Anna Boyes / en A 'culinary ethnographic investigation': How a 老司机直播 student tracked the journey of the Lanzhou noodle /news/culinary-ethnographic-investigation-how-u-t-student-tracked-journey-lanzhou-noodle <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">A 'culinary ethnographic investigation': How a 老司机直播 student tracked the journey of the Lanzhou noodle</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-04-20-noodle-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4q-ipmun 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-04-20-noodle-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=WC8eUi9R 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-04-20-noodle-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=NBhO1BVV 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-04-20-noodle-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4q-ipmun" alt="Photo of bowl of noodls"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-04-20T00:00:00-04:00" title="Friday, April 20, 2018 - 00:00" class="datetime">Fri, 04/20/2018 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">老司机直播 Scarborough history student Andy Liu researched the journey of the Lanzhou beef noodle across China </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/anna-boyes" hreflang="en">Anna Boyes</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/history" hreflang="en">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/humanities" hreflang="en">Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-scarborough" hreflang="en">老司机直播 Scarborough</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/undergraduate-students" hreflang="en">Undergraduate Students</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>"Bong, bong, bong!"&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Andy Liu</strong>, a fourth-year history student at the University of Toronto, recalls going into the Magic Noodle restaurant for dinner one night and being met by that loud sound, made by&nbsp;a chef smashing dough onto a board.</p> <p>Then he got to thinking about what he was eating 鈥&nbsp;the authenticity of the food and the history behind it.</p> <p>鈥淩egardless of if it鈥檚 here in Toronto or if it鈥檚 in China, these noodle restaurants are everywhere,鈥 says Liu. 鈥淏ut unlike McDonald's, there is no organization behind them. I wanted to know where they came from.鈥</p> <p>Liu, a student at 老司机直播 Scarborough, decided to conduct his own 鈥渃ulinary ethnographic investigation,鈥 tracing the Lanzhou noodle from the Magic Noodle restaurant&nbsp;in Scarborough to the original&nbsp;recipe that dates back over 200 years.</p> <h3><a href="https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/3107b99e18e2bc7d73f1ca20c1a659f1/liuqianqu-hisd71-lanzhou-beef-noodles-storymap/index.html">See Liu's research in a digital story map</a></h3> <p>When Liu began his search, he discovered scholarly research into the topic was limited.</p> <p>老司机直播 Scarborough food historian <strong>Jeffrey Pilcher</strong> says conventional research methods are tricky when it comes to this area of history.</p> <p>鈥淔ood history is one that is often very hard to look at using traditional historical sources. When historians go into a topic, say a politician鈥檚 history, you go into the papers of the politician or the government reports,鈥 he&nbsp;says. 鈥淥f course most chefs don鈥檛 leave papers behind.&nbsp;They鈥檙e too busy cooking to write things up.鈥</p> <p>Liu turned to newspapers and blogs from the city of Lanzhou in northwest China to gain insight into the perspectives of locals. He wanted to discover how people in the area connected with the dish.</p> <p>Food is central to cultural history and for this research, Pilcher says, the substance comes from the cultural understanding of the meal rather than providing chronological accuracy.</p> <p>鈥淚t is about how we have come to value this particular recipe and how we think about it,鈥 says&nbsp;Pilcher. 鈥淲hat is the meaning of Lanzhou noodles in China and now increasingly in Toronto.鈥</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8114 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-04-20-noodle-liu-resized.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>老司机直播 Scarborough student Andy Liu&nbsp;(photo by Joseph Burrell)</em></p> <p><a href="https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/3107b99e18e2bc7d73f1ca20c1a659f1/liuqianqu-hisd71-lanzhou-beef-noodles-storymap/index.html">Liu created a digital story map that charts</a> the noodle's&nbsp;journey from region to region, starting outside of Lanzhou with the original recipe from Chen Weijing, a renowned scholar and apparent inventor of the Lanzhou noodle. Liu fills out his research with information that tells the entire story of this dish with particular&nbsp;emphasis on the significance it holds in Chinese history.</p> <p>The modern version of the Lanzhou beef noodle is believed to be very different from the meal Chen invented because at the time, no form of standard measurements had been created. For generations, those following the recipe had to interpret the information in their own way. This was rectified when chef Ma Zilu created a standard measurement for the ingredients and began selling his interpretation across China, which meant the noodles spread as far as Guangzhou.</p> <p>The dish remained fairly local to the area until the 1980s, when restaurateurs in the nearby county of Hualong began opening noodle shops. With only a few hundred kilometres between the two areas, Hualong residents were able to travel to Lanzhou to gain experience in noodle making and bring the knowledge back home. The impoverished farming area found immense economic relief through the spread of these restaurants. By 2014, more than 12,000 鈥淟anzhou beef noodle鈥 restaurants opened across the country.</p> <p>Liu concludes his exploration by taking a trip back to Magic Noodle to see how the experience stands up to his research. He evaluates the authenticity of the meal, the restaurant鈥檚 appearance, the menu options and pricing. The assessment gives a neat finish to the project and showcases the journey from Lanzhou to Scarborough.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 20 Apr 2018 04:00:00 +0000 noreen.rasbach 133728 at Dance app developed at 老司机直播 takes some big steps /news/dance-app-developed-u-t-takes-some-big-steps <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Dance app developed at 老司机直播 takes some big steps</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-03-07-stagekeep2-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=R4CVFxI3 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-03-07-stagekeep2-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=a8a_KUWV 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-03-07-stagekeep2-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5tC8H3e9 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-03-07-stagekeep2-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=R4CVFxI3" alt="Photo of StageKeep performance"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-03-07T00:00:00-05:00" title="Wednesday, March 7, 2018 - 00:00" class="datetime">Wed, 03/07/2018 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">StageKeep officially launched the choreographer portion of the app with a performance during last week's 老司机直播 Startup Showcase (photo by Laura Pedersen)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/anna-boyes" hreflang="en">Anna Boyes</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/thisistheplace" hreflang="en">ThisIsThePlace</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-scarborough" hreflang="en">老司机直播 Scarborough</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>StageKeep, an app created by two University of Toronto alumni that helps choreographers map out their routines,&nbsp;is making some big moves&nbsp;in the dance world.</p> <p>Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment has expressed interest in using the app for its Raptors Dance Pak after it was recently used by a dance school for a halftime performance at a Toronto Raptors game.</p> <p>Amberley Waddell, the Raptors Dance Pak's choreographer, said she is meeting Wednesday with <strong>Axel Villamil,&nbsp;</strong>StageKeep's CEO and founder who&nbsp;developed the app with computer science alumnus<strong>&nbsp;William Mak&nbsp;</strong>at 老司机直播 Scarborough鈥檚 The Hub accelerator.</p> <p>鈥淚t was a dream of mine to do something with the NBA and I was too short to do basketball, so this should suffice,鈥 joked <strong>Villamil, </strong>who also said he knows of choreographers in Los Angeles who are using the app.</p> <p>StageKeep is also teaming up with governing dance organizations to develop a program that would provide the app at a heavily reduced price, or in some cases for free, depending on need.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="/entrepreneurs">This Is The Place: Read more stories about entrepreneurship at&nbsp;老司机直播</a></h3> <p>鈥淚t鈥檚 good for us because we get more users, but it鈥檚 also a way to give back to the community so we can make sure everybody gets their hands on the boundless creativity that it can provide,鈥 said Villamil.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__7756 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2018-03-07-stagekeep-resized.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="680" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>Steven Del Duca, Ontario's minister of economic development and growth, visits&nbsp;StageKeep's table at last week's 老司机直播 Startup Showcase&nbsp;(photo by Laura Pedersen)</em></p> <p>StageKeep officially launched the choreographer portion of the app during the 老司机直播 Startup Showcase Thursday. It will allow choreographers to plan performances, sync their formations to music, visualize transitions and organize their dancers.</p> <h3><a href="/news/uoftgrad17-hip-hop-dancer-uses-computer-science-skills-help-fellow-choreographers">Read more about StageKeep</a></h3> <p>The collaborative elements of StageKeep will be available in early April when it鈥檚 released in full with the dancer portion. At this stage, choreographers will be able to send their routines directly to the dancers and get feedback.</p> <p>Villamil credits his time at 老司机直播 for teaching him to deal with the stress of founding a startup company.</p> <p>鈥淭his feels like a final to me,鈥 said Villamil. 鈥淎fter graduating I said, 鈥業鈥檓 never going to feel these crazy late nights again.鈥&nbsp;Wrong. Totally felt them in this startup life.鈥</p> <h3><a href="http://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/">Learn more about 老司机直播 Entrepreneurship</a></h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 07 Mar 2018 05:00:00 +0000 noreen.rasbach 130253 at