sandwich.

To make the sandwich, just put the two eggs between the toasted slices, season with salt and pepper, and cut on the diagonal. Adding lettuce and tomato makes it even better, though you probably won’t find any at breakfast. Regardless, this sandwich is a lot of fun and utterly delicious. I personally like the runny yolks, but if you’re not into that just order the eggs over medium: after all, they are “eggs cooked to order.”

This morning I also saw kiwi-fruit and champaign grapes for the first time in Moulton. Being the fruit lover that I am, I of course tried them both out. They were delicious as expected.

Champaign grapes have a milder flavor than regular table grapes; in particular, they don’t have that lingering acidity that stays with you after eating table grapes. They also are not acutely sweet like modern table grapes, which gives them a subtler flavor that emphasizes the fruit itself. Given their fine flavor and tender texture, I might go so far as to call these champaign grapes “the caviar of fruit.”

What’s the best way to eat a grapefruit? To be honest, I’m not really sure, so at breakfast this morning I experimented with some different methods.

For the first grapefruit, I used one of the special grapefruit knives with a bend in middle to cut the grapefruit directly out of its skin. The idea here is that the knife has a similar contour to the inside of the fruit, so you just move it in a circle along the inside and then out pops the nicely separated flesh.

Well, not really. As you can see the knife did not match the contour of the grapefruit very well, and the result is a combination of wasted fruit stuck on the skin and malformed flesh left to eat. I figure there has to be a better way.

Indeed there is. The inspiration for this second method is actually oranges, which I usually just peel and then eat in wedges. If it works for oranges, why not grapefruit?

The peeling goes easily once you get it started, which you can do by sticking a fork tine between the flesh and skin at the circumference of the fruit and making a small break in the skin. Once you have all the skin off, you’ll want to go back and peel off the white, bitter pith.

This leaves you with a less wasteful and more pleasant looking piece of grapefruit than the first method. Next, I thought I would just break the fruit into wedges by peeling the sections apart. In fact, you can’t really do that with a cut-in-half grapefruit because it leaks sticky juice all over your hands.

So instead just use a sharp, serrated knife to cut it into wedges. This leaves you with tasty, bite-sized pieces of citrusy goodness
that you can eat with a fork.

I’m curious if anyone has a different / better method for eating grapefruit. If you do, please post a comment and let us know about it!