11/26/2001

11/27/01 -If animals were not meant to be eaten, they wouldn’t be divided into primal parts. First day of Skills of Meatcutting and man is it cold. I think its 9 degrees outside today. According to my thermometer it’s 53 in the classroom. I w

11/27/01 -If animals were not meant to be eaten, they wouldn’t be divided into primal parts. First day of Skills of Meatcutting and man is it cold. I think its 9 degrees outside today. According to my thermometer it’s 53 in the classroom. I wore a long john top under my usual t-shirt but my teeth still want to chatter. At least I can’t see my breath. The first day was mostly lecture on poultry and we started breaking down chickens. Sticking cold hands into nearly frozen birds sure does make the fingers turn blue. We also had our first major cut (mine on the first day would be classified as “minor”, thank you). While breaking down the birds a classmate caught her finger for a total of four stitches. She’s a tough one though, she’ll be back tomorrow. 11/28/01 - Today I have my long john shirt on, as well as long biking tights and gloves. It's still a little chilly. After lecture we jumped into a huge leg of beef. Chef sawed off what I referred to as “Brontosaurus Steaks”. I clean up the top round, eye, knuckle and the beginning of the bottom round. My aprons are starting to look like a Jackson Pollack painting. While we cleaned up the leg, Chef made steak tartar. For those not familiar with steak tartar, this version was minced raw beef with Dijon mustard topped with a raw egg yolk, salt and pepper. It was the first time I had eaten steak tartar, and to my surprise, it was pretty tasty. I went back for a few more bites. So, you would think raw meat would be enough of an adventure for one day, but no, there was more to come. That night at restaurant T one of the cooks stopped by a local Asian market and delivered these 3 inch monsters known as water beetles. When the Chef opened the baggy they had a very strong apple smell. So strong that others could smell them from five feet away. I was reminded of Apple Jolly Rancher candies. We simmered them and when they were soft, we squeezed the “essence” out of the rear of the beetle. I know this sounds pretty gnarly, but into the chicken stir fry employee meal it went. The final product was a great tasting stir fry with a hint of apple, not beetle. 11/29/01 - Today we received an entire lamb carcass and my eating new foods continues. Chef sawed open a bone, and for the first time, I ate bone marrow. I had such a small amount I really can’t say it tasted like much, but it did have the consistency of butter. After our lecture and our second quiz (which I think I’m doing fine on) I got the opportunity to french my first lamb rack. “Frenching” is when you expose the bone so it looks like a lollipop, kinda. If you have ever seen a crown rack of lamb, that is a “frenched” rack. Except for cutting a little low towards the meat, the rack turned out nice. I was able to get pretty clean bone to show so my scraping meat attached to the bone was minimal. My time at restaurant C has come to end. I was temporary help and they were able to find permanent help. I would have liked to stay there but the job required me to be there when I was in class. Instead I managed to land some holiday work at a retail kitchen supply store in the mall. I’ll be spending a good portion of my week (and my paycheck) there until Christmas. -Logan

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