2017 - April 19, Strait to Taiwan
From ATS Wiki
- Date: 4/19/2017 (Wednesday)
- Event Captains: Brice Huang (bmhuang), Cynthia Liu (cynliu98), Janice Chui (jchui), Li Wang (lwang32), Tony Zhang (txz)
- Time: 11a - 3p
- Location: Stata Student Street
Contents |
Event Overview
Your annual Strait to Taiwan! As before, most of our work feel into one of these categories:
- Food safety with Mike Myers (meeting on 3/10)
- Food shopping (4/16, Sunday). Unfortunately, this was Easter Sunday, so Costco was closed. CMart shopping still happened, however.
- CMart shopping involved Cynthia + Tony going shopping, with Charleen helping out by picking us up in a Zipcar!
- Protip: pay for half of the groceries first so we can start loading onto the car. Yay pipelining!
- Li went to Costco the next day, with Charlotte picking her up in a Zipcar.
- Food prep went all day (10a - 5p) in Next Country Kitchen over Patriots' Day weekend (Mon + Tue).
- On the day of, most of exec started work around 8-8:30a, which was workable but a little crazy (which is part of the charm I guess :D)
Funding
We primarily funded S2T through LEF/ARCADE. Note that LEF/ARCADE requires a detailed budget beforehand, so be sure to get the food captains to compile a list of everything they need. Check inventory (and below) to see if there are things we can just use in storage. List out all the things we need to buy or pay for (read: copy and modify last year's list), and use the prices from last year's budget to make an estimate of the unit costs of each item. After the event, save all receipts and update the budget spreadsheet with actual counts and costs.
Feels and notes
General
- pub earlier! (we forgot to take out an ad in the Tech as a result of our lateness)
- we reused decorations from storage, which simplified a lot.
- Julia came back to help out, which was immensely helpful <3
- food prep GANTT chart was super helpful, as were day-of choreography (@presidents do these again!)
- on the day of, the most valuable time is UHaul time, so plan around the UHaul.
Shopping and Budget
- Buy the correct chrysanthemum tea and soy milk! (see Drinks clarification below)
- Don't forget to include UHaul and parking costs!
Prep
- We reserved Next Country Kitchen and let Next Exec know about our occupation. This was mostly fine, except for an incident where we sent out an email telling people to grab their stuff or it would get dumped. NEVER DO THIS
- Prep went smoothly on the whole. Turnout was alright (about 50% of exec at any given time?), but see ADT bootcamp issue below.
- Unfortunately, ADT bootcamp happens every year on the day before Strait to Taiwan. Maybe we can ask them to do things during the preceding weekend (Sat/Sun instead of Mon/Tue; we can't really do food prep too far in advanced.)
- Still, we finished food prep on time. But remember that zongzi are very time-consuming.
- Make a playlist that people can add songs to-- anything that makes volunteers and exec happier while prepping is good!
- Make sure someone who knows how to do eggs makes the eggs--- it's really annoying to have a bunch of insufficiently cooked eggs that we have to recook. Also beware of eggs cracking as we boil them.
- Thinner scallion pancakes are great! They use less material and cook faster.
- We forgot that we were out of boba, so we had to buy boba the morning of. (lowkey not a good time)
Event
- Exec was aware that S2T is a big deal, so turnout on the day of was very good.
- The morning of went very smoothly, because we now start the event at 11a and because we made very good use of everyone's time.
- Let people know about breakfast so they wake up! People like tasty Asian breakfast, so we should continue having 1 or 2 exec get up a bit earlier to make some simple food (fried eggs, dumplings, etc.). Don't choose people with special roles (like captains or drivers); if some exec can't make other prep, consider putting them in charge of breakfast.
- DO NOT MIX UP THE TWO TYPES OF ZONGZI
- Maybe make a Google sheet signup for booth volunteers? It was a little hectic on the day of, and we had to pull friends in to help us man stations (thanks Mike Sun!)
- Continue having lowkey activities like Chinese Chess. People seem to like it. Exec seems to like having activities as long as we don't have to dedicate manpower to them.
- Power was almost a non-issue this year. We had one outlet blow, but the electrician came and fixed it immediately after we called.
Food Safety Meeting
Notes from food safety meeting on March 10 with Michael Myers. Li Wang, Tony Zhang, Janice Chui, and Jessica Tang attended.
Problems with last year reviewed include:
- Power Outages: Power would go out if more than one thing was using a power outlet at a time. Called an electrician last year. Michael recommended we contact Leanne Scott (CAC) to ask her about the power issue (and if there is some way we could prevent/account for it). The facilities number is also: (617)-253-4948.
- Table covers: Used trash bags to cover last time. Ask dining partners if they could possibly provide table cloths and let Michael know the number of tables.
Major Health Concerns discussed:
- Gloves: Remember to change gloves periodically (approx. 30 min) and when moving from a food task to a non-food task or vice-versa. Recommend to have one person dedicated to handing out/changing people's gloves.
- Temperature/Food Preservation: General process of food cooking should be cook->cool->store->transport. Plan is to cook on Mon and Tues, and transport on Wed. Scheduled cooking below. Cool foods in shallow aluminum pans and make sure to seran wrap or lid cooled foods. Meats need to be warmed/cooked up to 160*F and then kept warm once reheated. Meats should also be cooked and stored separately and only mixed into dishes on the day of.
- Utensils: Make sure well swapped out and have backups in case one is dropped or soiled. Do not attempt to clean your utensils.
- Time: 4 Hour danger zone for bacteria to grow (should keep food out for less than three hours though).
- Shopping: Costco source for supplies (safe).
Other Notes
- Claiming to be fundraiser allows to be held to different standards: i.e. no sales tax and can cook in a household grade kitchen.
- UA provided utensils last year (such as serving utensils). Ask again if possible, if not ask Michael and he'll look into getting provisions.
- Maybe wipe down fridges with light solution or little of bleach
General Cooking Schedule
Monday
- Make scallion pancake dough and freeze (note to make sure scallions are properly washed)
- Soak rice and leaves for Zhongzi
- Slice and marinate chicken
- Marinate eggs
Tuesday
- Make Boba
- Cook meats, cool, and store (all done while keeping meats separated).
Wednesday
- Cook pre-prepared foods and keep warm
Actionables
- Send menu to Michael
- Send number of tables to Michael
- Contact Leanne about power
- Utensils check if UA or Michael can provide
Note: give approx. two weeks leeway time for Michael to get supplies asked for
Shopping Notes
BUY IN 2018
- new stove for dumplings (we broke one this year)
- because stoves usually come in packs of two, we can have an extra stove so we can simultaneously cook meat and veggie dumplings.
DO NOT BUY IN 2018 because we have a lot
- sugar (we have 3 big bags)
- salt (we have 5 boxes and 2 containers)
- ziplock bags
- plastic wrap
- aluminum foil
- parchment/wax paper
Drinks clarification
- 24 boxes of chrysanthemum tea - buy the small drink boxes (6 per pack), VITA brand
- 24 boxes of soy milk - buy the small drink boxes, not big ones, 6 per pack
