eG Foodblog: TheFoodTutor - The Man Behind the Curtain.

[Jensen]

Some cats have all the luck. They didn't get a piece of foie, but they did get to lick the fat.

←

That's it...in my next life, I want to come back as one of your cats.

Great blog, TFT... and special thanks to lambfries for the Photoshop lesson on creating food porn. I've got just the photo to try it out on.

[TheFoodTutor]

OK, not much time left to finish my blog and leave my mark in eGullet history, so I thought we'd play a game. I, of course, worked a long Sunday lunch today, and you all know I'm a server, so my main purpose in life on Sunday lunches is to be a Transporter of Fluids. People love to play the Disappearing Beverage Game on Sundays, since they're all dehydrated from drinking on Saturday nights, so I ate nothing since breakfast.

I did, however, pull one chit from my server book, and I took a picture of both sides of it:

Beverage order.

Food order.

Start guessing, please. You have a day and a half to figure out what they ordered, and if you ask questions, I will give you clues. And you have to try to beat therese at it, since she's good at reading abbreviations, though she's handicapped by the fact that she does not eat at this particular restaurant, hardly ever. I think she's eaten there twice in her whole life, so she doesn't know the menu.

The chit is pretty sloppy, because I wrote very quickly, and they were throwing modifiers at me and asking questions the whole time, so there's a good bit of shorthand, but I think it's decipherable.

Go.

Edited July 10, 2005 by TheFoodTutor (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Why do I get the feeling that the cocktail is a "Sweet Georgia Brown"?

[TheFoodTutor]

Why do I get the feeling that the cocktail is a "Sweet Georgia Brown"?

←

Bingo! Except it's not a cocktail, but a local beer. Our first winner is the foodblogmeister himself!

[TheFoodTutor]

Lambfries visited our favorite farmer's market while I was at work, and he took pictures. I'd been missing out on putting up photos of another market where we shopped for the class, because they don't allow photography there. But this market does allow cameras, so here they are:

I like to get my roe here, whenever possible. Very fresh selections.

Sashimi counter, which I visit for purchasing tartare ingredients, or sometimes just for a snack.

Korean dumplings, and the dumpling maker.

Always demonstrations and samples going on, and here we see a noodle dish, and Korean pancakes.

Careful with those live carbs.

And you've gotta love a place where they make their own tofu.

[Tess]

That market looks fabulous.

I'm trying to make out the prices on the blocks of sashimi-grade tuna. I pay around $22/lb.; what's it like there?

[Pan]

[...]Gotta go to work, but here's breakfast:

French toast, foie gras, strawberry puree and balsamico.[...]

←

Breakfast? Sheesh! And look at that fancy presentation! Who cooked that, you or/and lambfries?

[TheFoodTutor]

That market looks fabulous.

I'm trying to make out the prices on the blocks of sashimi-grade tuna. I pay around $22/lb.; what's it like there?

←

Around $18-19/lb. I've seen it go for a little less, but it's very high quality, so it fetches a pretty high price nearly everywhere, especially when we live pretty far inland.

I often visit that particular market for a couple of hours at a time. If it had been me there today, you would have seen a meal of a $1.25 tamale from the snack counter, which I regret not being able to include in this blog, because of working so much. They're very large, so it's a whole meal for that price,and they taste especially good when one is sitting on the hood of one's car, after shopping a bit for ingredients.

[TheFoodTutor]

[...]Gotta go to work, but here's breakfast:

French toast, foie gras, strawberry puree and balsamico.[...]

←

Breakfast? Sheesh! And look at that fancy presentation! Who cooked that, you or/and lambfries?

←

A Birthday Week breakfast, for sure, and one where we've been gathering ingredients for a class, so we have leftovers to use up. To use up happily, I might add. Lambfries made this for me, while I was showering for work.

When planning to do this, I said to him, "How about we do a blog around my birthday? We could budget to buy a whole lobe of foie gras, to use as we wish." And his eyebrows raised, contemplatively, and we started plotting out the lovely week we'd have.

It's been really lovely. Amazing, actually.

[Tess]

I think that's a very good price for the tuna; it looks very nice.

I also like to hang out at the place where I buy sashimi. It's a Mitsuwa (Japanese chain) and I always try to have a maguro don or something in the food court before I even start shopping. Well, first I cruise the sashimi refrigerator to make sure there is a good supply. Another thing that impresses me about your market is how much fish they seem to have on display at a time.

Your blog is one of those that really opens my eyes in terms of any fantasies I have about professional food service and cooking. You have to be able to do so many different things.

[therese]

I've absolutely no advantage when it comes to playing TFT's game with her chit. Plus her handwriting's for shit, isn't it? And here I thought I had crappy penmanship.

But I'm going to guess that "K" stands for Coca Cola. Because it shows up twice, and we live in Hotlanta, and this restaurant might use "C" for something else.

[therese]

Lots of miscellaneous prep pictures from dinner Friday night:

TheFoodTutor can tell you what all the different bits are (though I'll lay claim to the exquisite girl in the orange dress helping lambfries make blinis). I need to go do some very serious hangover prevention just now.

[TheFoodTutor]

I've absolutely no advantage when it comes to playing TFT's game with her chit. Plus her handwriting's for shit, isn't it? And here I thought I had crappy penmanship. 

But I'm going to guess that "K" stands for Coca Cola. Because it shows up twice, and we live in Hotlanta, and this restaurant might use "C" for something else.

←

Well, clearly you do have a slight advantage, because you got that correct. And thanks for pointing out how crappy my penmanship is. It can be better, when I'm not scribbling madly to take an order.

And I will point out that, while this seems hard, the abbreviations are actually standard to a moderate sized chain of 50 restaurants, and I could have actually handed off this chit to any of my co-workers, or any of the managers, or a good number of people who work at the other locations, and they'd probably be able to work the first round and ring the order for me.

Even with that crap handwriting.

[TheFoodTutor]

Oh, yes, "S + No A, Gar, + Avo" is a common lunch item. Old timers, like myself, simply eliminate the second abbreviation for the combo, and just list the modifiers.

And No A is because B is used for something else.

[Irishgirl]

I am going to guess:

Soup & Sandwich

No Bacon, Garlic and Avocado

[TheFoodTutor]

Diced mango.

Those gyoza went really fast. I'm glad I planned on more than just 2 per person, even though this was a tasting menu, meant to serve several courses of small portions.

Blini prep, with squeeze bottle.

That strawberry soup actually looks pretty tantalizing, even though the presentation in this shot isn't perfect.

Duck fat. Mmmmmm.

Too cute for words.

[TheFoodTutor]

I am going to guess:

Soup & Sandwich

No Bacon, Garlic and Avocado

←

Very close, and a bright guess. Soup and Sal, no bacon, buttermilk garlic dressing, add avocado.

You win a smiley.

[TheFoodTutor]

and this restaurant might use "C" for something else.

A Pot-E is a loaded baked potato.

E = BSHAC.

[Irishgirl]

OK, not much time left to finish my blog and leave my mark in eGullet history, so I thought we'd play a game. I, of course, worked a long Sunday lunch today, and you all know I'm a server, so my main purpose in life on Sunday lunches is to be a Transporter of Fluids. People love to play the Disappearing Beverage Game on Sundays, since they're all dehydrated from drinking on Saturday nights, so I ate nothing since breakfast.

I did, however, pull one chit from my server book, and I took a picture of both sides of it:

Beverage order.

I am now going to guess that you have a side of Asparagus with Butter and Lemon?

[Irishgirl]

And a Fries with Ketchup?

[TPO]

A club sandwich, no cheese, with a side of corn?

A plain Biltmore burger with no bun, a side of baked beans and french fries?

[therese]

E = BSHAC.

←

Everything = Butter, Sour Cream, Chives, Bacon, Cheese

This doesn't make immediate sense unless I consider the fact that "C" likely stands for cheese (because it's such a common thing in restaurants, though I'm pretty amazed that anybody would get all this stuff on a baked potato, but never mind that), and "B" could be either butter or bacon, but butter's the most common thing on a baked potato and there's no "A" in butter, so "A" must be bacon. Chives is the only word (other than cheese, already taken) that contains an "H".

Close?

[Edit to add that I see that "A" has already been defined as bacon. This restaurant sells a lot of bacon, doesn't it?]

Edited July 11, 2005 by therese (log)

[therese]

Platter Bean Corn

Hmm. Seems like this restaurant sells a fair amount of ribeye and ribs. So the platter might be one of those with sides of bean and corn. There's no preference (medium, rare, etc.) on the ribeye, so I'm guessing ribs is the main.

[therese]

Bad storms with lots of power outages here in Atlanta last night, part of Hurricane Dennis, and I'm thinking that TheFoodTutor may be off line as a result.

So I'm going to go ahead and say some more stuff about how cool our dinner with her and lambfries really was: great food, of course, but also lots of fun and conversation. A great way to have a dinner party, so much fun that I think I may organize my next one along these lines. No foie gras the next time, though. More of a spa dinner's really in order...

[therese]

Update directly from our blogger via cellphone: yes, her web access went out during the night as a result of the storms last night, and there was a big tree down near her abode---experience tells us that it may be some time before thing are up and running.

Anyway, that means that we can talk about her all we want.