Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I had dinner last night at the Lobster Grille. Paul (one of the owners) and his wife Colleen were sitting at the bar, sampling the arancini so we talked for a bit. Janee stopped by to talk to us and asked about the Christmas party for employees. I'm not sure exactly when they are having their Christmas party (and I'm not sure they know either!), but Janee would like to just go this year and not have to cook first. Paul suggested there were other people who could cook the employee dinner, reminding her she also had an intern she could use so she did not have to cook. We'll see what happens....

12 noon as I head toward Iggie's. They have not finished installing the hood in the kitchen so it gets about 115 degrees in there. Holy cow, is it hot!!! I am tempted to spend the day sitting in front of one of the fans they have set up there, but that's not what I'm here for, lol. I ask Mary what she would like me to do. Most of the kitchen staff at Iggie's are islanders. With heavy island accents, which sometimes I have a hard time understanding (and I thought I was good at accents!). I often have to ask them to repeat themselves. First I made coleslaw (3 head of ca-badge, tree ca-rote, one red pep-pa, den you use the salt and da pep-pa, a lee-tle honey, sam su-gar an den da coleslaw dressin'). I had to use the slicer to shred the cabbage and I have to say I am happy I used it when I was in school, otherwise, I'd be in trouble! Then I made hamburger patties out of two ten pound packages of ground beef. I was told to cut the packages in half (ok, so I cut them in half thru the middle when Mary wanted me to cut them length-wise), salt and pepper the meat, then fold it in half, get the scale, and measure the meat into 8 oz portions and place them on a tray. Once I had weighed all the meat, I was shown how to use the hamburger press so they would be round, look nice, etc, between pieces of deli paper. I think the only reason they don't think I'm totally stupid, is that I catch on quickly (at least that's what Arthur told me tonight when I was helping him with the all you can eat crab-that I catch on quick). Once I was done with the burgers, Mary had a sink full of thigh/leg chicken quarters that she wanted me to clean. I had to take off all the extra
fat and the "stuff" under the spine (their chicken quarters look like they cut the chicken in half through the "waist", then straight through the middle of the spine, so that it is still attached to the thigh (if that makes any sense). Once I finished that, Mary told me she didn't have any more for me to do so sHe sent me on a break.

When I came back, she had me work with Arthur, who isnin charge of setting up and getting ready for "all you can eat crab night" at Iggie's. They actually set it up outside of the restaurant on the stage, so everything has to be carried out onto the beach (3 tables, 5 chafing dishes, the two burner unit that attaches to propane tanks and two extremely large pots in which the crab gets boiled in, plates, napkins, serving pieces, buckets for the crab legs). Besides snow crab legs, you are served island rice, corn on the cob, clarified butter, a lemon wedge and cornbread with honey butter. I thought the guests came up and served themselves, but they don't. The order comes out onto the beach, they we make up the plates and the waitresses come and pick them up and deliver then food to each guest. The waitresses come back out to pick up more crab legs as needed. I was ready to go by 8pm! Nice I didn't have to clean up, lol!

The fans in the kitchen at Iggie's are working, at least a little, so it wasn't as hot as it has been. There was another wedding on the beach today. They had a one man steel drum band play for them, then he moved over to entertain at Iggie's. It's the same guy that plays at the Lobster Grille on weekends. He says he does "other people's music my way" (calypso). The wedding party had their dinner up by the Lobster Grille, althou they sat by the pool. It looked like a very nice set up.

Just before I left Iggie's we had another power outage. At least I knew I would have power to my room (as well as both restaurants and the lobby. No TV though. Anyway, tomorrow is my day off. The only thing I really need to get done is laundry. Maybe Sunday I'll try to do another tour of some sort.

Monday, December 13, 2010

I was up early this morning so I could go work at Bolongo's private warehouse. It is on property so I can walk there. I was expecting to spend the day with Gene, the purchasing manager, but spent the day with Luz, his assistant, and Bolo, the "warehouse guy". They were both really nice although by lunch time, Luz couldn't resist asking me, "Aren't you a little OLD to be an intern?". I explained about changing careers, but I don't think they understand leaving a good paying job or just wanting to follow your dream. They expected a young insecure person they could "scare". They got me instead, lol. I don't scare or intimidate easily! When I told Janee about it later in the day, she admitted someone had asked her if I was her mother. Oh, my, I don't think I look THAT old, but maybe I'm wrong, lol!

I started off working with Bolo, filling orders orders from the Lobster Grille, Iggie's and the gift shop (what purchasing calls retail). There were dry goods, refrigerated goods and frozen goods. They made me take a jacket with me to work in refrigeration-it gets cold in there! The reason they chose Monday is because they get the majority of their deliveries on Mondays (and Wednesdays). We received food of every variety and also received a large alcohol shipment. I can't believe what they have. Apparently hard liquor is cheaper than wine, as hard liquor is their majority inventory. Bolo then delivers the restaurant orders up to twice a day (food in one load, liquor in another delivery. Lug showed me how she enters all the orders so she could then do costing. She has an Excel spread sheet that will automatically figure the cost of all their inventory. She first enters each restaurant's order,then inputs it into another spread sheet that shows everyone's individual spending/orders, then what it costs the entire resort to run their business. It was interesting seeing their numbers. They spend a lot of money! Janee had shown me yesterday, her menu costing. Her food costs runs about 14-30%. Not too bad. Janee also reviewed the cost of each dish vs what the resort charges for each meal. Luz and Bolo finished work at 4pm, so I was free to go. I have the evening to myself.

I also met the new Iggie's kitchen manager (looks like a chef-white jacket and black and white chef pants). I guess I'll be working with him tomorrow when I'm down at Iggie's working from 12-8pm. All you can eat crab night at Iggie's!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

I went to bed about midnight, slept for about an hour, then woke up wide awake! I hate when that happens! I was itchy-always new bug bites no matter what I do. I read until 4am, when I finally fell asleep. I was up at 10am, had a light breakfast and lots of coffee! Janee changed my in time to 1pm because of all the prep I did yesterday. The day is partly cloudy-the weather predicts rain off and on all week. The temperature here rarely varies. It's always between 72-81 degrees. Not too difficult to tolerate, lol, as long as I don't get eaten alive by bugs! The picture is one of the flowering bushs that grows on property-Bird of Paradise. Lovely!

I went into work at 1pm as instructed and found Janee there slicing the turkeys. I put the potatoes on to boil, made a balsamic vinaigrette, and put the sweet potato stuffing in a smaller pan. Janee took great pleasure in informing me that the "island stuffing" was actually made from instant mashed potatoes, catsup and raisins(!?!). Who'd have thought? It LOOKS just like sweet potatoes but certainly doesn't taste like sweet potatoes! Most of the island food is peasant type fair, lots of stews, etc. The Rotary dinner was to be at 4pm, but the ladies started to show up at 2pm and wanted to eat. Lori, Bolongo's wedding coordinator and event planner, went and talked to them. She did put off the serving time (we were not ready for a 2pm dinner). Unfortunately not only did they want to change the time, but also wanted to change the menu (and let me tell you-that was not going to happen!). Poor Lori was stuck dealing with this. She says that half of them are senile but that this is their one big event a year and they look forward to it (and reminded us all that we would one day be in their position!). So to the already full menu of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, ham, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, "island stuffing", gravy, mixed green salad with two dressings, bread and apple crumble cake, (store bought) we got a hotel pan of island rice from Iggie's to serve them. I didn't hear any more, so I guess they must have been satisfied after that, lol. We also had a 7pm cocktail party. I made up a cheese plate with smoked Gouda, cheddar cheese, Brie and Pepperjack cheese. I made the platter look pretty using strawberries and cut flowers. The nice thing about the tropics, is that you can just walk outside and cut flowers off the flowering bushes that are every where. Just remember to check them for bugs!! They also got a platter of what I now think of as the famous vegetarian spring rolls served with sweet pepper sauce. I made arancini to be used as appetizers-the lobster risotto (funny that you can call a dish lobster this and lobster that even though there is not any lobster in it just lobster base or essence) wrapped around small cubes of smoked Gouda, then breaded in the usual manner (dipped in white flour, then beaten eggs then Panko). They are deep fried right before they are served, a la minute, as they used to say in
school.

Richard, one of the owners, came in this afternoon to make himself a sandwich. He talked about how bad business looked for the next few months. He said that the Marriott was offering all sorts of deals as were some of then other resorts on the island, so no one was doing well. It made me wonder if my internship was going to be shortened! Time will tell.

Tomorrow I am at the Bolongo warehouse so it's to bed soon as I start there at 8am, a real switch for me!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

My first trip to the island Kmart! Janee picked me up at 10:30am and drove me around the island. There Stengel Kmarts here, one downtown and the other one "in the country", which is what they call the interior of the island. Other that the type of restaurant inside the store (Island Tropic restaurant), it looks the same as back in the States. I bought a couple of things. They don't pay any type of salesntax and no state tax (of course they are a territory, not a state). They island is beautiful, lush and green. The iguana rules here-they are everywhere.

I was at work by 2pm. It said prep by my name on the schedule. Little did I know what that meant! The Rotary Christmas party is Sunday afternoon. They are having a Thanksgiving type dinner at 4pm. So I spent most of the shift prepping for that. I must have peeled 50 pounds of potatoes (I know I did, I emptied the 50 pound bag)!!! The potatoes were for mashed potatoes both for the party and for Sunday service. I also peeled and cubes sweet potatoes, about 5 pounds of those. I roasted two 20 pound turkeys, cut the meat off of two spiral cut hams, made two pans of stuffing (using two large bags of seasoned pre-made croutons, made two large platters of salad (6 heads of romaine, 6 tomatoes, 2 each of red and green peppers, 2 red onions, 2 cucumbers, 1 carrot shredded). The mashed potatoes will be made the day of the party as will a fresh vegetable of Janee's choice. When I finished the prep for the party, she had me doing "odds and ends". I took all the romaine out of the walk-in (1 and 1/2 cases) and go through them taking off the rotted bits ( food goes bad quickly here in the Caribbean even refrigerated). Then I took lobsters out of a large container, rinsed them off and placed them in a bus tub. There is a reason they are called spiny lobsters! I ended up having several puncture wounds in my fingers because there is no way to pick them up without being poked in some way. And I cleaned and cleaned some more. I guess youmreally DO have to pay your dues starting new in any profession.... I think even Janee felt bad cause she let me go a little early.

I went back to my room and showered. I wasn't even hungry by that time (sometimes I don't eat until after my shift is over). The lobsters give off some of black stuff (I'm notnsure exactly what it is) and I ended up with black fingertips that did not come off entirely in the shower, which is why you rinse off the lobsters periodically because the black will stain the lobster meat. Ugh!

Friday, December 10, 2010

I was off today, so mostly played tourist. It was cloudy again this morning and during breakfast, it started to pour down rain! It lasted for about 10 minutes, then cleared up. Miss Viola closed the curtain in the Lobster Grille so no one got rained on. I watched the movie, ET, this morning, because I thought it was going to stay cloudy and rainy. I haven't seen that movie in years!

I sat in the sun (once it came out, lol) in the afternoon, by the pool and answered emails. The guest WiFi is finally back online so I am going to add some pictures to my blog. I snapped a picture of one of the iguana climbing one of the many palm trees around the pool. I had no idea they climbed trees. One of the guests said, "great, now we have to watch out not only for bird poop, but for iguana poop from above". That made me laugh!

I had a nice rum drink at the Grille, then walked down to Iggie's for dinner. I have been wanting to try their rib dinner. They also got a new band at Iggie's. They play old rock and roll, which was a nice change from the usual calypso and reggae music (the SAME songs over and over unfortunately). The rib dinner was tasty. They use a mango BBQ sauce. I'm not sure if they buy it or make it. I'll have to ask.

Altogether a quiet day, but I can't complain. The setting remains beautiful. I work my usual 2-10pm tomorrow in the Grille.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

It's cloudy again today, although the sun is peeking out occasionally. I woke up during the night to pouring rain. I hope it does clear up because we have three wedding parties here, one of whom is getting married here today. Apparently Bolongo is, if not the only, then one of the few resorts right on the beach. You can get married on the beach, under their special wooden trellis (arch). How romantic is that? Lol

I went in at 12 noon but Janee was at a meeting. She left me instructions to make a mixed salad (l3 heads of lettuce, 1 shredded carrot, one red onion, three tomatoes, one cucumber) and pineapple salsa (one pineapple, one red pepper, one green pepper, one red onion, 2 Tbsp cilantro and honey, salt and pepper and lime juice to taste). After that, I marinated some mahi pieces in oil and blackened fish spices from Paul Prudhomme. Then we put grill marks on it and places it in a pan, then put the pineapple salsa over that and then we finished it in the oven. Janee said for this type of buffet, where food needs to be made ahead of time, you can get the "grilled" taste without cooking it through, then it doesn't dry out in the oven or warmer when it gets reheated. The bridal dinner was Mixed green salad with two choices of dressing (Ranch dressing that is store bought and vinaigrette, which we make up ourselves), marinated flank steak, mahi mahi with pineapple salsa, cheddar cheese mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus and for dessert: Mango Mamma Cheesecake and Key Lime Pie. I put grill marks on the flank steak, "shingled" them in a hotel pan, then surrounded by caramelized onions (flavored with sugar and balsamic vinegar). I trimmed and partially roasted asparagus, so those would not be over done, then mashed the red potatoes ( a very large pot) Janee had put on the stover earlier to boil. One pound of butter, salt and white pepper, shredded cheddar cheese, and 1/3 quart of heavy cream. Wow! They were good, though, lol. Then we got a little breather and while Janee went over to Iggie's to make sure the table and been set up properly, I made more mashed potatoes to use for serving in the restaurant tonight. At 5pm, we loaded up the golf cart they use for transport, and rode down to Iggie's. They were taking pictures of the wedding party. The bride was from North Dakota, her husband was in the military. Everyone was barefoot, lol. There were a pile of shoes next to the walkway for the bridal trellis/arch. Cute!

We stored the food, then Janee went to make a phone call. Today her (second) divorce was finalized. She was very happy when she came back. While Janee was gone, she had me help Jennifer in the kitchen at Iggie's. Someone had called in sick. His 80+ mother had driven her brand new car onto the roof of her house and broke a few bones. She had to have surgery today. Hens the only child (out of 8) still living on the island. The woman must have stepped on the wrong pedal! I guess Thursdays are pretty slow at Iggie's so there was not much to do. I made Conch fritters by myself (not to worry, I couldn't have messed up too much, they come already mixed in a plastic bucket, all you have to do is scoop them out. Not too much or they remain mushy inside.). I made some fries, nachos x 2 (just put some chips on a small platter, scoop hot cheese sauce on them, sprinkle with chopped parsley and slice black olives and voila! They are done). I also helped plate cheeseburgers and french dips before Janee returned. After we got the buffet set up, Janee let me off. The Lobster Grille is not very busy tonight so there was not much else to do. I met the purchasing manager, who says I am spending Monday with him. I also met Katarina, who is Richard's wife (one of the owners).

When I worked in the ER as a nurse and food service people would come in (with cuts or burns usually), there was always a smell to them, a little like raw onions but more than just onions. I discovered early on, that I now have that same smell when I get off work. It gets on your skin, your clothes and your hair. So I always shower after work. The guest WiFi is down, somI can't add the pictures of St John or of the wedding site like I wanted to, so I guess you'll all have to check back later!

I haven't made up my mind about dinner yet-whether to eat or where to eat, so am working on my blog instead. I still think working at the Lobster Grille is better but Iggie's seems to have their routine down to a science, so food turns around fast there.

I'm off tomorrow. No real plans, it's still suppose to be cloudy with possible rain, so maybe I'll just read and spend the day on R&R.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

I worked at Iggie's today. 1-8pm. Janee walked down to Iggie's with me so she could introduce me around. I met Mary and Chris and the dishwasher, Michael. Mary was making Johnnycakes so I got to help her make those. Our tour guide from my St John tour talked about johnnycakes and how the originally name had been "journey cakes" because they were made for long journeys. They are a cross between a sweet bread and a sweet cake, that are rolled into a ball then deep fried. Shaping the little balls were a lot like making dinner rolls in school. That skill, came back quickly, lol. Other than that, there was not much to do until Gabriel came. I chopped some cucumbers, poked around the kitchen and read the local paper. Gabriel is in charge of the West Indies buffet on Wednesday nights. Together we set up 7 rectangular chaffing dishes and one round chafing dish. The food was made before I even got there so the only thing Gabriel and I had to do was set things up. However, once we got the chaffing dishes out, we found they needed to be cleaned. Someone had put them away dirty! (say it isn't so!). So after cleaning the chaffing dishes and gathering all the serving pieces and setting up the warmer (a large cart that plugs in and keeps your food warm for however long you need it to), we were ready to bring the food out. The hotel is not very full so for the first half hour the buffet was open, no one came. It did pick up after that, but not much. I left a little before 8 because it was so slow.

One thing I have noticed about working in the kitchen, is that during the day, ALL the kitchen staff listen to one (I thought) radio station that only plays Christian music. Today at Iggie's I learned there was another Christian radio station, sponsored by the Methodist church on St Thomas. Interesting. When the evening crew at the Lobster Grille comes in, the radio gets changed to rap music. However, the radio station that plays rap and some rock only has two advertisers so we hear the same commercials over and over and over.... The other night I turned to Ryan and asked, "aren't there any other radio stations?!". That's when I found out there were only two to choose from. Yikes!! A girl could go crazy!!

I prefer the Lobster Grille to Iggie's when working, but we'll see what I'll be doing in the future. Tomorrow I'll be helping Janee with a wedding party dinner. We currently have three wedding parties at Bolongo. Apparently this is a destination for weddings. Who'd a thought?!