Fuck you, doorhangers.

Ha! I aced my job interview today. I had all the items on the menu perfectly committed to memory, and answered all the manager's questions about sanitation the right way. Speaking of sanitation, Olive or Twist is a really clean place, which is something I put a lot of importance on; I was happy to learn that the guy I talked to as well as one of the cooks is ServSafe certified. I saw everything I learned from the sanitation textbook in place as I walked through the tiny kitchen and the storeroom in the basement--dry storage six inches off the floor, temperatures being monitored in hot and cold foods, etc. This is absolutely the best thing that could possibly happen to me in the way of employment. The restaurant is on the same block as my dorm, it's run by people who are professional and care about their customers, and I start tomorrow at 10:30, at 7.50 an hour as a line cook. I won't actually be working for the first couple days, but I'll be trained by this cook named Josh who's been at the restaurant for five years until I've got the jist of working on a line (I was really amazed that this guy hired me knowing I have no industry experience whatsoever).

garlic mashed potatoes with roasted red peppers and chili sauce

Memorizing Olive or Twist's menu is far easier than expected. Ten items, five side dishes and all the salad dressings is no big deal--if he'd given me 32 items it might be difficult.

I expected to get to sleep earlier last night but I met up with some buddies in the laundry room and ended up cooking a bunch of food and playing Smash Bros. with them at 1. I didn't get back until 3:30, and when I woke up twelve hours later I found everyone gone. Penn Commons is mine for a week of break.

julia's quiz~

Your dating personality profile: Liberal - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate. Intellectual - You consider your mind amongst your assets. Learning is not a chore but a constant search after wisdom and knowledge. You value education and rationality. Adventurous - Just sitting around the house is not something that appeals to you. You love to be out trying new things and really experiencing life.

Your date match profile: Intellectual - You seek out intelligence. Idle chit-chat is not what you are after. You prefer your date who can stimulate your mind. Practical - You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living. Adventurous - You are looking for someone who is willing to try new things and experience life to its fullest. You need a companion who encourages you to take risks and do exciting things.

Your Top Ten Traits 1. Liberal 2. Intellectual 3. Adventurous 4. Stylish 5. Wealthy/Ambitious 6. Outgoing 7. Big-Hearted 8. Athletic 9. Practical 10. Sensual

Your Top Ten Match Traits 1. Intellectual 2. Practical 3. Adventurous 4. Outgoing 5. Stylish 6. Sensual 7. Conservative 8. Athletic 9. Funny 10. Wealthy/Ambitious

Take the Online Dating Profile Quiz at Dating Diversions

Did a bit of work today in the Advanced kitchen across the street, cleaning it up for the break. We had to take out all the trays from under the ranges, clean out all the sheet trays in the coolers, scrub the grease trap from the fryer for a half an hour, clean out the steam table, and throw away all the produce. Not all of it. I made off with maybe 30 bucks of squash, onions, fresh roma tomatoes, cauliflower, pine nuts, little baby onions, jalapenos, and red bell peppers. Can any one say stir-fry? I just bought a wok. Giant Eagle has salmon fillets for peanuts right now.

All I have left to do is the certification exam and then it's a week of relaxation. Mostly. I have to memorize that menu starting tonight and the interview is Wednesday.

chic employment oppurtunity ahoy

Well, I'm all ready to throw my resume at five different restaurants in the downtown area, and Jamie from admissions in PCI gets me an interview with the manager of this little restaurant across from Byham Theatre called Olive or Twst. It's a little candlelight martini bar/restaurant that serves around 200 people a day and I would absolutely love to get this job. The place really impressed me while I was looking around, and the manager seems like a cool guy. My real interview is next Wednesday, and by then I have to memorize and be able to recite 16 of the items on the restaurant's menu. I think I'm up to the challenge if it means my first job in the industry is at a joint like this (and being something more than a dishwasher is what's more).

boom. boom. boom. boom.

Made crepes today, got pretty good at flipping em. They were incredibly good. People made strawberry and blueberry syrups and we ate them with bananas. And whoever made the strawberry syrup used a lot of rum but it was good anyway. Also made some oatmeal, it was really difficult. Yeah, breakfast foods this week and then this cycle is over. We get a week off, and then it's back to work in the soups and stocks kitchen, and to a wines and spirits class.

Included in this post are some pictures--not mine, but some of the school's--of things we've been cooking up.
The chef salad, scallop salad, chard salad, Southwestern wraps, etc.







~we're lamenting the removal of the soup machine
from the Ministry of Sound office

cooking with... me

Tonight on the menu for the Commons of Penn is blackened shark fillet served atop angel hair nicoise. Best part is the shark fillet cost me 1.70 at Giant Eagle. I honestly don't understand how people go broke buying food. All you need is a little produce, a little protein, and you've got it made. I also have my own orange juice. Oh yeah.

Alternative rock tonight!

ex-heroin-addict metalheads, spicy sausages

Tonight I saw some hardcore death metal. I bought a shirt to support one of the bands, Brave the Fire, because they were awesome.

Probably going to go back to the coffeehouse the event was hosted at (Prava) tomorrow night. Tonight was metal, tomorrow's some alternative stuff, likely to be more in my element. And God in Heaven do they have good coffee. At any given moment they've got six different blends freshly brewed. It's not like going to Javajazz in Olde Town Spring and ordering a cappucino somebody makes with some kind of whisk attachment for an electric drill. The people there are awesome too. Apparently there are midnight poetry readings on weekdays, but it's unlikely I'll make it there for that very often since I've gotta wake up and cook for three hours at 8:30.

Speaking of cooking, it's nice. Made raspberry souffle and some other things today as part of the class day, but what was the most fun was playing around with some sausage Chef threw at me because he needed to get rid of it to clear out some space in one of our coolers. I love the fact that we just do whatever we feel like with extra ingredients. I grabbed a gigantic saute pan and started flipping the stuff with lots of onions, garlic, cumin, paprika, and cayenne for a spicy side dish to the Mexican stuff we made today. It went pretty fast when we all sat down to eat, so I felt pretty good about my handiwork.

fwoosh

Big water main exploded at Gateway Center near our dorm yesterday. They closed it off and PCI got us rooms at the Marriott. I just now got back here. Crazy!

It's 76 degrees

Mmf. I have a big wedge of blue English Stilton that I found at Giant Eagle and it is so good. So good. My friends think I'm crazy for eating such a stinky and ancient British dairy product.

Piping (pastry bag) practical was today, and I scored a 96 on it. Not bad, considering that's not one of my strong areas. We had the option of being graded on either single or triple-tier rosettes and I chose to do the triple-tiered; I think they're easier since if you screw up on the lower half you can just cover it up. The written test was today, too, but I'm not worried about how I did on that. I mean, who doesn't know what beurre manie or fromage de chevre is?

Nemacolin Resort, a four-star four-diamond joint about 60 miles out of Pittsburgh, is recruiting cooks from PCI for a huge PGA Classic event at their Mystic Rock course. It's an unpaid, two eight-hour shift job, but I'm signing up for the experience, and hopefully I'll be able to do it. This is an amazing oppurtunity--one of those really large-scale, mind-boggling foodservice operations with 19 kitchens serving 200,000 people in four days.

I'm about to go do some laundry

<< Construction on the way to the Clark building, Liberty Avenue. It's amazing how workers downtown do their jobs around all the constant human traffic, building little tunnels like this underneath elaborate webs of scaffolding.

Everything is awesome. I rarely have a rushed, groggy morning these days; I get to wake up at 8:30, hit the shower, tie my neckerchief, and head to the Clark building for tasty cereal and coffee. The kitchen kicks ass. Today was the chef's salad again, but it was the practical (hands-on test). Your table has 25 minutes to prepare the mise-en-place, get everything cleaned and sanitized again, and sweep the floors. We finished with seven minutes to spare today, with everything lined out on sheet trays: batonnet of carrot, blanched chives, roasted halved cherry tomatoes, kalamatta olives, channeled English cucumbers, julienned bell pepper, crepes, ham, turkey, cheddar, swiss, and all our greens ready to go. After that, Chef Clink sent everyone out of the kitchen and brought in a table at a time to take the test. The second stage, the salad preparation, should take no more than ten minutes. I finished in six with my plate chilling in the cooler, and was graded at a 98 (a little too much radicchio, though I'd use that much if it were my restaurant since I love bitter greens).

In other news, Mt.Washington is really cool. When you're at the point, it's the big hill on the South side of the Allegheny, and Ashley and I rode the T to Station Square last night to get there. Once you're on the south side, you can take the Incline, a big diagonal elevator, up the hill. It's crazy and kind of unnerving at first, since you can look out the southern window and see the giant cable pulling you slowly up the side of Pittsburgh's unique geography, but the view of the city from the top of the hill is nothing less than incredible.

More on Monday, since I'll be leaving today at five to chill in Monroeville.

everyone's been there and I don't mean on vacation

<< Me in the middle of running errands around the Burgh.

I'm slowly using up some film on the kitchen, trying to get good shots of the dishes we're producing and our daily meez. Once I have it done I'll spend the cash to have it made into a CD again; it seems like my camera is reliable enough to wait that long to see the pictures. Today was a "chef's salad" invented by Chef Hunt, which includes iceberg, Boston, radicchio, watercress, and frisee. It's accompanied by a red lentil crepe filled with ham, cheeses, and lightly blanched carrots, bound by chives, and garnished with julienned yellow pepper, kalamatta olives, and roasted cherry tomatoes. Yeah, that's right.

Ashley. I hang out with her lots. >>

Ashley's birthday is Sunday, and thus I will be in Monroeville this weekend celebrating and meeting some more of her friends. Yesterday I took the T (PGH public transportation system, a subway system downtown that branches out into surrounding suburbs and boroughs as an above-ground lightrail) to South Hill Village, almost at the end of the service line, for gift-shopping. It was about a 50-minute ride, but I love seeing the urban landscape as well as the countryside here. If you've lived in Texas your entire life, you're missing a lot. For example--and try to stay with me here--there are endless steep hills in this state, covered by deciduous forests unpopulated by harsh predators such as rattlesnakes and fire ants. You can actually sit down in the grass and not worry about being poisoned by something with long stingers. Anyway, it cost me a dollar to get really far south of the city, only because my bus pass only covers one zone. Riding the T or the busses in this city is free if you just travel within downtown; no one crashes into expensive and useless public works projects in the middle of Main here, because these people actually know what public transportation is supposed to do.

Made two new friends yesterday, Zane and Sueann. Zane formerly worked for John Kerry's campaign (thus I instantly get along with him), Sueann and I have a lot of similar stances on th'issues, and both like my kind of music. I was amazed by Sueann's description of her highschool and how liberal it seems in comparison with Klein High. Guys can *gasp* have facial hair and until recently when they got a new superintendent or something, they didn't give a damn about oddly-colored hair. There's actually sex education and they don't preach abstinence, but rather go over different positions objectively and teach kids about contraceptives. She was shocked when I told her how conservative it was back home, and our school wasn't really one of the bad ones. I fucking love pennsylvania. This is what I left home for. People who don't believe that war is just one of those things that's always going to happen. People who believe they have a responsibility to give back to society. I no longer have to walk to the parking lot past people in giant confederate flag-ridden F350s who believe the president is actually being guided by god in some sort of sacred crusade against freedom-haters.

strangers in the park, eagles of monstrous size

Saturday morning! This is one of two days when I wake up and make my own coffee (in my humble kitchen, shown at left), as opposed to drinking the bitter sludge of Cafe 18, the student cafeteria. My brew is just as the barista at Spring Cypress Starbucks said only days before I left; earthy, rich, and unlikely enjoyed by many others as a black coffee (or at all). I don't know what I'll be doing today. Maybe I'll find a bus to Shadyside, because I've never been there. I am already regretting that I didn't further explore all sides of this city earlier. It turns out there's a Giant Eagle (grocery store that's everywhere in the NE--think of HEB or Kroger) right across the damn bridge to the Northside, and all I had to do was look a little harder. It's open till midnight so I was able to get milk for my beautiful Cocoa Puffs and Rice Krispies. Oh man, I could get orange juice too. That is where I'm going today. Then in the evening I'll likely be at the Market Square shown below.Last night I was at PPG place around ten o'clock, and I chilled with this dude who looked kind of like Eminem with more hair and a large labret piercing. His name is Josh, he's 26, and he's been out of prison for three years trying to straighten up and make a new life for himself. He goes to Penn State and was waiting a whole 24 hours for a Greyhound to take him back home only three hours away from here. He told me a story about the prison in Pittsburgh, how some guy thought there were only eight floors (because there were eight floors of cells but a floor in between of each of offices and visiting areas, making 16 floors total) and tied enough blankets together to escape out a window he'd pried loose. His problem was that he only had an eight-floor blanketrope for a 16-floor prison, so he ended up stuck halfway down until his cellmate buddy lost his grip on the other end, thus ending the escapist's sentence early. It was a funny story. Usually, from people like Josh who introduce themselves to you spontaneously, you learn a lesson, but more importantly, you hear some neat shit. Anyway, I gave him a buck and change in quarters and nickels so he could get something to eat at the 7-11. The thing about people asking you for money in a big city is that there are homeless guys who aren't convincing, those who are but you don't want to give money to, and then there are guys like Josh who need $1.25 a lot more than you do. His bus was coming at five and he missed his two year-old daughter. Anyway, out of I think the five people I've met, that's four who've told me based on experience that partying is bad, and one who disagreed but was still freakin' out the other day in our first class. "Whoa, man. I'm freakin' out." I told him he was freakin' out. Man. I love college.

I want desperately to get a decent digital camera and combine my personal journal with a food blog. I'll rename it The Bain-Marie and post multimedia of my classroom kitchens daily.

I had a big post earlier but my CPU fan is held on with paperclips.

Kitchens are awesome. We've been making salads, a nice change from eggs, and the other day was completely mediterranean--hummus, babaganouj, falafel (whoever the hell made that must've breaded it in salt, because it was fucked up bad), tabouleh, couscous, and the like. I was made one of the chefs de parties by Chef Clink and thus had to pay close attention during his demonstration of plating all that stuff. After he showed four of us how to arrange everything, I had to demonstrate to the guys at my table (once they'd returned from their smoke break--everyone smokes here and it's really unpleasant) how to pipe a three-tier rosette of hummus, stick onion petals in it vertically, top it off with olives, then make a little cake out of the couscous to garnish with baby chicory... you get the idea. I assigned each person tasks and we formed a real line, passing plates down with each cook in charge of one step of the plating process. It was cool. I felt like a pretty good leader for perhaps the first time in my life.

(above: a keyboardist jamming at the Urban Space Art Gallery. at right: my keychain lover, Sidney.)

Dorm life is going well. Ashley's away this weekend though, as are most people who actually live in the area, so I really need to make some friends to hang out with when she's not here. Don't get me wrong, I've made a lot of friends from this school--it's just that they're so damn negative and just generally emo. "The living conditions here are horrible." "It's hot in this kitchen." "My life is a worthless pile of shit due to a problem that I feel the great necessity to make into one of yours." "Pittsburgh is a dying city." "George W. Bush is still the president and lots of people are dying in the desert for no reason." I'll admit that last one was mine. But seriously, people; cheer up. You hate the dorm because all you do is sit around in bed. It's hot in the kitchen because there are stoves in it. You need to quit being passive with your life and do something about the things that bother you. Pittsburgh is no less dead than any other U.S. city. You should see Houston at night. And I need to register to vote when I turn 18 in 18 days. And I need to get milk for my cocoa puffs.