Food for thought

Local foods inspire

At 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13 students started to trickle into the room, with apprehensive glances at peers who had already gathered. All had surprised stares at what lay, thoughtfully displayed on their seats. What type of an event were they attending? A cheese tasting, of course.

Erick Swenson PLU’s Culinary Operations Manager and self-declared “food snob,” who could spend hours talking about what might seem to be minute details in a dish or food presentation, led the latest program in the Culinary Adventure Series. A couple of weeks ago it was Bizarre and Ghoulish Foods, but this past week Dining Services turned to Northwest Artisan Cheeses – a safer fare, though no less complex or remarkable.

Swenson started off the evening with dialogue about the different types of cheese, from blue to golden cheddar. He moved on to explain to the students about what cheeses and accompaniments lay on the trays before them. Represented were Gothberg Farms Chevre from Skagit Valley, Wash.; Rollingstone Aged Chevre with anise and lavender from Parma, Ida.; Samish Bay Organic Fresh Gouda from Bow, Wash.; Pleasant Valley Gouda from Ferndale, Wash.; Cougar Gold from the Washington State University campus in Pullman, Wash; Beechers Smoked Flagship from Seattle, Wash. and a moldy outlier made from vegetable ash and salt called Sea Stack from Mt. Townsend Creamery in Pt. Townsend, Wash.

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This Week's Comic by Aubrey Lange

From the editor

Avoiding the art of avoidance

I recently began step aerobics, my first physical education class since my stint in PE 100 as a first-year. I was dressed in my finest sweats for what I expected to be a dreadful experience. I remembered PE circa junior high, which can be summed up in one word: awkward. I didn’t expect much to be new.
I was wrong.
Step has changed my sour attitude to one of awe and appreciation. Why had I waited until my last year to take advantage of a class so beneficial to me in so many ways?
Many times in my academic career at PLU, I have found myself griping about GURs and other ‘have to’s. ‘I subsequently tried finding alternative methods of maneuvering around them. I used to believe that was what I wanted. To stay with the familiar.
Here I am, about to graduate in May and I have finally realized that I have missed out. Instead of agonizing for the past years about fitting in time to work out or finding a place offering diverse workout classes, I could have easily achieved those things by taking aerobics classes at PLU, and received credit too. Ever since this realization a few weeks ago, I have been wondering about what other opportunities I almost missed.
I applied to be LuteLife editor of The Mast at the end of my sophomore year. But, right before the beginning of the school year, I panicked. Why did I do this? I had no idea what I was getting myself into until that first layout night, which could have been one of the most stressful nights of my life.

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