4. Mi favorite food

 

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog, today as you can read in the title I will talk about my favorite food which is sushi.

Although there are many who think that the meaning of the word sushi has to do with raw fish, the truth is that sushi refers to the union of ingredients with the classic vinegared rice. In other words, sushi is the dish that we make with this rice and that we then season with fish, shellfish, meat or vegetables. There is a belief that this dish comes from Japan, but the truth is that the origins of sushi are in ancient China, where they preserved the fish with the mold that emerged from the fermenting rice, which acted as a preservative and was not consumed. Fortunately for us (lovers of this food), the Japanese turned the dish into what we know today as sushi.

To prepare sushi we need the following ingredients:

- Rice

- Water

- Rice vinegar

- Sugar

- Salt

- Nori seaweed

- Choice of filling ingredients

In the first place, you need a special rice, that is, it must be sticky or it will not fit you well. When we have everything ready, we begin by washing the rice with the help of a strainer until the water comes out clean. Next, you must put the water in a pot over medium heat with the rice without the lid of the pot, until it begins to boil so that the rice is softer. When the water begins to boil, cover the pot and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Then, uncover the rice and let it finish cooking with the residual heat. Once the rice has absorbed all the water, add the vinegar and mix carefully. Then let the rice stand to cool down.

Then, spread the specific mat to make sushi on the surface where you are going to work and place a transparent film to prevent the sheets of seaweed from sticking to the mat. Then, start placing the rice on top of the seaweed and spread it out to form a layer. We place ingredients of our choice on the rice and roll up the sushi helping us with the mat, thus everything is well integrated. Let it rest for a few minutes in the refrigerator before cutting it. Finally, remove the transparent film and mat to start cutting the sushi on a kitchen board.

After this long elaboration, enjoy the sushi with friends or family.

I know that despite all the work that goes into making sushi, lovers of this food will say: "it was worth it".

I like sushi due to the great versatility of ingredients that it has, some examples can be: red meats, chicken, octopus, fish, shellfish, fruits, vegetables, to name a few of them. In addition, the combination of ingredients is also very varied. Therefore, in my opinion it is a meal that is unlikely to bore you (well, that's what a sushi lover says haha).

When it comes to how sushi impacts health, there are both dangers and benefits.

Among the dangers of eating sushi is that in certain fish there are parasites that, when ingested, cause digestive disorders or poisoning. It is for the above that I personally avoid the consumption of uncooked food. In fact, a friend got poisoned from eating sushi with fresh salmon. In addition, the fish that is used for the preparation of sushi may contain excess mercury.On the other hand, among the benefits that sushi can bring is that if it has portions of salmon, tuna or trout, these are fish rich in fatty acids, omega-3 and good fats. That is, it improves cardiovascular health and cholesterol and insulin levels.

I say goodbye for today, I hope you are well despite the cold of this week, see you in the next blog!

Finally I will leave photos of my favorite sushi of the moment.

This one is called "Almond furai". It is made of chicken, cheese, cream, toasted panko breaded almonds and unagui sauce.

This is called "acevichado camarón". It is made of tempura shrimp and avocado wrapped in avocado and acevichada sauce.

3. My favourite piece of technology

Hello everyone, I hope you are well. Today I will talk about my favorite piece of technology. As we are all aware, we have an immense variety of technology, among them are desktop computers, headphones, tablets, laptops, smartphones and smartwatches, to name a few examples, which we use daily in our lives and their use has intensified with the COVID-19 pandemic 3 years ago (how time flies, right?).

Honestly, it is very difficult for me to choose my favorite piece of technology, since there are many of them that I currently use on a daily basis, however, since I have to choose one, it would definitely be the smartphone because it corresponds to a fundamental object in my day to day life. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't know what I would do without my cell phone.

Its functions are quite varied thanks to the advances that technology has had, for example I generally use it to communicate with my family, friends, and even to perform tasks when I was in school and now in college. In fact, it is through my cell phone that I am up to date with what I have to do for the university, due to an application specially designed for it, which is called u-cursos, which helps me a lot to organize my time. On the other hand, I also use it to listen to music together with my wireless headphones during long trips, for example from my house to the university or also when I go on a trip to the beach. Following this same line, I also use my smartphone to take photos of a beautiful sunset for example and for another thing that I use it s lot is for social networks, especially instagram.

The truth is that I would not know if I am addicted to using the cell phone, however, since this custom is so embedded in our society, I guess I am used to using it. Maybe one day I should challenge myself, to check whether or not I can do without it, it would be quite interesting indeed. If you ask me if I recommend its use, then my answer would be yes, especially to keep in touch with your family and friends in emergencies. However, I do not recommend its excessive use, since there are many moments and experiences that we miss by looking at the screen.

Take care of yourselves and we are communicating in a future blog.

I leave a photo of the first smartphone I had, an iPhone 4.

2. Why did I choose my major?

As a child I was always interested in the health area, therefore I adopted the role of doctor, nurse, dentist and even veterinary doctor when I played with my friends or with my family. However, I remember that the two careers that I liked the most were medicine and veterinary medicine. In fact, I remember as if it were yesterday that I used to play attend to my grandmother in a doctor's office with a toy briefcase to carry out a general health check. But, on the other hand, since I can remember I have always had a great love for animals and since I also liked the area of health, I felt that the best option for me was to be a veterinarian. In fact, my family had assumed that when I grew up I would study the last career mentioned.

During school, I kept thinking that I wanted to study something related to health, but I wasn't sure what specifically. So, what I did one day was establish the advantages and disadvantages of the two options that I wanted the most, which at that time was medicine or veterinary medicine. Finally, I decided on medicine because I know that I would not be able to treat animals and see them suffer, it really is heartbreaking for me and I know that at various times during the course, from what I find out, you have to be faced with this type of situation. Then, when they gave me the scores from the PSU at that time, I decided to apply to college at the Catholic University and to the baccalaureate academic program at the University of Chile so that through this route I could enter to study medicine. 

Finally, I was selected in baccalaureate academic program at the University of Chile, which consists of two years. At the end of the first year we had to apply for the vacancies that interested us, which were two. In my case, I put medicine as the first option and dentistry as the second option. As you can imagine, I was selected in the dentistry quota, therefore I was in the first year of this career when I was in my second year of the program. To be honest, it was not easy to transfer from this program to the official career, but as they say, nothing is impossible and I am currently in my second year of dentistry. 

Honestly, at first I was not very sure about studying this career, however I am very glad to have given myself the opportunity to learn about this beautiful career and I am happy studying it. In addition, this path has given me the pleasure of meeting wonderful people, who have been a fundamental support during the most difficult moments of the university and I know that I can count on them for anything.

A picture of one of the face-to-face practical activities from last year.

A picture of the dental clinic located in the dental school. 

1. Who am I?

Hi everybody, my name is Zarko, I'm from Chile, specifically in Santiago, where I have lived all my life. I come from a family that is not very large, since I only live with my mother and father, who I love deeply, since they always been there for me in what I have needed, in addition to unconditionally supporting me in  the most difficult situations, I really do not know what I would do without them. In fact, whenever people find out that I am an only child, they asked me if I would have liked to have had siblings, and I think that if I would have liked to live that experience despite the difficulties that they tell me what it means.

When I was a little kid I began to go to kindergarten, where fortunately my mother also worked. I remember that I entertained myself too much doing manual work and tasks to the point of finishing all the tasks assigned for that day and I always asked to do more so as not to get bored, therefore, since I was a child, I was very hard-working and applied in everything I did. I have very fond memories of that time in my life.

When I finished my secondary studies on 2019, at the Pedro de Valdivia school, I made the decision to study at the bachillerato program at the University of Chile to try and apply to medicine, which since I can remember was the career I wanted to study since I was little. This program consisted of two years, where in the first each one had to obtain the best possible average to obtain the quota of the career they wanted to study, where in the case of medicine it was very stressful since there were only thirty quotas. Despite all my efforts, I was not able to apply for the medicine quota, but I was given the opportunity to apply to dentistry, a decision that I was not entirely sure of, but I gave myself the opportunity to do so. Currently, I am already graduated from the bachillerato program and officially transferred to the dentistry career, a decision which I am glad I made, since I like the career a lot. 

When I am not studying, I like to listen to music, watch movies or series with my family, go out with friends or just be with my puppy called Rex, a Maltese Bichon which has accompanied me for 10 years and whom I love with all my heart. I will put some pictures below.

A picture of me and my parents when I graduated of high school back in 2019.

A picture of the Popeye soap carving process of a lower premolar tooth, which was one of my favorite hands-on steps.

A picture of Rex posing in front of the camera.