By Bianca "Fiasco" Marques
 


"Show me how to make cookies," six little words I've been told more times than I can remember, and it's no wonder why. Nothing can compare to homemade cookies. Nothing. Even the best store bought cookies cannot replace the warm smell that fills the kitchen or the ooey-gooey texture that you can only get from fresh, out-of-the-oven cookies. So why bother even buying store-bought cookies, they will always fail in comparison to homemade. The convenience of buying cookies is just a silly illusion, the reality is that making cookies is not that difficult, and definitely worth the effort.


Taste has to be the ultimate reason to make your own cookies. Every time you buy cookies at the store you are playing the cookie edition of Russian roulette, hoping not to get a stale box. Homemade cookies are always fresh; of course, you're making them on the spot. Even if the cookies are not stale, they still lack the moist texture homemade cookies have, and the brands that do claim to be extra moist just end up being greasy. Do not mistake those Pillsbury place and bake cookies for homemade. They are laced with that preservative after-taste or maybe that is the taste of sitting in a grocery store fridge for weeks.


Mmm, mmm preservatives. Preservatives, along with the other bounty of weird ingredients you have yet to identify as anything you could possibly find in the average person's kitchen are what you get in store bought cookies. You will find ingredients like niacin and thiamine monontrate in those store bought cookies. (1) What is this, cooking or a science experiment? The ingredients in homemade cookies include butter, sugar and flour; not only can you pronounce all the ingredients in homemade cookies but they are also kitchen basics.(2) I cannot be the only one out there who actually likes knowing what they are ingesting.

By Bianca "Fiasco" Marques

• 2 ¼ cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter
• ¾ cups sugar
• ¾ cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips/dried fruit/chocolate bar pieces/nuts/candy/marshmallows/etc.

Preheat oven to 350˚ Mix all the ingredients in order in a large bowl with a silicon spatula. Use a teaspoon to spoon batter onto ungreased baking sheets. Space the cookies at least 1 inch apart. Bake for 8-10min or until golden brown.

By: Sara


Sushi has often been described as an acquired taste, reaching marmite-levels of love it or leave it. At first glance, it may seem unappetizing to the naked eye. Plain white rice, suspicious looking seaweed and, more likely than not, uncooked fish would lead a newcomer to believe it to be unsafe to eat and gross to look at. But, as is often the case, appearances can be deceiving. Prepared the right way, the blend of rice, fish, veggies and sea weed, in any combination, is melt on your tongue delicious.

My first introduction to sushi was actually by watching the film The Breakfast Club. Soon after Andy pulls out his shopping bag of goodies for lunch, Molly Ringwald's Claire takes out her bento box of sushi. Much like Judd Nelson's Bender, I hadn't the slightest idea what it was and her description sounded unappetizing, especially to my tween-aged ears. A few years later, sushi was the only food option available at a friend's birthday party. Not one to be rude, (or starve, I mean, honestly) I tried my first bite of sushi. I loved it, naturally, otherwise this would be a boring read, and the rest, as they say, is history.

By: ACEMost early mornings in the back streets of Montreal, on the corner of Rachel Est and Boyer, you can find a collection of young adults gathering in anticipation of great food. No matter the weather outside, the place to be after a night out on the town is a small venue that serves poutine, where the price to pay for admission is usually a 30 to 60 minute wait. At first, I was shocked asking myself who would ever wait 60 minutes for food at three o'clock in the morning? I soon learnt the answer.

As an international student one of the first things I learnt about Canadians is that they love their poutine! For those of you who may be unaware of this Canadian delicacy, poutine stripped down to its core is composed of french fries, gravy, and cheese curd. Originally, poutine was invented in the late 1950's in the rural towns of Quebec. While many towns claim to be the proud inventors of the concoction there is no official record of the first origin. Today you can find poutine at many "greasy spoons" type diners and fast food restaurants all across Canada but many Montrealers claim that the Banquise is simply the best.