Week two: Off on Monday due to Martin Luther King day so some friends and I went to Iron Chef Garces's restaurant Chifa for restaurant week. Let me publicly profess my love for pork belly buns. Amazing. Something you need to try before you die... or at least before 2011. Besides that we had various ceviches, vietnamese spring rolls, bbq ribs with daikon, pho (not a huge fan), chaufa rice, chifa mussels, and on and on. The service was outstanding as was the atmosphere. I'll definitely be back.
Tuesday was culinary skills class and we learned hollandaise sauce and the battering technique. I was really nervous when we started the hollandaise and I heard chef telling everyone around me to throw theirs away for one reason or another: either the eggs started to cook or they added the butter too soon. He came up to me, took a look at my sauce and said "looking good, you can start adding your butter." I smiled and said "yes chef" but inside I was like "yesssss!!!" I added my butter, continued whisking until my arm was sore, baby burned my pinky (later chef laughed in my face about this) and called him over to see my finished product. He dipped his spoon in and I did the same. "What do you think" he asked. Never having been a fan of condiments, I confessed that I was tasting this for the first time. He explained how all of the flavors should come together as one and you shouldn't taste anything in particular. I tasted butter. He did too. Added a few more drops of lemon juice to cancel that out and he tasted again. "Perfect" he said. I said "thank you, chef" but inside I was doing cartwheels. As class went on we batonned some zucchini, battered and fried them. I noticed all of my knife cuts took the longest, however a majority of them were the dimensions they were supposed to be. *Note to self: work on speed.* We cleaned up and class was over.
Now, my parking fiasco. There are two garages next to the building. One costs $8, the other $6. We were told by a few professors and some signs around school to park in the $6 garage. I noticed a sign saying they closed at 10 p.m. so I always chose to play it safe since class finishes at 10. I asked one of the chef professors about the 10 p.m. closing time and he said they know many students park there and generally wait a bit longer for everyone to come out. I took my chances to save a few dollars and parked there. I came out no later that 10:05 on Tuesday evening to a locked up garage and no employees in sight. Lovely. I weighed my options of what I could do.
A) take a $60 cab to the suburbs where I live.
B) take a chance and check out the trains
C) ask my best friend/roommate to come and pick me up or
D) call one of my friends that live in the city to invite myself over for a slumber party.
A) I'm not Miss Moneybags so no.
B) I still have to get back to the city in the morning. Hassle, so no.
C) I'd feel awful because she would be going to bed any minute plus I'd still have to trek back in the early morning. No, again. so...
D) Friend 1 was mugged earlier that day and had a broken nose so I couldn't be heartless and ask to stay there. (she's recovering nicely if you're concerned.) So Friend 2 wins. Generously, he picked me up and inflated an air mattress.
I had a horrible night's sleep panicking about what's going to happen to my car, how much it's going to cost me and how tired I was going to sleep because I am spending too much time worrying when I should be sleeping. 6 a.m. came fast and my friend gave me a ride. Luckily, my bill only came to $12.
Wednesday: A tired day at work came to a close and I drove to Culinary Science, Safety and Supervision. I just refer to it as Sanitation since that's mainly what we discuss anyways. The week prior we learned about all types of hazardous foods, foodborne illnesses and how our mothers tried to kills us by defrosting chicken on the counter tops. This has made my new dinner diet of eat-in-the-car-on-the-way-to-school-sandwiches very difficult to stomach since a number of food borne illnesses can be obtained by deli meats. Listeriosis, staphylococcal gastroenteritis, and norovirus: I'm looking at you. I was so skeeved out one night I had to throw it away. Every time I would try and take a bite I would think of all these little micro-organisms in a Lysol commercial all over my food. My best friend/roommate (a microbiologist) thinks my new bacteria obsession is hilarious since I have had no shame calling her a germaphobe in the past. A trip to the grocery store today had me looking in the glass cases of chicken salads and ready-to-eat foods with a shudder.
Thursday: night off. Exercise + actual dinner + clean hair + reading = a happy culinary student.
Friday: Use and apps. We made brown stock tonight which was much easier than expected. I did something a bit cutthroat which I feel a bit ambivalent about. On one hand, I am trying to be the best and looking out for number one. On the other, this is school and we're here to learn. The moral dilemma continues.
Two quizzes next week. These will be the first tests I have taken since sometime in May of 2006. Here's hoping for good grades.
Not sure if anyone is reading this, but if you are ... thank you.
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