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DekeThornton posted:Please check you access to non Dutch tomatoes privilege. idk, I'm not sure I buy it. I never really liked tomatoes until I lived in NW Germany for a couple of years, and had access to farmers markets with real loving delicious ripe tomatoes. I will admit I have never bought a tomato in the netherlands, but I doubt they are significantly worse than what's available in germany? edit : unless you're shopping at aldi or something
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 10:04 |
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# ? May 4, 2024 14:37 |
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mindphlux posted:idk, I'm not sure I buy it. To be a bit serious for a second. The issue is that. apart from a few short summer months growing tomatoes here in Sweden is not a thing that works very well. And even during those months the homegrown stuff is often of questionable quality, in my opinion. So for most of the year we import our tomatoes and most of them from Holland. Those imported tomatoes won't be the ones you buy at a local farmers market. It will be tomatoes grown in huge greenhouses on an industrial scale with the focus on producing uniform tomatoes that transport well. I'm sure you can find great tomatoes in Holland, it just isn't those tomatoes we recieve up here.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 10:23 |
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Secret Spoon posted:hearing tickets never stops. Its been 9 months since I have had to respond to a ticket, and I still hear that sound every so often in my own home. Like, I will lay down and watch tv or whatever and Ill hear it coming from my bathroom or the kitchen or whatever. yeah this i remember when i was still cooking i used to wake up at like 4am thinking i heard a loving ticket printer in my bedroom/bathroom/some poo poo
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 10:26 |
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My fiance is an accountant that works from home, I don't have to imagine the ticket printer noises. Someday I will murder him with his printer calculator. There's also a tone in most Deadmaus songs that sounds like a fryer alarm and it makes me think he's a jerk that worked fryer somewhere.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 13:56 |
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EGM that mac and cheese looks incredible. Please send me some immediately, I need it for something.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 15:16 |
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Errant Gin Monks posted:So my lunch is finally picking up. Not busy yet but it's finally starting to pay off. A lot of people are still stuck on the burgers but I have been getting some good feedback on the tamarind ribs and the wild boar tacos. I'm about to expand the menu to include some more seafood. Mostly more crab meat and shrimps. I'd suggest 2-3 medium sized crab tostadas for ~14bux. You can use some nice blue crab meat at that price point, maybe a charred lemon vinaigrette. Blueberry jalapeno compote, yes, strawberry serrano, no. Strawberries look like poo poo in a compote. A serrano peach preserve sounds better with scallops. Also, the blue corn grits, which I assume you're getting via gristmill/freshpoint don't really look all that great on a white plate imo, I prefer the red. I'd also suggest doing the grits with the shrimp. Scallops are nice and buttery, and I think polenta would compliment it better than grits. Maybe do a boursin polenta, and goat chz grits? Smoked salt is getting really boring these days, try a citrus salt. Zest a few lemons and oranges, put the zest into a robot coupe with a pound of salt and let it run for 3-4min. I don't have any cool food porn to share, July is a slow month and the only cool thing I could do was buy a whole lamb from Capra farms. It's coming in this Friday, so expect to see Lamb 30+ goddamn ways throughout the month. e: polenta: Use a stick blender to make your polenta. So loving smooth.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 15:47 |
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Dinner service menu has expanded a bit after contracting the menu, I removed about half the crap I hated and added some chipotle cheddar Mac and cheese dipped in IPA tempura batter and Panko bread crumbs and fried, dusted with a chili powder mix and served with an avacado ranch dressing. It was a big hit tonight. I will probably keep it. I worked at a sandwich place in southern california when I was still in the industry that did this, but as a panini. The cheese blend for the mac and cheese was our standard blend except with smoked cheddar and chipotle, then we'd cool it and pack it into balls so they could be battered and rolled in a panko + smoked paprika + chili powder mix. The sandwich itself was a french loaf we got from a local bakery, bacon, roasted onions, cheddar and swiss, and then a chipotle aioli. Cheap(ish), easy to prep, easy to hold on the line and cook. Think we ran about 20% food cost on the sandwich and sold it for 11 dollars.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 15:59 |
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I'd say skip the fruit on one of the two tamale options - differentiate them a bit more.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 16:19 |
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:I'd suggest 2-3 medium sized crab tostadas for ~14bux. You can use some nice blue crab meat at that price point, maybe a charred lemon vinaigrette. All good ideas. I will experiment with these ideas and see how it goes. I do crab tostadas already. 3 for $10 on 4 inch tostadas. So I'm looking another way to serve it. Edit: also just because YOU have a 1500 dollar food,processor at home doesn't mean we all do. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Jul 4, 2015 |
# ? Jul 4, 2015 17:30 |
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You can also just whisk it together in a bowl and put it away for a couple days and when you come back, citrus salt! Works for making flavored sugar too.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 17:45 |
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Errant Gin Monks posted:
No robot coupe or blender at work? Sure you could also do it in a vitamix. You can also buy citron pyramid salt, but it's a bit pricier than making your own.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 18:23 |
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That Mac and Cheese looks drat amazing... If I'm ever in San Antonio I'll be stopping by.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 18:46 |
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Actually Ill be in SA in two weeks or so. Shoot me the name of your place over PM. I want to stop by and have a bite.
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# ? Jul 4, 2015 19:02 |
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I remember back in the cooking days, after a long service; I'd be home in bed with the gf and say,"I know I'm here in my bed falling asleep, but at the same time my mind is back in the kitchen and orders are coming in and in cooking them." It was a weird feeling to describe, but im sure most of you know what I mean.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 05:02 |
It turns out expo'ing is like riding a bike. Fun service tonight!
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 07:06 |
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quote:It turns out expo'ing is like riding a bike without a seat. You just keep getting hosed and you're not really sure why. Seriously, gently caress expo'ing.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 07:21 |
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:I'd suggest 2-3 medium sized crab tostadas for ~14bux. You can use some nice blue crab meat at that price point, maybe a charred lemon vinaigrette. Your suggestion of citrus salt now has my curiosity piqued. Are there some cheap alternatives for home cooks? The only thing that comes to mind would be toss some rock salt into a blender with a bunch of zest and put the mixture back into a grinder.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 07:42 |
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Naelyan posted:Seriously, gently caress expo'ing.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 07:54 |
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The owner and one of the managers kept telling everyone different ways the plates have to go in the window. At first the other cooks and I just did it based on which one of them was there but the servers aren't so adaptive so we just picked the owner's way and wrote that poo poo on the surface of the window with permanent marker. Needless to say the manager makes a snide comment about it every chance he gets.Kenning posted:Expo'ing is easily the most fun job in the restaurant. Depends on how good you are at yelling. Republicans fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Jul 5, 2015 |
# ? Jul 5, 2015 08:16 |
Expo'ing is easily the most fun job in the restaurant.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 08:18 |
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Republicans posted:The owner and one of the managers kept telling everyone different ways the plates have to go in the window. At first the other cooks and I just did it based on which one of them was there but the servers aren't so adaptive so we just picked the owner's way and wrote that poo poo on the surface of the window with permanent marker. Needless to say the manager makes a snide comment about it every chance he gets. I hate this kind of poo poo. Whenever that kind of thing happens where I work, I just want to scream at them that I have a job to do that isn't making them get their poo poo together and will they please just act like adults or, failing that, hire a babysitter for the night. For instance, there was significant disagreement the other night about what the cover was for the evening. Since I'm already on one manager's poo poo list for ~not wearing makeup~, I had significant anxiety over the fact that I wasn't sure how much I was expected to charge people, and that I would be held accountable for any discrepancies on the register at the end of the night regardless of the perfectly good reasons for those discrepancies. PS I still don't wear makeup, but I'm ready to at any point convincingly claim that I totally am wearing makeup. Gonna just gaslight it up in here until someone goes insane. Pile of Kittens fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Jul 5, 2015 |
# ? Jul 5, 2015 09:30 |
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pentyne posted:Your suggestion of citrus salt now has my curiosity piqued. Are there some cheap alternatives for home cooks? The only thing that comes to mind would be toss some rock salt into a blender with a bunch of zest and put the mixture back into a grinder. Just zest and kosher salt in a grinder should work. The salt is cutting the zest in, not the food processor.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 16:06 |
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Wear makeup only one day, but apply it to make yourself look worse. Claim you forgot to wear makeup.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 17:23 |
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Turkeybone posted:Sadly I've never been to California before, we're staying at a hotel in Union Square. I'll definitely bust my in-n-out cherry, and I prefer the local solid places instead of touristy things. One day we'll spend in Napa. I know we used to have a dude who was at bouchon out there, not sure if there are any goons that way these days. NOPA & Heirloom Cafe aren't super close, but they're both worth the cab fare. I'd do Heirloom over Nopa 'cause seating should be a lot easier and their prix fixe is one of the best deals in the city. Brutal wine list, too. Lower Haight is a fun place these days, too - stop by Rooky Ricardo's Records for awesome soul/r&b/doo-wop stuff. Maven does great cocktails and a solid burger, Nara Sushi is a newer place that does good sushi (awesome spicy hand rolls), good cooked stuff, and feels really fun in general, and the quintessential LH experience is getting a sausage at Rosamunde's and taking it next door for a beer at the Toronado. Finish up with a shot of Underberg. They're both open during lunch. Another good lunch option (if you haven't been) is the roast chicken at Zuni with a bottle of wine. Works great for dinner, too.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 21:01 |
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DekeThornton posted:To be a bit serious for a second. The issue is that. apart from a few short summer months growing tomatoes here in Sweden is not a thing that works very well. And even during those months the homegrown stuff is often of questionable quality, in my opinion. So for most of the year we import our tomatoes and most of them from Holland. Those imported tomatoes won't be the ones you buy at a local farmers market. It will be tomatoes grown in huge greenhouses on an industrial scale with the focus on producing uniform tomatoes that transport well. I'm sure you can find great tomatoes in Holland, it just isn't those tomatoes we recieve up here. Ahh, didn't realize you were in Sweden. Don't doubt ya then, have never been round your parts.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 21:33 |
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As a fellow swede I can confirm that tomatoes in Sweden are 99% likely to be watery and tasteless, imported from either Holland or Spain. It sucks, but there's not much of an option.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 22:15 |
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All in all Sweden is a pretty great food nation at the moment, but the lack of good tomatoes is one of our great sorrows. The other one is that I can't find tomatillos that cost less than 14 euros per kilo.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 22:35 |
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 22:38 |
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DekeThornton posted:All in all Sweden is a pretty great food nation at the moment, but the lack of good tomatoes is one of our great sorrows. Holy poo poo. They're like 60 cents a pound here.
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# ? Jul 5, 2015 23:03 |
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Is a small greenhouse out of the question for you guys?
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 02:51 |
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Those run on sunlight, so probably not. vv Serious suggestion: indoor/basement tomato grow op. Do Swedish houses typically have basements?
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 04:35 |
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Splizwarf posted:Those run on sunlight, so probably not. vv Heat and grow lamps would work. Basement would be better though depending on what it was built from.
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 04:39 |
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I guess it's mostly weird because why not just buy one of those hanging tomato-cascade planters off the internet and hang it in the kitchen? Or just wing it with a little plastic bucket, wire or string, and some tomato seeds. For a restaurant, though, the commercial options sound loving awful. Sorry, Sweden goons. Sounds like there's a boutique heirloom tomato business waiting to happen there, who wants to get rich?
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 04:51 |
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I canned more than 100qts of tomato products, plus gave away about 85lbs of beautiful heirloom tomatoes (nine varieties) from my moms garden last summer. You poor bastards.
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 05:02 |
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bloody ghost titty posted:Restaurant is closed for the weekend, company party Sunday. Hell yes. Republicans posted:The owner and one of the managers kept telling everyone different ways the plates have to go in the window. At first the other cooks and I just did it based on which one of them was there but the servers aren't so adaptive so we just picked the owner's way and wrote that poo poo on the surface of the window with permanent marker. Needless to say the manager makes a snide comment about it every chance he gets.
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 06:04 |
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twotimer posted:what does the head chef say? as a head chef i would be very unhappy with others directing the kitchen staff and undermining my authority. We're a restaurant/bar at a public golf course, we don't have a head chef. We have line leads for the morning and evening shifts but neither really wield any authority. Everyone just does their poo poo plus whatever the managers or owner tell them.
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 06:32 |
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Whenever I get conflicting direction from different managers, I just default to whatever my GM says and tell the rest "Well, [your boss] told me to do this, so...." I don't have time for those games. I already have a #2 boss who I have to explain to why I refuse to load raw turkey overtop of half-cooked sausage, or gee boss can you please not touch this ready-to-serve food with your bare hands that haven't been washed since before you spent 30 minutes doing paperwork in the office, or why chicken dripping on chicken that's 30 minutes ahead of it is at best inconvenient and at worst is a good way to get someone sick. The silver lining is that he's being sent to retrain for a few weeks, which is a hilarious waste of money because you can't fix stupid.
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 08:33 |
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Kenning posted:Expo'ing is easily the most fun job in the restaurant. Agreed, and I'm bad at yelling. You just have to have the worst pay imaginable and a couple years of experience at the restaurant in question, ideally where you started somewhere at the bottom like night porter or dishwasher and have worked your way up. Also, be absolutely willing to send someone home at the drop of a hat and do their job for them. It helps if you're just genuinely interested in doing a good job as a kitchen (not as an expo, or as a "line", these are different) and making everyone's life as easy and stress free as possible. When everything goes well it's a wonderful experience, haven't been able to find that feeling of satisfaction in any other job or industry. When things don't go well... you're in a perfect position as an unbiased, objective bystander to point out what went wrong and how to fix it. This is coming from my expo experience, anyway, where expo was promoted from BoH and acted as more of a shift leader or hourly manager and held accountable for poor guest experiences that involved the food, wait for the food, or similar. So, as expo, if a ticket takes too long it's my fault. If it goes out wrong or poorly cooked, also my fault. If we run out of ______, also my fault. If we smoked 6 cases of ribs and only sold 30 racks, also my fault. There's pretty much nothing that happens in the kitchen that isn't my fault and, IMO, that's a very important part of the job. We had a mirror role in FoH that was similar, generally promoted from bartenders. I think being able to say "clock out and go home if you don't want to be here" to an employee who is complaining or starting poo poo is very important. At the changs I worked at, expo was promoted from the food runners and it was a terrible shitshow because they were always really bad, had no authority, and all they did was fight with the wok cooks. I also worked at a macaroni grill and it was a similar situation, expo was a bitch role until you got tables. I don't understand the mindset behind that, or just throwing the cheapest-paid english speaking person you can find into the role. It's a very important station and, in my experience, loving it up is going to create a revolving door of employees on both sides of the line.
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 15:58 |
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I loved expoing. It was like playing a hilarious time management video game.
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 16:25 |
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# ? May 4, 2024 14:37 |
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EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:I loved expoing. It was like playing a hilarious time management video game. Yeah I also loved expo. Sadly, the last couple places I worked we only had one for like a couple hours during dinner and it was usually some foh manager type. gently caress, you all are making me want to work in a kitchen again though
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# ? Jul 6, 2015 18:31 |