Hassen Pheffer
Rabbit (pictured) or Pheasant
Spatzle
Brussel Sprouts
Carrots
This is currently running on the menu.
Long Live R2, the little fryer that could
Sure we abused the little bastard, but he held up like a trooper - that is until recently. On Friday his drain spout busted off causing it to start leaking, slowly. We had to toss a sheet pan underneath, hell we weren't sure we were going to be able to nurse him through the weekend. He made it through, and is going to a special place, I already suggested we should get him bronzed.
So imagine my surprise when I rolled into work yesterday that; sitting in R2's place was a beautiful brand new, sliver and black basket fryer. If this were a cartoon, the lights would've opened up from heaven and shown a light on the fryer while a chorus sang out. We can down fry croquettes without having to flip them half way through cooking. I didn't think about it last night, but I'll snap some photos tonight so you can see Vader in all his badassery.
Sometimes it just the little things that make me happy.
Pandora is sooo, like yesterday and stuff
I'm sorry to report that as far as listening to music in the kitchen, Pandora is no longer endorsed. I found out about Slacker Radio from one of my new favorite daily reads: Life Hacker. There is also one called Groove Shark, but it doesn't have a iPod/iPhone app available yet so that was an automatic fail.
So I started with Slacker, and let me tell you - my dormant radio geek has been re-awakened. What I love about Slacker (and Pandora lacked) is being able to fine tune the station pass using the thumbs up/down option that Pandora provides.
You can also set the station to play your favorites, more less or set it to auto and let Slacker do the rest. I've been fine tuning a couple stations for about a week, and there's a lot you can do.
All hail Slacker Radio!
Quote of the week
Chef: I really wrecked the bathroom...
Me: .....?
Chef: I may or may not have put too much hot sauce on my breakfast today.
Slacker Stations
Here's a few station we've been listening to in the kitchen.
Something that I quickly learned (after getting out of school mind you..) is that you can't waste motion or extra steps. There's no time. From the minute you walk in the door for your shift, the clock is ticking.
Learn to carry as much as you can in one trip, again the clock is ticking and you can ill afford to go back and get something you forgot or otherwise. I've become pretty adept at carrying a large cutting board, while balancing things like mixing bowls, deli containers - because once I get to my station - the plan is not to move as much as possible and hammer out my prep.
I learned this quickly during my externship, you see: the Carlyle (R.I.P.) kitchen was the size of a football field (or at least that's what it felt like), as it was built in what was a now obviously re-purposed warehouse (dining room was tiny, you could park a semi in the kitchen and still move about freely) on the outer rim of the Pearl district.
To make the trek from the line to dry storage or the dish pit, on had to hire a Sherpa to cross the massive expanse between the two. Trevor, who worked Pantry most days - was constantly riding my ass about this. Drilling into my brain to start thinking farther a head than I had ever been accustom to. Some days (and I'll be honest here), it grated on my very last nerve. But in the long run and hind sight being all that...I get it now.
The thing is though - it's been so ingrained into what I would guess is a re-coding of my positronic neural net, even at home I'm mapping out in my head where I'm going and do I need more than one thing from that same part of the house?
If we're being real here, (and I love keeping real yo.....are the kids still saying keepin' it real, yo?) I owe a great deal of that to Trevor, who was always telling me to "think" and "don't waste fuckin' steps".
Wasting steps, is wasting time.
Time you really didn't have in the first place, like in football you need good clock management in the fourth quarter - bend the clock to your will - not the other way around.
This was going to be a part of Notes From The Line, but decided it warranted it's own post. I'll also give you bonus points if you can guess what song I'm playing off of in the title.
Figured a good way to start Monday is with a culinary moment of Zen.
It case you were wondering, the quote comes from Thomas Keller."When you acknowledge, as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving towards perfection becomes clear: to make people happy. That's what cooking is all about."
Crudités are traditional French appetizers comprising sliced or whole raw vegetables which are dipped in a vinaigrette or another dipping sauce. Crudités often include celery sticks, carrot sticks, bell pepper strips, broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus spears.
The French word "crudité", which designates uncooked vegetables, originates in much the same way as the English word "crude," from Latin. The Latin word "crūdus" simply means raw. Later, it was refined to "crūditās", which means "undigested food" and then on to "crudité" in French.This dish btw is brand spankin' new to the menu.
And now a word from the unofficial mascot of On The Fly:
On The Fly: Wading through the shit, so you don't have to."Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit."
- Anthony Bourdain (Kitchen Confidential)
This one comes from the are they "batshit crazy" file: It seems that the Italian Government has decided to legislate a ban on "Molecular Cuisine".
The government is also trying to ban the use of liquid nitrogen, calling it a “gaseous substance”.
Do I even really need to point out what's wrong with the above?
We already tax the crap out of everything, and the new target is soda. I'll freely admit, and my co-workers can back me up on this - I drink a lot of soda (Mt. Dew if you must know) and yes I realize I should cut those sodas out. But hey it's one of my only vices - better than crackin' a beer when I'm thirsty.
Anyways, it seems that the Mayor of Philadelphia (E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!) is . .
It looks as though the FDA has started a major crack down on misleading nutrition labeling. Just take a look at all the warning letters that have been mailed out.The tax rate would be 2 cents per ounce, 40 cents on a 20-ounce bottle of soda. The levy would cover fountain-drink syrups and powders, based on the number of liquid ounces they produce. Diet drinks without added sugar and baby formula would be excluded.
This is starting to get redonkulous...I've got an idea, how about Parents nut up and just pay attention! And hey, maybe...I don't know...cut it up if it's too much for your kid? Not to mention if your kid is shoveling in hotdogs at the rate of a competitive eater, I see "Fat Camp" in your he/she/it's future.
It's that time of the year where Peeps are coming out of the woodwork (read: Easter and assorted holidays upcoming), my mother is an addict. The peeps at Peeps, have a new line out this season: Chocolate Covered Peeps. So the same marshmellowy goodness given a nice chocolate coating.
Oh, and they come in regular and dark chocolate.
A parting word after the jump...