J.Crew Diversifies Summer 2014 Catalog!

When I was browsing through the J.Crew Catalog, I was really surprised to see an Asian male model for the Men's section. It's nice to see J.Crew being more progressive about hiring different races and ethnicities, effectively rejecting the unsexy Asian male stereotype.

look at that little eyebrow raise ;)

I was trying to look up who he was, but couldn't find it. So, who is this man? I guess there is a pretty great incentive for stores such as J.Crew to diversify their catalog. With still mostly white models, the brand extends their consumer base while retaining their original customers. With an awareness of this, I looked at LLBean's catalog and literally everyone was white. I saw one African American in the entire catalog and that was it. As an American brand, I would really think that they would try to at least embrace diversity somewhat.

Fashion often runs the fine line between celebrating different ethnicities and cultural appropriation/reinforcing stereotypes, but I think J.Crew does a good job in this instance. I would like to see more Indian or indigenous models in the near future, as they often get even less coverage in fashion and are more stigmatized in society. 

Homemade Almond Milk

After reading the article "Lay Off the Almond Milk, You Ignorant Hipsters" by Tom Philpott (See the article here), I realized that I was also drawn to these supposed magical properties of almond milk, shelling out a good amount of money for a jug. I am partly lactose intolerant (being Asian...it's probably more unlikely that you're NOT lactose intolerant), so when my friend introduced me to almond milk, I was literally overjoyed to see its high calcium and low fat content.

I guess the main takeaway I got from the article is that I was paying too much for literally just crushed almonds and water (with some chemicals). So, I decided to try my hand at making almond milk myself.

soaked almonds

The milk is ready!

almond milk and some almond meal on the side (after straining)

Ingredients

1 cup almonds

5 cups water (1 for soaking, the rest for the milk)

I let to almonds soak for about 12 hours (but in other recipes, I saw that only about 4 hours is needed). I put the almonds into a soy milk maker (an oddly specific device, I know) and let her rip with additional water. It was all ready in about 15 minutes! I then poured the milk through a strainer which separated the milk from the crushed almond meal. The result is a slightly cleaner tasting version of almond milk (which my family finished within a day!).

There aren't any stabilizers in this homemade version, so the almond milk tends to separate really easily. I'm not completely sure what I want to do with the almond meal yet, but I'll probably find some recipes online.

Another takeaway from the article was the water wasting properties of producing almonds. Although it's good for me to be aware of its ecological harms, I don't think it's effective for me to give up almonds or something in protest. With these things, it's better for some government intervention to help curb California's forever impending drought.

I've become really interested in making super basic ingredients/foods at home! My friend really inspired me the other day by making homemade butter, which I have yet to try. The idea of being able to control all parts of the process appeals to me greatly. Off to obtaining some heavy cream!