TheFoodTutor

I'd have to agree with those who are a little weirded out by descriptions of a variety of sauces as "gravy." Gravy to me is a meat-based, pan-dripping sauce, thickened with cornstarch or flour, to adorn the original meat product or the potatoes alongside it. A meat sauce thickened by reduction, instead of the addition of starch, is a demi-glace. And I have no idea what would inspire anyone to call a tomato sauce "gravy." Chacun a son gout, as they say. Anyway, I've seen inappropriate descriptions of certain sauces, referred to as gravy, on Asian menus and others. I always just assumed it came from poor translation out of a book, and that could very well explain certain Italian immigrants calling their tomato sauces gravy as well.

What are you. . . a millipede? Just kidding. I have made red eye gravy, and I'd say that if you don't put coffee in it, you'd better at least put some co-coler. Otherwise, where are you gonna get some caffeine to brighten those red eyes? Non-kosher, to be sure, as it absolutely must have ham. Probably the drippings of a ham steak. Definitely the stuff that hangover breakfasts are made of.

It certainly is an interesting thread, and I find that, practically every time that someone presses me to think of a foodstuff that I really don't like, after giving my answer, I tend to fish around in my brain for some way this ingredient can be prepared so that I will like it. And then I usually find one. With brussels sprouts, that's probably the most limiting one I've found, because the best way I've had them so far is steamed so that they're still bright green and tossed in a light anchovy butter. Because I find myself cooking for people and teaching other people to cook, I try to be as open-minded as possible, so that someone searching for the "ultimate cannelini bean recipe" isn't limited by my imagination. And I truly feel for those of you who are unable to appreciate alcoholic beverages. I'd look at it as a huge bonus, where you can just sock away all that money that you'd be spending otherwise on booze, but since this is sort of a hedonist's forum, I have a feeling that you folks are investing that money in other, equally frivolous pursuits. So probably the biggest challenge I can think of would be if someone called me and asked me to teach a class, Iron Chef-style, on how to prepare and eat bugs. A crispy mealworm appetizer, cream of aphid soup, june bug salad, grub soufflee and cockroach-studded ice cream for dessert. At the prices I currently charge, I'm afraid I'd have to pass.

Obviously in the restaurant where I am employed this is the case. Well, until recently, I was working at two places, and the one has the circular pattern of walking around the place, and the other has a long, upstairs dining room with no obvious reason for walking down that runway unless it's to check on your one table, and they might be trying to get a little privacy, and you're not allowed to go down the stairs at the front of the restaurant, so that you could look like you're doing something else or anything. . . I found it very inconvenient. Good thing I don't have that problem anymore.

Oh, thank you for asking. I really liked it a lot, actually. Cleanup is pretty easy with the rice cooker, but a little rice goo/water bubbled out of the steam hole a couple times. I just went ahead and wrapped a towel around that side of the cooker when I saw it was doing this. The overall flavor was a little spicier than I expected it to be, with the amount of white pepper I added, plus the pungency of the fresh ginger. I also put a little chili oil on top, but instead of marinated bamboo, I used some thin slivers of pickled Daikon radish, since I had some to use up. It was very tasty, and you could tell the fat from the pork had bubbled out and then been absorbed by the rice. You could probably make a lower-fat version, if you needed to, by using turkey instead, but as I do whenever making that substitution in any Chinese recipe, I always up the seasoning to make up for the difference. Thanks for giving me such a great idea! Great blog!

Life imitating foodblogs. . . I'm making congee in my rice cooker right now, because I just couldn't resist the idea. I must say, this will turn out to be a richer congee than the ones I've had in restaurants, as it has more meat than the few tiny, leftover slivers of pork you get in most dim sum places. All the versions I've had before this seemed so bland that I was never inspired to want to make it at home. You learn something new every day.

One of the things I really love about one place where I wait tables is that the design of the restaurant, and the rules for the path that I must take dictate that I must walk in a circular pattern through the building over and over again. In other restaurants where I've worked, some tables were literally at the end of a "dead end" - a long corridor down which I'm not going to walk unless I'm specifically going to check on that particular table. This seating arrangement provides for private booths for the guest, but the server must be somewhat obtrusive to stop by and check if everything is alright. Do you see what I'm getting at? The purpose of the circular pattern would be to make it look like the waitress is doing something else, while making her swing through her station, giving you an opportunity to ask for that extra side of sauce or a refill on your coke. Some restaurants are designed poorly in this respect, forcing the server to pop in on the table, obviously while she's not doing something else, to say, "Oh, huh huh, me again. Just checking to see if there's anything you need." If I'd never worked as a waitress, I'd not know that these are important things to think of when designing your floor plan.

Yes. Definitely. I would have treated it as if I were eating in my place of employment, and they'd forgotten to give me my employee discount. I'd assume, since I was promised a meal with a friend, that it would be paid for, and I'd have said, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you misunderstand. . ." Now, on the subject of comping, I happen to be a person who gets comped a lot, although I never expect it, and I feel that it would be rude to expect such a thing. Restaurants are places of business, and I never go into a restaurant without the money to pay for what I order. Nevertheless, I am frequently recognized as both an industry insider and a good customer, and free things have a tendency to appear at my table much of the time. I actually go out of my way at times to not be identfied as such, so that I won't get any special treatment, and sometimes I still get found out, and an extra dessert comes to me anyway. On the industry side, there is the dirty little fact that a lot of us aren't making a heck of a lot of money, compared to people in other businesses, and so we compensate each other for the fact that we're all living on a shoestring, and we don't have that much money to eat out anyway. But yeah, if someone says, "Come in, and have a meal on me." You'd better believe I'll come and eat it, and I'll budget for the tip I'm leaving the server.

I am a huge food enthusiast, so there is nothing on my list that I don't continually go back and try over and over again, to see if I have suddenly developed a taste for it. Well, except for canned vegetables. I will eat them, if forced, but unless I am dining at the home of someone with a very meager food budget, I leave the canned vegetables on the shelf for someone else to buy. Other than that: 1) Brussels sprouts. Even when they're good, they're still kinda yucky. I think it's the sulfur content of this and other cabbages, as well as cauliflower that make them hard to like. At least with cauliflower, I make more of an effort, because there are some ways to make it taste pretty good. 2) This is my big freak-factor. Oranges. I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't enjoy getting a big glass of orange juice, or eating orange candies, or just peeling and eating an orange. I really do try this one a lot, and it's just not a flavor that I like. The only orange thing I like is a Creamsicle. 3) Raisins. And even on this one, I'm not terribly picky. I'd prefer to leave them out, but if they're there, eh, they won't kill me. The one thing I never do is pick a bunch of stuff out of what I'm served and pile it on the side of my plate like a big heap of contagion. Does this bother anyone else? If I'm eating a stir-fry that someone has served me, and there are entirely too many onions in it, I carefully eat around them without calling attention to it, and then push my plate away when I'm finished, explaining that it's been wonderful, but I couldn't possibly eat another bite. I would sooner gnaw my left arm off than insult a cook who's invited me to dinner. I may be strange, but I'm not that picky.

I guess I'm trying to get the timeline straight here, to see how much the time that passed was actual, and what was perceived. . . So 7 p.m. - table is seated 7:02 p.m. - table is greeted by the server, provided that she's fairly competent, and she takes drink orders at this time. 7:04 p.m. - table gets drinks, and places order, provided that server is acting quickly, and that table has decided that quickly what they will eat. 7:08-7:10 p.m. - table gets salad, but again, this sounds like pretty fast service. 7:20 p.m. - you state that by this time, salads have already been eaten and cleared, and a second basket of bread is brought. Again, this sounds like a combination of fairly fast service and fast eating up to this point, by real time standards. And then it was the period between 7:20-7:35 where there was a breakdown in communication? When possibly something happened in the kitchen that slowed down your food? I'm not sure I understand. What am I missing?

It doesn't sound to me that you really received bad service, other than the fact that her reaction seemed "huffy." The fact that you spent a half-hour in the bar having cocktails suggested to anyone observing you that you were having a leisurely evening out. I don't know if the server observed that fact, but I would definitely assume that, if you wanted a quick bite before having to be somewhere, you could have stayed in the bar and ordered there as well. So then you say you sat at 7, had a salad course and an entree course, and started getting upset when entrees weren't there by 7:35. I work as a server, by the way, in addition to running my small business. For myself, I try to time the pace of courses according to the guest. There is nothing I hate more, personally, than having my entree arrive when I've just gotten my salad, so that I can watch it get cold while I'm trying to finish my first course. So, I have the option of holding off on the entree order, so that the guest can eat at his own pace, or I can "ring, ring" if I know the guest wants the food quickly and won't be offended by entrees arriving with salads still on the table. So that explains her being flustered. Here, she thought she was timing things beautifully, according to what she perceived as your relaxed pace, and then you informed her, after having spent an hour in the establishment and saying nothing, that you needed to get out quickly. I'd have gotten flustered, too. And then you stiffed her. Is there some way you could give me her name and place of business so I could send the poor girl a tip in your stead? You do know that she not only didn't get paid to wait on you, but that she paid a percentage of her sales on your table to the restaurant for waiting on you? Ouch.

I am really enjoying your blog, Abra, and your home-based business is inspiring me to add onto my current business, so that I can offer personal cheffing as well as home cooking classes. My biggest challenge has been effective advertising, and business seems to come in spurts, with long lulls between requests for classes. Has the association been a big help in procuring clients? How long did it take to build a good customer base? Do you advertise other than on your van? By the way, I'd love to fly out there and take some berries and mother off your hands. Wonderful stuff.

You only have sex with yourself? Not if it's a good day. Sorry. That was meant to be a joke of some sort.

1966 sounds about right, so that was before I was born. I do remember hearing stories from older Catholics, however, about being invited to a steakhouse on a Friday night by their heathen, Protestant friends. As far as the Crusades being paid for, well, I guess that makes about as much sense as anything else the Catholic church does. I'm an atheist, too, and the only hard part is not having anyone to talk to when I'm having sex.

The lifting of restrictions which happened when you were a little girl, presuming that you're my age or a little older, was when the Catholic church went from restricting meat on Fridays throughout the year, to only restricting it on Fridays during Lent. As far as I know, observant Catholics should still be avoiding meat on Fridays during Lent, but they are allowed to have fish, so it's a pretty mild restriction even so. As far as giving up something for Lent, it is a choice, but it should be something you're fairly attached to. If you're normally a teetotaller, you're not going to get big points with God for giving up booze.

I didn't realize he made butter! Does it have crack in it?

Happy Birthday, Abra! This looks like it will be another interesting blog. Love the berries.

I've been to RiceSticks once so far, but plan to go again. It's a very nice place with a clean, upscale look. Kevin, can any of the dishes you serve be adjusted to add more spice, if the customer requests?

I work in a restaurant, and every time I get burned, I'm amazed at the variety of foodstuffs I'm told to slather on the affected area. Sugar, mayonnaise, butter, peanut butter, cheese. . . and all this advice is given to me while I have a can of some sort of burn spray in my hand. I usually choose the burn spray.

Or "I don't know where you come from, but where I come from (insert name of ingredient here) don't come seasoned." Or there's "I hate one-sided tasting food." I find just about everything he says to be very annoying. However, there was one time I briefly watched his "Essence" show, and he had an assortment of pecans, filberts, walnuts and such he was talking about. At one point, he moved back been the rear counter, motioned at the cameraman and said, "Hey! Come ovah here an' take a look at some o' moy NUTS!" I literally fell of the couch laughing.

Well, I was a vegetarian mostly at times when I wasn't working in restaurants, and I practiced a number of different versions at different times. My first job was in a fast food place, and at that time I remember ordering a veggie version of a burger, partly because it was really, really cheap with my 1/2 price discount, and partly because I was trying to eat "healthy." I wasn't vegan at that time, and I had a pretty good idea that the mayonnaise on my sandwich might be somewhat contaminated with a slight hint of beef product - an easy thing to do if you're spreading with the same spatula on veggie and non-veggie items - but I wasn't strict when I was 16, so I figured it was OK. I went through various phases of vegetarianism, from an all raw food diet to basically just not eating red meat, and my restaurant habits varied accordingly. There were many times that I simply prepared all of my own food, and many of my vegetarian friends did the same, since it's so much cheaper, fairly easy, and you can absolutely assure what is and isn't going into what you eat. During the times that I was very strict, I couldn't have possibly even entered a McDonald's, because the whole place reeks of cooked beef and fryer grease - which I also never touched during strict vegan periods. Maybe it's just my personality that's different. It never even occurred to me that there could have been a strict vegetarian who would have no problem going to McDonald's and ordering french fries prepared by 16 year olds, who would then be utterly shocked that there is a minuscule amount of beef fat in them. But then again, now that I've waited tables here and there, and seen people come in and state that they're "vegetarian" so what can they order? And then they say that they'll just have the chicken dish. I really don't think anything should surprise me anymore.

Thanks again for the comments about my website. I certainly have been getting a lot of interesting calls in the last few days, since I've been more active in posting here. I am all of the time forgetting that there are a number of people who have never worked in a restaurant, since my very first job was in a restaurant, before I went on to try a few different careers, and then moved back into the restaurant field. It seems there are just so many obvious benefits to restaurant experience: You can learn lots of important things about food safety, proper temperatures for holding hot and cold foods, proper cooling procedures, etc. You can learn to get along with a variety of people you might not meet in your regular, day-to-day activities. You can learn how to multi-task and handle stressful situations. Most importantly, you can learn that it's not wise to snap your fingers at a waitress, or generally to be rude and condescending to anyone who is handling the food you will consume. I just popped out for a Cuban sandwich at a little shop, and there was a woman at the register with 8 different orders to be rung in separately, all with separate bills requiring change for all of them, and many of them were for amounts as small as $3.50. It was obviously very annoying to the cashier, who was nervously eyeing the growing line of patrons, waiting to place their orders, too. I'd have to say that if I worked in an office where I didn't trust my co-workers enough that I could come up with a more convenient way to order out, I'd quickly resign myself to just packing sandwiches.

I will probably audition. I have no idea what I would say that would cause me to be picked, though, so don't get your hopes up. I have a fairly dry and acerbic wit, and I'm very foul mouthed. If I did make it to the show, and Gordon started to chew me out, I let loose a stream of obscenities on him. And that would be the end of my short-lived TV career.

Thank you very much, Mabelline.

For obvious reasons. I do it all the time, in fact, and I'm no longer a vegetarian. Probably the biggest reason for me to bow out of this increasingly ridiculous argument is that people seem to be perceiving me as an advocate for fast food, and as someone whose experience in restaurants lies primarily in fast food, and I am neither. As far as fries being put in the same fryer as meat, that comment holds true for the fast food, full service, upscale casual and fine dining restaurants where I've worked.