Would Jus Eat It?

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

I need to thank Starcraft

Starcraft, how I miss you. This has made me a better cook and athlete. You might be surprised how many actions per minute (APM) I can do on a cooking line. Micromanage the units in my current mouse selection to optimize their survivability and damage (pans that are currently cooking things and rearranging pans to use super hot burners for searing meat, slightly less hot flat tops for fish, adjusting heat source to control the sear), "macromanaging" at my base... building more barracks to increase unit production, more drones to harvest (pulling multiple orders of ingredients behind me at one time and season them/count them against the army of tickets/orders, utilizing each pan to its full potential and utilizing meat resting racks or increase more space by making another rack if need be and replenishing them as they get depleted)... multiple actions linked into one...

I think the same way about sports and sports strategy as well. What a great way to look at the world. Thank you blizzard! But fuck you for ruining Diablo!!!

Repost from fbook

I want to share my thoughts again. Been two years?

My food, my crazy competitive addiction to board games, and the Stanley cup playoffs!!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

INCEPTION!!!

I still don't have the time or desire to post anything about work right now. It's 5 in the morning and I just woke up from multiple dreams (I finally mustered the will power to shake myself up from the last one and I also had to pee...). Murdered my secretaries in ski masks. Poured a filled water quart container on myself to see if I was dreaming. I had complete control of the dream but I could separate reality from the surreal. I physically have to lay on my back, with my neck propped up on my pillow, have my mind racing from a previous hour of first person shooter-ing (BF3!!! fuck yeah) and pass out with a tv show on my laptop. Noises. Within the first 30 minutes of sleeping/REM sleep, I have like 10 dreams back to back. unreal. Neck's sore though.

Started working PM shift about 3 weeks ago. Pretty fun. Much more exciting and frenzied service. Meh. Still working 2 days of AM (M-T every week, then jumping into PM during the busy days =(. New years is coming around the corner... should be a devastating night.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Beginning of my 3rd week at Bar Boulud!

All I have to say is ... COMPLETE CULTURE SHOCK. 8 times the volume of customers. 12 times the amount of staff. Almost scary commute and crazy hours to wake up but I'm getting used to it. 4:30 AM begin walk to newark penn station. 4:55 wait for train. Train to NYC Penn then Subway up to 66th lincoln center and work in a basement kitchen for 10 hours. Pretty intense. Getting stabilized. Have so much to say but too lazy/tired to type it. Updating soon!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Work is fun.

First time doing "buffet" service. Mother's day Brunch... 214 people or so came into Uproot. We overprepared wayyyyy too much stuff. Shit everywhererere. But it was kinda cool to see so many people coming and going and being able to walk out onto the floor for a second or two during a meal service (cooks aren't really allowed///isn't really proper to do that).

Workin' the oven is pretty awesome. Lot of organization of ingredients to reheat and fish/quail fish/octopus to cook. Fun/quick plates. Tasty stuff. It's not just the "cooking" aspect that is enjoyable it's like the mass organization and speed of production // efficiency in physical movements and keeping shit clean while producing plate after plate. Time flies.

i love how my political incorrectness from elementary school into college fits perfectly into our kitchen banter. You're here to do a job, not to bitch and complain about "OMG THAT IS SO RACIST", "WOW, THATS NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT". Love it. It's like a sports team, without the usual faggotry of one or two rejects who can't take a racial slur or stereotype.

We had a lesbian, and black dude (CLARENCE), portuguese guy (DAVE), polish girl (MARTYNA), buncha italian/american whatever types/mexican dishwasher, Muslim roommate/front of the house guy (TORRES), etc etc. What a fucking mix.

Drinking. Working lunch in the morning. Probably manning two stations because of typical wednesday slowness. Meh. Good times.

Quarter of a century old. Kill me.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Two Months Later...

Wow, has it really been two months.
I'm too lazy to type anything nowadays. Lot of shit has happened.
1. Moved from Salad/Cold station to Oven station
2. Lost my license for 8 months
3. Moved into a new apartment in Piscataway!$@
4. Hitchhiking for rides everywhere. Or paying with blow jobs.

Watching copious amounts of How I Met Your Mother... 24, lost, community. Jeezuz. Southpark. Last few episodes weren't as funny, but still enjoyable.

Epic burn on my left forearm.

Chat Roulette is hilarious. Don't do it alone. Wear a condom.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

It's been a month... but I'm typing/blogging again.

For the last month, I've spent most of my non-working time at a nearby bar/pizza sports bar the staff hangs out at. Pretty, friendly bartenders. Cheap drinks. Tasty pizza. This stop every night kept me from getting home before 2 am every morning... but that all changed last Tuesday night.

After a massive snowstorm two Wednesdays ago (Feb 10th), the Wed before Valentine's day, I worked 5 days in a row straight. Minimum of 12 hours a day and Valentine's day Sunday was about 14 hours. Finally on Tuesday I thought it would be a good idea to relax with all the staff and grab a few drinks and shots at the bar. Drinking went on as usual, but I was riding off of 4 hours of sleep every night for the past 3 - 4 nights... and I guess that is what really fucked me up. I stopped drinking around 1:15, but we stopped elsewhere. Didn't start driving until 2:00... but I wish I had never gotten into my car.

After driving 25 minutes, I eventually reached one of the only places on the side of the road that wasn't lined with mailboxes, trees, or guardrails. That's just the moment when I passed out for 10 seconds. I remember a faster car behind me and for some reason I blinked when I looked through my rear view mirror... and when my eyes opened, I went 40 yards into the snow and 20 yards away from the road.

Immediately got out of my car into the snow and for the next 15 minutes I dug with my frisbee around my front wheels... There was no way I was getting out of this one. So I called my parents at 2:45 in the morning, they rushed out of bed with shovels and triple A on the way... however, around that time, a police officer happened to drive by my scene... FML.

Was arrested, sat in a short sleeve shirt in a holding room and was interrogated and processed for 3 hours. Got home around 6:15 in the morning, slept for 3 hours and went back to work the next day. Car was towed/impounded. 400 bucks.

Court date is around march 2nd. great. Looking at a total of 4000+ including lawyer and all feeds and everything and maybe 1000 for car repairs.

Funny thing is, my parents weren't really mad. They were just glad I was alive... and hopefully that I learned a lot from the "Experience". I have. It just sucks now that I can't have more than a beer or two at a bar without my BAC going above the legal limit... oh well. That's permanent.

I was only about 10 minutes away from my house... but the road there followed the course of a river and is really dark and full of deer. If I hadn't gotten "caught" and passed out at the point I was at, I coulda went flying into a tree or the river. I guess that's kinda crazy. I was also lucky that the hill was UPhill and not DOWNhill... don't know where I would be if I were going down.

On a more positive note, I've been allowed to cook on the hot side of the kitchen some more. On a non-busy Tuesday or Wednesday I popped out like 15 orders of Gnocci and an order or two of scallops. Quite fun to make. On the cold side... Veggies I use for my salads are turning out really well every time now. Mostly sous vide beets and stuff for salad that are turning out perfectly cooked--tender, not mushy or have any crunch to it at all, but then again, beets have a lot of leeway... parsnips, on the other hand, don't but my parsnips aren't getting mushy.

and I've been attempting to take over more of the baking / pastry side for the sake of the Sous Chef. My souffles are rising higher and are more "uniform"... making brownie batters... made my first carrot cake batter. Oil/Egg base... Mine didn't turn out quite as well as the Sous Chef's... but hey, it was my first time and I thought I was at the right point at each step. Ho well.

Fully completed making a Foie Gras torchon today. 3 step process. woo... Good times.

Glad to have a day off tomorrow and that I got home before 4 in the morning on a Sat night for the first time in 3 months. Now maybe I can cook for my family for once...

Pictures!
soon?

Valentine's Day Steak Tartare! (well, this was the day after. Just a little first course)