Anappetite: Experiences and Food from a Student

It's not often that someone like Guy Fieri comes to Calgary to sing the praises of our restaurants, and it's certainly unexpected that one such restaurant would be a spin-off of a bakery. Located in a small building at the corner of Central Memorial Park, Park by Sidewalk Citizen is known for their dry-aging and fermentation techniques. It   has a beautiful solarium as well as the kitchen area that you can be seated in. An expansion of the popular  Sidewalk Citizen bakery, it also serves as a year-round event space in Calgary's oldest park. We chose to sit in the fireplace-heated solarium with a beautiful view of the park, surrounded by plants and a wood-latticed ceiling. I had to try the same dish that Guy proclaimed as one of the best lamb dishes in North America on the Smoked, Fried, and Aged episode of  Diners, Drive-ins and Dives : their Beeswax Dry-Aged Lamb platter, which comes with three cuts of lamb, house garlic fries, Turkish onions, and two sauces. Before...

Local cuisine is one of the best things about travelling, and my recent trip to the Boston/Cambridge area was certainly no different, so here were some of the interesting things I had in the even windier city ! Pinocchio's Pizza at Harvard Square Most Canadians associate Boston with Pizza, despite Boston Pizza being totally Canadian, and Boston's lack of an iconic pizza style like New York's or Chicago's. Regardless, the city has a strong Italian community and some renowned pizza spots such as Pinocchio's Pizza & Subs . Located in Harvard Square, it's famously referenced in Suits when Mike Ross fails to answer the question about where Harvard students get square pizza (which "any self-respecting alumnus would know" is Pinocchio's). The storefront and interior are charming and homey, with tight seating and pictures of Harvard sports teams and dedicated customers all over the walls. We ordered a half pepperoni and half barbecue chicken pizza whic...

After finishing my last internship over the summer, I’ve reflected back on how much I’ve grown since my first internships, largely thanks to the great mentorship and trust afforded to me by others. I feel incredibly lucky to have had these experiences (though I did work hard at getting them!) and wanted to share them for others in case they provide any insights :). UCalgary XR Lab Researchship This one was a semi-internship I did during the summer of tenth grade; it was unpaid, part-time, and did not have many expectations attached to it. I found out about this opportunity after having participated in a UCalgary student-run hackathon - the organizers sent out an email to all the participants because they knew some labs with graduate students who were open to mentoring and having high school students do work related to their thesis projects. After filling out a short form about my interests and programming experience, I had a short on-campus interview at a mixed reality lab and was ...

The last year of uni is definitely the "oh shit!" time when you look at your academic requirements and realize you need to take five 500-level CPSC courses, three 300+ level options (the only one that fits your schedule is Analysis of Slavic Music ), and two of the most grueling courses you've ever taken because they're prerequisites for CPSC 5XX: Course you wanted to take since first year . OK, maybe it's not that bad. To this day, I've never had a computer science class in the ICT building CPSC 441 - Computer Networks This course had a great balance between theory and practicality, because while we were given (and tested on) many equations and theoretical considerations related to packet delays, protocols, checksums, etc., it was made clear what each one was useful for. I also felt that the mix of assessment types helped with learning. We had written assignments and in-class activities, many of which required looking back on prior course content and combinin...

Do you want to start a club at UCalgary? That's great! With over 200 clubs already on campus, you'd think it's a pretty straightforward process. Well, yes and no. The process is theoretically  easy and straightforward, but there are a bunch of little things the official guides  don't quite tell you that might trip you up. So, here's what I learned from starting the UCalgary Cheese Club! Start the Application Process Early... Very Early First things first: all new club requests are due once per year on May 15th. If you miss that deadline, then you're waiting until next year. The actual paperwork is very doable, you just need: A constitution (the instructions for this are very clear) At least 20 members (gather your friends!) A few executives willing to help run things The full official details are here if you want to dive deeper. Finding Your People Before you finish your application, you need to submit a list of club executives. Your executives don't need t...

In Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn festival (falling somewhere in September/October) is a time to gather with loved ones, give thanks, and pray for good fortune and health. Of course, food is of paramount importance to these celebrations - mooncakes especially. They come in many different styles, but they are almost always round to symbolize reunion and have the bakery's name with an elaborate design printed on them. They're served in wedges and paired with tea. This year, I tried the 4 different flavours of mooncake from the T&T Bakery Assorted Mooncake Pack, which comes in a lovely box depicting the Moon Rabbit : These mooncakes are all of the Cantonese variety with rich fillings, a thin and tender pastry crust, and salted egg yolks inside (more on that later). The four different fillings here are white lotus paste, mixed nuts, dates and walnuts, and red bean. White Lotus Seed First up, the classic lotus seed paste is the most popular filling for mooncakes, despite its ra...