Day 96: Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls....

Listening: I love girls, girls, girls, girls, girls all over the globe.

What's my problem? Girls make my heart explode.

I've almost hit my 100th day on the island. As it stands now, what I expected when I came down here is completely opposite of what I was expecting. I was expecting a full work crew and alternating one day and two day off weeks. I was expecting a slightly more wild atmosphere. And I was expecting to get more reading done. None of this has really happened.

Instead, I'm working six days a week, a different station almost every day. The crew has come and gone unexpectedly, leaving us short staffed for the majority of the summer. I've spent time on the beach about six days this summer, and I really haven't met too many people other than my co-workers. Even then, none of us have the same days off, at least not until the middle of September, so we don't spend any free time together.

It's probably a good thing that we're not all off together most of the time. It means that I don't spend money doing stuff with them. Instead, I hang out by myself and spend minimal cash.

The news, the news, the news.... The shitty and the great news all in one mouthful is that Jo-jo is gone. He went back to school to "check in" to his room and to get an extension of his internship so that he could work through Labor Day. I was an arrangement that he had with Chef before he was even given the internship. When Jo-jo went back, he called on the morning that he was supposed to be back at work saying that his school wouldn't let him come back. This, we all know, was bullshit. We have another guy from his school working for us and he said that all Jo-jo needed to do was call up the school and let them know. He didn't even need to go back.

Jo-jo is a bag-a-douche. Everyone knows that now, and the world is a very small place. Your rights and wrongs follow you around like a cloud. There's always someone who knows someone who knows someone in this industry. References are big. I know that if someone in Boston asks me if I worked with him in Nantucket, I'll tell them that I did and I'll tell them what kind of guy that he was. It's the same thing with the girl from Chez that stole my ipod and headphones. Reputations are important. Why not build a good one?

On the brighter side of things, my wonderful roomie, Iria, came down to visit me from Monday through Wednesday. She got in on Monday afternoon, and was out and about while I worked, and passed out shortly after I got off work. Tuesday morning, we got up, puttered around a bit and then got breakfast at the Even Keel Cafe. I have to say that breakfast was okay. It was nice to see Merrill, a girl who I met working at the Nantucket Film Festival. But, as far as the food went, it was nothing to write home about. I had some French toast, and Iria had some blueberry pancakes.

After breakfast, which actually turned out to be more like brunch, we changed and headed out to Jetties Beach to rent a tandem kayak. Iria had never been kayaking before and, I could tell, she couldn't quite figure out an efficient paddling motion. I spent a lot of my time trying to steer. I can only imagine what would have happened had we rented two individual kayaks. There was quite a bit of splashing around involved, but we really couldn't go anywhere too far. We were restricted by the channel on one side, the jetties on another side and the harbor on the other side. It was fun though.

Iria didn't realize just how wet she would be getting in the kayak, so afterwards, we hung out on Jetties Beach waiting for her shorts to dry. It was a beautiful day, and the sun was out. There was a nice breeze and an amusing little boy playing near us. We spent a good couple of hours soaking in the sun and chatting about everything from her time in Boston to her upcoming move back to Germany.

Once Iria's shorts were dry, we headed back to the compound to pick up a Cisco Brewery growler that I had. The original plan was to bike to Bartlett Farms to pick up a snack, go to the Cisco Brewery to pick up beer, and then head to Cisco Beach to have a mid afternoon picnic. As we rode to the Farm and Cisco, the sky got a bit overcast and it became a bit chilly. So, we just ended up staying at the brewery to do a couple of tasting, drink a few pints, and pick up a growler to bring back to the kitchen crew. By the time we left the brewery, it was almost sunset, so we decided to head down to the beach to see if we catch the sunset, and we did. I have to say that it was a spectacular sunset.

It was a long chilly bike ride home. Neither of us were dressed for the drop in temperature that came with the lack of direct sunlight.

After a shower and a change, we headed downstairs to have dinner. It's only the second dinner that I've eaten at my current place of employment, which is the lowest of all of the restaurant that I have worked at. I can't even count the number of times that I have eaten at the Chez. I ate at least four times at the Dizzle and three times at CK. As Pies said just a couple of days later, the food tastes so much better out in the dining room. Everything just tastes so much better. Jon-jon was our server, and I got a chance to see the smiling faces that make up the cast of characters that I usually see by fluorescent light, not candle light. It makes a difference, you know.

Iria had the avocado and cucumber soup special and the salmon for her entree. I had the foie gras tasting (how could I not) and the lamb loin special. As a cook, we taste a lot of components to a dish. We make sure that everything tastes good on its own. We can imagine what these things taste like together, but we rarely get a chance to have a taste of the fully composed dish. So, when we do get to eat a complete dish coming from the kitchen that we work in, it's quite a treat. I have to say that I had a fantastic dinner that really stuffed me to the gills. Iria and I ordered a dessert to share, but we could barely make a dent in it.

It made me happy to see Iria clean her plate. She seemed to love everything that she had that night, which in addition to her soup, salmon, and dessert, included a scallop dish and a cheese plate that Chef sent out to us.

That night, as much as I wanted to go out on the town, I was beat. I had four hours of sleep the two nights before, so I was ready for sleep. So, we stayed in and watched a movie before taking a two hour nap before sunrise.

That's right. We got up before sunrise and headed out to Brant Point to see the sunrise over the boats bobbing in the waves. It was great watching Iria watch the sunrise and sunset. There was just something wonderful about it, as if she were taking advantage of every single sunrise and sunset, as to make the most out of her time on earth. Watching her made me want to make the most of my time on earth too. It's tough, though, when you're a night person in a daytime world. Maybe I'll try to see some more sunrises and sunsets on my days off. Maybe I'll try to have the smile and the sparkle in my eyes like she seems to have. You know, that sparkle of life.

After another short nap, we went to Fog Island for breakfast before she headed back onto the ferry. Surprisingly, I knew one of the servers. She works at my restaurant too. I didn't even know that she worked there. Crazy! Anyhow, Iria and I had a nice breakfast and then it was time for her to leave. It was sad knowing that it would be a long while before I see her again. It won't be a forever thing, but it will be measured in the degrees of months, if not years. But, I do know that in the year that she has lived in Boston, she has become one of my good and trusted friends.

A couple of days after Iria got on the boat, I received an e-mail from Linh, just before I went to work. Her e-mail made a bit of emotion well up in me and made my heart heart a little. She wrote:

Tonight was my last night out with Iria. It only just hit me that she's *really* leaving, and I'm pretty bummed out. Totally irreplaceable. I'll miss her a lot....

I thought of you at dinner and wished you could be there. Iria did, too. We agreed it hasn't been quite the same since you've been away.

I always knew that I missed my room mates. I love them both to pieces. But, for the first time since I've been down here, my heart physically hurt as I missed them and the rest of my good friends in Boston. Brit has been going through a bit of homesickness, because she feels that she can't really depend on anyone down here, and for the first time since I got here, I could really feel what I think she's feeling. At the same time I know that it's a necessary evil for me to be down here. It's making me, not only, a stronger cook, but a stronger person who is more ready to move around the world and take it for my own. It doesn't mean that I miss or love my girls any less.

In a related note, I was thinking today. I work with so many amazing women that it's mind boggling. Sometimes I wonder how any of them are single. They're all beautiful, smart, funny, and charming/charismatic. A number of them are in their late thirties, and I wish I could hook them up with some of my single guy friends from Boston. Some I just want to take home myself, but the likelihood of that seems rather slim. But man, how lucky can I guy like me be to work around such beauty, grace, humor and intelligence. I'm such a lucky guy, even if none of them come home with me. I'm "blessed" by so many great women in my life from Holly, a friend from high school, to Jess, a friend from college, to Linh, a friend from my depression years and my transition years, to Sam, my friend in my happy years. I have such great women stick with me through my life. It makes my heart want to explode.

And now it is late. I'll leave you with some pics from Iria's visit.


Iria and I at the Cisco Brewery


A pint that's made from corn!


Iria during sunset at Cisco


Cisco surfers catching a wave at sunset


The sun beginning to rise at Brant Point


Iria on the beach at sunrise


Sunrise on the fishing boat bobbing sea


The first yacht out in the morning


Iria and the lighthouse


Iria and and I in the breezy morning

Day 91: Cannonball!

Listening: Don't let your life wrap up around you. Don't forget to call, whenever. I'll be here just waiting for you. I'll be under your stars forever, neither here nor there, just right beside you.

What's my problem? Waterlogged flounder.

So I have been slacking a bit on the updating. Well, it's because I've been working my arse off as usual. Things in the kitchen have been relatively okay. Lindsay is a rockstar. She, I can tell, is a much better cook than me right now. I also think that she has been in the business quite a bit longer than me, so I don't feel so bad. Papi, on the other hand, I am finding out is a shit cook.

Man, I don't know why that guy's a cook. Sure he went to the Culinary Institute of America, but that, I am finding out, doesn't mean shit. He's a dirty cook. I don't mean that people will get sick from eating his food. I mean that his mise en place, or station, is constantly in disarray. He doesn't clean his cutting board very often. Pots and pans are everywhere on his stove top. Second, he comes in late all of the time. He's the last one into the kitchen in the "morning," and the first to leave the kitchen for break. The other day, we put up staff meal at a quarter to five. I still had some things that I wanted to do, so I was still setting up my mise en place. Everyone else was peeling potatoes and onions. Even Chef was helping with the peelings. Papi, he takes his meal and leaves without saying a word. Bag-o-douche.

Tonight, we had a lamb special on the menu. As I have experienced on the nights that I have been working the middle/plating/expediting station, Papi is slow on his pickups. He's the last one to put the protein on the plates. Half of the time, I have to grab his sides or sauces and put everything on the plate. See, the saute plates are really quite simple. There isn't a lot of fancy sauce work., not like with the steak plate setup or the shrimp dish setup from the grill station. It's the veg in the middle of the plate, the sauce around the veg, the protein on top, and a garnish on top before Chef puts the finishing touches on. But still, the guy can't get the food to the plate. When I'm working saute, because of the location of the ticket rack, I plate up 90% of my food and am already working on the next pickup as I'm plating the current pickup. Anyhow, Pies knew that he would be slow on the pickup anyways, but Chef wanted the lamb to come off of the grill. Papi was blowing the lamb away. He overcooked a number of lambs. It was totally fucked. And then, as he was pulling his salmon out of the broiler with a not entirely dry towel, he felt the heat in his fingers and dropped his sizzle plate right onto my two orders of flounder. Did I happen to mention that I only had four orders of flounder left? Oh, man did it burn my ass, and Pies almost lost it as he was working the middle/plating/expediting station. I don't blame him.

Anyways, in other news, another annoyance in the kitchen lately is the flounder. See, we used to get this locally fished flounder. It was beautiful stuff. It was firm, browned up well, and was kind of impossible to blow away. Last week, the quota was filled, meaning that the local flounder fishing for the season is over. In fact the quota was overfished by at least a hundred thousand pounds. So now we're getting flounder for somewhere else, and it sucks. When it gets to us, it's all waterlogged. The fish is soft and easily falls apart. Sometimes, even when I'm trying to delicately turn the fish, it breaks. Sometimes when it's browning in the pan, it sticks and falls to pieces. It's just a shitty product. For the past week or so, I have hated putting it on the plate. I feel like I'm doing a disservice to the guests by putting it on the plate. Luckily, Chef has finally decided to switch the protein. I think tomorrow, we're switching to striped bass until that season is over. I can't begin to tell you how much happier I am with it.

On the fun side of life, last night we were done with service early, so a bunch of us went out on the town. We started at Cambridge Street, and ended up at Soupy's ice cream place on Straight Wharf. A lot of us were trashed. One of the servers from my restaurant was so trashed that she decided that she wanted food. She went back to the kitchen of Cambridge Street and rooted around until she found some ice cream. She proceeded to eat ice cream straight out of the carton. It was partially really amusing, and partially horrifying. After we all raided Soupy's ice cream shop, people started jumping off of the roof of the shop into the ocean water below. It was a lot of fun until the cops came. Unfortunately, I didn't get to do it. But I will be doing it by the end of the summer.

Tomorrow is my day off. My roomie from Boston, Iria, is down here for a couple of days. Tomorrow, I'm planning on taking her to Cisco brewery and then to Cisco beach. It should be a good time.

And one final thought before I throw some pictures at you.... China's beach volleyball player Xue Chen is HOT. Hope she wins the bronze.


Our sommelier with a fake mustache.


The crew raiding Soupy's ice cream shop.


Lindsay thinks ice cream is finger-lickin' good!


Pies and Stephanie. By the way, Pies is holding a pint of vodka in his hand.


Brooke and Papi.


Lindsay wielding the scoop.

Day 81: I Have A Girlfriend?

Listening: Now it always seemed such a waste. She always had a pretty face, so I wondered how she hung around this place.

What's my problem? Not enough to say.

Well, it's 8/8/08. It's the opening of the olympics today, and apparently a bunch of dumb people wanted to get married today. C'mon, people. It's just some numbers.

Today was a pretty slow night, surprisingly. On a typical Friday in season, we would be expecting to do right around 200 dinners. Tonight, we did a mere 150. I was running a sardine special on the hot apps station, and we sold five of them all night long.

To be honest, not a lot has been happening lately. I've been working my ass off, as usual, and I am working rounds every week. This means that I'm splitting my time between a number of stations. I work two days on hot apps, two days on saute and two days on the expo/plating station. Doing this is both good and bad. It's good, because it means that I'm clutch. It means that I am the jack of all trades and I can fill in for anyone at any time. It's bad, because it means that I'm covering for people's days off. And on the day before a day off, a lot of people slack off. This means that I have to clean up other people's messes or dig other people out of the weeds. I think it makes me feel important to know that without me, Chef would have to work the line on people's days off.

It seems like staffing is a huge issue these days. We only recently got fully staffed and that's going to end when Jo-jo bounces out of here. A number of other restaurants have had a hard time getting fully staffed. In Boston, I know that since I left the Dizzle, they have been under staffed. What makes it even worse for the Dizzle is that, one line cook left after I left, another one's last day is on Sunday, and then two interns gave their notice the other day. If they don't get bodies in the door, they're screwed.

For the past few years, the gettin' has been good for cooks and chefs, and anyone working in the restaurant industry. With the boom of the food network and all of the pedestrian foodies out there, restaurants have been opening and have been making money hand over fist. With the current economic downturn, I fear that the good times may be ending soon. The cost of everything is up with the cost of oil and gas. In the restaurant industry, we depend on gas to cook with and to transport our raw goods. So this in tern is making it more expensive to put food on a plate, which in turn makes it more expensive for the average joe to go out and eat. If the average joe can't go out to eat, restaurants close. This means that there are less good restaurant jobs. I just hope that when the smoke clears and the dust settles, I'm part of the elite who are running this country's culinary scene.

Anyways, enough of the speculation on the economy and on the future of the American culinary scene. I'll finish this post off with a bit of a story.

Two nights ago, Val, the dishwasher comes in. She works at another restaurant during the day. Lindsay, the new girl's boyfriend works at that restaurant too. So, Val comes in and says to Lindsay and I, "So you're both dating people over at (insert restaurant name)?" Lindsay says she is, and I say, "What on earth are you talking about?" It turns out that The people over at that restaurant were talking about it. Lindsay's boyfriend said that they were dating, and someone else said that the guy with the glasses working where I work was dating a girl over there. I'm the only guy who wears glasses in our kitchen. I assure you, I'm not dating anyone on the island at the moment, but for a while, there was a rumor going around that I was. ti told Val to figure out who I was dating and to make sure she was cute. If she wasn't cute, trade her in for someone who is. As expected, it was all just a big misunderstanding. It's too bad really. It might have been nice to have someone to hang out with on the island.

Speaking of the little bit of loneliness that plagues my stay here, I have found out once and for all the answer to the question of whether I am an introvert or an extrovert. I find that I am an extrovert. I take my energy from those around me. When I'm by myself and I don't know anyone, it's much harder for me to get the ball rolling. My days off are usually pretty solitary, which isn't an entirely bad thing. It's just annoying. Well, I'm off to sleep. Hopefully, I'll have more to say later.