Diary: November 13, 2002

[Malawry]

Ten Interesting Things About This Week:

1. I peeled grapes today for cod veronique. I thought peeled grapes were one of those things somebody made up, that nobody actually did. I was wrong. (They’re actually not that hard!)

2. I finally turned out a perfect rice pilau, and the first perfect glazed carrots I’ve done since the first test.

3. I watched a video on Jean-Louis Palladin yesterday. He looked like “Weird Al” Yankovic and I immediately developed a simultaneous crush on him and feeling of sorrow that he is no longer with us and enlivening the DC culinary scene.

4. Corduroy is unable to commit to giving me hours for my externship. As a result, I am heading to Ortanique tonight to check them out.

5. I feel a little sick and accordingly sluggish. Many people also feel this way. Today two people were out and three people left school early. I am tempted to chomp on some horseradish root to clear my schnozz. Kristin is coping by eating more of the Thai chiles Chef Somchet grows than usual. She scares me.

6. I saw a durian at the Thai market yesterday. I visited with Chef Somchet during lunch prep so she could pick up a few items. I wanted to buy it but she kept telling me it stinks and the flavor isn’t worth the stink factor. I told Amy about it later and she agreed it was cool and she wanted to see what it was like. I’d rather open it up at school than at home, where I might have to live with the aroma.

7. I have a test on Friday and have barely had time to prepare my notebook, much less study. This is the second to last test we will be given. I am a little tired of the tests (perhaps bored is a better word to use?), but I am not at all ready to start externing. I just want school to last and last, even if it means I don’t get paid and I have to take a test every week.

8. I forgot my apron for the first time today. Kristin kindly loaned me one of hers. I’ve never forgotten any necessary item before. I think it’s because I’m under the weather. I’m embarrassed by this.

9. I will be assisting with a culinary student-pastry student collaboration: the annual gingerbread house. Every year, students get together, decide on a theme, plan the house, and build it out of entirely edible materials. (Well, you may not want to EAT things like pastillage, but they are technically edible. Just not very palatable.) This week, we picked our theme: Harry Potter. One of the pastry students has already sketched some general ideas, and we hope to decide more about who does what after class tomorrow. I hope I can make enough time for the project, and I look forward to learning more about marzipan, pastillage and sugar work through my contributions to the project.

10. For all of these reasons, I wrote this post in about 5 minutes before running out the door. I apologize for the brevity of my entry, and promise much more substance and detail on Sunday.

[Rachel Perlow]

If you could make a big gnarly looking tree with a car crashed into it (the top part of the tree, not the trunk), that would be cool and current.

[maggiethecat]

Don't apologize, ever. Your posts are always interesting, whatever the length. Do you have any idea how many of us get a teeny vicarious thrill reading your stuff?

Feel better.

[stellabella]

honestly, malawry

how DO you do it?

[Suzanne F]

There's an article about the three Ortanique restaurants in the November 2002 issue of Santé Magazine. The food sounds tasty; I love Caribbean ingredients. If you report back good things about the place, maybe I'll try it when I'm down there in a couple of weeks.

BTW, it was great to meet you and Edemuth at the show. You two did a terrific job on the demos!

[Malawry]

There was a miscommunication about Ortanique. I interviewed there, but I did not trail...I will be trailing there next week. So I am home. I feel like somebody gave me a "get out of jail free" card. Now I feel sheepish about my short post. Guess I'll have to spend the rest of my evening preparing for Friday.

Rachel, I keep annoying the other students with my insistence that the details of the gingerbread house be 100% accurate. The house goes on our holiday buffet, and then we donate it to a children's hospital. It's really the kids I'm thinking of...kids will notice every single error in the storyline as played out in the props for the house. I think I may be the only one working on the project who has seen the movie and read all four books. I think we are sticking to a storyline from the first book, but I have had all sorts of suggestions for things to put around the castle to make it look more realistic. I think the whomping willow may make a great addition, with or without the car, and I will try to bring it up tomorrow.

Maggie, I get a teeny vicarious thrill that somebody out there is reading my entries.

[KateW]

I have forgotten essentials too =( I live in a dorm, but it is about 15 minutes walking distance from campus. If I am lucky enough to catch the bus to and from the dorm, I can make the round trip in about 15 minutes to get whatever I've forgotten. I've forgotten hats, side towels, aprons, and sadly, once, even my knife kit. I'm the first to admit I'm a spaceshot. That's why my avatar fits so nicely--it looks like someone who is out of it, to me.

[BigMac]

Do you have any idea how many of us get a teeny vicarious thrill reading your stuff?

Speak for yourself!

Teeny? I get a HUGE vicarious thrill! How many of you spend spare moments of your day thinking "I wonder what Malawry is doing in school right now?" I do, that's for sure. Most often while I am changing a diaper.