Harry Potter and the Culinary Enlightenments.

Hello everyone! Today I had 1 seminar and 1 class, well I was supposed to have a seminar, but evidently not.  I went to my supposed seminar today only to discover that we have a library resource finding session this week.  (This wasn't news to me, because we had to sign up for sessions and whatnot, but I figured we would have both a library session and the seminar...guess not.)  So, I went to my seminar for nothing.  I was really more irritated that I didn't sign up for the library session that was today (because the session was during my "seminar"), and now I have to go tomorrow. But whatever, from what I hear it's a blast (by blast I mean waste of time).  Anyways, at least I wasn't the only one that showed up for my seminar.  If I was, then I would have felt really stupid.

Then, I went to my PMA lecture.  It was pretty interesting.  I learned today that Scottish students get really mad when professors don't post lecture notes (PowerPoint slides) the night before.  Back at Butler, I'm lucky to get PowerPoints after the lecture if at all. Today, I had a different professor than normal one for this class and she (horror of horrors, honestly I find looking at the PowerPoint before class makes the lecture really boring) didn't put up the slides for her PowerPoint.  Everybody (and I mean everybody but me and the Asian exchange students) were bad mouthing this professor because she didn't post lecture notes.  I honestly thought the world was going to end.  Then, when she came into the class, she was really frazzled and kept apologizing for not posting her notes.  Students here take lecture notes way too seriously.  But the class was actually really interesting.  We talked about Quangos (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization). These are organizations that are run by the government, but have officers that weren't elected by the voters.  (Things like the post office and BBC here are Quangos.) It was all new to me.  I don't think we call things like that Quangos in the US.  

I have discovered through my time abroad so far, that food featured in Harry Potter suddenly makes a lot more sense to me.  So, tonight I'm going to show some of those foods and hopefully you too will feel more connected to dear 'ol Harry and understand what they eat.

First, let's discuss pudding.

Here is what I think of when I here pudding. It is a substance that is either vanilla or chocolate and is made by jell-o.  

So, you see why I was always really confused when the characters in Harry Potter would say things like "I hope there is pudding at supper."  I mean, yeah jell-o has it's moments, but really it isn't that good.  Well, pudding here is something completely different.  Pudding can mean a lot of things.  Any dessert is considered pudding; cake, cookies, brownies, ice cream, etc. It is all pudding.  It is not made my jell-o (well I guess technically it could be) but it is just a term used for dessert.

Next, let's talk about trifle.  I always thought that trifle (just the word in general) sounded disgusting.  Well, it isn't.

Trifle is a layered dessert that has sponge cake at the bottom, then jam, and then a layers of vanilla pudding stuff (the jell-o kind), and whipped cream on top.  It is delicious.  Jan made us some during our homestay.  So, yes the Harry Potter kids are excited for trifle.  It's wonderful.

Next, treacle tart.

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Treacle tart is basically a fruit and syrup pie.  I think most of them are lemon, but don't quote me on that.  I haven't tried this one, but I have seen it on menus and it looks really good. 

Leaving behind desserts (sorry, but it's time for another category) let's move on to other things; Cornish pasties.  

These are actually called Toasties in Scotland.  They sell them pretty much everywhere.  It's like a calzone, but with meat in the middle.  I haven't tasted one, but there is a place in the middle of Stirling that sells them and it always smell really good.  

These are the main items that I find interesting, but there are some candy things here that are similar to the ones in Harry Potter.  I hope that I was able to shed some light on some of the food items in Harry Potter (or at least made you really hungry). Tomorrow I have my library session and then I'm planning on going for a walk around some of the unexplored areas of campus with my friends.  Then, tomorrow night I'm making chili!