Rebo

Hubby and I ate at Sonoma by the Library of Congress on Tuesday night. I appreciated that we could order from much of their regular menu, but it was rather complicated. For the appetizer, you could have one chacuterie, a salad, a one-topping pizza, or one of their firsts. For the main course, you could have a double portion of a first or a regular portion of a second. The dessert menu was open choice. Hubby had beet salad, gnocchi with rock shrimp, and chocolate pudding. I had duck salami, a hamburger (I was in a weird mood), and chocolate cake. The service was friendly; the food was okay, but nothing exciting. On the subject of smaller RW portions: I work at a RW restaurant, and our chef decided to reduce portions a bit on a couple of the more expensive dishes in order to make them available for RW (sea scallops and lobster ravioli). The thought was that there's no way anyone will go home hungry, and we could offer more variety (RW diners have four or five choices for each course).

I recently got my first bad burn from cooking on the line, and, yeah, I do feel a little like it's proof that I'm a cook. I was sauteeing something in very hot oil , had my towel positioned the wrong way, and as I was setting the fish in the oil, the oil splashed up on the knuckle of my index finger. It instantly formed a blister, and it soon looked quite gruesome. I had to wear a bandaid and finger condom for over a week. I have lots of little strips from brushing against the upper oven rack and spots from hot oil on my forearms. I'm learning to be more careful.

From my own experience, be sure to find out where the employee bathrooms are and if you need a key to get in. Also ask where to get water (or coffee) and where it's acceptable to keep it. Some places are off limits or you need to keep a cover on it. Some people will introduce you to everyone, while others don't. If a staff member looks at you funny, just introduce yourself and be friendly. Most people are happy to help and will be curious about what you're doing.

I'm not in CA, but isn't the cilantro sold with the root still on? Many of our grocery stores sell it that way, plus almost all of the ethnic grocery stores.

As I understand it, you simply need to remove the pan from the fire. The danger is that the fire could flash-back all the way to the bottle, potentially leading the bottle to explode in your hand.

At the restaurant where I work, we try to balance seasonal with the old standbys tha guests demand. For example, we ALWAYS have salmon and crabcakes on the menu, but we'll change the sides and sauces that go with them to take advantage of what's fresh. Some guests, though, like it best when things don't change much.

I never heard of blanching the basil. I'll give that a try as well. I always toast my nuts. I find this helps the texture too, as raw nuts have a grittiness about them. I personally like to blanch the garlic too. Raw garlic is a little strong for me.

It's nice when meals are long because of leisurely paced courses and pleasant company. I've had quite a few that have been long because the server disappeared for an extended period when it was time for dessert. . . That's when the minutes begin to crawl!

1. Are the salt and pepper shakers clean or sticky? Full/mostly full or empty? If they're dirty, that's just gross and shows that the servers are slacking off on their side duties and no one in management is paying noticing. (And, yes, I've been a server; I wiped the shakers down daily and ran them through the dishwasher as needed.) If they're empty, again, the servers are not paying attention, and the food is probably not being seasoned appropriately. 2. Is the butter served cold or room temperature? I absolutely hate being served cold butter because then I can't spread it on my bread very easily. The restaurant gets extra points if they serve flavored butter or some other kind of interesting spread.

I love online menus, both to learn about what's served and how much it costs. I just wish they were kept more up to date and included info about fixed-price and tasting menus.

Yes, you can freeze tofu, but it will significantly change the texture. A lot of the water will evacuate from the tofu when you defrost it. Some people will deliberately freeze firm tofu for this reason -- less water makes it even firmer and gives it a somewhat stringier, meatier texture. I'm not entirely sure what will happen when you freeze silken tofu, except that I doubt it will have the same texture when you defrost it.

I came to the kitchen because I like to eat, and my mom didn't make things like blueberry muffins, cinnamon rolls, and cookies frequently enough to suit me. So I learned how to cook and made them -- and whatever else I wanted -- whenever I wanted.

When I lived there several years ago, I used to love C'est la Vie, a French bakery and cafe on the downtown main street. If it's still there (and it's hard to imagine it going out of business), I'd recommend it for a leisurely lunch or light dinner.

Great recommendation! We're exactly in the same spot, except that I plan to go to school locally.

Just wanted to give you an update. Your advice really helped me pluck up the courage and start talking to chefs! Those that I spoke to were very nice and helpful. I ended up spending a weekday lunch and a weekend night at Vidalia, just observing and doing basic prep. I learned a lot just from that, but realized that in order to keep learning, I needed to find a semi-regular job where I'll have real duties. Earlier this afternoon, I went to one of my favorite restaurants, talked to the exec. chef, and now I'm going to start doing prep there two days a week, starting tomorrow.