~Poof~

Fine dining is a lot like a magic show- if you know nothing about the inner working of the restaurant, it is very easy to get dazzled by the show. And a lot of classic menu items are easy to get swept away by, even if they are the simplest thing in the world.

This is a huge reason of why I like studying food trends- while some is intensely impractical for a home cook, like some of the more complex French cooking (looking at you, Paté en Croute!); some items take minimal effort. One of my favorite comfort foods is mussels steamed in wine. It oozes sex and sophistication, while being incredibly versatile and adaptable to whatever is in your refrigerator.

It's literally as simple as throwing mussels into a pot with wine, butter, broth (or other liquid), and other aromatics. You can do whatever you want with steamed mussels. They're fantastic. Just get the liquid bubbling, throw the cleaned mussels into the pot, cover it, and walk away for 15min. Badabing badaboom, pot o' delicious.

I suppose I could also use the mussels as a metaphor. Occasionally you gotta take the random shit in your life, toss it together, and walk away for a bit to see what happens.  Most of the time? It is going to be far better than expected.

Chapter 2~

I've been in such a cool space lately! For the first time in months, things are honestly progressing on the up and up for me. I FINALLY have a place to live, and will be able to get my things out of storage for October. I have a job that I love, that challenges me in all of the right ways and actually supports me in my personal life. And while the transition is still a tad rocky, I'm doing well enough that I got to spend a week in New York City last week with some of my best friends on the planet. Even better, my current job will afford me the ability to do that more often, and travel elsewhere more easily! I'll finally be cooking at home again!!!

With that, I'm finally going to be able to bring a direction to this blog. At least once a week, I'll do a new recipe for y'all and the story that accompanies it. When I travel, I'll tell you about the amazing local products I find. And while I study for my sommelier certifications- well, you'll get an earful on how goddamn tired I am of drinking goddamn French wines, no matter how delicious they are. (Seriously, I love French wines now, but studying them makes me want to slam my head into their stupid limestone-laced terroir.)

It's a new chapter, and I can't wait to start writing it!

Middle Eastern Eating

To accompany my fascination with food, I follow a lot of chefs on social media, and constantly keep my ears to the ground for local and national food news. That being said, I also drink a lot and occasionally forget details or entire places and recipes I want to try, and that will occasionally end with me trying a place I had forgotten about. It becomes a weird, fun game of pseudo-dé ja vu. And I really win when it turns out that what I've tried is a pet project of acquaintances of mine!!!

Story time. I had never tried Shawarma before. Hell, I had only ever heard about it because of the Avengers movie. I have woefully little experience with middle eastern cuisine- my family, being career military, is not necessarily as open minded about that particular region. My first encounter with anything resembling that style of food was through a chef I used to work with in a Spanish restaurant and they let him do more Moorish-style cuisine. I learned about sumac and harissa, and was interested, but I didn't know where to find more stuff like it.

Now, a few nights ago I was jonesing for some tacos. I was also feeling incredibly lazy, and didn't want to go too too far for them. But as 8pm drew closer, and tacos steadfastly refused to appear, I hauled myself off the couch and ventured out into the Atlanta evening. I headed to Krog Street Market, knowing of a "Mex-Tex" restaurant there called Superica, but I wanted to check out the various other stalls to see if there were more enticing options to be had.

When I got there, half of the market was already closed for the evening. Lucky for me, the few stalls that weren't already closed were the more food-focused! No tacos, though. I was about to give up and just nab a sandwich from Fred's Meat and Bread (my second fave sandwich place), when Yalla caught my eye. Both Fred's and Yalla are projects of Chef Todd Ginsberg and his partners. I've accidentally been following Chef Ginsberg's career with my stomach ever since I first encountered him at Bocado. He's always headed kitchens with really solid menus, but I have to admit- Yalla is my favorite so far.

I ordered a Chicken Shawarma Pita, and was given a monstrous pocket half the size of my head. And it was LOADED. Chicken, spices, hummus, pickles- so many delicious things the pita literally couldn't hold the weight. As I chowed down, hummus and sauces tore through the bread and dribbled on to my hands. Usually, with something that large, I don't finish my meal. I pack it up, politely infer I'm saving it for later, and wind up throwing it out blocks away from the establishment. With the Shawarma, though... I couldn't get enough. I used a fork to shovel everything that had fallen out into my face. I licked my fingers and hands clean. And when the last bite was gone, I knew I could never go back to basic, boring pita sandwiches again, and tacos found themselves totally demoted in my pantheon of favorite foods. I have no idea how authentic Ginsberg's Shawarma is to "real" Shawarma. Frankly, I don't care either. I am now firmly in the "happy pita" camp.

Evolution of Taste

How many of us have memories of our childhood, throwing a fit over something on our plates because it is new, weird, or "icky"? I know I was a particularly shitty eater as a kid, having had a few memorable nights of bellowing while I stormed upstairs that baked ham was, " TOTALLY DISGUSTING!!!! " I didn't believe my mom when she assured me that my tastes would change. Of course, I also thought I'd grow up to be a teacher, or movie star. (I was banking on movie star, obviously)

To my own surprise, my mom happened to be right! I started discovering my culinary tastes changing when I started working for Richard's German Restaurant in Brunswick, ME. I had fallen in love with their desserts, and begged the owner, Richard, to teach me how to make them. That spun into my first real job in a kitchen, and it grossed. Me. Out.

German food, beyond being a lot of sausage and cabbage, has a myriad of other dishes and techniques many people aren't familiar with. As a 14-year-old girl, it was downright bizarre. Richard and his sons would try to get me to try things, and for the first few months, I absolutely refused. But after a few shifts working doubles and starving myself, I started to notice the sauerkraut smelling sort of... Well, not awful. I tried it. And the shock of sweet and sour vinegar goodness blew me away. I finally started to let the boys teach me how to eat.

Edible discoveries never stop. Food and beverages are always changing, for better or worse, and it creates mini-adventures for me. In a couple weeks, I'm going to forage for snails and try escargot for the first time. It's just so fascinating to me, to never know what I'll discover next. And knowing what I know now? I fully intend to raise my future kids in a kitchen. The number of opportunities I skipped because I was terrified to step out of my comfortable little box? My kids will never have that fear. I am so much happier now, ready to step out and really seize life by the balls, and that is entirely attributed to my taste buds and the boys at Richard's. I can't thank them enough.

Revelatory Rosemary Lemon Cream Sauce
*I usually can't stand cream sauces, as they usually are too heavy and burden my palate. Dicking around today, I actually found myself licking my plate after stumbling on this*
*1 tsp unsalted butter
*1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
*1 tbsp minced shallots (white onion would also work)
*2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, or 1/2 tsp dried
*1/2 tsp chopped green onion
*Juice of 1 Meyer lemon (or 1/2 regular lemon diluted with a tbsp of water)
*1/2 c heavy cream
*salt to taste

-Put the butter and olive oil in a sauté pan and get the pan nice and hot. If you're preparing the sauce to go on top of a protein (I recommend chicken or white seafood), sear your protein off in the pan first and finish it off in a 200°F oven while you make this sauce
-When your pan is hot, add your shallots and rosemary. Let the shallots get a nice brown without burning, then add the green onion, lemon juice, and cream.
-Let the cream reduce until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Salt it, then serve over whatever. Bread, noodles, protein, veggies- it's really freaking versatile!

Career moves

I've been stuck in a bit of a rut lately, trying to come up with what to write about. I have been working more, gearing up for the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival. I love this festival, go every year! And thanks to the TimeHop app, I'm getting nice little reminders of what I was doing last year at this time. Last year, I had just received my internship in Sonoma. I had a boyfriend, too many animals, constant stress, and only the vaguest idea of what I wanted my future to be. Now?

I'm actually happier. Ish. To an extent. It's probably better to say I'm more driven, certainly. I'm single, very very single, but I'm happy with that. I get to spend time with my best friend, my dog, and eat tacos on the beach. And for once? I have a 10 year plan. I'm back to the sassy broad I was in high school, and it's great. And I have been getting more jazzed about my future than ever before. I'm seeing friends getting to do incredible things with their careers, and I have some awesome opportunities coming up for myself! I've been happy cooking at home, and I cannot wait to work the festival and try all of the amazing southern food I miss so much! And the people I'll get to meet? I am mentally doing cartwheels!!!

GA on my mind

Part of my finding my footing here in SoCal has been finding the local food community. I moved here to be with a friend, and I love her to pieces, but she and her family are meat-and-potato-eating lawyers. I've been having to push to get them to try anything new and fun. So figuring out where farmer's markets and the like was really challenging for the first two months. Thankfully, I stumbled on the farmer's market one morning, which helped, and then I got my current job working with the catering company. The chef has been a godsend, he really has- he's not only taught me a lot, but more importantly, he filled me in on where to get the freshest seafood in the city. It's gotten me so excited! I can actually play with food I want to eat again. I haven't been able to do that since I lived in Atlanta. Even better, here in California,  I am literally making more money with two scantily part-time jobs than I did having 3 simultaneous jobs on the East Coast.  I can afford to go to specialty stores and blow $20 on a 12oz bottle of olive oil (my mom nearly had a heart attack when she heard I did that!). Even better, I am able to afford to take a trip back to Atlanta and spend most of my trip at my favorite hotel, the Georgian Terrace. California is a wonderful, wonderful place.
But, as much as I love this coast, I think I'm going to go back east in a couple years. See, while California has really helped me focus on my life and what I want, I've realized that what I want is still in the Southeast.  I'm staying here long enough to sort my life out and become a proper adult, but afterwards I fully intend to go back and fight for the life I want. California is paradise, but the South? The South is home.

Birthday!

Hooray! I'm old!

Haha, not really. I mean, in industry standards, I'm getting there, but it hasn't scared me yet. And this year, I have a lot to celebrate!

First of all, though, I owe the entire catering industry's cooks a huuuuuge apology. I have spent years working on hot lines, making snarky commentary about how line cooks were clearly superior to caterers because we handled intense pressure and heat. However, I  recently began working with a specialty provisions catering company that provides locally sourced and organic meals for outdoors people visiting the local national parks. And frankly?

I LOVE it!!!!!

It is much easier to learn in a catering environment then it ever was on a hot line. The chef I'm working with is just as much of a food science nerd as I am, so I managed to learn more in my first shift than I have in the past 5 years, at least. And knowing I have time to make something correctly? Best feeling in the world. So, caterers, I am so sorry I haven't given you the respect you actually deserve. I'm totally eating well-seasoned crow right now.

Metaphorically, of course. In reality, I've spent my birthday in my favorite state- food coma! I bought a beautiful dry-aged, bone-in rib eye steak from my lovely neighborhood butcher, the Ventura Meat Co, specifically for today as well as a bottle of my favorite scotch. I had toyed with the idea of going to a steakhouse, but based on the recommendation of a friend, I hit the butcher instead. Soooo glad I did. Oh my god. A quick sear and rest and that steak just melted in my mouth like butter. I ate the whole pound of meat. Then gnawed on the bone (my dog was supremely envious). I have literally just spent the rest of my day in a partially-concious state, and that is with only one glass of scotch. I love it. Love it love it love it. And soon, my best gal in Ventura is taking me out for tequila and tacos on the beach. This is the best birthday I've had in years. I'm feeling a tradition coming on!!!

Celebrate pleasure, eat happy!

Habitual Offender

I've never gone out of my way to eat healthy. With an extremely lucky win in the genetics lottery, I've gotten a great metabolism; and working in restaurants has kept me in a perpetually active lifestyle to maintain my bony size 4 butt. So I have never been ashamed of guzzling the occasional Big Gulp™ or chowing down on leftover fried chicken in bed at 2am. However lately I have noticed my tastes changing. I'm craving foods I was very 'meh' about before, and my desire for "normal" boxed grocery fare is on a sharp decline.

Part of it, I'm sure, is the fact that I'm getting older and biologically, yes, tastes do evolve. But I'm sure there's more to it than that. Nine times out of ten, whatever I eat is based on where I happen to be living. My formative years in Maine was a lot of French-Canadian and culinary tastes that got stuck in the late 80's. Chef Boyardee™ also played a huge part. Moving to Atlanta, I was forced out of my comfort zone and got to seriously broaden my horizons- I discovered sushi, true Mexican cuisine, and ate more pork than I ever imagined. Southern cooking became a big part of my culinary repertoire, and I also got introduced to the concept of eating local. Now, amidst this particular evolution, I had no problem with fast foods. Sure, it wasn't "real" food, but if I was only paying a buck for something that might be a burger, I clearly wasn't expecting anything of quality. You get what you pay for.

Then I wound up in Northern California wine country. There were a couple fast food places, but they were always a hassle for me to get to. It was much easier for me to hit up a local farmer's market, maybe check out the brewpub around the corner, or chow down on rice and beans with the sweetest barista I knew. I spent four months eating better than I had in the previous 25 years of my existence. Then I came to Southern California.

I'm sure southern California has farmer's markets, and a great local dining scene. I am just having a bitch of a time finding it. I'm spending time living with people who are very successful career-wise, but when it comes to what they eat? Food is clearly just fuel to them, and not something they actually enjoy. They have more canned vegetables than they ever possibly eat, and cabinets overflowing with processed protein bars. My cooking for them is no end of frustration, because while they admit what I make is good, they are clearly more excited for Campbell's. They are the pickiest eaters I've seen outside of a kindergarten classroom. I love them, but if we stop at one more drive through I'm going to put a nail through someone's tongue. And they wonder why their diets don't work???

With any luck, over the next few months, I can have my eating habits rub off on them. I will hit the markets harder than I ever have before. I won't cook for them anymore- I will cook for me, and offer to share. I'm sick of poor eating habits. And maybe, just maybe, I can actually teach them something. If nothing else, my stomach will be happier.

Food nerd

Since getting to California, I've been making a habit of hitting thrift stores to collect culinary books. Cookbooks, wine books, memoirs- the whole nine yards. Originally, I was searching for recent publications that my cheap butt could nab for 80% less than in bookstores, but then I came across a copy of Food & Wine Best of 1989. I had to get it, '89 was the year I was born and I was curious to see what people were eating back then. Since then, I was hooked on more, shall we say, "vintage" books.

I never went to any sort of culinary higher education beyond a vocational class in high school, and then we were using recipe books published in the 80's (in suburban Maine, that's where many palates were rooted in the early 2000s anyway). And nowadays, there are a plethora of amazing cookbooks on the market that are full of bright, innovative, clean dishes- nothing like what I grew up with. Reading through the old books versus the new, it awed me just how different people ate even just 20 years ago. So, from an EXTREMELY nerdy anthropological perspective, it fascinated me.

From another educational side of it, because of my lack of "official" education, having old books makes me feel like I can "catch up" on the formal schooling- when I would have gone to culinary school, I probably still would have been referring to older books. The chef memoirs I admire the most, they all mention classic cookbooks from the 60s and 70s- if they can create fun dishes from old recipe inspiration, surely I can figure something like that out.

Cooking is something that anyone can do. However, creating? Innovating? That takes talent, but more than that, it takes knowledge. How can you riff on classics if you don't understand them? My collection has grown exponentially. And I couldn't be more excited. I love learning about food, and look forward to sharing it with everyone- hopefully making it fun in the process. Second blog will hopefully be coming soon!!!

Write Stuff

I've got writer's block. Like, BAD. Not for this blog, but I've decided to start a second, more food-focused blog, and I'm struggling with starting it. I want it to be like a combination of a review site and educational- kind of like a cross between 'No Reservations' and Alton Brown's 'Good Eats'. I want to make food as fascinating to other people as I find it. And I have plenty of material! I wind up ranting about food all day. It's just that I don't know how to introduce the topic to everyone. It's frustrating. Hopefully I can knock something out in the next week. In the meantime, if you have any food issues you're curious about, leave a comment below!

Season of Giving

Living in a van, one of my biggest concerns is the cops. Many towns have ordinances against sleeping in vehicles, and I try to base where I camp in areas that don't have those, or at least have loopholes (Wal-Mart lots are convenient for that). Small towns especially tend to have bored cops, and I have yet to meet a member of the police forces that doesn't err on the side of dickbaggery when bored.

I've been playing it safe lately, keeping it at the restaurant I work at (with the owner's permission), with zero fuss. The neighbors either haven't noticed or don't care, and it's been very peaceful.

This morning was a tad different.

I awoke, curled under my comforter, warm and cozy and pantsless (my van, my rules dammit). My dog, Clooney, was sitting next to me, just staring and willing me to wake up for our walk. Mentally swearing at him, I begin to contemplate actually getting out of bed.

And there's a knock on the van door.

I immediately begin to mentally freak. It's 8am, it has to be the cops, but why would they be here? It's private property, the owner knows I'm here and I have permission and Jesus Christ I'll just pretend I'm not here.

The damn dog barks. Fuck.

Now I HAVE to answer, or some do-gooder animal lover will break into my car citing animal cruelty against this fat spoiled fur ball. I say as nonchalantly as possible, "Just a minute!"

Hiking on a pair of sweatpants, I climb up to the passenger cab door- the side doors don't open from the inside at the moment. Opening the door, my panic immediately washes to relief when I see it's a local that I've met before, when I was hanging with the Barista. And he recognized me.

His surprise was very apparent, and we had a slightly strained conversation. Not in a bad way, but you could kind of tell he wasn't expecting to see someone he had met as a functional human being living in a van. Turns out he's one of my neighbors, just a couple doors away, and he was kind enough to leave me with a bag of odds and ends foodstuffs and an invitation to coffee or tea should I ever feel like it.

Encounters like that are weird for me. On the one hand, I haven't exactly made it very public that I live in a van around town. I want to be known as a person before I'm known for my circumstances. But it is a small town, and I can't be surprised that people will put two and two together. And some will immediately conclude that I may require charity. My pride is intensely uncomfortable with that. I ask favors from friends that I know I will repay in time, I have a running tally in my head of the myriad of people I owe. However, kindness that is intended without reciprocation is just fucking weird to me. After all, I am always the one who makes things happen, I help others. I can't let this insult me, regardless of my vanity. After all, my brain keeps reminding me, "Bitch, you live in a van. Deal with it."

...Not sure how my neighbor expects me to cook a baby pumpkin in a van, though. Bless his heart. :)

Yes, Chef?

So I've found myself in the increasingly odd position of being hired as an executive chef for a sports bar. Made odder by the fact that the restaurant itself was advertising a line cook position on Craigslist (Two major red flags right there by any sane person's standards). On the one hand, I'm excited for the opportunity. Haven't done this before! On the other hand, I've read too much Anthony Bourdain. This can only end in tears. What am I thinking??? I know I am a solid line cook with a palate that has potential. But as for a full-blown, calling the shots chef? I can imagine it, maybe, when I hit my thirties. But right now I am a mid-twenties homeless ball o' nuts trying to sort myself out.

I took the job, of course, because I need to be able to survive California cost of living. Will this be a good thing? Eeeeeh... remains to be seen. Personally, I am uncharacteristically pessimistic about it. I've been in the industry too long and seen too many fuckups to kid myself. But at the same time, that goddamned little optimist in the back of my head that prevents me from being a total bitter cynic is rooting for a decent outcome. She's a bit of an idiot. It will be a learning experience, for sure. And after some of the "chefs" I've worked for? Well, I can't possibly fuck up *THAT* bad.

California Dreaming

I can't remember the last time I've been so consistently happy. Wine country is doing wonders for my general outlook! I've always been an optimist, but here? It's almost annoying, even for me! Hahaha~

The Barista has been an amazing friend to me. He has been keeping me incredibly grounded, reminding me of what I'm doing here, even though he doesn't realize it. He and I have been cooking a LOT together, too! He's not as intense of a food nerd as I am, but he actually seems to enjoy listening to me yammer on about eggs and salt and nonsense. Yesterday we even made kimchi together! I'll post our recipe in a few days when fermentation kicks in and it's ready.

Also happening in a few days! I've been writing a YouTube series, and finally found what I find to be an acceptable place to film. It's going to be all about food science and history, and I can't wait to show you all what it's all about! It's been a blast to work on!

Commute

When we last left your heroine (me), I was on the cusp of a major freak out in the Schwartz.  Since then, I have adjusted way better to a nomadic life, and as of yesterday,  finally unpacked my books in it to really organize and make it "home"!

The adjustment process was definitely weird for me. I found myself trying to be more social, and making more time to spend wih the Barista and an old friend from my Maine days that happens to be in Petaluma for the month. I did kind of revert to my old workaholic ways, but to a lesser degree han what it was. Currently,  I have a full-time job cooking at a brewpub in Healdsburg, and then when I'm not doing that, i drive an hour and a half souh to San Francisco where I work on a food truck. So while technically,  I am scheduled to work 7 days a week,  that really hasn't been happening. The food truck pays better, and will have some excellent potential benefits involved, but at the moment is far too inconsistent and iffy for me to commit to it. Like this week- I was supposed to work last night and today. I was told not to bother, business was too slow. So on the one hand, I have gotten to spend more time with my friends in Mountain View, and got some serious work done on a pet project of mine (more on that in a bit!), but I have lost out on a significant chunk of change that I could really use at the moment. However, it's not worth it to quit the food truck and find a more dedicated gig, because on Friday night, they are letting me work an event serving a country artist I am a huge fan of! Besides, this surprise time off is great for my mental health right now. Really focusing on me and forcing myself to deal with some things I have been avoiding is making me feel like I'm finally really growing into myself.

Now, as for that lovely pet project... I'm not going to really go into details until I have solid *stuff* to show off. Just know that it is everything I love about being a food nerd, and writing for it has energized me in a way I haven't felt in yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaars. Look for something... mmmm... next week. Pretty confident I'll have something to show for this silliness. :)

Wonder Woman

For the first time in over a week, I didn't have to be awake at the ass-crack of dawn to lug tons and tons (literally) of grapes. I got to... **gasp!** ...sleep in! It's an exciting prospect for me.

This vineyard has been such a...strange turning point for my life. All positive experiences, for sure, but it has really made me stop and reexamine so much about everything I've done up to this point. The weirdest bit has been the fact that, every step I take in this vineyard, or in the quaint little towns nearby, are all so very very reminiscent of times and places I thought I had left behind long ago. It's like, I know I'm in northern California. But I drive to Healdsburg to shop, and I'm back in Brunswick, ME. I walk in the cabins up in the vineyards and I'm revisiting Asheville, TN, during Thanksgiving 2012. I drive the roads up the mountain and I'm back in the north Georgia mountains, just back in July. It's so bittersweet. All of those beautiful memories,  but they feel like they are cluttering the way for the newer, amazing memories I'm creating now. Especially as I have been turning into the woman I've been wanting to be ever since I got here.

I've been told for a while that I am a strong,  independent young woman. Which was fine and dandy. But I'm only now feeling like I've got a backbone. When I got to California,  I swore I was done being what I saw as a weak woman. And I've been kicking ass at it. I've negotiated a higher pay rate for myself at the winery, and when interviewing for jobs, I maintained a "take - no - prisoners" attitude, both for my job title and desired pay rate. And it's been paying off in spades. It's like, the knowledge that I don't have a reputation here has made me fearless. It's what I've been needing.  It has also made me take a good, hard look at what I'm doing,  though, and what makes me happy.  I have a very good idea of it now. It was a smidge surprising,  but ultimately I am sure it will work out in the end.

Beso, caro~ ♥

Reflections on the Farm

Oh I was so right. Since my arrival, I have been aching continuously. Now, in some respects everything is getting easier. But once the muscle fatigue faded, shin splints and weak shitty ankles kicked in. It's not so bad, though. I'll be able to benchpress a horse in a couple of weeks thanks to this grape-hauling nonsense!

I can't get over how amazing this place is. The mountains,  beyond just mind-blowingly gorgeous, are so... full. I have never seen so much wild life! There is a plethora of apple and pear trees here on the vineyard, scattered across the property, and blackberries run rampant next to the cabin. Which is also painfully rustic and adorable and far more functional than 90% of the apartments I've lived in. Then there's the animals- deer are EVERYWHERE. I even saw feral domestic pigs! Apparently a farmer lost his pigs a couple decades back and they now just roam. Rabbits, fox, quail- I have never hunted before in my life, and I have never wanted to more than I do up here.
Going into town is fun, too. The roads are all old graded logging roads, and they twist and curve around the mountains and Lake Sonoma, giving you incredible views from every angle. And once you become familiar enough with the roads to actually do the speed limit, the drive makes you feel like you're in one if those picturesque car commercials.

I really haven't been doing much wine making, just picking and cheffing, and I'm pretty ok with that. I get a great workout, both in body and in culinary chops I haven't done in a while. And for the most appreciative people! Apparently the biggest difference between east coast and west coast cooking is that east coasters are more concerned with it being a competition between restaurants,  and here people are just happy to eat. It's a great feeling!

Binge in the City, Parte Tres

So by now, it was 6pm on a Saturday that I didn't actually have to work. I'm buzzing, I'm full, and Nathan and I aren't ready to call quits on the night just yet. So what is the logical course of action? Catch a movie!
There's been a film out for a couple months now called "Chef". It's the story of a high-profile chef who dicks up his fine dining career and then proceeds to open a food truck. Both Nathan and I had been wanting to see this film for-freaking-ever, and now the golden opportunity arose! The trick was, because it is an independent flick done by and starring Jon Favreau, it was only showing in a small, small handful of theaters. We managed to find one by my place with a 7:15 showing, and headed over.
That movie? Everything I ever wanted in a food film and more. The interactions between the kitchen and front of house staff was accurate, the depiction of home life was mostly on point, and the food? Goddamn. This movie had me craving Cuban sandwiches for a week! Not only was it a solid story, the star-studded cast and the fact that chef Roy Choice produced and mentored the film just created a winning combination. I could seriously watch this 12 more times and still be ecstatic. My favorite part? The fact that NONE OF THE SPANISH WAS SUBTITLED. If you know Spanish, you get an extra layer of comedy to everything. If you don't? Well, it won't take away from the movie, but you seriously took the wrong classes in high school. Also the cornstarch scene is amazeballs. ;) Bonus? If you hang out through the credits, Roy Choi teaches you how to make the best grilled cheese ever.
Afterwards, both of us dying for a Cuban, Nathan and I tried to find a Cuban restaurant open at 10pm on a Saturday night in Atlanta. Verdict? Nada. So, we headed to the Victory Sandwich Bar in Decatur (www.vicsandwich.com). They were serving a sandwich they called "The Castro" (haha punny). Essentially a Cuban sans mojo sauce. It, and a couple of their fun cocktails, did the trick. We called it a night, and my amazing foodie weekend ended. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect weekend.

...well, maybe if I had gotten laid. That'd been cool.

Binge in the City Part 2

So where were we? Right. Saturday morning, post-show hangover. I had made plans with my buddy Charles to do lunch at the Porter (www.theporterbeerbar.com), and my friend Nathan joined us.
I love the Porter. The beer selection is unparalleled, but what really elevates it for me is the food. Oh. My. God. The food! The core menu has some decent staples, sure, but I always go for the specials. They are always changing, and you can tell the chef really goes all out with them. I've had amazing vegetarian dishes there, and I usually avoid those like the plague. This particular morning, my hangover demanded a Berliner-weisse beer and a ginger ramen they had on special. That ramen? Oh my tits that ramen. It was everything I needed. Not much broth, and what was there was more reminiscent of a gingery, vinegared glaze that paired beautifully with the mushrooms and cucumber in it. The noodles were perfectly cooked, and the sour Berliner-weisse complimented everything while not making me want to kill myself. The guys had the 'hangover hash' special which apparently did the trick as well. I tried a bite of the grits, and man- it was as if Paula Deen had made them; crazy overwhelming butter flavor.

Afterwards, Charles and I headed to the Wrecking Bar Brewery (www.wreckingbarbrewpub.com) for a few beers before I would rejoin Nathan later for the Germany-Ghana game that was playing that day. We tasted around the Wrecking Bar's draft list, working our way through the majority of the beer selection between the two of us. My hangover long forgotten by now, I got a serious case of the munchies and ordered a couple small plates, the hot nuts and venison tartar. I gotta say, while the beers are top notch and excellent representations of their styles, the food left me underwhelmed. The nuts were too spicy for my tastes, and the tartar had an unpleasant puréed texture with an overbearing horseradish flavor.
Still, overall the experience was a blast, and I was bummed by the thought of leaving for a different venue for the game. As luck would have it though, I ran into another friend of mine who had just started working at the Wrecking Bar, Tim, and he revealed to me that they did have TVs for the game- in the actual brewery event space. So they wound up opening it up for Charles and I, and as Nathan rejoined us, more futbol aficionados filtered in to enjoy the game. I couldn't not snack during game time, so I decided to give the pretzel and cheese dip a try as well as the rabbit "wings". The rabbit? Delicious. I loved it, and will absolutely order it again. The pretzel was good, too- the cheese sauce, however, bugged me. The flavor was on point, but whoever prepped it didn't melt the cheese down properly and it gave the dip a grainy texture. Cheese, like any meltable material, has a specific melting point temperature. What a lot of people don't realize is that different cheeses have different melting points, and melting it down at a too- high temp too quickly can create greasy, oily, grainy goo. Not appetizing.
The game ended on a 2-2 tie for Germany and Ghana, and by now a thunderstorm that had snuck through Atlanta had ended. I was feeling fat, buzzed, and happy, and ready to chill. Nathan and I parted ways with Charles, and finished our evening... Reserved for the part 3. (This story was a lot longer than I originally thought...)

When I was in high school, I used to hear about some classes requiring you to volunteer for some sort of charitable cause in order to graduate. I remember thinking about how lucky I was that I didn't. I was a pretty selfish kid back in the day, and in some respects, I still am. But back then, it was probably equal parts selfish and lazy. And the charities that people were volunteering with? I couldn't care less about.

Fast forward to now. I am an avid volunteer. I love giving my time to many of the different food - centric events around Atlanta, many of which do support excellent causes like Share our Strength. It's not the charity that gets me to do it, though. In many ways, I haven't changed a lot from the girl I used to be. However, the biggest difference between then and now is probably the fact that it is truly volunteering instead of compulsory free labor. I actually want to and get excited about getting together with a team of people that are genuinely happy to work to make something incredible happen.

I've been volunteering with the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival all this week. This is easily one of my favorite events, because I spend most of my time in Production- the part of the festival that makes things work. I help organize and accomplish tasks that help make the logistics of this event run like a machine. And this year? They let me start driving the golf carts!!!! (I've never driven a golf cart before, it's the little things, haha)

Even more fun are some of the connections I've made- I have spent a couple shifts helping in the kitchen,  where I've gotten to work with Shaun Doty, of Bantam and Biddy, and Tory McPhail of Commander's Palace- both super nice guys! And now I can't wait to make my first trip to New Orleans this year...!

I guess, to make a long story short, I still hate the idea of required volunteer work in schools. But at the same time, don't shut down the idea entirely- when you find something that you actually want to do, make the time. It may not have your usual perks, but it sure makes opportunities a lot easier to find!

How to become my least favorite place on the planet

I admit, I should have posted this last week, when the events referenced were more relevant.  However, I made the decision to wait based on two criteria- I wanted to see how the general public would react, and I wanted time to really process my own thoughts on the matter so I didn't wind up sounding like a kindergartner calling someone a poopface on the playground. Well, I've had enough time to think, and I'm finally ready to write.

On April 3, a friend of mine, Arianne Fielder, was fired from her mixologist position at Parish in Inman Park, Atlanta. I heard about it through Arianne's Facebook page. Now, had it had been a normal firing announcement, I probably would have just thought, "Bummer", and went about my day. However, Arianne wound up finding out about her firing in a much worse way.  EaterAtlanta announced that Parish had decided to go "another direction" with its bar program,  and that Arianne no longer was employed there. That one post was Arianne's first exposure to said news. That disgusts me.

In this day and age of mass and instantaneous communication,  there is no excuse to take such a cowardly approach to releasing an employee. Especially as Parish is a small part of the larger Concentrics Restaurant Group, a company known for its involvement with high profile restaurants and Richard Blais. In what backwards backwoods way of thinking did their upper management ever think that going that route was ok? If they were comfortable enough to make a statement to Eater, they had clearly already made up their minds long enough in advance to inform Arianne first. It could have been a respectable, dignified break. Instead, they pulled the employer's version of whipping their tits out for 'Girls Gone Wild'. Honestly, after hearing about this, what self-respecting mixologist (nevermind even just a halfway competent one) is going to want to work for them? I myself am not going to say my employment record is completely unmarred, but now there is no way in hell you could convince me the Concentrics restaurants are worth applying at.

What I'm also finding disappointing is the lack of coverage by the local food and beverage media. I have only seen one other mention of this event, and I would like to think I keep decent track of the Atlanta area food and bev news.  Pretty Southern did a piece after Arianne's post (http://prettysouthern.com/2014/04/04/atlantas-best-bartender-gets-fired-via-the-web/), and that is all I have seen. I wish more people were reacting. How on earth can we help support our fellow industry professionals if incidents such as this are kept so quiet? I hope this changes. I hope Concentrics realizes what a really shitty mistake they made. In the meantime, I will not be entering into any restaurant/bar/kitschy provisions shop that they have any hand in. Shame on you, Concentrics. I can't wait to see what undoubtedly better place Arianne winds up at next.