Throughout the month of February, the UCSB VIPER lab personnel ate food that started with a different letter of the alphabet every day. Inspired by Dar Roberts‘ shenanigans from earlier years, Seth Peterson and Sara Baguskas rallied the VIPER lab and set the ground rules. February 1st started off strong with foods starting with the letter A, such as alphabet pasta with arrabbiata sauce, apple cake, and acorn squash.
Throughout the month there were very unique dishes, as well as creative dish descriptions. For example, Seth and Sara rocked it on R day with red curry paste, red meat, rainbow chard, rainbow kale, red potatoes, and radish greens on rice noodles, rogue ales brutal bitter, and rosemary tea. Seth noted, “As the proud purveyor of a ‘Mormon pantry,’ a garden plot, and a ridiculous cookbook collection (helpful for G, Y, Z), the alliterations involved on some days were fun. That said, savory oats with oregano, olive juice, olives, olive oil I wouldn’t do again. Honey with japanese horseradish (wasabi) was a good discovery, a super tasty dipping sauce.”
Others also experimented throughout the month. Sarah Shivers had the most unique ingredients for E day: eel with egg, edamame, and Expo 58 beer. “I made dishes that I had not even heard of before, but now are going to be common dishes in my house,” said Susan Meerdink. Erin Wetherley agrees and adds, “I learned to make quiche! I am now a quiche person forever, and it’s all thanks to the alphabet!” Dar Roberts and family went all out day after day. For example, on one of the hardest days (V day) they had veggie burgers with Velveeta cheese, vinaigrette dressing on salad, V8, and vanilla toffee bar crunch ice cream. Another shining example was on H day with homemade Hollister Ranch hamburgers, home fries with hot sauce, honeydew melon, and hemp beer/ hard cider.
“Eating the alphabet was actually quite fun and introduced us to many new and interesting foods, such as Dragon Noodles and Xiao Sun Zi Chao Rou Mo on X day, ” said Dar. Food wasn’t the only thing subjected to Alphabet Month, as one member of the VIPER lab had a fantastic M day featuring not only M foods but an M flight with a Margarita, Moscow Mule, Mojito, Mint Julep, and Manhattan.
All in all, the entire lab had a fun time, though all are glad to see the letter Z and the end of February (and many plan for March to be “Diet Month”). Dar says, “I know my family will be glad to be free of the “tyranny of the alphabet”, starting February 27th.” Seth agrees, “One thing I won’t miss is the need to cook every night; some/many times it’s nice to eat leftovers.” Sarah adds, “Some letters are much more difficult than others. We all seemed to enjoy H and P days where the majority ate hamburgers and pizza, but U and N days were not quite as fun. Not all letters are created equal!”
Will we do it next year? Might be too early to say, but there are definitely ideas floating around right now – such as Dar’s suggestion, “Let’s do something geographic in 2016!” To commemorate their success and awesome food adventures, the VIPER lab celebrated in style with a party at the end of February. The only rule – bring whatever letter you want for food!
Editor’s note: Many thanks to Susan Meerdink for submitting this wonderfully witty article – a tasty treat!
