Working as a bus boy/dishwasher in my teens early 20's gave me a huge work ethic advantage when I got a "real" job.
Much respect to people who do the restaurant gig as a profession.

my first full time job was in a massive, fine dining but geriatric restaurant that a friend/coworker got me.

was a prep cook which meant i used a knife 6 hours a day, listened to all the culinary students talk very highly of themselves. usually put in 55 hour weeks, 12hr sundays. some highlights were 6 of us getting 900 caesar salads out in like 15 mins (dressed lettuce = made to order), SOMEHOW getting a massive prime rib remake, that my manager pointed out cost more than i made that night, eating spaghetti on my way out the door after a 17hr thanksgiving shift, and having my knife (most people had the full sets, most cia grads) so sharp i played real life fruit ninja in one of the 17 walkins with this girl.

staff was probably over 200, half of which were hispanic for grounds/dishwashing/onsight laundry/maybe 5 cooks. they loved me cause i actually sharpened my spanish enough to talk casually with them. played soccer with an orange in the loading bay a few times.

Some random dishes recently.

Shanghai style crystal shrimp. Its my measuring stick for all Shanghai style restaurants. Its just sauteed shrimps but the texture is notoriously difficult to master. I have made this close to 50 times and have barely made inroads towards the best versions I've had. In the spring, can be combined with fresh longjing tea leaves for longjing shrimp.



Celtuce (asparagus lettuce) salad.



Fava beans with cured pork loin, fresh bamboo. Had to use up scallops so why not.



Roasted cauliflower, cherry peppers, golden raisins, greek yogurt. Would have been nice with some pinenuts but none on hand.



Panna cotta with tawny port poached pears and some reduced poaching liquid. Wife made me form the poaching liquid in to a heart on top after the pentagram disaster last time.

nice stuff, wish I could eat that poached pear and panna cotta.

I want to go to pear.

Looks great amoeba.

Big, that's a serious blondie!

Italian sandwich cookies, hero-style

Amoeba, those shrimp look great (as well as the other dishes).

What texture are you trying to master and why does it matter?

Not a huge Italian cookie guy but these look solid.

Hi yim, thanks for the praise.

The texture is supposed to be crunchy, almost like lobster sashimi or sweet shrimp sashimi but cooked and less slimy/slippery. Part of the difficulty is that traditionally this dish is made with freshly killed freshwater prawns, which arent available in the US. I had to resort to Florida pink shrimp, which is the closest salt water facimile I could find in the US. I suppose I havent tried it with Santa Barbara spot prawns but thats not readily available and too expensive to experiment with.

As to why it matters, there is a liveliness in the slightly crunchy texture. The key is the right amount of egg white and cornstarch and also great heat control. For example, in my picture, I had a bit too much corn starch and also heat was a bit high, causing a bit of unwanted charring. The things I did better than previous attempts is no excess liquid and no oil slick and no excess egg white that solidifies. Instead there is a shiny super thin velvety film of eggwhite/cornstarch that preserves the tenderness and crunchyness.

Its supposed to look like this (this is the longjing version)



And served with a sweetened aged zhenjiang vinegar which you can optionally dip.

thx for the great explanation

There is a whole class of Chinese fine dining dishes from long ago that are virtually unknown in the west and dying out in China.

For example, Kai Shui Bai Cai, or napa cabbage boiled in water. You wouldnt know it that this dish with its consomme and lack of chilies or peppercorns is a Szechuan dish. It likely predates the arrival of chile peppers in the 16th Century. The clarification by adding mince is exactly what you would find in a French restaurant kitchen.

Man, the I’m into episode 5 of the new chefs table on Netflix. Holy **** is it good. The first one didn’t spend enough time on food for my taste, but hot damn are the others exceptional. Such a beautiful view into food and culture.

Isn't that just cabbage "boiled" (looks more like just quick poaching to me) in consomme? Looks very French actually.

It's fascinating to me how different cultures develop similar cooking techniques.

There’s only 4 episodes in the new season - but the last season was incredible and I watched Sean Brock’s of the new season. Wow. A must watch, really great stuff.

Yeah my bad 4 it is.

They were all really great.

Did pork schnitzel; breadcrumb mix made from Panko, Sesame Seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric, and dried chillies. Finished with a bourbon chocolate mousse.

Bourbon chocolate??

Chocolate mousse with bourbon**

What’s the side with peas? Looks sautéed with kale?

Also chops look great, I’m going to grill some marinated ones today.

Curious about recipe for bourbon mousse.

Awesome! Hope it all tasted as good as it looks.

brunch item - raisin challah french toast balls stuffed with maple sausage bread pudding

Thanks guys

The peas are just steamed and then finished with butter, a heap of fresh mint and some chillies.

And the mousse is pretty similar to this one, but with bourbon instead of brandy.

Very cool, thanks.

Leg of lamb roast. Seared/basted in garlic and butter. Slow roasted at 200F. Crisped up with the broiler.