A few thoughts regarding all this stuff.
- As was recently pointed out to me by a friend, with just about 4 months remaining in the regular CCA program, I seem to be experiencing some level of senioritis. The primary difference is that I go to class anyway. Highschool was another story.
- Contemporary Cuisine, lots of desserts. American Cuisine, lots of desserts. European Cuisine even moreso and with some serious weight. Asian cuisine? Virtually no desserts.
- There is a perception that Asian cultures tend to eat healthier than the rest of the world. Then I look at the amount of sodium and fat found in the Chinese cuisines like Sichuan and wonder what the hell you're talking about. They fry everything and serve it with soy sauce.
- Remember the group cohesion I mentioned way back in butchery and garde manger? Pretty much gone now. We still work very well as a group, but the relationships have gone all clique, all the time.
- The other day I realized when I'm reading through cookbooks and food magazines, I don't read measurements or procedures any longer. Now I just take primary ingredients and get all extemporaneous.
- I don't get down into the bowels of the North Campus very often. There you can find six foot piles of dirty blue towels, half a dozen open drums of used oil, and enough compostable waste to turn the Careme dining room into either a garden or a sewage repository.
- Yes, we are all still monkeys washing sweet potatoes in a nearby river: Today while slicing meat in an empty downstairs kitchen, I spied a box of red wine and cups in a locked cage. I was bored. I somehow managed to slide a few cups out of the cage and angle the nozzle of the boxed wine so I could pour it. A few of us had a quick glass of wine before returning to the upstairs classroom.
- My birthday is coming. Make checks payable to...
- Kidding on that one. However, for being the reasonably independent man I am, I have taken a ton of hand outs the last 6 months. I mean a ton. So, though I've thanked everyone personally, thank you again - cliche be damned, I can't be doing any of this without your support.
- A friend recently returned from Costa Rica with a bottle of guaro, a South American distilled liquor which smells and tastes like a citrusy hair spray concoction. I'll be damned if it doesn't make a kick ass marinade for chicken. The best chicken I ever had in fact.
- If I haven't announced it aloud yet, I am in fact applying to the New England Culinary Instute to go for the management BA. Tiny little classes are these NECI classes, so getting in won't be a snap. Another $50k and a year to burn, sure. I love this stuff like I haven't loved anything I could do for money, so what the hell? Anyway, more on that stuff later on.
