Friday 31 August 2012

Farewell from Korea!

Today is our last post. Thank you for all the comments and questions about Korean food and school. This has made our week a lot of fun. We are so happy that people are interested in Korea. Our class is sad we will not post anymore but we will ask our teacher to read more posts from the world and from Veg.


Today we had a good lunch. Like everyday we had rice (밥 bap) and the soup was kimchi stew (김치찌개 kimchi jjigae). This soup has kimchi, pork, and a little bit of other vegetables. Then we had tofu (두부 dubu) with soy sauce, kimchi (김치), and fried dried seaweed (김자반 무침 kimjaban muchim). Today we had a sweet thing at the end of the meal called 떡 (tteok). It is a sweet rice cake that is very sticky.

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Health rating- 9/10
Bites- about 61 on average
Courses- Soup, 3 sides, dessert
Price- About 2,500 won ($2.50 US)
Pieces of hair- 0 (everyday!)

Goodbye and thank you for reading our posts.

Teacher’s Note: Sorry the post from the kids is so short today, we were busy catching up on work missed due to the typhoon day we had earlier this week. My students really enjoyed hearing from everyone who commented, so I thank you all! It was a great week.

I will not answer some of the final questions that we didn’t get to in class today. Chopsticks and spoons are used in Korea almost exclusively. There are forks and knives in western restaurants but chopsticks are always offered, too! I’ve gotten quite good at them since I arrived :) There is no reason to switch over to the knife, fork, spoon tradition of the west. For Koreans (and I’m sure the rest of Asia), using chopsticks is second nature and just as easy for them as using a fork is to the west!

There are a lot of Korean sweets and western influenced desserts, but we don’t eat them often at school. Rice cakes (like the one we had today) are the most popular and are sometimes filled with things like sweet red beans or sesame oil. Dairy is not really part of the traditional diet in Korea, like other east Asian countries which is why you rarely see it in Korean food.

Thank you all again for such a great week. I urge all of you who are interested in Korean food to go out and try it (or challenge yourself to cooking it!) and donate to Mary’s Meals. Let’s support Veg and her truly outstanding project! Lastly, for those interested in life in Korea and Korean food you can find out more at my blog.

Thursday 30 August 2012

Hello again from Dae Han Min Guk!

한식 (do you remember how to say our name in English?) here again. Dae Han Min Guk
(대한민국) is the name of Korea in Korean! Today here it is very rainy. They say we have a typhoon coming again! We hope that Veg and family is okay after the lightning strike. And that everyone in US is okay after hurricane there.

To answer your question, mostly in Korea women cook. Men work very long hours at the
company and get home very late, so women cook dinner. It isn’t that hard always because rice is made in rice cooker and kimchi is made only a few times a year with the whole family or you can buy. We aren’t sure why we use metal chopsticks here, it is just normal for us!


Today’s lunch was white rice (밥 bap), salad, fried shrimp patties with ketchup, kimchi, and gamjatang (감자탕). Gamjatang is a soup with pork bones and potatoes. The meat is on the bones (from the neck) and you need to scrape it off. It is little bit spicy.

Food-o-meter- 7/10
Health rating- 7/10
Bites- about 46 on average
Courses- Main, Soup, 2 sides
Price- About 2,500 won ($2.50 US)
Pieces of hair- 0, again

If you have any other question please ask today because tomorrow is sadly our last day to post ㅠㅠ (This is the cry sign in Korean).

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Hansik is back!

Sorry about missing yesterday but today we are back at school. The storm was not very bad. We were very happy to get a day off school and spent most of the time playing and sleeping. Everyone is tired today. There is another typhoon coming tomorrow but they don’t think it will be very bad.

We are happy that everyone likes these posts. Korean food is very delicious and we hope that more people in the world will try it. Today’s lunch was good. Wednesday is a special lunch day. They serve special things like rice porridge or curry.


Today we had fried rice with dried seaweed on top (볶음밥 with 김, bokkeumbap with kim),
soybean paste stew with green pumpkin, mushrooms, and potatoes in it (된장 찌개, doenjang
jjigae), radish kimchi (깍두기, kkakdugi), corn and cheese casserole, and grapes.

Food-o-meter- 8/10
Health rating- 7/10 (there was a lot of cheese)
Bites- about 55 on average
Courses- Main, Soup, 3 sides
Price- About 2,500 won ($2.50 US)
Pieces of hair- 0!

People had a question about breakfast in Korea. We usually eat the same food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This is rice, soup, kimchi and other small things like tofu, egg, ham, or beans. Sometimes we eat cereal or breads.

Thank you for reading. We like seeing your comments and answering your questions about
Korea!

Teacher’s Note: To answer some of the other questions from the last post I will jump in. The dumplings in the back of the picture are called kimchi mandu. Mandu (민두) is the Korean word for dumpling. I teach just English (writing) but other native English teachers at my school teach science, math, social studies, and reading. It is a wonderful opportunity!

There is a lot of access to junk and western food here. McDonalds, Burger King, Papa John’s, Domino’s, and Baskin Robbins (to name a few) all have stores here and are very popular. But, from what I’ve seen and what students have told me, these are eaten much less regularly than in the US. Koreans still place a big emphasis on family, so meals are often home cooked or still Korean. Other things are seen as a treat. Obviously, this is not the case in all Korean families but seems to be more common.

There are a lot of options for delivery and take away here. Korea is very convenient. When you order from Korean restaurants they bring everything in glass and metal. Once you are done eating you place it outside your door and the restaurant will come and pick it back up. Besides Korean food, you can order delivery from just about anywhere, even McDonalds! Fried chicken, often tossed in a spicy sauce and incredibly common in Korea, and pizza are popular choices.

When asked my students all said they like western food sometimes but that they prefer Korean!

Tuesday 28 August 2012

안녕하세요! Annyeonghaseyo!

Hello again from Seoul! Today’s blog post is going to be a little different. As you know the posts on NeverSeconds are usually written by children, but today I (Hansik’s teacher) am going to be
taking the reins. Why? Because Korea is currently preparing to be hit by Typhoon Bolaven and the kids were told not to come to school today. While teachers still have to report on the outset of this hurricane, the cafeteria is closed. I’ll take this opportunity to tell you a little bit more about a typical Korean snack or lunch when not at school.

First off, I am an American who has been living in Korea for the past 18 months. I work at an immersion school so the students spend half the day studying the national curriculum with their Korean homeroom teacher and half the day studying core subject in English with a native English speaker. I’m the writing teacher so this project fits perfectly.

In Korea, teachers eat with their students. We eat the same food but are able to serve
ourselves. I pay 50,000 won (about $50 US) a month which is a great deal. I actually love most of the food in the cafeteria!

Now for the food! One of the most popular quick meals or snacks in Korea is called kimbap, or in Korean, 김밥. Also called the “Korean sandwich” due to the fact kimbap is often brought as a lunch on hikes or field trips, kimbap looks like a Japanese sushi roll, but it is actually very different. Yesterday we learned that kim (김), the first syllable of the word, is dried seaweed. Well, the second syllable, bap (밥), means rice.


Like sushi it is rice and seaweed rolled, but the similarities end there. The most common variety is filled with egg, ham, cucumber, carrot, and pickled radish (danmuji, 단무지). You can also order kimbap with other ingredients including cheese, kimchi, or, my favorite, canned tuna with mayonnaise. It sounds weird at first, but once you get used to kimbap, it is delicious. A roll runs about 2,000 won ($2 US) and is available at convenience stores and take away shops around the country.

One final thing before I go. Although it is a little scary here in Korea today with this impending storm, I know that I will still have access to food and a hot meal. Let’s make sure everyone who can donates to Mary’s Meals so that this can be a reality for more people across the world!

That’s it from Korea today! Hopefully the students will be back tomorrow with another school lunch for you all. If you have any questions about food, lunches, or education in South Korea please ask and I’ll have the students get you some answers.

Monday 27 August 2012

Hello from South Korea!

We are in 6th grade at elementary school in Seoul. You can call us Hansik (한식). This means Korea food. We study half the day in Korean and half the day in English at our school. It is private school so we pay for lunch but at public school in Seoul all student get free lunch.

We eat lunch at 12pm everyday in the cafeteria. Everyday there is rice, soup, a main dish, and some side dishes. We can drink water if we want. On some special day there is juice. We have to eat everything before we can go. We can have more food if we want. We don’t like many of the food in the cafeteria. Our favorites are fried chicken and noodle soup.


Today’s lunch was white rice, spinach soybean paste soup (시금치 된장국, sigeumchi doenjangguk), kimchi (김치 it is cabbage fermented with spicy red sauce), kim (김 dried seaweed), and dwaeji bulgogi (돼지 불고기) was the main dish. Dwaeji bulgogi is pork, spicy red sauce, and cabbage. It is kind of like stiry fry.

Food-o-meter- 7/10
Health rating- 9/10 (Korean food is healthy)
Bites- (Teacher’s Note: I forgot to tell them to count! I’ll remind them tomorrow!)
Courses- Main, Soup, 2 sides
Price- About 2,500 won ($2.50 US)
Pieces of hair- 0!

(Teacher’s Note for the picture: The students are not allowed cameras or phones during school hours so I took the picture. Because of this, the portion size is slightly larger than what is given to the students.)

We were very happy when we learned about Mary’s Meals. In our school we have a market one time a year. We sell things we make and give the money to an orphanage. We think it is very important that kids help other kids.

Sunday 26 August 2012

We are Finalists!

Hi Hungry Birds! Veg here.

Thank you for sharing your lunches. Our dinners are very expensive because they cost £2.05p. That's 2.60 euros. I think a lot more children would have our school dinners if they were free. Parents would make us have them even if we didn't like them. Your soup was lovely and I can't believe you gave it the lowest score. That's mean!

I had some broccoli and greens from the polytunnel to use today so I made soup with garlic and a little cheese. I used the garlic because we had no onions ready. Even Dad had seconds and he scores soup low like you normally.

I wanted to try one of your dinners and so your teacher shared a recipe. It is for your chicken and pasta casserole that you had on Thursday. You scored it,

Food-o-meter: 10/10
Health rating: 8/10


Your recipe was very easy to follow but we never use dl, decilitres, in our recipes we say 100ml. Dad and I followed your instructions and we used honey from our own bees on the chicken as well.


Ours sauce looked much runnier, less thick, than yours but it was delicious! You can see we didn't have carrots ready either so we boiled some sweetcorn. I rate,

Food-o-metre: 10/10
Health Rating: 9/10

It has everything you want in it because it has protein, carbohydrates and lots of veg as well. I was full after mine and I didn't have dessert. I will post the recipe.

I found out last week I am in the final of the Great Scot Award! You can see the finalists here. It's great there is a guide dog and hospital clowns in the finals. It is a shame I won't meet them but my aunt and maybe my granny are going so they will. I will be asleep in Malawi because we are 2 hours ahead. I am waiting for news of the Friends of NeverSeconds kitchen. I hope they will be using it soon!

Next week we are going to spend a week in Seoul, South Korea (14 seconds. I must show you my globe soon!). I would like to cook a meal from Seoul as well next weekend. It's great trying different recipes. I don't think I will be able to use chopsticks but I want to learn.

33 days until Malawi!

Veg





Friday 24 August 2012

Hungry Birds once more!

Hei kaikille! Nälkäiset linnut ovat täällä viimeistä kertaa. Tällä
viikolla olemme oppineet monia asioita ruoasta. Tämä viikko on monella
tapaa muuttanut suhtautumistamme ja mielipiteitämme kouluruokaan.
Ymmärrämme nyt paremmin, että olemme hyvin erityisessä asemassa
kun saamme joka päivä ilmaisen ja terveellisen koululounaan. Ja
rehellisesti sanoen, koulumme ruoka jopa maistuu hyvälle. Joskus vain
kun ruokaan suhtautuu negatiivisesti, se alkaa myös maistua pahalta.
Meillä ei ollut aikaisemmin mitään käsitystä siitä, että niin monet
joutuvat maksamaan kouluruoastaa tai että niin monilla ei ole edes
mahdollisuutta siihen. Joskus ajattelimme, että olisi parempi jos
voisimme ottaa kouluun omat eväät. Enää emme niin ajattele. Haluamme
kiittää Vegiä ja hänen isäänsä mahdollisuudesta osallistua tähän
blogiin. Olemme pitäneet tästä viikosta paljon. Toivomme, että matkanne
Malawiin onnistuu ja näemme paljon kuvia sieltä. Odotamme myös
mielenkiinnolla seuraavien koulujen vierailuja täällä.

Jos tämä viikko on ollut erilainen, niin on myös ensi viikko. Olemme
leirikoulussa Pohjois-Karjalassa. Pohjois-Karjala on osa itäistä Suomea
lähellä Venäjän rajaa. Leirikoulussa mm. vaellamme Kolilla, melomme,
kiipeilemme ja tietysti uimme Pielisessä ja saunomme. Leirikouluamme voi
seurata blogistamme. Lisäämme sinne ensi tiistaista alkaen kuvia ja
kertomuksia leirikoulun kulusta. Leirikoulublogiin pääset tästä:
http://otavanleirikoulu2012.blogspot.com

Tänään ruokana oli kaalipataa, puolukkahilloa ja salaattia. Pidimme
salaatista. Siinä oli kurkkua, viinirypäleitä ja raejuustoa.
Kaalilaatikko on ruoka josta joko pitää tai ei pidä. Useimmat meistä
pitivät ruoasta, mutta osa meistä ei voi sietää kaaliruokia.
Puolukkahillo ei ollut kovin makeaa. Sitä käytetään Suomessa usein
perinteisten ruokien kanssa.

Hello World! This is the last time of the Hungry Birds. In this week we
have learned lot of new things about the food we eat. This week have
changed our attitudes and opinions for our school lunch. We think that
we understand now better that we are in a very special position when we
get a free and healthy meal during our school day. And after all if we
are honest our school meals are quite tasty. Sometimes when just being
so negative about the food it starts to taste bad. We didn't have any
idea that so many children have to pay their school meals. Also we
didn't understand that there is some many children that don't even have
a change to get their lunch at school. Sometimes we have thought that it
would be better if we could bring our own lunch boxes to school but not
any more. We want to thank Veg and her dad to give us this opportunity
to be a part of this blog. We liked this week very much. We hope your
trip to Malawi will be successful. It would be nice to see pictures
there. We also wait to see next schools blogging here.

If this week has been a little different our next week will also be
anything but normal school week. We are going to school camp to Northern
Carelia. North Carelia is one part of eastern Finland just beside the
Russian border. Next week we are going tofor example do some hiking at
Koli, learn some canoeing, do some climbing, swim in lake Pielinen and
of course because we are from Finland have a sauna every day. If you
want you can follow our school camp on our blog. Yet there isn't much to
see but after next Tuesday we will be sending there pictures and stories
during our school camp. You can find our blog here:
http://otavanleirikoulu2012.blogspot.com

Today our lunch was cabbage stew with lingonberry jam and salad. We
liked the salad.


It was made from salad, cucumber, grapes and cottage
cheese. The cabbage stew is a dish that you either like or hate. Most of
us liked it but some of us can't stand foods which includes cooked
cabbage. The lingonberry jam isn't very sweet. In Finland it is used
with many traditional foods.

Food-o-meter: 7/10
Mouthfuls: 28
Courses: main
Health Rating: 9/10
Price: 0e
Pieces of hair: 0

Hungry Birds are saying now thank you and goodbye! Or like we say in
Finnish: Moi moi!


Hungry birds teacher here once more... This week with this blog has been
a great success. It has been wonderful to see how my pupils attitudes
and opinions have changed in few days. Last week when we talked about
our lunch it was just tasting bad. Instead of learning maths or other
subjects we have spent lot of time for blogging here and talking about
the food but I think it all was worth it. I also have to thank Veg and
her dad giving us this opportunity. You are doing great work and I hope
you can keep this up. You never know what kind of influences a small
acts like your blog can reach.

Thursday 23 August 2012

Chicken and pasta casserole

Hei! Tänään ruokatunnillamme oli todellisia nälkäisiä lintuja. Käytimme
paljon energiaa kahdella liikuntatunnilla aamulla. Tänään pelasimme
jalkapalloa ja harjoittelimme pituushyppyä. Pisimmät hypyt olivat noin
3,5 metriä.
Kuuntelimme aamulla myös eilen tehdyt radio-ohjelmat. Ohjelmat olivat
noin 10 minuuttisia ja ne menivät hyvin. Saamme mahdollisesti linkin
niihin myöhemmin. Toimittaja kirjoitti myös jutun nettiin jonka voit
lukea täältä http://yle.fi/uutiset/arvostele_mun_kouluruoka/6265904

Tässä taas vastauksia muutamiin kysymyksiin:
Keittiössämme on neljä keittäjää. he ovat hyvin mukavia ja tiedämme
melkein kaikkien nimet. he juttelevat usein kanssamme kysyen esimerkiksi
ruoan mausta tai he kysyvät myös kuulumisia. Joskus he myös saattavat
näyttää vihaisilta jos olemme liian äänekkäitä!

Tänään meillä oli broileri-pastapaistosta ja porkkanaraastetta. Pidimme
paistoksesta, se oli aivan mahtavaa! Monet meistä ottivat myös lisää.
Vaikka ruoka maistui hyvältä, sen väri olisi voinut ehkä olla parempi.
Porkkanaraaste on aina hyvää.

Hello! Today we were really Hungry Birds on our lunch break! We had two
sport lessons in the morning so we spend lot of energy. Today we played
football and trained long jump. Best of us jumped about 3 and half
meters.

We also listened the radio programs that was made yesterday. There were
two 10 minutes programs and they were quite successful. There may be a
change to hear them from internet later, we hope so. Anyway the reporter
wrote an article to internet and you can read it here.

Again here are some answers to you questions:
In our school canteen there is four cooks. They are very nice and
friedly people and we know almost everyone by name. They often talk to
us if they aren't in a hurry. They can ask what we liked about the food
or they van just ask how are we. Sometimes they can also look as little
angry if we are too noisy.


Today we had chicken and pasta casserole with grated carrot. We loved
the casserole, the taste was awesome. Many of us took even another
portion! Even the food tasted good we thought that the colour of the
casserole could have been little better. Grated carrots are always
great.

Food-o-meter: 10/10 (just perfect!)
Mouthfuls: 33
Courses: main
Health Rating: 8/10
Price: 0e
Pieces of hair: 0

Bye for now!

Hungry birds' teacher here! I decided to write also something about our
school meals. Today I talked with our head cook. The menu is made for
seven weeks at a time. There is different food for every day during the
menu. In our kitchen they use as much as possible local groceries. For
example almost all of vegetables they use are local and if they can't
get local product they choose a products that are produced in Finland.
All milk products are fat free. In our kitchen they use rarely
industrially manufactured products. Our cook counted that for example in
next seven weeks they use those products only in five days! One a really
big bonus in our kitchen is that they make their own bread and buns and
what can be better that smell of fresh bread!

In Finland we teachers also eat the same food with our pupils. School
lunch is part of the curriculum. I have to say that in our school the
food is really tasty. However children attitude for the food is often
very negative. Of course the food is not pizza or hamburgers. But still
the food is good and of course free. Sometimes I think that the negative
attitude comes from home. Many Finns have bad memories from school
meals. I have also! But the food has changed a lot. Many can remember
meat with dill (tilliliha) as one of the worst meal ever. Today in many
homes families don't eat any more together. Also in many homes the food
is convenience food. So pupils are not used to eat different flavours.
It is sad that some pupil eat first time fish (if we don't count fish
finger) at school! Anyway I think that after this week my pupils will
relate better to our school lunch. We have learned lot of new things and
had good conversations. So in the future I think we look our food in a
different perspective.

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Orange mush and rye bread!

Hei taas! Nälkäiset linnut ovat taas täällä. Kiitos taas
kommenteistanne. On ollut mukavaa nähdä miten paljon keskustelua
kouluruokamme on herättänyt. Kommenteissanne on ollut myös paljon
kysymyksiä joten vastaamme tänään muutamaan.

Suomessa 1-2-luokkalaisilla on koulu 20 tuntia, 3-4 luokkalaisilla 23 ja
5-6 -luokkalaisilla 25 tuntia. Koulupäivät voivat olla melko lyhyitä ja
koulu voi loppua jo klo 12. Ekaluokkalaiset voivat osallistua
iltapäiväkerhoon, joka on maksullinen. Muutoin menemme kotiin tai
esimerkiksi isovanhempien luokse. Monesti menemme kuitenkin yksin
kotiin. On tavallista että vanhemmat tulevat töistä noin klo 17.

Tänään koulussamme vieraili paikallisradiosta toimittaja kysellen tämän
viikon projektistamme. Toimittaja myös ruokaili kanssamme. Ohjelma tulee
huomenna aamulla radiosta, laitamme mahdollisesti huomenna linkin tänne.

Tänään lounaamme oli kasvissosekeittoa, suomalaista ruisleipää, juustoa
ja tomaattiviipaleita. Keitto näytti mielestämme vähän oudolta, mutta
ruisleipä kruunasi aterian.

Hello folks! Hungry birds here again! Thanks again for your comments. It
has been very nice to see how much conversation our school lunch
raises. There have been also lot of questions so today we are going to
give you some answers.

Some of you were asking what we do when our school ends. In Finland
pupil in 1st and 2nd year have 20 lessons per week. 3rd and 4th year
have 23 lessons and 5th and 6th year have 25 lesson per week. So school
days and quite short and sometimes your school day may end as early as
12 o'clock. Pupils in the 1st grade can attend to special afternoon club
which their parents have to pay. Sometimes we go to our grandparents or
home with our parents. But in most cases we have to go home alone.
Typically our parents come home from work at 5pm. Many of us have made
some agreements with our parents that we do our homework and take some
snack before we can meet our friends.

Today in our school visited a reporter from local radio station making
some interview about our project in NeverSeconds. She asked lot of
questions what we like our school meals. She had also lunch with us.
Program will be sent tomorrow morning. If it's possible we send you a
link where you can here us.


Today our lunch was vegetable soup made from potatoes, carrots, onions,
broccoli and courgette. We also had pure Finnish rye bread, cheese and
tomato slices. The soup looked little funny, but the bread was a crown
of todays meal. You can reed more about rye bread from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_bread

Food-o meter: 6/10
Mouthfuls: 27
Courses: Main
Healthiness: 9/10
Price: 0e
Pieces of hair: 1 (really!)

See you again tomorrow! Bye!

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Hot potatoes!

Hei taas! Nälkäiset linnut ovat taas täällä! Kiitoksia kommenteista,
niitä on ollut mukava lukea. Tänään kerromme jotain suomalaisen
kouluruoan historiasta.

Suomessa ilmaisella kouluruoalla on pitkät perinteet. Ensimmäiset koulut
alkoivat tarjota kouluruokaa jo 1800-luvulla. Vuonna 1943 säädettiin
laki ilmaisesta kouluruoasta, joten vuonna 1948 kaikien koulujen tuli
tarjota lämmin lounas. Aluksi lounas oli hyvin yksinkertainen. Ainakin
maaseudulla oppilaiden piti tuoda ruokatarvikkeita (marjoja, sieniä,
perunoita, maitoa) koululle. Nykyään onneksi meidän ei tarvitse tuoda
mitään. Kunnat kustantavat kouluruoan. Esimerkiksi kaupungissamme yhden
aterian kulut ovat 0,65e! Se on aika vähän kun miettii mitä tuolla
rahalla saa ruokakaupasta. Ja tietysti tarvitaan iso joukko ihmisiä
kokkaamaan ruokaa.

Nykyään kouluruokailu on osa opetussuunnitelmaa. Meidän pitäisi oppia
hyviä tapoja ja maistamaan uusia makuja. Opettajat myös muistuttavat
koko ajan, että ruoka pitää syödä haarukalla ja veitsellä.

Tänään ruoaksi oli pestokalaa, keitettyjä perunoita ja
vesimeloni-kurkku-persikkasalaattia. Kala oli ihan ok, mutta kaikki
eivät tykänneet pestokastikkeesta. Suomessa perunat keitetään yleensä
kuorineen, joten meidän pitää kuoria ne. Kaikki eivät tästä tykkää,
koska kuoriessa voi polttaa sormensa. Tänään tosin perunat eivät olleet
kuumia, mutta ihan hyvän makuisia. Melkein kaikki pitivät salaatista ja
erityisesti vesimelonista.

Hi again! Hungry Birds from Finland are back! Thank you for your
comments, it has been very exciting to read them. Today we tell you
something about history on school meals in Finland.

Here in Finland we have long traditions for school meals. First schools
started to serve school meal already in 19th century. In 1943 passed a
law about free school meals so in 1948 every school had to serve warm
meal during school day. First the lunch was quite simple. At least in
countryside pupils had to bring some groceries to school kitchen for
example berries, mushrooms, potatoes, milk etc. Nowadays we don't have
to bring anything. Communities are covering the costs of school lunch.
For example in our town supplies for one portion cost about 0,65e! It's
quite a small amount on money if you think what you can by in 65 cents
from the supermarket. Of course there have to be lot of people cooking
the food!

Today our lunch is part of the curriculum. We should learn good manners
at least. We also should taste new flavours. Also our teachers always
remind us to eat with fork and knife.


Today our lunch was roasted fish with pesto sauce, cooked potatoes and
salad with watermelon, cucumber and peach. The fish was ok but everyone
didn't like the pesto. The fish was called coalfish. In Finland it's
quite common that potatoes are cooked with it's skin and we have to peel
it before we eat it. Everyone don't like to do it because you may burn
your fingers, but cooking potatoes with skin keeps more vitamins inside
it. Today our potatoes didn't burn our fingers but they were ok. Most of
liked todays salad especially the watermelon.

Food-o-meter: 7/10 (because of the pesto)
Mouthfuls: 33 (average)
Courses: main
Health Rating: 9/10 (the fish was covered with cheese)
Price: 0e
Pieces of hair: 0
Fishbones: 1

This is all for today! Bye!

Monday 20 August 2012

Here comes the Hungry Birds!

Tervehdys Suomesta! Me olemme Otavan koulun 6A-luokka. Tällä erää
kutsumme itseämme Nälkäisiksi linnuiksi maailman parhaimman ja tietysti
suomalaisen kännykkäpelin Angry Birdsin mukaan. Olemme Mikkelistä, joka
sijaitsee itäisessä Suomessa. Koulussamme on 190 oppilasta ja 13
opettajaa. Koulumme oppilaat ovat 7-12 -vuotiaita. Voit tutustua myös
koulumme nettisivuihin (http://otavankoulu.blogspot.com). Tällä
viikolla esittelemme teille kouluamme ja Suomea sekä kerromme tietysti
suomalaisesta kouluruoasta.

Tänään aloitamme kertomalla, miten suomalainen lapsi yleensä syö
koulupäivänään. Yleensä kaikki syömme aamupalaksi leipää, muroja,
hedelmiä tai jugurttia ja juomme lasin maitoa tai mehua. Jotkut
saattavat syödä myös puuroa. Joskus kuitenkin, etenkin jos nukkuu liian
kauan, voi tulla kiire ja aamupala jää väliin. Päivällä noin klo 11
syömme koulussa lounaan. Koulupäivä päättyy yleensä klo 13.30 tai
14.30, jonka jälkeen syömme välipalan kotona. Välipala on yleensä leipää
tai hedelmää. Jotkut meistä saattavat syödä karkkia ja juoda limsaa tai
energiajuomia, mutta se ei taida olla kovin terveellistä. Päivällisen
syömme kotona yleensä noin klo 17. Illalla ennen nukkumaanmenoa
syömme yleensä vielä iltapalan.

Koulussamme lounas tarjoillaan siis aina yhdeltätoista. Mielestämme
lounas on melko tavallista suomalaista ruokaa. Huomenna kirjoitamme
enemmän suomalaisesta kouluruokailusta. Lounas en maksa meille mitään,
se on etu. Samme ottaa ruoan aina itse, mutta meidän on maistettava
kaikkea vähäsen. Tänään ruokalassamme oli yhtä lempiruokaamme: spagettia
ja jauhelihakastiketta sekä salaattia. Ruoan kanssa on aina juomaksi
vettä, rasvatonta maitoa tai piimää. Lisäksi ruoalla on leipää, mutta se
on yleensä näkkileipää. Spagetti oli kokojyväpastaa ja kastikkeessa oli
vähän rasvaa ja suolaa.

Hello from Finland! We are the class 6A from Otava school. You can call
us Hungry Birds after the greatest mobile phone game Anrgy Birds made by
Finnish company Rovio (Yes, the game comes from Finland like Nokia
phones). We come from Mikkeli which is a small town in Eastern Finland.
Our school have 190 pupils and 13 teachers. Our pupils are 7- 12 years
old and we are the oldest. If you wan't you can visit our schools web
site (http://otavankoulu.blogspot.com). It is of course written in
Finnish but you can try to translate it with Google. In this week we are
going to introduce our school and Finland and of course tell you
something about history of school meals in Finland.

Today we decided to tell how Finnish kids normally eat on their school
day. First almost everyone of us eats breakfast at 7 or 8 am. Breakfast
is usually bread, cereals, fruit or yoghourt and glass of milk or juice.
Even some eats porridge as a breakfast. But sometimes when you sleep too
long and you are in a hurry you can pass the breakfast. At school we eat
our lunch an 11 am. Our school end normally at 1.30 or 2.30 pm and we
eat nomally small afternoon snack at home. It is usually bread or fruit.
Some of us may eat some candy and drink some lemonade or energy drink
but that's not very healthy to do every day. We usually eat dinner at
5pm. The dinner is mostly cooked at home. And in the evening we usually
eat some snack before we go to sleep.

Our school lunch is served every day at 11am. We think that our food is
quite normal finnish food. Tomorrow we will tell more how the school
lunch system works here in Finland. But for us the lunch doesn't cost
anything, it's like a benefit. We always can take as much as we like,
and we also have to taste everything even we don't like it. Today in our
school canteen there was one of our favourite dishes: spaghetti
bolognese and salad.


There is always water, skimmed milk or sour milk to
drink. There is also bread everyday but the bread is mostly crisp bread.
Today the spaghetti was integral pasta which is of course healthier.
There is also a very small amount of fat and salt in the sauce.

Food-o-meter: 9/10
Mouthfuls: 49 (we counted an average in our class)
Courses: main
Health rating: 9/10 (everyone didn't eat their salad!)
Price: 0e
Pieces of hair: 0

This is all for today! Hungry Birds will be back tomorrow!

Sunday 19 August 2012

Sheep

The mountains in California are very beautiful aren't they? They are very different to the mountains here. The Californian mountains are higher and they look drier also. We have sheep on our mountains and they eat the young trees so they can't grow. Our hills have more grass than trees because of the sheep. There are mountains in Malawi as well so I will take the photos from the Wanderers to show the Guides in Malawi. I haven't been backpacking yet with the Brownies here. At Christmas I will fly up and join the Guides and I hope I will go camping with the Guides. I haven't had a trail lunch like the Wanderers. It does look like food for explorers because it is easy to carry and full of energy. Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

I want to show you our sheep. Dad has to trim their feet and because it was dry he did it today. It started to rain but he finished them all. Dad thinks there maybe more goats than sheep in Malawi but we will find out.


The first photo is a ewe we bred ourselves. She has a Suffolk dad and a Texel mum. She had her first lambs this year and this is how dad holds them to trim their feet.

The second photo is one of this years lambs. He has a Scottish Blackface dad and he will go to the market before we go to Malawi to be sold.

The third photo is a wether. That means he has been castrated and he will go as hogget this year because he is over a year old.

The last picture is Dad trimming the feet. The hard bits grow round the side and hurt the ewe so they get cut off.

Next week the blog is going to the Otava school Mikkeli, Eastern Finland (20 seconds to find Helsinki but no Mikkeli on my globe!) I wonder if they will have lamb or hogget this week.

Thank you and goodbye Wanderers in California and hello Mikkeli!

VEG



Friday 17 August 2012

Almost Home!

This was the best lunch of the whole trip! For lunch today we had almonds, dried banana chips, and dried apricots. We also had crackers with a peanut butter chocolate spread, granola bars, and lots of water. The almonds tasted good in the peanut butter chocolate spread.


We needed calories because we have a long hike ahead of us today! It is still so strange to us how much water we drink when we are hiking. Some of us think we will try to drink a lot more water when we get home.

Food-o-meter: 6/10
Health rating: 7/10
Mouthfuls: about 30
Course: Trail lunch
Price: about $2.32
Pieces of hair and nature: 0 hair and 1 ant
View: 2/10 (there wasn't much to see except how much further we had to hike!)

Today's view is the trail between Dardanelles and the Big Meadow trailhead, which is the end of our trip!


There isn't a lot to see and we are sort of sad the trip is almost over and sort of happy because we are a little tired. We all agree that we could go a couple more days, though!

Today's song is On My Honor, which is a US Girl Scout song. It makes us a little sad to sing it because we sing it on the last night of camp every year and it always makes everyone cry, especially our leaders. We wish camp wouldn't end but we know we'll stay friends even when we're not at camp. We all want to come back next year to be Rovers, who go out on a 4-day backpacking trip! Some of us want to be Superpackers already, but they go out for 12 days and that seems like it would be really hard, but we are having so much fun that maybe it wouldn't be so bad!

Today we want to challenge all Girl Scouts to donate to Mary's Meals! This is the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts in the US, and we should all be grateful for the opportunities Girl Scouting and especially Girl Scout camp has given us. We are writing to the Girl Guides in Malawi and we hope they get to have as much fun as we do here!

Camp director FIREFLY here...on behalf of Two Sentinels Camp, all our volunteers, and the Girl Scouts of Northern California, we all want to thank VEG and her NeverSeconds blog for the terrific opportunity for our girls to take part in this global conversation. Thinking about the food they eat and the kids, especially the girls, helped by Mary's Meals has been a life-changing experience for our WANDERERS...thank you, so very much.

Thursday 16 August 2012

à l'école en France

Voilà un déjeuner typique servi à l'école en France, fourni actuellement par le Centre de Loisirs, géré par la municipalité de notre ville. Les enfants retournent dans la cantine de l'école pour les repas pendant les vacances. Voici un repas du mois de juillet.

Mon fils Daniel, 8 ans, en a fait un dessin, ensuite il l'a perdu, retrouvé, et nous sommes partis en vacances, et à notre retour il l'a retrouvé. C'est un dessin qu'il a fait rapidement, sans l'aide de tous ses feutres de couleur, mais nous espérons que vous verrez un peu de quoi il s'agit!

Entrée: Une part de melon Galia et une part de pastèque
Plat: Saucisses Chipolata avec ketchup, Salade de pâtes ( pâtes biologiques)
Fromage: Fromage frais à tartiner
Dessert: Glace vanille-fraise
Servi avec jus d'orange (pas inclu dans le dessin)


This is a typical school lunch in France (2 seconds!), supplied at the moment by the holiday playscheme that is run by the council. The children eat in their school canteen during the holidays too. This is from July.


My 8 yr old son Daniel drew a picture, lost it, found it again, went on holiday, came back, found it again… He did this quickly and without his usual stock of coloured pens but we hope you get the idea! So here we have his recollection of lunch from the playscheme :

Starter: Slice of Gallia melon and slice of watermelon
Chipolata sausages with Ketchup
Pasta salad (organic pasta)
Cheese (white blob at the top)
Dessert: Vanilla /strawberry ice-cream (that's the pink/white item in the lower right hand corner)

Food-o-meter: 9/10
Health rating: 7/10 (fairly high in fat, but OK for children who are running around a lotl)
Mouthfuls: ?? Usually their lunches are quite filling
Price: about €2.80
Pieces of hair: 0 hair

Meal with a View!

This was a really good meal today! We had two versions of chicken and rice: Hawaiian style and plain. The only difference was that the Hawaiian one had pineapples and more flavoring.


It was very tasty. Again, we had to finish the green beans with almonds and the rest of our dinner before having ramen noodles. We also had tangy fruit juice, apple cider, hot chocolate and granola bars for dessert.

Food-o-meter: 9/10
Health rating: 8/10
Mouthfuls: about 82
Course: Trail dinner
Price: about $2.32
Pieces of hair and nature: 0 hair but 4 pieces of nature because some dirt got into our chicken, but it was still good anyway and we ate all of it
View: 11/10! Dardanelles Lake is gorgeous!

Today's view is Dardanelles Lake. It was so pretty and the only way you can see it is to backpack to it. That's what we like about backpacking. Plus there are more places to use the biffy here. Biffy stands for "Bathroom In the Forest For You" because obviously there are no outhouses or toilets or anything like that way out here! It was sort of harder to use the biffy at Round Lake because there wasn't as much privacy.


The swimming isn't as good here as it was at Round Lake, but this is the prettiest lake we've ever seen so we didn't really care. Some of the girls on our trip have moms who came here when they were kids at our camp, so it feels very special.

We want to say something about our funny bowls. They are backpacking bowls and are very squishy so they fit in tiny places in our backpacks. One girl on our trip has a golden cup that her mom used when she was a backpacker here. It is in the picture in our first post of the week. But we all like the squishy bowls best because they look like jellyfish. We also like the fork-spoon because you can have a fork and a spoon and only wash one utensil! Washing dishes in the wilderness is interesting because we can only use special soap and we definitely do not wash our dishes in the lake. So it's nice when we finish all the food in our meals so we don't have as much cleaning up to do. Plus then the bear bag is lighter if there is no garbage.

The stars here are amazing. We are not using our tents because the weather is very nice and clear. There is too much light at home to see this many stars. You really have no idea how many stars are in the sky until you go backpacking!

Today's song is the Desperado song. We're not sure what a desperado is but it seems to be an Old West person, like a cowboy. We just like singing it!

Today we want to challenge anyone who has ever used a biffy in the woods, done dishes in the woods, or slept under the stars to donate to Mary's Meals!

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Hitting the Trail Again

Lunch today was pretty much the same as yesterday. We had crackers and granola bars with peanut butter. We also had a variety of spicy crackers along with wasabi peas. The dried fruit strips were really good.


We didn't have as much food as yesterday, but we had the same amount of water. We are drinking so much water! Our breakfast was pretty big too, but it's funny how much more we eat on the trail than at home! Our leaders keep telling us to slow down but we all like hiking fast. We are supposed to enjoy the views so we are trying to go slower.

Food-o-meter: 8/10
Health rating: 7/10
Mouthfuls: about 40
Course: Trail lunch
Price: about $2.32
Pieces of hair and nature: 0 hair but 2 flies fell into our peanut butter
View: 4/10 (it's sort of dry here)

Today's view is on the trail between Round Lake and Dardanelles Lake. Our camp director said there used to be old covered wagon tracks and cows here but so far we haven't seen any.


There was a pretty meadow but we wish there was more water to see. We have been told that Dardanelles is even prettier than Round Lake so we're excited to get there!

Today's song is the Peanut Butter Jelly song, because we had peanut butter for lunch!

Today we want to challenge anyone who has ever cooked outdoors to donate to Mary's Meals! It is fun to do it once in a while but not everyday. We are all very lucky here.

I know a song about Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches!

Hello! My name is Katy and I live in Johns Creek, Georgia. I'm in grade five and I'm 10 years old. At my school we have a cafeteria, but I prefer to bring my lunch. Sometimes a class eats lunch outside for a prize.


For the first day of school today I had baby carrots with ranch dressing, mixed fruit, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread, and a bottle of water.

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Health rating- 9/10- lost a point from sugar in the fruit and peanut butter, and no dairy.
Bites - 59, but I didn't eat all of the carrots.
Courses– main
Price- about $1.50
Pieces of hair– none
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches eaten to date: more than the 1,500 average

My mom read that the average American child eats 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the time they are 18 years old. She also figured out that by the time I turn 11 in December, I will have eaten 1,850. I think that it is a lot, but I believe it.


Katy

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Finally Arrived!

This may not look good, but it tasted amazing after a long day of hiking, and it was really filling! We had corn, spicy beans and rice (really spicy, but good), backpacking risotto with chicken, and hot apple cider. For dessert we had granola bars, which were good, healthy, and tasty for a dessert. We also had water to drink and ramen noodles if we were still hungry but we didn't put them in the picture. We have to finish the regular food before we get the noodles so that we don't fill up on noodles.


Today we also got to bear bag. This means we put all our garbage and toiletries in a nylon sack and hang it high in a tree so that bears can't get to it. Last year the Wanderers saw bears but so far we haven't seen any. If our garbage is out of their reach they will leave us alone. We put our toiletries there too because they sometimes attract bears and if a bear eats things like toothpaste or soap he might get sick. Our leaders put our food in bear canisters. The canisters are really hard to open and close so that's why they did it for us.

Food-o-meter: 8/10
Health rating: 6/10 (it had a lot of sodium, but our leaders told us we need sodium anyway on the trail)
Mouthfuls: 99
Course: Trail dinner
Price: about $2.32
Pieces of hair and nature: 0 hair but 5 nature, it was an unlucky day: 2 ants and 3 pine needles
View: 10/10! Round Lake is so pretty!

Today's view is of Round Lake. We found some cute little water snakes here and the water was good for swimming.


After swimming there was a lot of dirt in the water so we had to filter our water through a bandanna before we could treat it with iodine. We have to treat all our water just in case there are things in it that might make us sick.

Today's song is Barges. A barge is a big flat ship.

Today we learned that it takes a long time to cook over a camp stove or a fire. For us it is fun but it would be hard to do it everyday like they have to do for Mary's Meals. Today we challenge anyone who went to camp this summer to donate to Mary's Meals!

Midges and Fish Nuggets from Bangalore

Veg here!

I love the Wanderers' song about Mosquitoes. We have midges here which are very very small but there are lots of them! The mountains look amazing and they are much higher than ours. Our biggest mountain is Ben Nevis which is 4,408ft high. I am looking forward to the rest of your week.

Thanks to Rakshith from Bangalore, India (18 seconds!) for sending in his lunch. I love fish balls. I like scampi if we eat out but a lot of places only offer you chicken nuggets on the children's menus. Your salad looks the same as mine but your fruit is so colourful!

Please keep sending your lunches to NeverSeconds@gmail.com and please rate them with
Food-O-Meter: ??/10
Mouthfuls:
Courses: Starter/Main/Dessert
Healthy Rating: ??/10
Price:
Pieces Of Hair: 0

Thanks!

Over to Rakshith,


Fish nuggets kinda thing, springrolls, melon,figs and the lettuce infested broccoli salad and pasta stuff, this bit was served today at Canadian international school located at Bangalore, India for lunch. cheers!

Monday 13 August 2012

Greetings from 8000 feet!

Camp director FIREFLY here! I run a Girl Scout backpacking camp, high up in the Sierra mountains of California. This week's guest bloggers are WANDERERS, our 11- and 12- year old girls out on a 3-day, 2-night backpack trip. The girls took a camera and notebook on the trail, wrote about each of their meals, took photos, and then brought it all back to our base camp for me to type up. At our camp and on the trail we have no electricity, no cell phone coverage, and no internet access, and we don't allow any electronic devices like computers or phones, so these posts were written by hand, carried in a backpack, hiked into camp, rowed across a lake, hiked to a car (because we have no roads into camp, either!), and driven to a place with internet access. Whew

The girls also rated their view and chose a campfire song to go with each post. Although there were adult leaders with them, the girls carried their share of the group food, stoves, and equipment, and did all their own cooking, writing, cleaning up, and bear bagging (more on that later!) The price is an estimate, based on the total number of backpacking meals we packed this year (1,533). They spent their free time on the trail working on gifts to send with VEG when she goes to Malawi. We're all so excited and grateful to have made this connection and for the opportunity for our campers to contribute to the Mary's Meals project!


Hello! We are the WANDERERS! Today we had trail mix (peanut butter chocolate candy, raisins, almonds, and peanuts) with granola bars, dried and spiced beef jerky (which is fairly easy to chew, and it tastes like hamburgers, but saltier), water, crackers, cheese, and fruit roll-ups, which are fruit flavored snacks that taste a little like strawberry.


It was really good and we had to eat a lot so that we didn't have to carry all of it for the rest of the trip. The cheese and crackers were puffed up because of the high altitude, so it was funny how they popped when we opened them! We also drank a lot of water. Lots and lots and lots of water.

Food-o-meter: 9/10
Health rating: 2/10 (we don't think the cheese was very healthy)
Mouthfuls: about 80
Course: Trail lunch
Price: about $2.32
Pieces of hair and nature: 0 hair (yay!), 2 seed pods, 1 ant
View: 5/10

Today's view is on the trail from Carson Pass to Round Lake. It is a view of Roundtop Peak, but it is pretty far away. There isn't much else to see yet but we can't wait to get to the lake! We've hiked about three miles so far and we only have two to go today.


Today's song is our camp song, Oh We're From Two Sentinels! We sometimes sing this on the trail to make the time go faster. It talks about mosquitoes but this year the mosquitoes aren't that bad.

We are making special lanyards and charms for the Mary's Meals kids to attach to their cups, too. They aren't very heavy so we brought some with us to make on the trail. Today we want to challenge anyone who has been backpacking to donate to Mary's Meals! It will only take a minute and then you can hit the trail again!

Goodbye Enzo Buzz, hello Two Sentinels!

Hello people!

Here speaks Enzo Buzz, and I think that's my last post! Happy Father's day! Your dad deserves! And you too! Make good things with him, and be happy!

Have an very interesting article about we on NeverSeconds, the link are here. In the next week, we have the new scout girls from California. I go see they new meal photos.

I like very very much at write in this week, thank you for all, a good Father's Day, good week and at another time!
Then, today is only this, that's all folks, See Ya! :'-D

Veg here!

Thank you Enzo Buzz for writing your guest week and sharing your lunches. Father's Day was in June here! I am trying to learn Chichewa for Malawi. Your English is better than my Chichewa!

We are travelling from the biggest city in the Americas to the mountains of California today with the the Girl Scouts from Two Sentinels Girl Scout Camp.


It looks amazing.

Thank you!

Veg

Sunday 12 August 2012

Roof on Friends of NeverSeconds kitchen!

This week I have been at Granny and Grandpa's. Granny and Grandpa told me about Mary's Meals when I was small. That is why Grandpa is coming to Malawi with us. I really liked Granny's cooking. She made a lovely chicken meal with mayonnaise and breadcrumbs. I didn't have any kale though so Enzo Buzz would have been very disappointed! Dad sometimes cooks with white beans in winter and makes a cassoulet from France. I had no idea what Enzo Buzz would eat at school in Brazil and it looks nice. I don't get cabbage or kale at school I don't think.

Kim sent me some more pictures from Lirangwe! The kitchen has a roof now. It looks really good. I like the corrugated roof. We have the same roof where we keep our logs and its really noisy like a drum when it rains.



I wonder if the grass roofed building on the edge is the kitchen now. I think when it rains the new roof will be better. The rainy season is in November I am told and it will still be very hot when we visit in October. I have started to take some pictures at home so I can take an album to show my new friends when I visit. I have my own camera now. It is like Dad's but newer. I have been lent it by David at Olympus and I will use it on my trip as well. It is very kind of them. I am going to take photos of my friends. my house and my animals. I will also take a picture of my school. What else do you think I should take photos of? I should take photos of my family as well.

Next week our guest bloggers are Girl Scouts from America. They are cooking outside at their Two Sentinels camp. I am a Brownie in Lochgilphead and I have been on Brownie camps to Campbeltown and Dunoon. I would like to meet some Girl Guides in Malawi to swap badges. Brownies is one of my favourite things and I am looking forward to going back soon.

Yesterday we visited Blantyre in Scotland yesterday where David Livingstone was born. He explored Africa and visited where Malawi is now.


That is why there is a Blantyre in Malawi. He was attacked by a lion but survived. I want to see a lion in Malawi but not a wild one!

Veg

Saturday 11 August 2012

World Cup, not Olympics!

Hello people!

Here Speaks Enzo Buzz, and this is my fifth post on the week :-[)!


And today we have fish to the lunch! In my meal, I have cooked fish - with fish, potatoes, tomatoes and bell peppers - rice, beans, salad with - lettuce, tomatoes, grated carrot and zucchini.

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Health rating- 8.5/10
Mouthfuls- 500g
Courses– main
Price- about R$10,00 (£3,16, $5)
Pieces of hair– none
Number of Olympic medals won by Brazil:12...today Brazil 3 x 0 Italy... Go to gold male volley !!!

Veg sent me an e-mail, saying that she are excited with the Olympic Games in Brazil. Veg, to be honest with you, Brazilians are most concerned about 2014 World Cup (Soccer). For this we are reforming most of our stadiums, and the stadiums are in very different places, then the tourists go to learn about the geography of Brazil. We have stadiums in known places, like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, but we have in locals very differents and no too known, like in Amazonas, on the north of Brazil.

Today is only this, this all folks, See Ya!

Friday 10 August 2012

I think that is a very interesting think!

Hello people!

Here speaks Enzo Buzz, and this is my fourth post in the week :-[) ! Today, I discovered that I stay in a kale diet without knowing! That's my second day eating kale, that tomorrow will be kale again? xD


In my meal have green salad, rice, manioc crumbles, cooked meat in the barbecue sauce, and to the desert (today I remembered :-)!) a vanilla and Brazilian nuts cream, and a strawberry juice to drink.

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Health rating- 8/10
Mouthfuls- 500g
Courses– main
Price- about R$10,00 (£3,16, $5)
Pieces of hair– none
Number of Olympic medals won by Brazil: 1 silver on beach volley!!!

One very great thing that happen with me is two interviews about my participation in NeverSeconds! That materials go to big websites in this Saturday.


One thing that occurred in the translations:is a mistake about kale, the vegetable was translate to cabbage. But we make an collage of them so you can see how I like to eat kale. In the photo, in the inferior-left photo is cabbage, and the others is kale.
Veg asked me about the project Mary's Meals that NeverSeconds supports and that will give children a school lunch and build school kitchens. I think it's really cool to do this, as I said in the interview today, children as we can change the world, and I like go there someday and help. I think that is a very interesting think!

Giorgio is already sleeping but I believe he says hello. My brother was really excited about the comments on his post yesterday.

Today is only this, this all folks, See Ya!

Thursday 9 August 2012

Repolho Compartilhada -Shared Cabbage!

Oi aqui é o Giorgio, irmão do Enzo. Já que ele escreve em inglês eu vou escrever em português. Vou contar o que crianças de 9 a 10 anos como eu comem: comidas amarelas ou brancas quase nunca salada, mas tem feijão e no Brasil é diferente pois ele tem caldo não é aguado mas sim um pouco mais grosso e comemos o preto (feijão) com farofa. Minha mãe tem um trato comigo: quem não come salada, tem que comer fruta. Eu como maçã, banana, laranja, ponkan, mixirica, manga, maracujá, abacaxi e uva. Mas nunca levo frutas para escola porque na minha lancheira as frutas ficam esmagadas, então eu como no café da manhã ou de noite. Também gosto muito de tomar leite e iogurte, mas não é por isso que vou virar um bezerro!!! (sou até bem magro)
A foto de hoje é do meu prato porque eu como feijão - e meu irmão não! Comi arroz com feijoada e farofa, mas tive que tirar a couve do meu prato (coloquei tudo no prato do Enzo!). E tomei suco de uva.
A nota eu dou para o meu prato seria 8,6 (no quanto eu gostei), mas no geral 6 (porque faltou verdura). A quantidade de comida foi nota 9, comi muito.
Estou gostando muito de participar deste projeto porque quando eu crescer quero ser chefe de cozinha. E também acho super legal que o Jamie Oliver que eu vejo na TV todo sábado conhece o NeverSeconds.

And thanks to Google, in English!

Hi here is Giorgio's brother Enzo. As he writes in English I'll write in Portuguese. I'll tell you that children 9-10 years as I eat: foods rarely yellow or white salad, but has bean and Brazil is different because it is not watery broth but a little thicker and eat black (beans) with crumbs. My mother has a deal with me: who does not eat salad, you have to eat fruit. I like apple, banana, orange, ponkan, mixirica, mango, passion fruit, pineapple and grape. But never take fruit to school because in my lunchbox fruit are crushed, then I eat for breakfast or evening. I also like to drink milk and yogurt, but not why I'm turning a calf! (I'm even very thin)
The picture today is my plate because I like beans - and my brother does not! I ate rice and feijoada and crumbly, but I had to take the cabbage off my plate (I put everything on the plate of the Enzo!). And I took grape juice.
The grade I give to my dish would be 8.6 (how much I liked), but overall 6 (because it lacked green). The amount of food was ninth grade, I ate a lot.
I'm really enjoying participating in this project because when I grow up I want to be a chef. And I also think that the super cool Jamie Oliver that I see on TV every Saturday NeverSeconds know.

Feijoada

Hello people!

Here speaks Enzo Buzz, and this is my third post in the week :-[) ! And now, today we have the most typical Brazilian meal: "Feijoada". This meal is made by cooking black beans with sausages, back, ribs and other pork cuts, served with rice, crumbles and steamed kale (I like a little bit of pepper sauce). In my school we have "Feijoada" every Wednesday, but in my school is somewhat different. The black beans isn't cooked with the pork, and every week it looks different, it is a different pork cut.


Today is gammon. I don't eat beans, but I eat "Feijoada". I doesn't make sense, I know, but I eat. My picture shows black beans, rice, gammon, steamed kale (I need eat in double, because my brother throw all the his kale on my dish >:-(]), corn flour crumbles, salad with - lettuce, watercress, tomatoes and grated carrot - And a fresh juice, in the meal, is a fresh grape juice.

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Health rating- 8/10
Mouthfuls- 500g
Courses– main
Price- about R$10,00 (£3,16,$5)
Pieces of hair– none
Number of Olympic medals won by Brazil-9 until now. Go volleyball!!! Go Boxing!!! Go Brazil!!!

Veg sent me an e-mail asking to speak of Brazil, but in Portuguese. Now I go speak in portuguese.

Agora falando em português. São Paulo é a maior cidade da América Latina, e uma das maiores do mundo. O bairro onde moro, a Mooca, é antigo, tem mais de 400 anos, é onde os imigrantes da Europa ficaram depois de chegarem aqui. Então temos várias influências, sendo que a mais forte é a italiana.
Aqui em São Paulo é um ótimo lugar para uma criança morar. Tem ótimos lugares para jogos virtuais, temos o SESC, com várias atrações legais, temos vários parques e vários museus com várias exposições diferentes. A cidade fica perto da praia, da minha casa a praia de Santos fica a mais ou menos 1h de carro. E estamos a 35 minutos de avião do Rio de Janeiro.
O prato mais típico do Brasil é a feijoada, como expliquei no primeiro parágrafo. Mas há vários pratos típicos e ótimos, como o "Acarajé", que é um bolinho de feijão recheado com creme de camarão e pimenta, o feijão tropeiro, que é um feijão sem caldo misturado com farofa e carnes, etc. Há uma variedade de pratos incríveis!

In English,

Now speaking in Portuguese. Sao Paulo is the largest city in Latin America and the largest in the world. The neighborhood where I live, Bristol, is old, has more than 400 years, is where the immigrants were from Europe after arriving here. So we have many influences, and the stronger the Italian. Here in São Paulo is a great place for a child to live. It has great places to virtual games, we have the SESC, with various attractions legal, we have several parks and museums with several different exposures. The city is close to the beach from my house for Santos beach is about 1 hour by car. And we are 35 minutes by plane from Rio de Janeiro. The most typical dish of Brazil is feijoada, as explained in the first paragraph. But there are several dishes and great, as the "Acarajé" which is a bean cake filled with cream and pepper shrimp, beans drover, who is not a bean broth mixed with manioc flour and meat, etc.. There are a variety of amazing dishes!

Tomorrow, I go again to the Curumim, and we have a new dish, which is... surprise!
Today is only this, this all folks, See Ya!

Wednesday 8 August 2012

At the Curumim.

Hello people!

Here speaks Enzo Buzz, and this is my second post in the week :-[) ! And now, my lunch isn't in the school, but in the Curumim (means kid in Tupi-Guarani, a Brazilian Indian language) project, at SESC, the project that I participate (this is my first day there!), and there is a very different local. The refectory it´s a big self service, and has several dishes to eat. But have very healthy dishes, but not everything we on the Curumim can eat. One thing is the soda. In the Curumim, no one drink soda. Only juice or water. To the desert, we have fruits, or fresh deserts, when have this.


In the Curumim, I ate grilled sausages 'n' onion, green leaves salad, rice, manioc crumbles, pesto pasta salad, to the drink is a passion fruit juice and to the desert, a banana, but I doesn't get one :-(, another thing is Never Senconds! We doesn't get the second dish, then we get a big meal.

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Health rating- 8/10
Mouthfuls- 400g
Courses– main/dessert
Price- about R$10,00 (£3,16,$5)
Pieces of hair– none
Number of Olympic medals won by Brazil-. 8. Men Soccer : Brazil 3X0 South Coreia!!! Go to golden Brazil!!!

Tomorrow I go to the school, what's the new dish?
Today is only this, this all folks, See Ya!

Tuesday 7 August 2012

No beans.

Hello people! Here speaks Enzo Buzz, and this is my first post in the week :-[) ! Now I have news from Brazil and I ate at the lunch: rice and beans, a beef, a bowl of salad with - tomatoes, lettuce, grated carrot, grated purple cabbage, slices of cucumber and corn - and french fries. To the drink a glass of fresh juice, is a glass of a fresh grape juice,.


in the video in the Veg post, I made one mistake: I said several times that we eat beans, but I don't eat beans. I speak that because all of the Brazilians eat beans, but I don't eat.

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Health rating-7/10
Mouthfuls- 500g
Courses- main and my recess snack
Price- R$10,00 ($5)
Pieces of hair- empty of hair (miracle)
Number of Olympic medals won by Brazil- 8 (Brazil get an golden medal in male gimnastic today!!! xD)

Today is only this, this all folks, See Ya!

Monday 6 August 2012

Welcome Enzo Buzz and Giorgio Bros!

Veg here!

Good morning to Enzo Buzz and Giorgio Bros in Sao Paulo, Brazil (1 minute 15 seconds because I used Grandpa's atlas and it's the biggest book I have ever seen!) Thank you for your email. I am glad you help your mum to cook. I help my dad.


We normally have a Sunday roast but I really like the look of your lunch. It is very colourful. Thank you for sending a video about your guest blogging. I do not know what to expect from Brazil so it is very exciting. I hope you are enjoying the Olympics. It is very special and you will enjoy them in Brazil in 4 years!



Thank you for the translation!
"Now let's talk in Portuguese. We will participate in the project NeverSeconds representing Brazil this week.
Here in Brazil we do not have (is) all day studying, we studied only one period, or studied in the morning or afternoon - it's cool, you know, gives us more rest is better.
It is not everyone who eats lunch at school, and generally only those who want us lunch at home. This week we will have lunch at school.
We participate in a project at a place called SESC and there we have a place (way) totally different food, is quite different and there will be two days, Tuesday and Thursday.
Here in Brazil we usually eat rice, beans, vegetables in salad or cooked meats and varied. Interestingly, rice and beans, which is what we usually eat, we do not think abroad, here in South America has the same countries that do not like to eat rice and beans and we really like here is the thing we eat more (or more frequently).
So that's it, thank you. It`s all folks, see ya!"

I really like watching your carnivals on TV. They are so colourful. I think I will learn more about Brazil this week.

Thanks!

Veg





Saturday 4 August 2012

On the map!

Hi Pavlova! We used to have a cockerel that crowed in the mornings but your Kookaburra is hilarious. It would put a smile on my face every morning unless it was early like my cockerel. I love pancakes and I am glad you had some for lunch on Friday. I would have liked to share your pack lunches. We are not allowed to share or swap our pack lunches at school, are you?

Thank you all for your comments on my Japanese breakfast. It was really fun to do. Why don't you give it a go and send me your photos so we can see who is best at recreating it.

Dad was really excited this morning because he typed in 'Lirangwe Primary School' and Google maps found it! That's where our Friends of NeverSeconds kitchen is being built. No pictures this week. It's only 55 days until we head off to Malawi and I had my injections this week. I had one in each arm but they didn't hurt. My brother has a bruise over one though! The injections were for Typhoid and Hepatitis. I want to find out if the children in Malawi have the injections too.


View Larger Map

I am at my grandparents house and today they got some back backpacks donated to Mary's Meals. Grandpa John told me backpacks don't need to be new and its a great way of recycling your backpacks when you get a new one for school. My sister and I helped to check the backpacks all had the right things in them. There was soap, toothpaste and a toothbrush wrapped up in a towel. Also there was one exercise book, or a few small ones, a pencil case with a rubber, ruler, sharpener, pens and pencils. There were labels on the backpacks saying what age group the bag was for and whether it was for a boy or girl. Most of the clothes were tops, shorts and shirts with sandals or flip flops. The shoes in the photo are not going in the bags. They are ours. We had to take them off because Granny has new carpets.


An exercise book in Malawi costs a week's wages so its great to be able to send so many over. If your school wants to make loads of backpacks Mary's Meals can collect them and get them sent off to the children. I'm afraid there is no backpack scheme in America.

A big thank you to George from Spokane who took our total past £113,000! It is very kind of you to support Mary's Meals and I hope Pavlova sells loads of lemonade with her friends!

NeverSeconds is off to Brazil next week, just like the Olympics. I am looking forward to hearing all about it from our two boy guest bloggers. I think they will write in Portuguese!

Thanks,

Veg

Friday 3 August 2012

Farewell from Pavlova!

This is my last blog of the week. It has been fun and I love reading all the great comments. I liked the look of the bento boxes. Smarter than my packed lunch box.


Veg’s raspberry pancakes looked so good we made some pancakes for my lunch and put in smoked salmon and cream cheese with a squirt of lemon. What do you think? I had some rock melon and strawberries for after. There are lots of strawberries here at the moment. My crunch and sip was a tub of grape tomatoes.

Food-o-meter- 9/10 nice but not my favourite but still really yummy
Health rating- 9/10
Mouthfuls- 49
Courses– main/dessert and my recess snack
Price- about $5 but not sure
Pieces of hair– none- my mum must make lunch with a hair net on!
Amount of his packed lunch my brother brought home uneaten- NONE!!! 2 days in a row all gone!
Number of Olympic medals won by Australia-. 13. UK is doing really well with 18 but America and China have loads more.

We have a Kookaburra that visits our garden so I thought you may like to see a picture of it. Its laugh wakes me up in the morning. I know it’s not really food though my cats think he looks tasty!


I am going to miss writing this. I think someone is blogging from Brazil next week so that will be fun.

I will let you know how my lemonade stall does. I worked out that my school lunches cost about $23 this week. Mary’s Meals could feed someone at school for 1 ½ years with that. That is something to think about.

Good luck Veg with your trip to Malawi and being a Great Scot.
Your friend in Perth
Pavlova

Bento Boxes from Japan

Dear VEG and VEG's Dad,

I'm from Tokyo, Japan. Your blogs interested me very much. And I admire your activity for Mary's Meals.

Since about "bento" has become the topic of comments, I would like to present two photo for Veg's blogs readers.
Bento is being used in various situations in Japan from former times. For trip, picnic, of course for school lunch, and also Hanami(cherry blossom viewing), Sumo viewing(Sumo is the traditional Japanese wrestling), and Kabuki theatergoing(Kabuki is a traditional theatrical drama).

One photo is the most traditional old style bento-box which was made of gold lacker in 18th century. This contains four lunch boxes, a equipment box and two bottles for Sake(rice wine).


Another one is a bento for Hanami. This cuisine style is carried out today in Japan.



Best regards,
Tadami Yamada

Thursday 2 August 2012

Today my lunch is a bit different. My mum goes to work early on a Thursday so I have sushi bought from the shop.


I had two bits of inari which is sweet tofu on rice and two with chicken katsu in it. I had a tub of strawberries and some lemon cake made with our lemons from the garden. Mum said we shouldn’t weigh out how much sugar is in the cake!

Food-o-meter- 10/10
Health rating- 9/10
Mouthfuls- 52
Courses– main/dessert and my recess snack
Price- $6.50-expensive!
Pieces of hair– none
Amount of his packed lunch my brother brought home uneaten- ate all his sushi and cake. He didn’t take any fruit or veggie to school though!
Number of Olympic medals won by Australia-. 9- the UK has 10!

Augustina sent in a really interesting email and pictures of her lunch in Argentina.

'Hello Veg!
I'm Agustina from Argentina, Buenos Aires i love your blog, i always read it. We speak Spanish so sorry if im a bad at english.
We're in winter vacation, the day before yesterday was my last day.I want to show you how my school works when we talk about the lunch.
We have a Buffet where you can buy fizzy drinks, junk food, sandwiches, juice, candies, hamburguers, pizza and that kind of food.As you see we haven't healthy food, and we can't carry food because we have nowhere to leave the it, we haven't lockers so we have to carry our bags all day.
This is the buffet.


I'm a student of 2 year of High School, so i need to eat good. If i want to have breakfast and lunch i need $25 ARS (£4,00).I eat at school wednesday, thursday and friday so it's a little expensive and in some way bad, because i eat bad food 3 times per week. This is my breakfast: it's a small sandwich and a little coke. Cost $10 ARS, £1,50.


Food-o-meter: 7/10
Health rating: 4.75/10 (the sandwich has cheese and ham, the only healthy haha)
Mouthfulls: 10
Price:£1,50/$10 ARS
Pieces of hair: 0 (I can't believe it lol)
And for lunch we have exactly the same but with a big sandwich.

Today i ate (at lunch) this sandwiche:


Food-o-meter: 9/10
Health rating:4.75/10
Price:$15 ARS/£2,50
Mothfulls: 55 & 24 slurps of coke.
Pieces of hair: 0 WOW.

Well today i talked with my friend about your blog, i told her about your posts, and the lunches that you post here. I was amazed with the breakfast of Tokyo. In my weekends i usually drink some yogurt and nothing more, im not aperson who loves eating in the morning, i love to see how different we are, our habits and i saw that here, Veg i love your blog! Congratz!
I would be glad to know what do you guys think about my lunch and breakfast.

xoxo-Agustina :)'


Your English is great. I understood it all. I think your school food looks unhealthy too. We worked out that if you drink 2 bottles of coke a day that is 16 ½ cubes of sugar. I like coke too for special treats but not everyday and not for breakfast.

Hola Agustina, gracias por la imagen de su almuerzo, envió in Es emocionante saber que el blog verduras se lee en todo el mundo. Tal vez debería mostrar a sus profesores el blog para que la escuela puede hacer que las comidas más saludables. No puedo hablar español y estoy usando el Internet para traducir, así que espero que no ha escrito nada demasiado grosero en su lugar!

Hello Augustina, Thanks for the picture of your lunch you sent in. It is exciting to know that Veg's blog is read all over the world. Maybe you should show your teachers the blog so that the school can make the lunches more healthy. I can't speak Spanish and am using the internet to translate so I hope it hasn't written anything too rude instead!

On holiday in Malaysia my favourite drink was Kickapoo. It was my Dad’s favourite drink when he was a little boy but made us all laugh. Loved the look of your Japanese breakfast Veg. It has given us an idea for lunch tomorrow….
That’s all for now folks.
Pavlova

My Argyll Japanese Breakfast.

I wanted to copy Shiho's breakfast from last friday because it looked tasty. We have really nice seafood where we live. I like the crabs and prawns best. Sometimes Dad swaps our pork and lamb for prawns. You might call them langoustines. I went to our fishmonger and bought a kipper from Tarbert and an Arbroath Smokie because they looked like the fish in Asuka's picture.


I couldn't find any white tofu but we found a tin of braised tofu and packet miso soup. The tofu sank so you can't see it. There was seaweed in it but it sank too. I put raspberries in our pancakes because they are ripe in the garden. I found the grapefruit hard to eat so Dad cut between the sections and around the edges. The beans we had aren't fermented but called borlotti beans and we heated them up. The Arbroath Smokie is on top and the Tarbert kibpper below.


I used the chopsticks for the beans and rice, well the big chunks of rice! I put the rice and beans in the miso soup but then I had to use a spoon. The fish smelled like smoke from a bonfire but I liked it. Please let me know what food-o-meter and health ratings you'd give it. Also marks out of 10 for how close I copied Shiho's breakfast!

It's funny Jakarta (19s, I got distracted when I found Christmas Island) is closer than Canberra. On the globe it looks like Dublin is closer to me than London. Oslo is closer then London to some parts of Scotland. I hope you have lots of lemons on your tree so you can make enough lemonade to take our total to £113,000. We are only £100 short! That is a lot of lemonade though. Good luck with your sale and thank you.

Jags today, aaarrggghhhh!

Veg



Wednesday 1 August 2012

The answer is.......

Happy Wednesday everybody! Pavlova here again.

The answer to my question- Jakarta is the closest Capital City. It is just a bit closer than Canberra. Though Adelaide in South Australia is the next nearest city and half right because it is the capital of SA.


Lunch today was mini French toasts with cream cheese and smoked salmon. I had a some fruit and a yoghurt to go with it. I had carrot for my crunch and sip. My recess snack was a Fruit Fix. It says on the packet that it is healthy with a portion of fruit in it. We weighed out how much sugar there was. It was pretty shocking. There was 15g of sugar in it and it weighed 24g so it is pretty much all sugar.


We didn't have any sugar cubes so I took a picture with a pile of sugar next to it. I had my swimming lesson after school and swam 30 lengths so hopefully that made up for it.

Food-o-meter- 9/10- the French toast had gone a bit soggy
Health rating- 7/10 because of my Fruit Fix
Mouthfuls- 48
Courses– main/dessert and my recess snack
Price- not sure but a bit more expensive because of the salmon
Pieces of hair– still none. Pheww
Amount of his packed lunch my brother brought home uneaten- He ate it all- a record!!
Number of Olympic medals won by Australia-. 7 though close to the UK who have 6.

I had my tea watching the Olympics tonight. It was really exciting. I watched the ladies pair rowing. The pair from the UK were great and Australia got the silver right at the end.

Good luck with your injections tomorrow Veg. I hope your arm isn’t too achy.
My little sister broke her arm on Sunday. She is three. Hopefully your injections won’t hurt as much as that!

Your total for Mary’s Meals is so close to £113,000. It’s amazing. My friends and I are planning to raise some money. We thought we would make and sell lemonade using the lemons from our gardens.

I am looking forward to seeing your Japanese breakfast.

Pavlova