Hello everyone and Happy New Year (a month late)!

Yes,

• I am new dad.
• it's been five months since I've last posted anything on Hungrychef.com
• 2008 list should have been posted in Dec of 2008.
• you are supposed to post frequently when blogging (if you are to be taken seriously).
• It was a busy 2008!
• I left one job and moved on to a new one (more on that later).
• this is a short post just to get the ball rolling again.

So let me share with you some things that annoyed/disturbed/pissed me off me in 2008.

1) Cheeseburger in a Can This stuff looks so nasty.  It's like the four star version to spam.

2) Powdered Red Wine

Come on guys this just confuses me. Who is their target audience for this, the military? Can you picture a Navy seal unit deep under cover reconstituting some powdered red wine after a successful clandestine mission.  Cheers!  Below is a video that I found presenting both items

3) Cooking with Coolio. "The Ghetto Gourmet" Are you flipping kidding me? FYI, it's a little raunchy.

4)Tropicana Valencia Orange Juice - I loooovvvveee orange juice!  I love citrus anything!  This stuff, really disappointed me. Part of their Tropicana Pure selection; It's double the price and the regular Tropicana Orange Juice is far more superior in taste.

 

5) T.V. Cooking shows and the glamorous people that host them.

First of all, they are not called chefs, they are called talent. Where is the talent? Just because you are called that, doesn't mean that you have it.

I always hear; "Middle America loves these shows", "We have to appeal to the lowest common denominator". What an insult! Every thing looks the same, feels the same. The majority of these people have no real cooking experience. They just look good? We are living in the culinary media matrix!!!

Put on some real chefs!.  They don't all have to have their hair styled with the faux hawks and hair product (no, I'm not jealous because I'm bald  hahaha!).

Earth and food media, Let us move forward in 2009.

In the wild animal kingdom of the kitchen, an outsider might view the dishwasher as the lowest person on the totem pole.  In reality it's the dishwasher that runs the show. 

I quickly learned as a line cook the people that hold the real power, the now it all, the gumption, the powerful ability to truly screw up the kitchen (if they truly so desired) where the dishwashers.  Respect and admiration must be given and shown to this most important colleague of the kitchen brigade.  They will get you out of trouble and share with you the Chef and kitchen's deepest secrets.  Depending on how nice you are to them they might even peel 3 quarts of fava beans that you forgot to cook and clean 5 minutes before service.

My most important bit of advice to culinary students and to new line cooks has always been to meet and greet with the dishwashers.  Do you know a few words in their language, are you familiar with their music, maybe you are conversant in their cuisine, perhaps you dated a person from their country.  Make that connection, they are your lifeline! 

Then secondly, comes your cooking technique. Of course, I'm kidding

I have seen dishwashers:

• jump behind the line to help out when the whole kitchen has come crashing down,
  
• wash your favorite sauté pan in under 10 seconds so you can prepare the VIP dish with the only level surfaced pan in the kitchen
• Bring Properly iced shift drinks ( a most welcomed sight at the end of a hard night)
  
• display some serious loyalty, like the time I lost my wallet and the next day I found it safely placed inside my locker, I'm still not sure how he got my combination.

Some might call these moments heroic, but, there is also the flip side

I have seen dishwashers:

• hide your very important stash of side towels right before the long list of tickets start pilling up
  
• not show up for work three days in a row
• stand there and watch your sauce burn while you are downstairs grabbing something out of the walk in refrigerator
• shut off your timer while baking a most important item in the oven (we all laughed about that one). 

Did I mention the one where the dishwasher does not show up for work three days in a row.  What the hell do you do in this situation?  Sure you can fire them, but it is very very very hard to find a legal, English speaking person that is willing to clean out grease traps, scrape sheet pans clean, wash bloody knives and cutting boards and listen to my repetitive jokes.

You get the picture.

By the way,

Wanted:

Dishwasher with rosy cheeks and everything

Must be legal, with a basic understanding of English.

Work 40 hours a week. 5 day work week.

30 minute lunch, 15 minute break, benefits after 3 months, two weeks vacation after one year.

Pay rate commensurate with experience.

-Erio

What do you get when you add a touch of capitalism,  a proper market analysis, human smarts, clandestine cooking and salsa verde... You get the best flipping tamales in New York City.

Just as we start getting into the rhythm of pumping food out of the kitchen the intercoms awaken and the store herald broadcasts Tortas, Tamales! A most welcomed announcement.

I don't know about you but I'm not that hungry when I wake up at around a quarter to five in the morning.
My breakfast cravings do not kick in until eight or nine o'clock. By then I don't have the luxury of running out to get a bite nor  can I prepare eggs on the hot real estate market; that which is called the stove top. With soups, sauces, beans, pasta and other foodstuffs cooking I cannot justify giving up a burner to prepare a meal (what a martyr). To note,  I really don't feel like having eggs or anything breakfasty like that.

With that said, so enters this story's heroine

Let us call her Señora (to maintain her secret identity). Señora is the Mexican Tortas and Tamales lady, she arrives three to four times a week to sell her delicious homemade creations.  The standard meals are tortas and tamales, hence the name.

Señora's days begin very early Monday through Friday. She is off on Saturdays and Sundays. Her kitchen becomes alive at 4 AM when she starts to steam her tamales. There is final cooking and packaging to be done. In addition to visiting my place of employ she also stops at several other locations within the West Village area.  Her day is usually done around 2 or 3PM.  After that Señora restocks at her supermarket and goes home to prepare her comfort food delights for the next days run.

Through out the week she does throw in a few specials,  sometimes you will find sopes, tacos and quesadillas.  Everything that she sells is lovingly packaged.

 

Tamales are found in many Latin American countries. The basic set up is as follows

1-Dough

2-Filling (vegetables, protein, cheese) basically anything you want it to be

3-Wrapper (plantain leaves, or corn husks)

4-Cooking method can be steamed or boiled in water

The dough or masa in Mexican Tamales is corn based.  The corn used to make masa is first treated in lime water (slaked lime) which makes the outer shell or hull fall off and leaves you with the softened kernel.  The kernel gets washed and what is left is ground and then dried.  That is your masa harina or dough flour

You cannot substitute cornmeal for masa harina as it comes from a different type of corn! 

Señoras tamales come in red or green.  The green has salsa verde and chicken, the red has beef and is spicier. 

Tortas are Mexican sandwiches that can be served hot or cold.  Señora's tortas always have the following:

Shredded lettuce, avocado, pickled jalapeño and a protein.  The protein sometimes is a braised beef or a fried chicken cutlet. I always like to add a little lime juice or hot sauce to mine.

If you are wondering if she has proper documentation to sell these things I will have to answer with I don't ask.  Then why Erio would you eat this food? Does she have the proper facilities to prepare food and then sell it?  What about food handling, sanitation and food safety?

Well let me give you this one for thought.  I was in the city waiting online to go to the taping of a show with some family members.  I was really craving a hotdog.  I walked over to the Street Meet Vendor and ordered a hotdog.  He then opened up his supposedly hot water bath where you would find said hot dogs.  Mr. vendor told me that it would take about 10 minutes for the next batch to be ready.  He then reached in with his bare and very very filthy blackened hands grabbed a bunch of unheated wieners and put them (along with his hands) into the lukewarm water bath.  Mmmm just what I want to eat.

Señora I hope to see you tomorrow.

Gracias!

-Erio 

Hello everyone, sorry for the long break. I've recently been hired at Murray's Cheese as one of the new chefs.  I've been a free agent for several years and now I am part of a large collective; A collective of serious food, drink and of course cheese intellectuals (scholars of the culinary arts and culinary pleasures, if you will).  I am on my third week at the store and have been enjoying my employ by collaborating on the new menu for the prepared foods section, recipe testing and developing new products and ideas for the store.  What really amazes me is the hard core, loyal, knows what he or she wants customer that visit Murray's.

The personalities of the employees, the products and of the store are all very unique and I am looking forward to working with everyone and to keep on learning! I am also very proud to be able to say that the products that we work with in the kitchen are of high caliber.  Our proteins come from Ottomanelli's Meat Market, and our eggs and dairy comes from Lancaster Farms in Pennsylvania.

So stop by and visit the store.  I am most certain that something or someone will pique your interest.

-Erio 

 

Here at Hungrychef.com we are always looking for ways to improve one's self, writing skills, and the blog. I signed up for a class at the Institute of Culinary Education called An Insider's Guide To Blogging.  The class was taught by Andrea Strong of the Strong Buzz and her internet and website consultant Harvey Kreiswirth. 

The group that was present was a mix of food professionals, media, marketing, food noobs and designers. The topics discussed were about blog concept and identity, the importance of fact checking and writing the "truth". Mr. Kreiswirth talked about blog marketing, the different blogger software available and their pros and cons.

Ms. Strong  mentioned that there were about 70,000 food related blogs online. She said that to really charge through all the other blogs you really need to be consistent, post regularly (at least once a day) and to make sure that you convey your own voice. Additionally you should be meticulous and thoughtful with your words and be rich in detail.

Expanding on the last suggestion of, being rich in detail.  Andrea mentioned "when writing, do not to use the word delicious.  "It's over used, it is not really descriptive and does not do much for me".

This comment transported me back to when I worked as a Fromager at the Artisanal Bistro, Wine Bar and Fromagerie in NYC. I got stuck using the word good as power adjective.  Someone would ask  "Can you tell me about that cheese? or How does it taste?" And sure enough the response would be "Oh, it's really good".  Even when I first started selling wines  I would do that too.  In both situations I quickly put an end to that annoying and very unhelpful response.  It just took some focus.  I would think about how I would like someone to describe a food product to me (the good and the bad because there are really some weird ones out there) and that really helped out a lot. 

Like the cheeses and wines that I have sold, blogs are alive and constantanly evolving (virtually speaking of course).  They bring different stories, personalities and experiences to the reader. Some are easier to sell and some you are just not going to understand right away. I hope you enjoy hungrychef.com as much as you do your favorite bottle of wine and hunk of cheese.

Thank you Andrea and Harvey it was an awesome class!!! 

-Erio