Food First.

This little writing thing that I’m doing is about food, right?  I thought I’d actually talk about food up front for once and talk about my classes later.  I’m sure you guys are chomping at the bit to hear all about my educational exploits, but quite honestly, it’s the food that motivates me.

First, let’s take a trip back a couple of weeks and talk about carnitas.  I LOVE carnitas.  For the uninitiated (which is hard for me to believe), carnitas are pieces of pork shoulder or butt fried in lard until tender.  True carnitas are something to behold.  Chunks of pork the size of your fist fried until tender then shredded or diced.  Did you get that?  FRIED PORK CHUNKS!!!  How can you not love it?  I obviously adore these morsels of goodness, but hate the process.  One needs a giant vat of lard to fry these suckers in and it makes quite a mess.  In the past, I’ve found a way to get some similar flavor without the deep-frying mess that it creates.  Put some cubes of pork butt in a slow cooker with some chilies, garlic, orange, and stock and braise for the day.  Later, when you enter the house and your cat is going wild because of the smells coming from the counter, drain the pork and shred or dice.  Then, fry the meat until little crispy bits form on the edges and serve.  Traditionally it would be served plain with some tortillas and the ubiquitous beans and rice, but you can take the carnitas and make some tacos or other stuffed Mexican-American goodies.

When I made this, I decided to invite some friends over and have a marathon of Top Chef and do the meal potluck style.  I wasn’t able to fry it to my liking (it put too much in the pot at once and wasn’t able to get the crispy bits properly), but it was a great success and we all had a great time talking shit about Robyn and the Voltaggios.  I love this kind of get together and think that they should be done more often.  Unfortunately, I slack on the organization of these types of events and need to get better about it.  I wish we could all have these types of events regularly, but people’s schedules and such get in the way (guilty).  All you can do is try.

I have to take a bit of a side note and talk about the wonderful time I had at my stepbrother’s wedding.  It was at the Loews’s Hotel in San Diego (an exquisite place south of Coronado) and it was astonishing.  The Bride and Groom were gracious, as happy as can be and we all had a fantastic time.  I just wanted to extend my thanks to them as well as their respective families.  I also made some great friends that weekend (apparently I’m going to Armenia in the near future) which is what these events are all about (sorry for not meeting up Weaz, we’ll do it soon).

So my latest cooking exploits have been pretty successful.  Tonight I made a stew of sausage, red lentils, and tomatoes with cumin and paprika.  Soul satisfying.  A couple of nights ago, I made some lamb kofta kebabs with hummus and harrisa yogurt. Absolutely delicious.  It’s getting colder out, so I’m enjoying the spicier ethnic flavors.  Last weekend, however I went for the classic roasted chicken with pan gravy and a wonderful mac and cheese made with stewed tomatoes and sour cream.  It was pretty great, if I do day so myself, and got many complements.  How can you go wrong with classics such as that?

This leads me to a bit of a failure.  I love Indian food.  The depth of spices and flavors enchants me.  I have yet to get it right in my own kitchen, however.  I tried to make a lamb vindaloo (spicy braised lamb with potatoes) a bit ago, and though the flavors were quite good, I couldn’t match the unctuous texture the Indians seem to accomplish.  I’ve made this dish several times before, with the same results.  My family and I went to a local south Indian restaurant, Sher e Punjab, and everything was extraordinary.  I don’t know how they do it.  My sister told me to refer to an older “No Reservations” where Bourdain stood frightened in a corner as the matriarch and her daughter used pressure cookers to make all of their curries and stews.  Maybe I should invest in one.

So, I should talk about my classes a smidge.  The food service law class is still the same.  Blah, blah, blah.  It’s no that it isn’t educational; it is.  It’s just that I probably could’ve learned it from experience more that a class.  Whatever. 

The cost control class has become a bit intense.  We’ve been given our final project, which involves creating a simple restaurant concept that is failing financially.  We must come up with a bad financial statement and devise a strategy to improve it to success.  We have to come up with yield tests and measures that will improve our actual costs to align more properly with theoretical costs.  This will help to improve our financial outlook and make the imaginary restaurant more profitable.  We also have to come up with product specs for our menu items (package size, product origin, package date, etc.) and create recipes based around these specs.  This is daunting for me.  This is where my inexperience has shown.  Though I know what all of these things are, I don’t have an active knowledge of their relationships.  It might be a bit different when I’m dealing with them directly, but for now dealing in theoretical is difficult.  I’m meeting with my group tomorrow and hope to be a bit more in tune with the process.

My business plan class has concluded and it was very informative.  For the final week, we had to come up with projected costs for the prospective business.  This proved to be way over my head.  I just don’t think I have enough experience to think of EVERYTHING that is involved in starting a food service business.  I had a blast going to the restaurant equipment supply stores and picking out all of the bits and pieces needed for startup.  It was the small things that I was beginning to overlook or not comprehend.  Point of Sale systems, credit card processing, licenses, décor, sanitization, uniforms.  It was all a bit much.  I was able to get a rough estimate, but I have a lot of research, footwork, and phone calls to do in order to get the details ironed out. 

Last but not least, my safety and sanitation class is almost concluded.  Tomorrow I take the official ServSafe™ exam and I will virtually be done.  The only thing I’ll have left is to do a couple of on-site observations of eating establishments and what they are doing right or wrong.  One of them was Sher e Punjab from above (they did quite well).  I’m kind of nervous about the exam as missed six out of 45 on the practice test.  The final is 90 questions long and I want an A.  I think if I focus on the parts I missed, I’ll do just fine.  Wish me luck!!!