Just Real Quick

This weekend was super busy. We're in the process of changing our menu to keep it fresh and interesting. Goodbye are the chocolate espresso tarts, the pan roasted chicken, and the pork tenderloin; say hello to the marionberry and roasted apple tartlettes, a new breaded chicken dish (I haven't seen this one yet), and a lamb shank. I got to try the tartlette tonight, and it was so good! We've got a few disagreements on the presentation, but it was so tasty! Oh, and we've changed our house salad dressing from a coconut-anise vinegrette to a new Japanese-style miso dressing. Very tasty. I'm a fan.

Quick recap of the last couple week or so:

On Monday Chef J was in a great mood, which makes working with him a LOT easier. He was in such a good mood that we played a bit of frisbee with a prep plate (smallish metal pans similar to pie plates)! So funny. He's not too good at throwing, but he's passable at catching. It was a good time.

Tuesday, election day, my parents and some close family friends came in for dinner. Chef J of course sent them an extra appetizer, just because he knew it was my mom's favorite. And later, to help celebrate my dad's upcoming birthday, Chef J sent out a little treat he's been thinking about adding to the menu. It was a kind of deep-fried ice cream, wrapped in leftover bread pudding crust and served with a fresh strawberry puree. Absolutely fantastic. I'm not sure if it'll be part of the menu, but I sure hope it is!

Thursday was supposed to be an off day for me, but I got called in to prep for the new menu. I didn't learn much about the new menu, but that's okay. It was also really busy for dinner, so it was good that I was there to help support the other three cooks.

Friday was insanely busy! Lunch, happy hour(s), and dinner were all really crazy. We seemed to be running out of things right and left, and I felt as slow as a sloth, barely able to keep up with the others. In some cases, one of the cooks had to come back, muscle me out of the way, and finish my project because I wasn't getting it done fast enough. Yikes! But later Chef J said that I cleaned up really well after the dinner rush(es). So bring on the grains of salt!

Today (Saturday) was not quite as busy as the previous night, but still constant. And this time, though I felt more tired than Friday, I was able to keep up much better with the demands and requests of the others, from the dishwasher to the head chef. The sous chef, D, even told me that I did great tonight. That certainly felt good. As did one of Chef J's former coworkers, also owner of his own restaurant, who stopped by for dinner. He said that he didn't want to eat anywhere but at TR with Chef J cooking. And knowing that I helped prep Chef J for his success was encouraging.

Today also marked the three month mark of TR being open and my employment at my first job after college. Good times.

Peace and healthy appetites,

K.

Took me long enough, eh?

Below are a few pictures of the restaurant and my workspace. Some of my readers have been requesting these for quite a while, and so finally, here they are.

The first is the prep and storage area of the kitchen. You can see the huge butcher (and really all-purpose) table that I work at most often, the huge freezer, and in the way back is the pantry area. To the right is our walk-in refrigerator; I try to stay out of there because, well, it's cold.

Next is the actual cooking area. My station is the grill, stove, and deep fryer area, along with the cooler looking thing on the near-right side. The wok stations are farther down. Usually there are only three of us in that small space, though on busy nights, there are often all four of us cooks in there.

The final two are the dining rooms: the Chef Room and the main Dining Room. Those are bamboo tables which are very sturdy and very easy to clean. Great combo!

Okay, enough words, on the the pictures:

There you have it, a quick snapshot of my workplace (well, four snapshots I suppose...).

Thanks again for reading. Hope to see you at one of those tables soon!

K.

Happy Birthday! Let's Eat!

Today I celebrated 4 birthdays, all around a full table. In the morning we celebrated birthdays for two of the men in my family. I made the coconut creme caramels that I also make at TR. They were delicious. Mom made amazing cinnamon rolls. Yum! Add to that a crisp fruit salad, bacon, sausage, and a fabulous egg and ham dish, and you've got a great meal, topped off with an orange julius drink and freshly brewed coffee. Delightful. Celebrating family around food, I can think of very few things I would rather be doing. Great.

Then at work in the afternoon, we celebrated two of the cooks' birthdays, Chef M and D. The owners had bought Chef M a cake, and I brought lemoncello for the family/staff to try. So we ate, sang, and toasted to our two birthday boys. Happy happy birthday, to the max.

Since it is fall now, and squash are in great supply, it was decided to decorate TR with a few squashes and fall colors. Chef J and one of the managers, B, schemed together to make artistic representations of the kitchen staff via four small squash and my Sharpie pen. So I, D, Chef J, and Chef M have our likenesses depicted on squash. How funny. Below is a photo of these examples of the fun and family that TR has.


I'm the one of the far right, the angry looking pumpkin. Chef J said that the pumpkin persona is my alter ego, because he's never seen me angry at work. Phew!

That's especially good news since I have my 3-month review coming up next weekend. I'm a bit nervous and anxious about it, but I'm also quite optimistic. I have been blessed to be a part of the TR family and community. When I consider how my degree didn't land me this job, and my vast (?) experience didn't land me this job, and with the economy in such a tough time, and the job market being scarce, I wonder what it is that allowed me to land this job. Luck? Perhaps. Timing? Possibly. Something bigger than myself? I sure feel that way sometimes. Take that as you will.

Speaking of celebrating with family, some family friends came in to the restaurant tonight. I hadn't seen two of them in quite some time; I hadn't even met some of the others they brought along. They had the Calamari (one of their favorites), Spring rolls (one of my favorites), and the Walnut Prawns (now one of our shared favorites, though I have to try to avoid the walnuts due to allergy concerns...). Yet another example of food and family being shared and enjoyed.

Finally, I want to share about an article that was in my former school's weekly newspaper. The article I'm refering to was about a Mexican restaurant very near campus, one which I have come to love and adore over my four years at the university. Family owned and operated, this restaurant invites you in, cooks for you, often sings for you, and cares for you like you were visiting their home. Again, food and family, being shared and celebrated.

Thanks for reading my blob, as someone near and dear to my heart called it. Love you.

Go, Eat, and Celebrate,

K.

Like Woah!

It's been a busy time at TR. My hours have been expanded, and I'm feeling the physical and emotional aspects of that. I've worked about 43 hours in the last five days. And at least five more hours tomorrow. And then a day off. And then if starts over again. So that's good (money money money money) and bad (tired, sore, stressed, hungry). But mostly good. As a family friend told me recently, "Just be a duck." Meaning that I should just let the frustrations and stresses of my job roll off me like water off a duck. I think it's a good metaphor and good advice.

As some of you may have noticed, blogging isn't happening as often as I first thought it would. Part of that is because I'm lazy on my days off, and part of it is that I'm feeling pretty comfortable at TR in my position, so they huge exciting things aren't really there any more. They've become normal, every-week stuff. Like working double-digit shifts. Or playing peek-a-boo with the owners' infant son. Or messing up a dessert (usually over-baking or just plain spilling) just to make it again. Then there are other things, like having people come up to thank the cooks for a delicious meal, especially the appetizers and desserts (hey, that's what I do! Woohoo!). It's always nice to hear that my friends and family like my (and the restaurant's) food; likewise, it's just as nice to hear that from a complete and total stranger. Sweet deal.

Well, my energy is falling once again. I hope to blog more in the next few days. I took notes on some stories I wanted to share.

Quack quack,

K.

Quick Update(s)

Last week the county health inspector came by the restaurant for our quarterly review. We passed with 100%. Pretty good, me thinks.

Published today was our first newspaper review in the Herald! I encourage you to read it (http://heraldnet.com/article/20081010/ENT/710109984).

My coworkers continue to make me laugh. Chef M came up to me today and asked how much I weighed. He made a guess, and was only five pounds off. He said he was close and walked away. Completely random, but it made me laugh.

I made salmon cakes today. Fifty-nine of them.

Chef J shops at Central Market on Fridays. Little trivia fun for you.

The dishwasher (or DW as I call her) was singing today. She does that when she thinks no one else is in the back kitchen. But being the sneaky quasi-ninja that I am, I surprised her while she was singing to herself. She laughed. Good times.

Chef M's grandson joined us for staff meal today. He's about 4 and a half months old. He was crying a little bit, at least until I walked by. Then he started laughing. I'm not sure how to take that...

Chef J, over the last couple weeks, has been letting me take care of the deliveries, mainly produce and proteins. I get to sign their clipboard and then put everything away. Kinda fun, having so much responsibility. I take it as a good sign.

Chef M made Mongolian Beef for staff lunch today. It's one of my all time favorite dishes at TR. Yum!

Have a delicious day!

K.

PS. Oh, by the way, Mom and I tried to make our own fennel-yam mash like we do at TR. It turned out really well. Chef J was pleased that we tried to replicate one of his dishes and impressed that it turned out so well! It felt like a personal victory if nothing else. Sweet.

"I'm not shy when it comes to pie. Or any other desserts, for that matter."

My boss said that. A friend of his brought by pie this weekend and J wanted to share it with his staff today. Strawberry rhubarb pie. Yum.

Speaking of this weekend, it was our Grand Opening! Wahoo! After today, I worked about 50 hours over the last 5 days. We had over 200 reservations this weekend. Wow. Yesterday and today we were playing catch-up. But we're getting back to normal after our produce and proteins arrived today. (I got to inventory and sign for those deliveries. Exciting! Of course, I did have to put them away too. Not as exciting)

For the Grand Opening we had a traditional Chinese Lion Dance (Similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svz-n3QRymI ). We had two dragons that danced and marched through our restaurant. Fortunately, they didn't eat all of our food before we served dinner. Whew. Really cool.

Yesterday I was making a lot of filling for our Springrolls and our Potstickers. I made around 105 Springrolls and almost 1oo Potstickers. I tried finding a youtube clip of someone using two butcher's cleavers to basically grind up meat like I did yesterday. Chef M was laughing at me a little bit, but at least I was trying!

Speaking of Chef M, he made french fries today, just to snack on. He told me that he had a craving for McDonald's, but this would do. I'll say!

Going back a couple of weeks, TR was a part of a wine festival at the nearby Event Center. We brought three dishes to offer guests who were walking around visiting wine, food, and dessert booths. It was a lot of fun. I got to meet a couple wine sellers, other cooks and chefs from various local restaurants, and a lot of the people who've come in to the restaurant. Between the two owners and I, we served over 500 people! We were told that we had the longest line at the event. We heard nothing but good reviews from many people. Some people even came back for seconds!

Between that event and preparing hors d'oeuvres for Grand Opening weekend, Chef J told me that I might have a bright future in catering. An interesting thought, to be sure. An idea to put on the back burner, as it were. Or even a Sterno (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterno).

A final thought.
You know you're a chef when:
You can peel a potato with a chef's knife;
You can invent a delicious dish on the spot, using basically leftovers; or
You can work in a kitchen for 16+ years without cutting yourself but once.

I'm not there yet, but I've got some goals to shoot for.

Peace, Love, and Good Food,

K.

"What's the Portebella of your argument?" or My idea to be the Next Foodnetwork Star (C): Vicarious Living, a Day in the Life of a Prep Cook

Hello faithful readers!

Welcome back to Vicarious Living, my own reality blog show. In this episode, follow me through dinner with the head chef, adventures with desserts, and more delicious food, as I work (and eat!) my way through one Modern Asian Bistro's menu.

My Writing 101 professor at PLU was a vegetarian. She would often ask what the meat of our argument was. Then we reminded her that she probably doesn't have meat to her argument, but rather veggies of some sort. She decided that since she liked Portebella burgers. There you go. I was slicing mushrooms today and was reminded of that. Funny. To me at least.

In the next few days or weeks, I will hopefully be covering the following:
-New spices
-Experimenting with donuts
-Asian currys and Latino moles (basically the same throughout the respective cultures, but vary on recipe/cook/region/etc...)
-My favorite color of today: Red. Curry Red. (Bond. James Bond. Well, I think I'm clever...)
-Andy is to Billy as Kevin is to Kendall
-Moon Cake, with an egg yolk baked into the middle!
-Things that my boss said were beautiful: salmon cakes, corn fritter batter, dumplings, sliced mushrooms (Oh, and by the way, don't wash mushrooms with water. Rather, wipe them clean with a clean towel.)
-Whatever else comes to mind.

Often when my shift ends in the evenings, my boss makes me dinner. Tonight I had Beef Panaeng, a delicious beef dish made with the red curry. Yum! Since it was a slow evening, after cooking for me, he came and sat down to join me. We chatted, told a couple stories, and I told him about my favorite Mexican restaurant near campus. Fun times.

I messed up two batches of Creme Caramels this week. But it's all okay now. And I made the Passion Fruit Curl that goes along with the donuts. Fun. Oh, by the way, a curl, in this sense, is uncooked custard. Crazy.

Food is good. And food with friends and family is even better. I think you'd agree. Until next time, this is Vicarious Living, with Kendall your new, learning, hungry Prep Cook.

-K.