Discovered Chicken Cutlets: Mind Blown

Lest I just be a board gamer and not a pampered one, allow me to share my discovery of chicken cutlets! These are so easy to make, to store, and to nomnomnom! You've probably made this recipe several times, but I didn't know about them until a friend of mine shared them at a recent potluck I had recently. Now I'm addicted...

A bit of advice for Fordham students! Please get your cutlets from Modern Food, and not Compare Supermarket. The butchers at Compare must be wearing drunk goggles when cutting the meat, while the Modern cutlets look picture perfect!

Here's how I prepare my cutlets. Start out by washing the chicken thoroughly, and prepare an assembly line of three bowls. Bowl #1 should have flour, #2: A cracked egg along with a splash of milk, #3: Bread crumbs, your favorite spices (I used dried parsley, salt and pepper), and a couple tablespoons of parmesan cheese. Starting with bowl #1 - #3, cover the chicken generously with flour, then dip in the egg mixture, and finally coat throughly with bread crumbs. When you're done, the cutlets should look like this:


Prepare your frying pan with a generous amount of oil (I used light olive oil) and heat to medium-high. I love bread crumbs, because you can use them to check the heat of the oil! Just drop one in, and it should fry when everything's ready.



Because most cutlets are thin, the chicken should quickly fry in 3-4 minutes on each side. Take them to your plate, and tell the neighbors that chicken is served! Or eat everything by yourself, as I did alongside a baked potato and roasted asparagus.


Did I mention that asparagus (when cooked properly) is better than french fries! Clean them, pour a little bit of oil, salt and pepper on them, then roast them in the oven at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Grandma will be so proud of you!

Hope you enjoyed this recipe!! Try it yourself and let me know how it works out for you. I'll be back sometime next month with a Peruvian recipe!!

Taking a trip to Carcassonne

Hello there! Today I want to introduce you to the board game that reawakened my love for board games, and a tool I've used to introduce many people to the hobby.

But first I should start from the beginning: My very first board game. I remember receiving Monopoly for my 8th birthday, opening the box, and getting excited about the play money, property deeds, and metal tokens. In a way it felt like a toy chest, but one that you had to share with others to truly enjoy. And in a way, board games like Monopoly ended up being like a shared slot machine experience, where we didn't know exactly what was going to happen, but it was fun to see it all play out.

Off and on I wanted to play Monopoly with my parents and friends, but I kept on getting rejected because no one wanted to commit - the game often took 3-4 hours while staying relatively monotonous, particularly because my parents never wanted to trade properties and were content with rolling the dice - over, and over and over again. Eventually my interest in board games faded away, especially when I got my first video game console a few years later.

Many years later as a Fordham freshman, I joined the Contemporary Science Fiction Club on campus, where I first played a board game called Settlers of Catan. In many ways it reminded me of Monopoly: Dice rolling, trading cards, and building cities. Somehow, Settlers captured the essence of Monopoly, but the game encouraged social interaction and making tough decisions, something I never experienced within Monopoly.

After my first game I did some research, and discovered Settlers of Catan was made in Germany, yet surged in popularity over the past decade. Moreover, it's been deemed a Monopoly Killer. And it was through my searches where I found boardgamegeek.com, a comprehensive database for almost every board game in existence, and a community of thousands from all over the world who enjoy the hobby. Per their recommendation, I went out to my local Barnes and Noble, and bought my first European board game: Carcassonne.

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Carcassonne is a tile-laying board game for 2-5 players. Designed by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede, another German designer, the game takes place in medieval Carcassonne, a medieval city in Southern France. A person looking at the contents for the first time may be slightly concerned to see a lack of a huge board, as the game consists of over 50 square tiles.


Players take turns building the board (you read that right) drawing these tiles and placing them next to each other on the table like a puzzle. However, there's a lot of freedom and common sense involved in how you can place tiles, and no two games will ever look the same.


When a tile is placed, a player has to decide whether or not to place one of their meeples on a tile feature. There are four different options: Cities, Roads, Cloisters, and Farms.

Cloisters and Farms have their own special rules, but for the most part the game focuses on gaining influence in the cities and roads. For example, when you've placed a meeple down on a city, the next player to add onto that city cannot put one of their own meeples down, because you already own it!



However, there are situations where players clash, and eventually end up in a situation where their two cities come together to form one big city. When this happens, they share control over the city.


Unless you can find a way to get it back...



Points are scored when features on the continually expanding board are completed. For example, once a tile has been placed completely surrounding a city with walls (see below), players take off any meeples they have in that city, and whoever has the most meeples in that city scores 2 points for every tile. In this example, the red player and yellow player each have a meeple in the city, so they would share 12 points and take their meeples back.


Roads have the same function, but they end when they run into a city or an intersection on both sides. A completed road is worth a point for each tile that's used to build it.


Note that players only have 7 meeples to start out, and meeples cannot be taken off the board until features are completed! It's important to find a balance between expanding cities and roads you already have, and starting new ones!

Cloisters and Farms have special rules. When a cloister is controlled and surrounded by 8 other tiles, the owner gets 9 points! Farmers are placed on the green fields and can never be taken off, but at the end of the game, bestow a player 3 points for all completed cities in the field.

The game ends once there are no more tiles, and players tally up points for features they failed to complete.


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MY THOUGHTS: Carcassonne holds a sentimental value in my heart as the first modern board game I ever purchased and introduced to my friends, and to this day it's still one of the best $25 purchases I ever made.

Value: No two games are the same, and a 2-player game plays just as well as the full complement of 5 players.

Portability: Carcassonne comes in a very small (11"x 8") box compared to 2'x1' Monopoly boxes, and it's not heavy at all. However, you will need a medium-sized space like a table or floor to fit all the played tiles.

Expandability: If you've played the game a lot and feel like it's getting old, expansions to the game add different kinds of tiles & meeples, while introducing alternative rules and strategies. AND each can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of base Carcassonne! See Inns and Cathedrals & Traders and Builders for two of my favorite expansions.

Durability: I've had my copy of Carcassonne for four years, and the playing tiles look and feel just as good as the day I bought them. Like any little bits, you'll want to be careful letting a baby or dog bite on the meeples, but as long as you keep the included plastic baggies you should be fine.

You can read stellar reviews for the game on Amazon, and there's even a PLAYMOBIL review! It's one of the most flexible games I've ever seen. If you've got a group of gamers around the table, the game can be incredibly competitive and cutthroat. Conversely, if you've got the family over for a game night, it could instead be a very pleasant multi-player solitaire. Either way, I like the fact that I don't feel pressured to play one way or another, and it's possible to win no matter what style you play.

In jest, I always ask people this: When was the last time you finished a game of Monopoly? I use Monopoly as a foil not because I hate the game, but because it's a relic. Though I appreciate Monopoly as a fun diversion, games like Carcassonne have taught me that board games have so much more to offer in terms of depth, while retaining the social aspect of gaming that makes us sit down at the gaming table in the first place.

Carcassonne is considered by the gaming community as a "gateway" game, meant to introduce and entice new people to the hobby. The game itself is not complex, but it's generally a fresh experience for someone unfamiliar with the hobby. I've successfully introduced the game to many of my friends and family, including some who have never played board games before! It's easy to teach, and a plus: It's a game that's language independent since the tiles have no text, so I can easily teach the game to my Spanish-speaking relatives.

You can finish a game of Carcassonne in an hour, and once you've won there's a huge sense of accomplishment because you feel like you won because of the decisions you made, not because of the die result you rolled.

I want to hear your feedback. Particularly if you're a Monopoly fan, or have memories of playing Monopoly in the past. Maybe you've heard of Settlers or Carcassonne. If not, I'd like to hear your impressions. And as always, if you're a Fordham student and would like to play the game yourself, I'd be happy to teach you in person.

I'll be back next week with another game, and hopefully a new cooking experience from my kitchen!

Next Stop: The Alhambra

Last year I studied abroad in Granada, Spain, and one of my finest memories from my trip was the Alhambra, a 14th Century Moorish palace and one of the treasures of Spain. Many people are surprised to learn that Muslim empires extended as far as the Iberian Peninsula, and though the country is predominantly Catholic, the culture the Moors left behind still has a significant mark on cities throughout Southern Spain.

Don't take my word for how beautiful this palace is: Take a look for yourself.

It's inevitable that after my trip, I had to go out and buy the game inspired by the Alhambra and those who constructed it centuries ago.

Alhambra is a tile-laying board game for 2-6 players. Though the game takes place in Spain, it is actually a German game designed by Dirk Henn. Over the course of the game, players will have the opportunity to build their own palace, adding in buildings like pavilions, towers, and gardens. Like Monopoly, buildings come in many different colors, but diversity is the key to winning this game. Over three scoring rounds, players score points based on the person who has the most buildings of a certain color, and the person with the most points wins!


Players start out with a hand of currency cards. The market board lists four different markets (each with its own currency) offering four building tiles for purchase. In addition, four currency cards are laid out on top. On a player's turn, he/she can TAKE MONEY or BUY A TILE.

A player who takes money can select from the face-up currency cards, and take any one card, OR any combination of cards not exceeding 5 money. When a player takes a currency card, it's replenished immediately so the next player has four cards to choose from as well.


When a player has enough money, a building tile can be purchased from one of the four markets and added to the Alhambra. The cost is listed on the tile, while the market board tells you what currency you need to buy it. For example, the Chambers here costs 9 Blue currency.


However, players do not get change if they overpay. In addition, if players pay with exact change, they get an EXTRA turn! It's always a good idea to pay with exact change whenever possible.

Once a player buys, it's time to add it to the Alhambra! Purchased tiles can either be put aside and placed later, or can be laid on the table next to a player's starting fountain. There's a lot of freedom to place tiles, as there's only one rule: an imaginary man must be able to walk from the fountain to any tile in your Alhambra.

Walls on your tiles can be tricky. Here is an example of an illegal placement.

In this case, there is a black wall on the right side of the tile, so it's impossible to walk to this tower from the fountain without running into the wall! There must be another way to place it...


Much like Monopoly where a player collects sets of properties (Boardwalk, Park Place), Alhambra rewards players for collecting sets of the different color buildings. This board tells you how many points players get each scoring round for having the most buildings of a certain color.



For example, in the first scoring round, a player with the most brown (Arcades) tiles will score three points. In later rounds, players can score points for having the second and third most. Alhambra rewards diversity, and generally players with a focus on three or four colors will beat out those who only focused on a few.

Here, the green player has two towers, while red only has one. In the 1st scoring round. In future scoring rounds, assuming green still had more towers than red, green would score 13 points, but red would also get points for having the second most. If players tie, they both share the points!

THOUGHTS:
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Alhambra is a game that's easy to pick up, in part because it shares some of the elements of Monopoly while offering its own twists and opportunities for strategy. There's not a lot of direct conflict in the game, because everyone is focusing on his/her own palace. However, competition can get fierce for the tiles, and you'll often have to decide between getting the tile you want or stopping someone from getting a tile that will let them soar ahead.

This is a family game at heart, in part because no one is directly harming another. At the end of the day, it's all about that early bird who gets the worm - or in this case, the game-winning Seraglio.

What do you think about Alhambra? Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Shall we eat Peruvian tonight?

You know what they say: It's all fun and (board) games until you have to eat! Fortunately, your friendly neighborhood Pampered Boardgamer was ambitious enough to throw a dinner party for 20 of his good friends not too long ago.

My father is an excellent chef, and I grew up trying many different foods from his native country of Peru. Vegetarians need not inquire further, but one of my favorite dishes growing up was Lomo Saltado (Spanish for Saute of Beef Tenderloin). The dish, like many popular Peruvian dishes, owes a lot to Chinese immigration to Peru in the 19^th century. Imagine your favorite Chinese stir-fry prepared fresh in a Wok, but with a Latin American kick. This blog’s description of Chifa (Chinese food in Peru) reminded me why I love Peruvian food so much, and I’d be worried if it didn’t make your mouth water too.

Lomo Saltado was perfect growing up as a picky eater. Add French fries to a dish, and suddenly eating onions and tomatoes doesn’t seem that bad to a six-year old. But there's a lot to love in a Lomo Saltado: Tender stir-fried beef, vegetables, warm sticky rice, and we can't forget the soy sauce, aji amarillo, and cilantro - all of which really bring out the flavor of the dish.

The best part is how easy it is to make! Of course, the biggest limitation to an up-and-coming chef is the equipment and the ingredients. Over the winter break I purchased a large electric wok on clearance at Target. Best $20 I ever spent. You can cook a lot of food evenly in a short time span. You can use any frying pan to make your Lomo, but a wok gives you a more even distribution of heat, which is important for taste and tenderness. My friend commented I was like the star of my own cooking show – what do you think?

I picked up most of my ingredients at Fairway Market close to Lincoln Center, . I never thought supermarkets with shopping carts existed in Manhattan, but Fairway was fairly well stocked with all the ingredients I needed. It is a serious improvement over Compare and Modern, the two closest options to Fordham University’s Bronx campus. I find that Modern is generally under stocked, while Compare feels more like a large bodega than a supermarket (the looping Bachata music helps!)

Here’s the recipe I used from All-recipes.com, with some adjustments recommended by my dad.

5 pounds skirt steak, sliced ¼ inch thick

Salt, Pepper, Cumin and Paprika to season

5 large red onions, sliced into strips

8 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and sliced into strips

1 cup apple cider vinegar

Soy sauce to taste

½ cup fresh cilantro

Jasmine rice as needed

Frozen Steak Fries as needed

Once you’ve chopped your vegetables and seasoned your meat, cooking is relatively easy. On high heat, the meat is cooked until brown, and the vegetables are thrown in soon after. Because the meat is chopped thinly, it will cook very quickly; the vegetables even more, and after ten minutes (adding vinegar and soy sauce to taste) your dish is ready to serve to 20 of your closest, hungry friends!

What do you think about Lomo Saltado? Is this something you might try? Post a comment and tell me what you think.

Next time I’ll be back with another board game, and hopefully a new culinary experience to share with you. Until next time, eat, game and be merry!

P.S. You can see exactly how Lomo is prepared in this video! It's subtitled, so don't be scared by the Spanish!

Don Eskridge's The Resistance

Today I want to introduce you to The Resistance, a game for 5-10 players. In a similar vein to Werewolf/Mafia, this is a game of secret identities and discovering the bad guys. (You can refresh yourself on the rules to Mafia here)

In Resistance, you are either a Resistance Operative engaging in missions to destroy the empire, or an Imperial Spy trying to sabotage the efforts of the Resistance. Over the course of five missions, the first side to successfully pass or sabotage 3 missions wins. Depending on the number of people playing, you'll usually have two-thirds of the group on the Resistance Side and one third working for the Empire.

The Catch: it only takes one spy to sabotage an entire mission. Also, the Spies know each other, but the Resistance starts out blind to everyone's identity. Thus, the Resistance has to deduce the identities of the spies and pick the correct teams in order to win.

Each turn, the Mission Leader card is passed around, who is responsible for selecting a team of people to go on a mission. Who can you trust to send off on a mission? This is where your skills of persuasion (and maybe deception) come in. The leader selects a number of people to go on the mission, and everyone votes to approve or reject the team.

If a majority of the group approves the team, everyone selected receives two cards. Secretly, the selected team decides either to pass (blue card) or sabotage (red card) the mission. Once shuffled, the cards are revealed and if all the cards are blue, the mission passes. However, it only takes one Spy and one red card to cause a mission to fail.

Analysis:

This game goes by incredibly quickly. Our group has finished most of our games within 20-30 minutes. I picked this game specifically because it could handle 10 players - the more the better! I like this game a lot more than Mafia because no player can be eliminated. (This also means I don't have to worry about people raiding my fridge or standing over me awkwardly while they wait for the next game!!) Everyone can always contribute suggestions as to who might be a Spy.

Weaknesses: The game is hard for the Resistance to win. A large number of people are selected for all the missions, so it's always very likely that a Spy will get picked somewhere along the way. An expansion with special cards helps give more clues to the Resistance, which helps with this issue. Also, the game involves a lot of accusations and people trying to get their voices heard, so it helps to be more assertive than not.

I like starting my game nights with The Resistance to get everyone warmed up for the meatier games of the evening. The game is also very straight-forward, so you should have very few problems introducing the game to new groups.

What do you think? Is this game you'd like to try? Was my explanation straightforward?

You can try The Resistance at our Tuesday game nights at Fordham University, every Tuesday at 8PM. Leave a comment or PM for more info!

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CULINARY UPDATE

Did you know that freshly baked bread is readily and cheaply available on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx? I sure did, but never bothered to go out and buy some! This week, I upgraded my boring whole wheat bread to ciabatta bread. Furthermore, a sandwich press is one of the best investments you can make if you like warm fresh paninis for lunch. Watch the finished result here!