4B- Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Aj
4B - Thursday, February 7, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
-a
NMI
Unremarkable
Broken Egg
Breakfast food is my jam
(pun totally intended):
It's easy, cheap, delicious
and - for the most part - hard
to screw up. But just like any
other meal,
it's about the
experience
just as much f
as it's about
the food.
Isn't there
something
peacefully NATE
quaint about WOOD
starting a
snowy Sat-
urday at the breakfast table,
wrapped in a soft blanket and
peering out at the winter won-
derland from your cozy kitchen?
Doesn't the plate of hot food and
cup of steaming coffee sitting
before you warm your heart and
soul as much as your stomach?
Yeah, well during the school
year, ain't nobody got time for
that. So instead, we settle for
a bitterly icy, arduous schlepp
to some noisy joint where they
serve us cheap coffee and watery
eggs.
Welcome to The Broken Egg.
Situated on North Main Street
just outside of Kerrytown, The
Broken Egg is a humble little
spot worth checking out when
all of the other breakfast places
in Ann Arbor have lines hanging
out the door - lines of frostbit-
ten, hungry people. The food is
as mediocre as it comes, and the
restaurant, well, it's a sight to
behold.
The misleadingly classy
brick exterior doesn't prepare
you for what lies within. Pic-
ture someone eating an entire
Big Ten-themed gift shop and
then proceeding to projectile
vomit it all over the walls in an
unfathomably random manner.
Oh, but it gets better: a life-size
baby moose stuffed animal,
year-round Christmas lights and
garland, fake hardwood tables,
functioning garage lights, teal
vinyl chairs and - in one corner
- cheap reprints of famous-ish
paintings (famous enough that I
recognize them, but not famous
enough that I know the names
... pretty sure one is stolen from
Olive Garden). Truthfully, I've
seen similar-looking nursing
homes.
And don't even get me started
on the treasure hunt that is
trying to find the bathroom. If
you've been here before, you
know what I mean.
But let's not be too judgmen-
tal. We haven't even gotten to
the food yet.
My friends and I order an
assortment of breakfast items.
Some are surprisingly tasty, and
some are ... not. On the whole,
most are just OK.
The Salute to the Bees French
Toast is the day's special, so one
of us orders that. There's the
bad (burnt candied pecans and
a disappointingly small number
of banana slices), and the good
(the perfect amount of caramel,
a thick and gooey cinnamon
topping and freshly whipped
cream).
The San-Francisco Chocolate
Chip Pancakes are generously
filled with chocolate chips but
are tough, dry and altogether fla-
vorless. Asa special treat, straw-
berries of questionable freshness
are also plopped on top. Side
note: Am I missing something,
or is there absolutely no reason
these pancakes are named after
San Francisco?
The first real hit of the meal is
my Bread Pudding French Toast.
Made with thick, Texas-style
slices of raisin bread soaked in a
rich, cinnamon-scented egg and
cream batter and fried on ashot,
buttered griddle, this toast is not
merely palatable, but a real treat
to eat. It is soft and supple in the
middle, crispy and browned on
the edges, just the right amount
of sweet and surprisingly, pleas-
antly tart from the raspber-
ries on top. Though it could be
improved with a few toasted,
slivered almonds dashed atop
the dollops of whipped cream,
I'm still a fan.
About the breakfast meat -
which is, for me, an essential
component of any hearty break-
fast out - I'm utterly blas. My
favorite - breakfast sausage
patties - are not even offered;
the links are absolutely standard,
though these truly are difficult
to make "standouts," and the
bacon is nothingbut limp and
chewy. None of it is good nor
is it exceptionally bad, and I'm
definitely still bitter about hav-
ing to be bereaved over sausage
patties.
Last on the list are the
omelettes, which appease but
don't "wow" me. I would say
they're pretty comparable to
something you or I could make
at home. The combinations of
ingredients for the specialty
omelettes range from exotic to
expected, coming together to
form a taste falling more toward
the latter. But still, a four-egg
omelette, a side of hash browns
and four slices of toast for just
over $8 really isn't bad.
The omelettes
are fine, but
where are the
sausage patties?!
So let's recap: The omelettes
are decent and also a respect-
ably good value; the French
toast is truly delicious, and
everything else is pretty much
your typical small-town-diner,
breakfast-food fare.
So why make the arduous
schlepp over? Well, I've heard
the dry toast is pretty good
if that's all you're in need of
some Sunday mornings (or
afternoons - I don't judge). But
besides that, how about when
those strange family members
of yours come in for football
games and expect you to recom-
mend a place for brunch?
I can think of a few people
for whom The Broken Egg
would be just the ticket. You
know, the ones too stingy to eat
at Cafe Zola, too lazy to drive
to the Northside Grill and too
impatient to wait at Angelo's.
Your Aunt Judy, the hoarder,
will feel right at home. That
senile grandma who's lost her
taste buds? I'm sure she'll love
it. Just don't expect her to be
able to find the bathroom.
Wood is eating all of the
sausage patties. To join,
e-mail nisaacw@umich.edu
I
4
MARLENE LACASSE/Daily
The Museum of Natural History will feature the traveling exhibit "RACE: Are We So Different?" from Feb. 9 through May 27.
RACE
From Page 1B
"We'll be trying to do some-
thing around the Fab Five bas-
ketball team," said Gordon. "The
Fab Five is an important part of
Michigan athletics history, and
we'll look at that conversation
intersected with issues of race and
class."
The student steering commit-
tee hopes to invite a member of
the Fab Five to come to campus
to speak and to host a discussion
about the evolving nature of race
and class in athletics.
Other events throughout the
semester will include a LGBT
community summit called Color
of Change, which plans to delve
into the experiences of LGBT and
people of color. Additionally, the
student steering committee plans
to create panels, discussions and
lectures that feature both people
of color as well as other profes-
sionals who have studied race or
worked in racial issues.
Outside of the steering com-
mittee, the Understanding Race
Project also works to implement
community events that center
around the theme semester. These
events include monthly teen sci-
ence cafes revolving around race
and topics such as public health
and law, hosted at the Museum
of Natural History. Speakers are
invited to debate such issues at
these monthly conversations, fol-
lowed by an audience discussion.
Furthermore, the Understanding
Race Project has implemented a
vast array of film screenings, pan-
els and discussions across local
venues such as Zingerman's, the
Hatcher Graduate Library and
the Matthaei Botanical Gardens
throughout the term.
The Museum of Natural His-
tory also created a supplement to
the "RACE" exhibit within the
museum itself. Titled "Race in
this Place: A Community Con-
versation," the additional exhibit
attempts to highlight race in
four thematic areas: education,
health, the legal system and
immigration. In each of the four
areas, the exhibit showcases
local community organizations
that delve into conversations
about race in those areas. "Race
in this Place" includes many joint
projects with community orga-
nizations, including the Neutral
Zone's Students Educating Each
other about Diversity (SEED)
program.
A metaphor for identity
Danny Brown, one of the co-
directors of SEED at the Neutral
Zone, described the mission of
the program.
"It's not just talking at kids
about diversity," he said. "But it's
bringing their life experiences
into a room together and cel-
ebrating difference and discov-
ering how their own lives fit into
larger context in society in a way
that's entwined."
Brown helps lead the program
of Ann Arbor high-school stu-
dents, who are trained to facili-
tate conversations about youth
with other youth in the commu-
nity.
"(The youth) have intense dia-
logues on race that focus on, not
only people understanding their
own race, but how their race fits
in a system and what that means
in their position in society,"
Brown said.
Within the local museum
exhibit, SEED teens were also
featured in a video alongside
community members, in which
all discussed race relations with-
in the Ann Arbor community.
The exhibit also features a
unique art project created by the
SEED youth. Lined behind a glass
case, goggles were splashed with
various Sharpie colors - featuring
bubble letters, drawings of hockey
sticks and other graphic designs.
"We ask (teens) to think about
their race, gender, social class and
other factors, and we ask them
after reflecting that to transpose
some of those elements of them-
selves onto these goggles," Brown
said.
The teens then wore the gog-
gles at a weekend retreat, and
looked at each other through their
goggle creations - examining one
another through their construct-
ed identities.
"It becomes a metaphor for
identity - identity being a frame
for how you make decisions, build
relationships," Brown explained.
"It's also a metaphor for how peo-
ple perceive you, because while
you're looking at someone's gog-
gles, other people are also looking
at you and making assumptions
about your goggles." In this way,
students are able to view their
identities through interaction
about race with others.
Alex Kime, a senior at Skyline
High School, is a SEED student
facilitator. He believes working in
the SEED program alongside the
theme semester has helped him
examine his own race in relation
to others.
"As a white person, it's my privi-
lege to not be as affected by race as
someone who's a person of color,"
Kime said. "You have to always
think about your own privilege,
and it's always an act of unlearn-
ing. SEED helped me look at that."
Student interactions with race
are happening within classrooms
at the University as well. Accord-
ing to Harris, there are approxi-
mately 130 theme semester
courses currently being offered.
For Evelyn Alsultany, associate
professor of American Culture,
these classes offer crucial dia-
logue about race that need to hap-
pen on college campuses in order
to make others reflect upon the
changingnature of race.
"Through the theme semester,
we want to shed light on the dif-
ferent ways of understanding this
as part of a larger history of race
and racism that we are still in the
process of overcoming," Alsul-
tany said. "If we ignore it or deny
it then how (are we supposed) to
improve it?"
A legacy ofunderstanding
"As students at this University
who are going to be future leaders
and citizens, (it's important) to be
able to leave here more in tune to
how race manifests today. It might
manifest differently," Alsultany
said. "Today, race doesn't look
like slavery. Race doesn't look like
segregation. Race changes over
time."
Alsultany is teachingtwo theme
semester courses: AMCULT 218,
"22 Ways to Think About Race,"
and AMCULT 235: "From Harems
to Terrorists: Representing the
Middle East in Hollywood Cin-
ema."
At noon on Monday in her "22
Ways to Think About Race" class,
70 students packed into the Mason
Hall room. Some chatted ami-
ably; some yanked out sheets of
notebook paper from bags; others
nursed cans of fruit juice. Near the
front of the room sat Anthropology
Prof. Milford Wolpoff, the guest
speaker for the day.
Wolpoff addtessed the students
with a fierce and raspy voice while
presenting a PowerPoint on "The
Science of Race & Racism." He
discussed how race is linked to
human evolution, showing slides
detailing a history of race in sci-
entific study. Peering at the class,
he emphasized in a booming voice
that human evolution and race are
connected. Next, he detailed the
importance of diversity in race.
"Race invariably also means
racial prejudice. And we're never
going to get rid of prejudice ... but
we can and must learn how to cel-
ebrate our diversity," he said. "As
an evolutionist, I can say if we all
became the same, evolutionists
would have nothing to work with.
What we need to be successful is
variety."
Part of the larger signature "22
Ways" courses that accompany
each theme semester, "22 Ways to
Think About Race" brings in guest
speakers from various disciplines
- including linguistics, commu-
nications and medicine - to high-
light the ways in which race exists
across a wide spectrum of fields.
Alsultany hopes that through
teaching theme semester courses,
she can illuminate the pressing
necessity of understanding race in
our communities.
"I think it's important to look
at where we are and not deny the
progress, but not assume that we
are now an equal world," she said.
For many, the ultimate goal of
the theme semester is that its leg-
acy will stretch beyond this semes-
ter.
"I really hope that we can take
this model of how to talk about
a very complicated subject of
race, (and apply it to) how can we
become less violent as a society;
how we can talk about economic
disparity; how we can talk about
gender in an open way," Provenz-
ano said.
Harris agreed, noting the
change already occurring on cam-
pus, including the University's
documentation of faculty research
on race; the training sessions on
race discussions for teachers and
colleagues; and positive reactions
to teacher facilitation in race dia-
logue.
"A stronger community of peo-
ple committed to racial justice is
already forming," Harris said.
My Unions are.
A
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