Bello Adeola

English 114B

Professor Lynnette

May 1, 2012

Apprentices of the English Craft.

           Writing for me is a simple but complex task in which most people strive for perfection but cannot achieve it because perfection is an idea not a destination people can reach. Ernest Hemingway once said “we are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” This quote is what helps me write, it is what I think about before and after an essay and is a quote of excellence. During this semester, I had to do a research paper on a food product and also write about my journey to an ideal location in which I would talk about how the trip influenced me in some kind of way.

          My first essay was a research paper which was titled “Not So Happy meal” in which I did a little exploration on the contents of what is in the happy meal which is served at every McDonald’s location around the world. Doing this research paper helped me to see the dangers present in fast food locations like McDonald’s and how most of their products are based on genetically modified produce (GMO’s). Foods that contain GMO’s are bad for the human body because they cause mutations that are sometimes not physically visible but still does damage internally. The process of writing this essay helped me to gain some investigative skills because I had to do a lot of research to make this essay the best I could be.

           My second essay was an observation essay in which I had to write about a place I visited. In this essay, I had to include the things I noticed along the way and the things that happened at the location. The location I went to was Disneyland “Where Dreams Come True”. Disneyland is a magical place where people can enjoy quality family time and also enjoy the wonders of being little once more. During this trip, I learned how to turn on my observation senses when on a trip and how to remember those things I saw when I was writing the essay.   

           Both papers this semester gave me the opportunity to see the importance of knowing what is in the food we spend our money on and also to see how reliving your childhood memories helps to relief stress which in turn improved both my life style and writing skills. Thanks to these essays, I can now say that my writing skill have increased exponentially and has also helped me to prepare for any challenges high English classes can throw at me.    

Bello Ade


English 114B


Professor Lynnette


March 6, 2013


                                                        NOT SO HAPPY MEAL

             The definition of a happy meal is simple. “A happy meal is a form of kids' meal specifically marketed at children sold at the fast-food chain McDonald's since June 1979. The Happy Meal contains a main item (typically a hamburger, cheeseburger, or small serving of Chicken Nuggets), a side item (French fries, apple slices, or a salad in some areas), and a drink (milk, juice, or a soft drink).” (Happy meal. wiki.org) Imagine yourself driving your child back home from a soccer game he/she just won. While in the car, your child sets eyes on a McDonald’s coming up and then begins to beg you to buy him a happy meal because he wants the new toy they are offering and then you pull over, get him his happy meal and continue on your journey. Thinking everything is fine, unsuspecting parents are feeding their children artificial meat and produce to their children and they don’t really know the nutritional aspect of this meal they just bought their child. My main focus is to break down the contents of a hamburger that comes with a happy meal and reveal to the unknowing parents what they are really feeding their precious children.


The Hamburger


Through extensive research, I have found out that McDonald’s hamburgers contain simple and basic ingredients like 100% beef patty, a regular bun, ketchup, mustard, pickle slices and onions. Personally, I like my hamburgers to just be basic filled with awesomeness. I like my beef grass fed, disease free and well treated; I like my buns to be made out of regular flower and contain no additives because settling for regular means I can have good tasting, healthy food which is really all I require. Now let us settle in and explore these basic ingredients used to make a hamburger at McDonald’s.


· 100% beef patty


Ingredients: 100% pure USDA inspected beef; no fillers, no extenders. Prepared with grill seasoning (salt, black pepper). (Konie Robin)


Before August 2011, McDonalds used to incorporate ‘pink slime (ammonium hydroxide)’ in the production of their hamburgers. This chemical is the same chemical used in fertilizers, household cleaners and even homemade explosives and it is very dangerous to the human digestive system. Ammonia hydroxide is made when water comes in contact with ammonia, so basically now we have a hazardous gas turned into a liquid which we ingest thanks to this meat. The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for ammonium hydroxide classifies the substance as very hazardous when in contact with skin. Ammonium hydroxide may produce tissue damage on mucous membranes (Dr. Daniel Zagst.) Don’t forget that the human digestive system is made up of one long mucous membrane from start to finish. With this chemical being very harmful to our digestive system, there is an upside to it. Benefits of this chemical in meat is that Many food pathogens can be found in the intestines of cattle. They are able to survive and grow in the high acid tissues of animals. Ammonium hydroxide can be used as an antimicrobial to control pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, which may be present in beef (Food Insight). With such great amount of chemicals being used in processing our beef, we are all encouraged to follow safe meat handling measures and to always cook all our meats to the recommended internal temperatures. So don’t condemn this chemical fully, just know that when you go to the market to buy your beef, make sure you cook it really well knowing that you are killing the left overs of the E coli bacteria. Thankfully, McDonald’s have stopped using this chemical in their beef but the vast majority of their beef comes from cows that are in concentrated agricultural feeding plants. This harsh treatment of the animals is not only bad for them and the environment, but also bad for the consumers too because eating meat from sick animals will also make the consumers sick. So the next time you walk into McDonalds and eat their meat, you might be getting a mouth full of antibiotics, hormones and bacteria’s that are dangerous for the human body.






· Bun


Ingredients: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or canola oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, wheat gluten, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (may contain one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide), sorbic acid, calcium propionate and/or sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin. (Robin Konie)


Now look at that list and notice that this is the mixture that produces just the bun for a hamburger at McDonalds. The regular way people make bread is by mixing flour, salt and water but McDonalds just had added excess ingredients that the human body does not need.


Taking a closer look at these ingredients, research show that:

• Ammonium chloride is the same ingredient used in fireworks, safety matches and contact explosives.
• Ammonium sulfate is used commonly as an artificial fertilizer for soil and it is also in flame retardant materials. This chemical activates the yeast in bread so it helps get the industrially produced bread to rise.
• The soybean/ canola oil used are most likely products of GMO’s.
• High fructose corn syrup can do big damage to the human health.

· Ketchup


Ingredients: Tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, salt, natural flavors (vegetable source)


This mixture to make ketchup is just irregular. To these producers, mixing regular corn syrup with high fructose corn syrup is a normal thing for them (remember that most corn produced in the US are GMO’s), but to me, it is just adding insult to injury. A long term study on the effects of GMO’s was recently conducted and it revealed that massive tumors grew in rats that were fed GMO corn for two years (and GMO’s have been in our market for more than 20 years now).


When the words ‘natural favors’ comes into my mind, I perceive it to be a giant warning sign that I should keep away, but temptations kick in, I cannot resist the urge to eat such produce.


           So my final though about these ingredients I have listed above is: you can see for yourself that McDonalds has a lot of very questionable ingredients in their food (and so does many other fast food restaurant so I am not completely condemning McDonalds) making me not want to eat there, but occasionally, I walk into McDonalds with a crazy craving for all these terrible things for my body. My advice to the people whose life’s revolves around fast food is that they should go to their local market and pick up some produce so that they could make a meal for themselves because food is what helps the body thrive and eating healthy means a longer life.

Bello Ade

English 114B

Professor Lynnette

April 3, 2013

                                                     Where Dreams Come True.

            It was a few days after graduation and the day had arrived in which I get the opportunity to visit the one magical place every one of my friends have always been talking to me about. They say it is a place filled with magic, wonders and lots of exploration and every night before I go to bed, I dream of this place. I got up bright and early this faithful day, headed for the bus station to hitch a ride in order to get to the main transportation that would take me to this beautiful place filled with wonders. After waiting for about three hours, we finally set our eyes on the big travel busses here to pick us up to go to our magical destination.

           The ride to this wonderful location is a little foggy in my memory, but I still remember the excitement on everyone’s faces while on the bus. Everyone was chit chatting and conversing when suddenly the song “call me maybe” by Carley Rae Jepsen came on the radio; everybody (including the bus driver) bust into a sing along. It was very visible the unity this song brought to this crowd of rowdy teenagers and adults. This is something I have not experienced in a while. After a few hours of sitting and looking out the window into the surrounding areas, I laid eyes upon the magical place my friends have been telling me about; I laid eyes upon Disneyland.

            We walked out of the bus and my eyes were caught by Minnie mouse. She came to welcome us to Disneyland and I felt the jolliness in the person under the costume. After receiving information on where to meet after our visit was over, we quickly formed into a group and everyone went to different location at the theme park. Since we had the privilege of going to both theme parks, my friends and I had the dilemma of choosing which one to go to first; we ended up going to California Adventure first. With the theme park being packed, we went to Mickeys fun wheel first. After waiting for about 30minuets, we got on the ride and all I can say is that I was not impressed. The only fun part about this ride was when the ride rocked back and forth because it gave me a twisty feeling in my stomach. We got off this terrible ride and traveled on a path to California screaming which was right next to us. This ride is one for the records. The line for this ride was long while the line for people with fast pass was short so my friends and I got the bright idea to cut the lines through the fast pass lane (this put us at the front of the line for the ride). After getting strapped in, I started to hear the cranking sound of the cart on the tracks and I started to shiver to the thrill I was about to experience. Lift off. My friends and I had our hands in the air, waving it around because we had no care in the world. The ride lasted longer than expected, but it was amazing. I got off the ride and stepped on solid ground only to feel a little dizzy from the epicness of the rollercoaster.

         Still feeling the need for trill, we set course for the twilight zone tower of terror. After waiting in line for about two hours while the sun slowly roasted us, we got to the front where we boarded the elevator in the tower of terror. Before the ride, my friends told me about their experiences the first time they got on this rollercoaster and how scared they were which began to instill fear into my heart before I got on the ride. In the elevator taking us to the coaster, there was a short movie clip that talked about the creepiness of this tower, how evil the place is, the amount of life’s that had been and the ghosts that hunt this ride. The ride started off mediocre and got intense quickly. Everyone inside screamed when the coaster dropped us to the bottom floor after the doors had opened at the top of the tower and then the coaster stopped. We felt this feeling of intense high and low altitude during the time the ride moved up and down which was almost sickening but fun at the same time. It took me a few minutes to get back to reality after such an awesome and exciting ride was over.

         One ride I have heard so much about but never got to go on was Radiator Springs Racers. This is the rollercoaster that always comes up in the Disney California Adventures theme park commercial and it looked exciting but every time we got to the ride, it was either shutdown for one reason or another or the lines for the ride are too long. This whole trip was one gigantic experience of a life time and my advice to anyone who goes for the first time is that they should wear not only a comfortable shoe, but a shoe with a thick sole because walking around Disneyland would make your feet hurt a whole lot if you do not wear a shoe with a thick sole.

        Before heading on this adventure, my thoughts were about how I might be disappointed by the attractions and how things might not go as planned, but after my experience on this day, I am very glad I dove head first into this journey. Thanks to my mind set of experiencing new things, I can now proudly say that I have seen and enjoyed the magic of Disneyland and I would love to visit one more time.

Here is a picture of my Favorite food called Jollof Rice (it is surrounded by fried plantain and sided with a piece of chicken). It is a delicacy native to Nigeria but has many editions all over Africa.

here is a picture of Nigerian food. The plate on the left contains what is called Iyan and the plate on the right is a soup called Efo. It is very traditional and tastes very good.