Wednesday, June 1, 2016
2:17 a.m. Local time
It feels weird to be
writing for the blog again, but in a good way. The fact that the
cooking job in Sandy River devolved into the psychological hell that
it did kinda' killed my desire to write about my joys of cooking, to
say nothing of what it did to my said joys of cooking. Then my kids
all decided to, one by one, relocate to Portland, which they had all
kinda' fallen in love with when they'd come to visit me while I was
in culinary school... so I left Alaska a 2nd time to
rejoin my family. Before I had been back two full weeks, I suffered
3 strokes in a matter of 12 hours; I've always strived to some how be
an over-achiever, but 3?!, talk about your blog-writing mood killers!
Of course it affected my
right side, because, of course, I'm right handed. I was out of work
for 9 months, and when I did start interviewing with potential
employers again, I had to be honest with them all and let them know I
wasn't entirely “whole” again yet. When my vegetarian son who
was working as the cleaner of the meat department (wait, what?!...)
at the New Seasons Market in Beaverton suggested I look into
applying at their prepared foods department, I finally found people who would
take a chance on a broken person.
The NSM store in Tualatin
was needing a line cook: being a native Southern Californian, I've
done Mexican food almost my entire life. I learned some German
delicacies while I lived/worked in that country, and certain Italian
dishes became my fave things to cook when I first got married in the
mid 80's. French and East Indian are the two cuisines that
specifically rock Gregland, so natch I learned to cook both. I've
done regional U.S. recipes, lotsa' European stuff, I've even learned
some things to do from a few African nations. So, what's the ONE
cuisine I literally have NO experience with, that is, if you're kind
enough not to consider the train wreck of a meal I attempted to do
Japanese tempura for one of my besties/ my kids' dear Godmother decades ago? ...Asian.
And what do they have me doing, like, 90% of my average day? Woks.
And it's a BLAST!! I'm
now doing wok bowls, bento bowls, ramens. I use a varietal tour of
Asia in sauces; Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, two different
styles of Chinese, Indonesian, even a yellow curry (the not
my-face-feels-like-it's-melting hot one of the three). We braise
pork gently for hours to be pulled and portioned up. Kung Pao bowls
get a handful of peanuts tossed in them to be quickly toasted along
with the rich, spicy sauce. I've learned how to gently brown
cubes of tofu before adding the vegetables so they come out with a
toasty crunch.
That said, it feels
pathetic to admit the bane of my existence has become rice freaking
noodles. I hate them with just about every fiber of my being.
Portioning them into the little paper envelopes is like wrestling one
of those fan-inflated “dancing” guy things you see in front of
businesses advertising a special sale; they're everywhere. At once.
Why don't I just stuff a handful of stainless steal springs in there
as well?!, that's about the level of cooperation I'm gonna' get! And
then, when you add them to the wok?, if you let them rest just a
moment too long at the bottom next to the hot metal, they stick like they're culinary concrete. Of course when they perform that annoying
little trick, it's without fail during a rush and you hafta' waste
extra time scrubbing their remnants from the bowl of the wok, and
because the kitchen is “open”, customers are busily mean mugging
you from 12 feet away wondering what's taking you so long to cook
THEIR wok they can still see waiting in front of your face. Rice
noodles hate me so much?, I'm considering taking one of my vacation
weeks to Thailand, just so I can find the factory that supplies us
and burning it to the ground. Lol Just kidding. Maybe. But I've
never had problems like that with, say, cassoulet...
Which
is why I'm busily working on opening my own food
cart in Portland. French-fusion. Updated French classic dishes
sealed inside bread dough and baked (“en croute”), with
appropriate sauces and cheese. Hopefully my Indiegogo campaign will work raising the fundage I need, 'cause I really
don't wanna' end up on the news for torching an unwitting Thai
noodlery... lol, just kidding, again. Maybe...
