Friday

[enismirdal]

Apparently on Friday I'm doing the Induction Day. This will probably be akin to what the folks at Cambridge have done already - safety talks and various people trying to force me to do personal development courses and that sort of thing.

Thankfully, my supervisor is not much more fond of those sorts of "transferable skills" courses than I am, so won't force me to go on more than I absolutely must.

On the plus side, free buffet lunch!

*is eating nearly a litre of jelly* WHEEEE! I learned the other day that you guys in the USA make jelly (i.e. jello to you) from powder crystal things! That's so random! :D

Tomorrow is the lab lunch. Apparently they can never agree where to go for a lab lunch, so one of the PhD students did an online poll. And another student filled in the supervisor's preferences for him to settle the matter more quickly. And...er...throw the results. LOL! In any case, it is decided: we are going to a local pub thing that sells Broadside! I am teh happy.

Comments

[cobalt-skye.livejournal.com]

The powder crstals you can get over here make generally much nicer (fruiter tasting) jellies that what we are used to, from my experience

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Awww, but then you miss out on the whole raw-jelly-cube-eating experience! That's the whole point of making jelly!

[caduceus.livejournal.com]

"Raw jelly cube eating"?!?!

What's this, precious? Jelly is made from powdered gelatine, sugar and fruit juice... or did I miss something here? How do you make jelly on that strange island of yours? *^_~*

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Well, jelly in its native shop-bought form, before we do things to it. Like this (http://graeme.woaf.net/otherbits/jellypics/jelly_cubes_full.jpg).

[caduceus.livejournal.com]

... but, that's already jelly! So how do they make those cubes, then? And what do you do with those cubes afterwards?
*confused about jelly cubes*

You see, here there are different sorts of jelly, red, yellow, green... with different flavours. You take the powdery stuff, add hot water, stir and let cool. And the result is jelly. Which you could pour into a form to make cubes, admittedly.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Jelly cubes are ultra-super-concentrated jelly. One block like that makes about 0.5l of jelly. You break apart the cubes, put them into hot water, stir till they dissolve, and then put it in the fridge to set.

The thing is, the ultra-super-concentrated jelly is extremely good to eat, as long as you stop before you give yourself tummy ache!

[caduceus.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. So basically you skip the powdery stage of things... interesting. :D

... so what do you do to the jelly afterwards? Simply eat it or add custard, whipped cream or something?

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

I ate it on its own this time. There was enough of it! The traditional British children's party food is jelly and ice cream. I love it that way still, hehe! still like it that way. At tuxedo_elf's house, we had it with raspberries mixed in. She had sqirty-cream on top, but I'm not a big fan of squirty-cream so I gave it a miss. I think I still have the photos somewhere...

Oh yes! *finds image, uploads to Photobucket* Here were are! (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v503/enismirdal/P7070003.jpg) Jelly à la Tux!

[caduceus.livejournal.com]

I might be a stoopid little girl from the continent, but... where does the colour come from? The cubes you showed us were green, your "Jelly à la Tux" is red. ;D Or do you buy different concentrated cubes for different flavours?
If so, what kinds do you have?

*thinks about going to GB to witness all this crazy stuff herself*

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

There are different coloured cubes for different flavours. Roughly corresponding to the flavours, but naturally mostly based on E-numbers.

The commonest flavours are strawberry (red), lime (green), orange (orange) and raspberry (pink), but you can often get lemon (yellow) or blackcurant (purple). I'm sure there are funkier ones as well. Selfridges probably do an "Organic Exotic Sumatran Mango and North Swedish Strawberry" version or something similarly fancy!

[caduceus.livejournal.com]

... as an afterthought, what does "native jelly" taste like?

We have red (=raspberry or cherry), green (=woodruff) and yellow (=lemon) jellies, but they all come in powdery form. Or you buy it as dessert, in little cups.

Funny enough, if I'm not mistaken, jelly in Germany is 'Goetterspeise' ("food of the gods", i.e. ambrosia). *^_^*

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I don't know. Perhaps slightly meaty, considering what it comes from? *lol* If it's anything like the agar jelly they use in Pathology practicals, it probably tastes almost like Beef Consommé. Agar certainly smells that way! I think I was the only person who found working with bacteria made them hungry, because I LOVE beef consommé!

It is a godly food indeed! Although trying to imagine a god drinking it through a straw, as I have occasionally done, is a rather disturbing thought!

[(Anonymous)]

Please explain why a pub should be selling salvos of fire from naval artillery.
Abner

[(Anonymous)]

I thought I posted a joke to the effect of what sort of pub sells barrages of naval artillery. Maybe it got lost.
Abner

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Oops! I thought I'd unscreened it! It's there now!

LOL Broadside is a very very nice ale.