The Thai place I tend bar at feeds us dinner every night at the end of the shift. Now before I say anything else about tonight's post-shift dinner, allow me to say that I'm a pretty fair foodie and a pretty fair cook as well. I do tend to favor Japanese food and sushi over Thai food - I've got some very good reasons for that, none of which I'll share in this post.
At about 8:45 tonight, Dave, one of our servers, comes up to the bar and says he needs me to do him a favor. "Sure - whaddya need man?" I say.
"I need you to go right now and take a look at what they made us for dinner tonight - and be sure you take a good whiff of it!" I rather doubt that I'll be surprised really, because these days I'm less and less surprised by what I see at work. I head towards the kitchen, wondering what's in store for us for dinner.
I've been at this place, which I jokingly refer to as "House of MSG", for about a year and a half. I've seen some employee meals that made me feel like I was in a flippin' Unicef commercial - "Please send money now - you can make a difference in someone's life today for just pennies a month." - and I've passed on quite a few of those. I'll either buy something off the menu, go someplace to eat after work, or make something at home. I am not a man who eats things that don't look good. Yeah, I said it.
I go back to the kitchen and Dave is over my shoulder : "Those are FEET!"
Yes, that's exactly what I see a huge bowl of. A big bowl filled with chicken feet. It looks like the feet are sauced with a sweet brown sauce that is used for General Tso's or Sesame chicken, and a few of the dried hot red peppers are scattered over them. As a friend's father used to say, you can't polish a turd. Nothing could make tonight's staff meal appealing for me - except maybe a week without food.
"Yes they are" I calmly reply. In my mind I'm thinking, what THE fuck???
How do I put this delicately? No thanks. One of our cooks (I hate to use the term "Chef" at this place) asks me why I don't want to eat them and then cross-references them with something I won't repeat here.
Again, I know the culture is different - but so is the soil you're standing on in the country you chose to come to, America. I'm sorry, but if chicken feet were so damn good you would see more chicken feet places than burger joints. If chicken feet were so damn good, bars and restaurants would have "Feet Night" instead of "Wing Night" - guess what? They don't !
I've tried some things I never thought I'd try, and some of those things I've liked - but Andrew Zimmern I'm not. Perhaps a little nod to Dr. Seuss:
I will not have those chicken feet
Those are not what I will eat
I do not care how you will fry
these feet you will not make me try
I'm hungry yes, the hour is late
but do not put those on my plate
...uhm, yeah, that's about enough on that one huh?
Sarcasm spoken here
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
It's The Little Things...
Sometimes it's the little things that mean a lot. Cliche, I know - deal with it. All I can say is that lately I find myself noticing some very little things that mean a lot to me. I guess you could say that to me, any of these things really aren't that little - they're actually very big things that I cherish, yeah - I said it.
So what kinds of things am I talking about? Here are a few of the things that either always jump out at me at just the right time, or that I'm thinking of currently:
1) A hand made birthday card that my niece Amy made for me two years ago. It's drawn in pencil and she drew me on the front with the caption "sad - Befor", on the inside, the card reads as follows: today is you'r day, you are ___(I'm not telling, but it's 40-enough, thank you) years old. good luck! happy .B. day! - on the back of the card is another rendering of me, but this one is smiling and reads, happy/after. Makes sense to me - isn't everyone happy after their birthday?
2) A square tray made out of popsicle sticks that my nephew Matt gave me - probably 9 or ten years ago. One of the sticks broke off and I still have it - I'm going to glue it back on. The tray sits on top of a small bookshelf where I put my keys. It's there in order for me to see it all the time.
3) A few emails with encouraging words from friends - I keep these and look back at them from time to time on days when I feel like I'm struggling. Sometimes I take a line from emails like these and print it out to stick it on my bulletin board - that's how inspiring and uplifting a kind word from one of my friends can be, and I consider myself very friend-rich.
4) Along the same lines as #3, a text message sent to me by a friend, seconds after I got off the phone with him and he asked me to be a groomsman in his wedding. This, on a day when I found myself wondering if I'd made a difference for anyone else. I felt like the universe, and my friend both were tapping me on the shoulder and telling me that yes, I had indeed made a difference. Who would've thought that a simple text message would end up meaning so much?
5) A small mason jar that was given to me filled with real maple syrup from the property of a woman who used to decorate the upscale restaurant where I used to work. BJ, the woman who gave me this jar of syrup, passed away last summer after a long battle with cancer. She was a delightful woman to talk to, actually to listen to. She had this incredible way of bestowing warmth, wisdom, humor and complete kindness to anyone she was around - and I only had the blessing of being in her presence every once in awhile. I'm a bit of an odd duck in that I only eat pancakes in the winter months. For some reason I find blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup on a winter morning very comforting - and I always think of BJ and what a delightful person she was when I have pancakes now. I hope I always will.
6) A note on a torn off piece of paper that reads: Thank You! U were Great! This note was left by a customer who was very particular about what they wanted. I only wanted to get them exactly what they wanted, but for some reason that became a bit difficult due to my manager interrupting me and making things much harder than they needed to be. What makes this note special is that the kind of aggravation that took place that night is a regular occurence at my place of employment - though it needn't be. This customer made a point of going up to the front desk and asking for a pen and the paper to write it on - and they left a nice tip as well. To me this note says, "see? it's them, not you."
7) A card from a couple from Australia, who were visiting friends in this country, friends who happen to be among my friends. The last thing I expected was to receive a card from these two people telling me that the best thing about their trip to the United States was meeting the friends of the people they were visiting with. Maybe it shouldn't have surprised me so much, because these particular people are among the nicest people I know and I'm lucky to be anywhere in a circle of friends that include people like these.
8) A rather bright red canvas Chinese newspaper boy hat. This hat is a bit bright, especially for a man, a bit of a tight fit, and it only looks good on me worn backwards so that it looks kind of like a beret. The hat was given to me by a guy who came over here from Laos and worked as the lead cook at the Thai place I'm currently employed with. Everyone called this guy Papa John, and much of the time, Papa John was a bit crabby to the men at work - but he was always giving the young girls food, pushing a stool towards them and telling them to sit down and rest while they ate. Most of the time I left John alone - but I saw kindness in that man's heart and I could tell that his crabby mood at work was born of loneliness and being unhappy. All that man did, at least in the time that I knew him, was work - six days a week and 12-14 hour days. As if it wasn't hot enough in the kitchen, the owner had John outside mowing the damn lawn in the summer months too. John himself wore a hat like this and gave me my hat after I complimented him on his one night. John passed away at 45, two weeks ago. I once thought this hat was perhaps a bit bright for a man to wear - at least if that man is me. Now I'll wear it whenever I want to and I don't care what anyone else thinks about it, so there.
There you have it, the little things that mean a lot to me.
So what kinds of things am I talking about? Here are a few of the things that either always jump out at me at just the right time, or that I'm thinking of currently:
1) A hand made birthday card that my niece Amy made for me two years ago. It's drawn in pencil and she drew me on the front with the caption "sad - Befor", on the inside, the card reads as follows: today is you'r day, you are ___(I'm not telling, but it's 40-enough, thank you) years old. good luck! happy .B. day! - on the back of the card is another rendering of me, but this one is smiling and reads, happy/after. Makes sense to me - isn't everyone happy after their birthday?
2) A square tray made out of popsicle sticks that my nephew Matt gave me - probably 9 or ten years ago. One of the sticks broke off and I still have it - I'm going to glue it back on. The tray sits on top of a small bookshelf where I put my keys. It's there in order for me to see it all the time.
3) A few emails with encouraging words from friends - I keep these and look back at them from time to time on days when I feel like I'm struggling. Sometimes I take a line from emails like these and print it out to stick it on my bulletin board - that's how inspiring and uplifting a kind word from one of my friends can be, and I consider myself very friend-rich.
4) Along the same lines as #3, a text message sent to me by a friend, seconds after I got off the phone with him and he asked me to be a groomsman in his wedding. This, on a day when I found myself wondering if I'd made a difference for anyone else. I felt like the universe, and my friend both were tapping me on the shoulder and telling me that yes, I had indeed made a difference. Who would've thought that a simple text message would end up meaning so much?
5) A small mason jar that was given to me filled with real maple syrup from the property of a woman who used to decorate the upscale restaurant where I used to work. BJ, the woman who gave me this jar of syrup, passed away last summer after a long battle with cancer. She was a delightful woman to talk to, actually to listen to. She had this incredible way of bestowing warmth, wisdom, humor and complete kindness to anyone she was around - and I only had the blessing of being in her presence every once in awhile. I'm a bit of an odd duck in that I only eat pancakes in the winter months. For some reason I find blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup on a winter morning very comforting - and I always think of BJ and what a delightful person she was when I have pancakes now. I hope I always will.
6) A note on a torn off piece of paper that reads: Thank You! U were Great! This note was left by a customer who was very particular about what they wanted. I only wanted to get them exactly what they wanted, but for some reason that became a bit difficult due to my manager interrupting me and making things much harder than they needed to be. What makes this note special is that the kind of aggravation that took place that night is a regular occurence at my place of employment - though it needn't be. This customer made a point of going up to the front desk and asking for a pen and the paper to write it on - and they left a nice tip as well. To me this note says, "see? it's them, not you."
7) A card from a couple from Australia, who were visiting friends in this country, friends who happen to be among my friends. The last thing I expected was to receive a card from these two people telling me that the best thing about their trip to the United States was meeting the friends of the people they were visiting with. Maybe it shouldn't have surprised me so much, because these particular people are among the nicest people I know and I'm lucky to be anywhere in a circle of friends that include people like these.
8) A rather bright red canvas Chinese newspaper boy hat. This hat is a bit bright, especially for a man, a bit of a tight fit, and it only looks good on me worn backwards so that it looks kind of like a beret. The hat was given to me by a guy who came over here from Laos and worked as the lead cook at the Thai place I'm currently employed with. Everyone called this guy Papa John, and much of the time, Papa John was a bit crabby to the men at work - but he was always giving the young girls food, pushing a stool towards them and telling them to sit down and rest while they ate. Most of the time I left John alone - but I saw kindness in that man's heart and I could tell that his crabby mood at work was born of loneliness and being unhappy. All that man did, at least in the time that I knew him, was work - six days a week and 12-14 hour days. As if it wasn't hot enough in the kitchen, the owner had John outside mowing the damn lawn in the summer months too. John himself wore a hat like this and gave me my hat after I complimented him on his one night. John passed away at 45, two weeks ago. I once thought this hat was perhaps a bit bright for a man to wear - at least if that man is me. Now I'll wear it whenever I want to and I don't care what anyone else thinks about it, so there.
There you have it, the little things that mean a lot to me.
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