Tuesday, December 7, 2010

I was off today. I had scheduled a tour of St John Island. The tour bus driver picked us up at a little after 8am and whisked us off to the marina at the eastern most side of the island. We boarded a ferry to St John, which is 3 and 3/4 miles from St Thomas (point to point as they say here). We were met on St John's by Charlie, who said he was our cook and that we didn't want him to drive, lol. Well, it turns out he was our driver on the island! And, he speaks Danish! Now there's something you don't expect from an islander.

He drove us all over the island and was just not showing us the sites, but was also giving us biology lessons. There are 1100 different species of plants on St John. They are never without a fruit in season. They grow oranges, papaya, bananas, avocados, and guavas to name a few. They also grow spices: tamarind, mint, oregano. The list seems to go on and on! There are also huge nests of termites. The islanders call termites, tree lice. An apt name! The islands were originally Spanish, then taken over by the Danes alternating with the British, until it was finally held by the Danes. The US bought 62 islands back in 1917, the third largest being St John. The largest island in the USVI is St Croix (which mostly belonged to the French), the second largest is St Thomas. Only about half of the 62 islands are inhabited. Two thirds of St Johns is National Forest, donated by one of the Rockefellers. There is a large hotel which is still operating with the National Forest. We visited an old sugar cane plantation, that has been reduced to ruins. Sugar cane was the major industry for 150 years during the 18th and 19th centuries. 90% of the island was deforested during this time. Once you see the island, it's hard to believe. St John is SO green and lush. Lunch was provided by Tropic Tours. Uninspired but not bad. We had some beach time at Trunk Beach after lunch. It is inside the National Forest also. The park rangers talked about snorkeling and the fact that Trunk Beach is also a marine sanctuary. In other words, leave everything you find in the water. It has been overcast all day, which resulted in a rough surf. I was befriended by a couple from New York, Stephan and Mirra- very nice people! Mirra and I were standing in the water
when a wave hit me unexpectedly. I was rolled over, dunked underwater and lost my glasses! We never did find them. I left word at the Ranger Station that if my glasses were found, to please let me know. I have a number so I can check to see if anyone found them. When I talked to the lifeguards about the possibility of my glasses washing up on shore, they just shook their heads no and told me (paraphrased here) that only stupid people wear their glasses into the ocean. I guess there is nothing to do but wait. Thank goodness I had an extra pair of glasses at Bolongo. However, that means for the rest of the afternoon, I couldn't see very well! At least there was only an hour or so until it was time to leave. And, unfortunately, once I got back on St Thomas, I got on the wrong tour bus back to Bolongo so had to catch a taxi from the Windham hotel! Not a good finish to the day!

But I am back in my room at Bolongo, wearing my second pair of glasses. It started to rain after I got back and too early for dinner, so here I am. Since the Lobster Grille is closed tonight, I'm having dinner at Iggie's so hope the rain has stopped. (Our tour guide says it never rains in the USVI, there is just liquid sunshine!).

Monday, December 6, 2010

Another day in paradise.... Janee took me to the laundromat today (excitement everywhere) so I could get my laundry done. Apparently it is cheaper to have someone else do your laundry. Since there is no laundry facilities on property at Bolongo Bay, that works for me!

Iggie's is closed today for renovations, so the Lobster Grille was busier than usual for this time of year. I made Island Rice again after getting to work at 2pm, then thawed shrimp and mahi. I was also tasked with coming up with the employee dinner. Think, think... The islanders love chicken wings, so I thawed some out, made my own BBQ sauce (I couldn't remember everything that's goes into BBQ sauce any more, so had to wing it-no pun intended, lol), and roasted them in the oven. I served them with french fries. They seemed to go over well! Then they put me in charge of appetizers for the Managers Cocktail party. Janee and Ryan had already decided to serve spring rolls again, so all I had to do was deep-fry them, cut them at an angle, platter them with two sauces (already made) and send them off. I guess Ryan didn't think I was working fast enough, because he told me to cut three rolls at a time, on the diagonal, throw them on the plate cause people were going to scarf them down so it wasn't worth making them look pretty. Ah, well, speed should come with experience. Ar 25 years old, he has cooked in a commercial kitchen for at least ten years. He really is good at what he does. The rest of the evening, I worked the pantry with Judy. I made salads, lobster cocktails and served up desserts-Chocolate Banana Cake, Key Lime Pie, Mango Cheesecake and "Hot Chocolate"-a baked chocolate souffle type of dessert. That is the only dessert I have't tried. In between orders, I pulled the strings off of sugar snap peas. Judy couldn't believe how quick I was. Finally!! Something I'm quick at, lol. I didn't get outnof there until after 10pm. They have me clocking in and out, I guess to make sure I really am working the hours they are giving me room and board for, lol.

We are all off tomorrow as the Lobster Grille is closed on Tuesdays at least for the next two weeks. I need to get out more, I'm getting a little claustrophobic staying on property so much, so tomorrow I am taking a tour of St John, one of the other USVIs. They pick me up at 8am and drop me back at Bolongo at 5pm. I am looking forward to getting out and about! Wednesday Janee and I are going to do a little island sightseeing and maybe go to K-Mart so I can check it out, and to help me pick up my laundry. Hey, you have to get your excitement where you can!

My legs look like I have the chickenpox! They have red bug bites all over, from the knees down. I counted 50 on one leg alone the other day! Yikes!! Benadryl and aloe have helped but I'll have to protect myself more. I finally unpacked because they haven't talked about moving me yet. It's midnight, so time for bed if I am going to get up at 7am to take my tour. Night everyone!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

There are always flies in the kitchen and I hate that! Drew, however, told me it doesn't help to hate them-you have to make peace with them. Flies are always around but they seem to hang around more when the day shift is working. They do seem to clear out a bit later in the evening. And we are an outdoor kitchen. Ah, the tropics.......

Tonight it was just Janee and Ryan and myself in the kitchen with Judy working salads and desserts. I started off by making mango salsa-lots of chopping, lol. Then I was tasked with making French Onion soup. They have recipes for both these things, which makes my job a little easier, lol. I worked the appetizer station with Janee. We served 44 dinners tonight. Not too bad. Tomorrow night we will be busier because Iggie's will be closed for renovations. I think the most difficult for me is plating. There are about 9 squeeze bottles, each containing a different sauce. Then there are salsas, and other things that are matched to each appetizer. Sometimes it seems confusing! I know eventually I'll remember but just in time for the menu to change! Janee made spring rolls tonight with a peanut sauce to go with them. The other thing I made before dinner service started was bacon wrapped scallops-yum! People always seem to want lobster, so we make a lot of stuffed lobster (the lobster here is a spiny lobster, unlike lobster Americans are used to)-stuffed withma seafood stuffing. The other favoritemis steak, either filet or New York strip. No baked potatoes, either roasted or mashed and island rice. The vegetables change between asparagus, broccoli and green beans. You work with what you can get down here. I find it interesting that our mushrooms come from Watsonville, California. Other vegetables come from South American and the butter comes from New Zealand!

After work, I had a drink with Janee and Ryan. I always like to hear why people have ended up here in St Thomas. Janee vacationed here with her aunt and they both decided they wanted to live here. Janee left her husband and her kids to move here after she finishedncooking school. Ryan moved her because he wanted to getnaway from the cold New England area. He doesn't even think about going back! Janee and Ryan moved on to Iggie's after that and I went back to my room-I just can't drink that much!

The new schedule is out, I have Tuesday and Friday off this week. I work one day at Iggie's and two days orienting to banquets with Janee. Should prove interesting!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Saturday, my day off! It was pretty much a lazy day. I went to the beach in the morning, did a little reading, talked to Jordan, took a nap (went to bed too late last night), then went on the Sunset Cruise on Heavenly Daze, Bolongo's catamaran. We boarded at 4:15pm, sailed at 4:30pm out toward St Croix, then over toward Frenchman's bay in Charlotte Amalie, the capital of St Thomas. The bay was originally a dead end bay until the US bought it and the military wanted one way in and another way out (for submarines), so they blasted out the bay leaving two islands but three ways into the bay. It does look quite nice actually. We saw where cruise ships dock, you can see the hospital on the side of the hill in town, and one of the popular shopping centers. The sunset on the way back to Bolongo was beautiful and the colors seemed to last for a long, long time. There was the captain-who has lived here since he was 28 (much older now, lol), and two crew members, Jolene and Theo. Theo is an islander who comes from a very large family. He has 14 brothers and 5 sisters. He was the 8th child. I can NOT imagine having that many kids!! But he seems to love his mama, lol. Jolene moved here with her boyfriend from Florida and will be returning to the mainland in about two months. She calls this a "means to an end". Now I am back at Bolongo Bay Resort and ready to have some dinner. There is a steel drum, one man band outside playing. He got the rhythm, mon, but not a very good voice. It's interesting to hear the intro to a song here, thinking it's a song you recognize then all of a sudden it turns into a song with a calypso beat! Kinda weird.. It was nice to get out for a bit. It still seems strange to actually live in paradise and not just vacationing. It's been one week since I got here and I am thinking I need more time to acclimate. There are no laundry services at the resort, so on Monday, Janee is going to drive me to the place she gets her laundry done (it is almost cheaper to have someone else do it rather than try to do it yourself!!). What excitement, aye? I will be back to work tomorrow so will have another update then. 'Night all!!

Friday, December 3, 2010

As I write the date, it's hard to believe that it's December already! I spent this morning sitting in the sun by the pool. It was cloudy again this morning, then cleared by noon or so. Ryan asked if any of us thought it was getting colder lately? I said what, like 78 instead of 80? He laughed, but he's right, there is a difference.

At work, it was just Ryan, Drew, old Willie and me. Willie took care of salads and desserts. His cooling station broke down again. He gets so angry when that happens, I feel bad for him. I started off making Island Rice-they actually have a recipe for that, lol. (1 carrot, 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, 1 onion, 3 quarts of rice, 6 quarts of water, 3 Tbsp of tomato paste, 1/4 of a jar of lobster base, 1 Tbsp cumin, 3 Tbsp granulated garlic, and 1 Tbsp of paprika.). After that, I was put in charge of making the employee dinner. After some debate, as I still am not entirely sure what they have or don't have, I ended up making Tarragon Chicken with rice pilaf. Ryan took a plate and tried it then rolled is eyes at me. I asked what was wrong and he told me he couldn't believe more people didn't want to eat what comes out of our kitchen. I took that as a compliment, lol. After that, we tried to get ready for the evening. You never know how many people you will end up serving at any given time. The only thing Ryan knew for certain was that there were reservations for a party of 16 (!!). Orders rolled in slowly, until the 6 people got here. They all wanted salads and appetizers and main dishes and we were scrambling. I felt after a while that I was more a hindrance than a help, especially for Drew, as he is still being oriented to the kitchen. So I stepped back and played "go-fer". Ryan can certainly crank out a lot of food and seems to be able to keep 4-5 pans going at one time! I should ever be that good. I told him at the end of the shift that I was sorry I couldn't be more of a help. He asked me if I had ever worked as a line cook-I had to say no. He told me I did just fine, which helped me feel a little better, lol. I can't even bake to relieve some of my stress, lol! They have no chocolate chips, no chips of any kind, no dried fruit, not much of anything for baking. I have to remind myself that this was just my first week. I'll get used to it and I'll get better.

Willie went home and the three of us left to have a drink together. Drew and Ryan really are nice guys. Did you know that rum is cheaper than water here? Part of it is that Cuzan rum is made in St Crouix-no shipping! Tomorrow I have off-so will try for more R&R- there's a lot of that going on down here.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Another quiet morning. I was expecting housekeeping today but the front desk said Fridays they come in. It was cloudy most of the morning, but cleared up by noon and the sun came out. I am still slowly working on a tan, don't want a sunburn. I signed up for the Sunset Cruise on the Bolongo Bay boat, Heavenly Daze. You board at 4:15pm and get back around 7pm. We'll see what they have to offer!

I heard Miss Viola (who told me she has worked at Bolongo Bay for 38 years and she loves Jesus) say the Grille was not open tonight, but as I am scheduled for work tonight (and off Saturday, not Sunday-they write their schedules out a little different) so I hope we ARE open, lol. The day crew (waitresses and cooks) are not quite as friendly as the swing shift, but at least they aren't asking me to

Most of the employees still think the Lobster Grille is closed on Thursdays, but I knew I was scheduled to work, so showed up at 2 pm anyway. Sure 'nuf we were open! My first assignment was to make a soup as a special. I could make anything I wanted, which again, sometimes is overwhelming faced with all those ingredients! But I went with mushroom soup (sometimes you have to use up either what is starting to go bad or that you have too much of, but we had just gotten new supplies so anything and everything was up for grabs. I made mirepouix, sauted it in butter and olive oil, then heated up chicken stock. I then sauted slice mushrooms in butter and added everything into the stock as well as a small amount of roux, thyme, a bay leaf, salt and pepper and left it to simmer. Once it was done, I purred it and stained it. Knead going to add some cream but everyone thought it tasted good on it's own, so I left it alone. It will actually be served tomorrow night. Then I got food ready for the day cruise tomorrow on Heavenly Daze. I sliced roast beef and turkey breast on the slicer, made tuna salad (no specific recipe, just make it however I want), baked pre-made chocolate chip cookies (who would have though they didn't make them from scratch!) and plated pre-made potato salad (after putting some lettuce down on the plate to make it more decorative). Savory food on (colorful) plastic platters, cookies on silver trays. I'll get this down eventually. After doing all this, Janee sent me home because there was not much else to do and we had lots of help in the kitchen. I ate dinner at the bar (after taking a quick shower and changing into street clothes), salmon en croute, mashed potatoes and string beans and a glass of Chardonnay. I am slowly working my way
through the menu, lol. Then off to relax--this is definitely a place to relax!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

It's Thursday, so I am a little behind on writing, so for this entry, pretend it's still Wednesday, lol.

Wednesday morning I just took it easy, for some reason I did not get much sleep. Could be all that itching from bug bites on my legs and arms. Oh, well, this to shall pass.

When I got to work I started helping Janee with the Rotary dinner. I made a huge salad with romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, shreded carrots and diced red onion. Once that was done, it was on to cutting and roasting huge batch of of red potatoes (potatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic). I also made a vinaigrette of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and a touch of honey to take the edge off the tartness of the vinaigrette. Then I sliced and roasted a smaller batch of red potatoes (using olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme). I sliced bread and then did some cleaning. Two of our coolers went down today so food needed to be moved and stored elsewhere or just thrown away. I also organized and cleaned up the walk-in. Drew is still orienting and I think they would like to get him further along before they put me on hotline, etc. Being an intern is not very glamourous but if I can learn all I can learn now, that's ok.

Janee sent me to Iggie's to see how they set up their West Indies buffet. The only things I recognized were chicken, broccoli and cauliflower, island rice and peas (a different version of what they use at the Lobster Grille, which is just white rice, mirepouix and seasonings), mac'n'cheese (!?!) and fish. There were also some cold salads and desserts and a carving station with roasted beef and pork. Gabriel showed me around and explained how they set up, etc. Gabriel was born in LA, moved to Brazil with his family, then back to LA and experienced what he calls "culture shock". Apparently things were not the same as when he left, lol. He has a little bit of an accent, which is why I asked where he was from originally. Then it was back to the Grille and more cleaning.

At 8pm, Janee sent me back to Iggie's so I could watch the Carnival Celebration. Apparently this happens almost every Wednesday. Veronica, who runs the gift shop, is the MC for this show. She had told me my first day that she was in charge of all things fun, lol, I guess that's true! First they had a Congo line and she took everyone in the Congo line back up on stage with her. Then came Karen, an already tall woman wearing stilts and a sparkly costume (all of which made her 7-8 feet tall!). She got all the men, then all the women, then all the children to dance with her. I think I would need a lot of alcohol or maybe just knowing that I was on vacation for me to get up there! After Karen, came what Vernita calls "Dancing with the Stars, Island Style". She asked for four couples to come up on the stage. She also said they had to be married. Cuple number one had been married 23 years, couple number two had been married for seven years, couple number three for 14 years and couple number four for ONE HOUR! Each couple danced to a song the steel drum band played, then the audience chose the winner. Couple #4 won. Each couple got some sort of prize, so everyone was a winner. Then came King Herod, who hails from Aruba. He's a small, thin, black man with long dreadlocks who comes on stage bear foot. First he walked on glass (wine and beer bottles that he broke right in front of the audience), then he poured lighter fluid on the glass and set it on fire and jumped onto the burning glass from the height of a chair. The finale of his act was doing the limbo. He had three bottles that were burning from cloth that had been soaked in lighter fluid. He held one bottle in each hand and balanced the third bottle on his forehead. Each pass brought the bar lower and lower and the bottle on his forehead started the limbo bar on fire. He took the burning bar and placed it on the bottom set of hooks, then did the limbo and had to lay flat to get under the burning bar. Impressive, but he is crazy! There are also island crafts for sale outside the bar area before, during and after the show.

After the show (I did not stay for the end where everyone was suppose to come up on stage and dance) I went back to the Grille, where Ryan made me a deconstructed Salad Nicoise for dinner. They roast potatoes (the ones I roasted earlier), put those on a plate, grill some tuna steaks (rare-medium rare), put that on top, then top the tuna with a Mediterranean salsa and basil aioli. That is then surrounded by quartered hard boiled eggs. It is one of our new menu items. Very nice!

So not a very exciting life, but what a beautiful place to live! I will come back later and add a picture of King Herod (wonder how he got that name?).