Kai Gamboa's Senior Project Blog

  Concluding my time at Catlin Gabel with this project has been special. Going into the first week I was excited to spend time with my friends and eat food I had never tried before. In hindsight, I realize that I was brought closer to my friends through the food that we ate and cooked. Through constant conversation while cooking and eating I was able to learn new things about some of my closest friends. Simply for the time I shared with my cohort I will always remember this project. Beyond this, I was able to learn more about cooking and the food culture in Portland. From finding the right ingredients at QFC to cooking them, I made major strides in my culinary abilities. In addition to this, I learned so much about the food industry in Portland. This project took us to food carts in downtown and established restaurants in Beaverton. I would recommend a project revolving around to food for how accessible it is. We were able to keep our cooking and eating schedule flexible which allo...

  This week I feel was our strongest week of the project in terms of cooking. On Tuesday we at Shoyu Ramen at Kizuki Ramen and on Wednesday we ate Sushi and Nigiri at Sushi Mioga. These two meals were complimented with several side dishes and drinks of those cuisines as well. This week we cooked Udon with SPAM and Chicken Butter Masala. A specific moment where I feel we all learned was while making the udon. We had to simultaneously cook the different aspects like the noodles themselves, the vegetables, and the broth. Cooking the noodles first was where we came short in fulfilling the recipe. While the recipe did inform us to cook the noodles first, we let them sit in the pot for quite some time. By the time we had everything cooked and ready to assemble it was evident that leaving them in the pot made them slightly mushy. This being said, the dish as a whole was delicious and fun to make as well. What I feel I learned the most about this week was the act of cooking over a stove to...