Vkom_Food Benchmark

Food Slide


Logan, jackfruit, tapioca dice and tapioca pearls with coconut milk

Serves 10-15

Cooking time: Approximately 1 hour

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups of fresh logan fruit
  • 2 cups of fresh jackfruit
  • 1 cup of tapioca pearls
  • 7 oz of tapioca dice
  • 3-5 cans cans of coconut milk
  • 2 cups of sugar
  • Salt

Tools:

  • 2 sauce pans
  • Cooking strainer
  • Utensil for stirring 

Directions

Fruits:

  • Peel off the logan and jackfruit from the shells and remove the seeds (I bought the fruits from cans)
  • Thinly slice the jackfruit
  • Slice logan into halves (optional)

  Tapioca dice and pearls

  • Bring water to a pan and add the water halfway to the pan
  • Let the water boil before adding in the tapioca
  • Add tapioca in water for approximately 10 minutes or wait until the tapioca turns clear
  • Make sure to stir the tapioca so it won't stick to the pan 

Coconut milk sauce

  •  Bring a saucepan to boil and add water 1/2 way to the pan
  • Let it sit until boiled
  • Add 1/4 cup of salt
  • Add the in the coconut milk
  • Gradually add 3 cups of sugar and stir the sauce

Analysis:
This is a Cambodian/Asian traditional dessert. Cambodian typically make this dessert for special occasions like Cambodian New Year or whenever you have a family gathering. You can easily find similar desserts to this one anywhere in a Cambodian local grocery store or at a Chinese/Vietnamese supermarket. This dessert takes approximately an hour to cook. 

Health Although there are fruits included in this dessert, it is not the most healthiest dessert as you originally thought. After making this dessert, I realized it was high in calories due to the amount of sugar it has been added into the coconut milk sauce. Also, the logan, jackfruit and coconut milk was from a can, so they are most likely to be considered as processed. Since the fruits are from cans there are syrup and more sugar added to the fruits in can to make it not go rotten. 
Environment - Food cans are made for "connivence" purposes. If people want tomato sauce they would  most likely buy the tomato sauce that were already made and distribute into a jar and/or can rather than making the tomato sauce from scratch. Food cans are convenient and it is easier to open up the can and throw in the pan, but what most people don't think about is the ingredients that are in those cans. 
Economic - Most of the ingredients were from cans and bags. This dessert cost me about $13 to make and it serves about 10-15 people. My family would eat this dessert for 3 days, but it isn't the healthiest choice to have this for dessert all the time. Most of my cans comes from an Asian factory and they would have made the money if anyone chooses to eat fruits from a can than buying fresh fruits. 

Social -  I'd always thought processed food only have all these additives, preservatives and sugars, that your body just does not need. Ultimately, it seems that there are sauce and spread like ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard are processed food because it wouldn't be ketchup, mayonnaise, or mustard if it didn't have any other ingredients in it the bottle. 

It's always better to buy fresh fruits and make your own sauce or any other food paste from scratch. It is much healthier and they are all natural ingredients. You know what you are putting into what you are making, so it isn't preservatives. Homemade cooking and making things from scratch is a better option. 

Reflection: 

or this unit, I have learned a lot about things that I didn’t know in the past. Especially the importance of nutrition and the label of nutrition facts. The past two weeks into this unit, I noticed how much better I’ve been eating. As a teenager, I would eat what a typical teenager eat and that would be tons of “crap” food. Everyday, I tried to consume enough veggies and fruits. When we watched a short documentation in class of why our food could contain either a corn or soybean ingredient or both, that has opened my eyes on a bigger scale. I rarely eat red meat, but looking back to it I thought I would rather become a vegetarian. 

Our food system is filled with unhealthy and bad choices and they come in cheaper prices. Fast food restaurants are everywhere near us. It is convenient, cheap and that is why people tend to turn to the bad choices. It really depends on how you want to eat. Eating healthy can be very expensive, but you really have to think about how much you can get out of buying a meal at a fast food restaurants to cooking your own meal at home. It is much better to cook your own food because you will know how much ingredients you are putting in your food and you can make more. If you’re going to McDonald all you can eat is a burger with fries and soda on the side, but with homemade cooking there are many other options. 

I am willing to make these changes and I am currently owning up to it. One thing I have learned to become healthy is to eat less meat. That is not a problem to me. I don’t eat meat everyday or red meat meat as often. I typically have white meat over red meat. I believe if we can all cook at home and don’t eat out often, we can tackle obesity. 

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Screen Shot 2014-01-26 at 9.41.40 AM

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