Waiting for the Delivery Guy; We Open In an Hour!

Working as a prepcook in a restaurant is an alright gig, but I don't wanna do that shit no more! Your hands get sore from cold water, and then hot water, and holding the knife and slicing, dicing, and all that, and making sauces, and dressings, and smelling bad when you're done working... no thanks. Do not want to go there anymore if I don't have to.

But what really used to get us pissed off in the mornings was waiting for the delivery guys, maybe the guy that was delivering the meats, or the fish, or the produce. Sometimes shit happens, and they get stuck in traffic or something, nontheless, being late is well... being late.

Getting up early is bad enough, but one thing about kitchen work, it is just that work. And you can't slack at all. As soon as you clock in, you got your checklist at the ready, and boom! You're off to the races. Cabbage? Shred 50 pounds of it. Mahi Mahi? Slice and weigh 30 pounds of it. Tomatoes? Slice 10 pounds of it. Flank steaks? Trim and slice 80 pounds of it. Get the idea? Well, if we got the stuff to prep, we got stuff to work on, and hopefully get everything done for the cooks and the chef on time to open for lunch by 10:30 AM. But.............. What if the produce dude didn't show up yet? Well, for one, there's not going to be any shredded cabbage for the slaw. No tomatoes for the burger setups. No onions for the French Onion Soup. If the meat guy isn't on time, no burgers to mix, no Flanks to trim and slice. Can't do much, and if the restaurant is a hot item, and all of the food on the menu are all-stars, well, got to watch out, because people get freeking pissed if they show up for lunch and their Chicken Katsu won't be there. Pissed if their Teri Steak isn't on the menu for the day. You think Libya has it tough with pissed off peeps?

So if any of you want to open a restaurant, or get into the kitchen for work, expect the unexpected stuff to happen, and I mean, do expect the bad shit to happen. Now if you work at a lame ass dig, and you got hardly any traffic, that means your customers don't care to be there, so you really don't have much of a following, so this kind of sitch shouldn't bother you. But if you do have a hot restaurant, having all of the stuff on your menu to be made when someone orders it is a must. Try telling a 6ft. 3inch tall Tongan guy, "Sorry bro, we don't have your roast pork today." There's a good chance he'll try to rip your head off, or damage the counter. Call the cops but it won't work, a hungry pissed off anybody can be a hazard.

Maui- Baked Chicken Recipe

This is very easy to make if you are at home, and want something home made, but don't want too much work. And you'll probably have most of the ingredients in your kitchen.

1- 5 lbs. box of chicken thighs frozen but thawed.

3 cups of whole milk
4 tbsp. of vinegar

6 cups of flour
Salt and pepper to your liking.

4 cups of oil, in skillet, heat up to medium high heat.

Preheat oven to 350 deg. f.

1. Pat dry all chicken thighs with paper towels, let thighs stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
2. Mix the whole milk and vinegar together, and let stand about 20 minutes, it will curdle.
3. Place chicken thighs in a mixing bowl, add the whole milk and vinegar mixture (buttermilk) and soak for about 5 minutes.
4. Place flour in another mixing bowl, then dredge the chicken thighs in it, press flour onto the thighs.
5. Fry each thigh, skin side down, until slightly brown, then place each thing on a baking sheet.
6. Bake the thighs for about 50 minutes or until crisp and cooked through.

Serve with your favorite starch.

Maui- Grilled Chipoltle Pork Tenderloin

Okay here's a recipe for you pork lovers that love to grill, and let me tell you, if you do this recipe that I tweaked from one of my aunty friends, you'll definitely say, "wow Ron Broke Da Mouth!" Here goes. First go and get that grill of yours up to medium high heat.

Get a Pork Tenderloin about 3 lbs., and tie it with some wet twine so it stays formed like a log.

Okay, now we got that shit outta da way, you'll need these ingredients, and I'm just using the measurements here as just a guideline, you can add or subtract if you feel like it.

4 tbsp. onion powder
4 tbsp. garlic powder
4 tbsp. chipoltle chili powder
1 tsp. celery salt
2 tsp. Kosher salt
3/4 cup of raw brown sugar
4 tbsp. of red pepper flakes
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. cinnamon powder
4 tbsp. cracked pepper corns

1. Mix all of the ingredients well in a bowl.
2. Toss the tenderloin around in the bowl, and press in the ingredients so it adheres to the pork loin.
3. Let it stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes. (The tenderloin cooks better on the grill when it's not cold right outta the refrigerator.
4. Grill the tenderloin until there's a crust formed all around it, continue to grill it until it is cooked through. The inside temperature at the thickest part (center) should register at least 155 deg. f, and you can take it off of the grill as the loin will continue to cook as it rests on the chopping board.

Serve with lots of beers ha ha!!!!

Maui- Boiled Cabbage

A simple recipe for lots of fiber comes from this really simple recipe for boiled cabbage.

1 head cabbage boiled until soft.
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of vinegar
8 cloves of garlic smashed
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Pull apart the leaves of the cabbage and let it cool
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients in a non reactive bowl
3. Add the cabbage into the bowl and mix

Eating A Big Bowl of Saimin to Clear Your Sinuses

There it is, you, you are sicker than a freekin dog! Your sinuses are all stuffed up, you probably got the cold virus from shaking hands with infected people, and you, you did not go and sanitize your hands, you start to scratch your face, and eat your foods with your unwashed fingers at the Indian dig. You stupid S.O.B.! Why didn't you take the time to just wash your hands? It'll take just a couple of minutes, just head to the men's room, and wash. Easy right? I guess not you idiot!


Okay, this is what I suggest you do if you got a cold, and your sinuses are all jacked up and you can't even breath right, and your wife is upset because you should have washed your hands. Okay this is what you do, assuming you have an Asian section in your supermarket. Go to the freezer part of the Asian section and find S&S Saimin, it is a Japanese soup with noodles, it is sold in a plastic bag, with precooked noodles and a soup base packet. You boil a cup of water, then add in the packet, and then add in the noodles and just heat it up, and you can add in other garnish like sliced cabbage, cooked eggs, onions, and for a good blast up your nostrils, add in some Korean Hot and Spicy Kim Chee, and you chow down on it, and sweat it all out, it's great, you'll loosen up all that mucous in your airways.


Good Luck, next time.......wash your hands junior!


Sun Noodles took over S&S, just go look 
for it in the market and ask someone there
www.tastyislandhawaii.com

East meets Western favorites at Cafe Diem - Dining / Taste - ReviewJournal.com

East meets Western favorites at Cafe Diem - Dining / Taste - ReviewJournal.com

New article, looks like an interesting dig

Maui- Cancer Patient Swears on Turmeric

Cancer Patient & Turmeric- Her name won't be used, I see her at times, a bandana covers her head, her hair is slowly coming back, and so is her health. In her mid-fifties, she seems upbeat, and very positive, she's a cancer patient battling for her life. But... she does not want the chemicals that modern medicine has to offer her. "I get sick when I take it, and I'm adamant on going natural and organic if I can." 


As I watch her shop in a natural food store, she gets bags of kale, chard, cabbage, and lots of turmeric, lots and lots of turmeric. Besides the greens from the cabbage family that even some experts claim that helps fight cancer, she swears that since juicing some of the turmeric, and drying it and making it into powdered form, and putting it into a capsule, she is off modern day meds.


"I do vegetarian, vegan, and raw when I can, I have some help, I had taken some cooking lessons from a chef, now I understand how to cook. But I continue to read books on nutrition, and foods that heal. My favorite store is Borders Books and Music in Kahului. (Note: The store is now closing as of this date). I love to just get a green tea, and grab food books and learn as much as I can about healing foods. One of the books I recently read was The China Study, I can't believe the way big businesses dump the junk foods on us, cancer causing additives, food colorings, all bad for our health, but it is all profits, it's big business. No one cares if the chemicals a soda company is using causes cancer on rats, or if a farm is using GMOs, and poisons in the soil, if the companies can get away with it, they will. Money is more important than someone's health."


FYI, I read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, and though it is filled with lots of awesome information on why we should stick to a strict vegetarian or vegan diet to cure our ills, and to not eat lots of animal fats, and artificial foods, I at times still eat the junk that our cancer patient is learning not to consume. Yes The China Study talks about how the FDA, the medical community, and food suppliers of not so healthy foods, are all in this big old racket that is into making money for all of their associates. Where doctors are instructed to not talk about eating healthy, where a surgery is money in the pockets of major hospitals, after all, how dare a doctor tell a patient, "Look, if you eat these GM foods, well, you'll get sick." Of course if everyone gets educated, and not eat the junk, ill causing foods America dumps down our throats, the medical professionals, and pharmacists won't make the profits they are capable of. Likened to a mechanic telling a driver of a car, "There's no need to change your oil mam, just drive it." Then the motor blows, and the mechanic has a job, but of course the mechanics won't tell them that now days, people are smarter, it's just that people need to educate themselves on the ill effects of the foods that are not healthy.


"For sugar or to make something sweet, I use organic honey, orangic maple syrup, or stevia, maybe agave nectar," she says as she shops with a serious demeanor. "Oh and I am learning that because of all the dairy I used to eat, it could be the cause of my cancer, I am very skeptical of the foods we are consuming in this day and age. How many more people will get cancer because of the bad foods being sold."


Skeptics may claim, that even if someone was to eat totally raw and organic, and all veggies, they can still get cancer from a myriad of ways, true that. But she is adamant that since she's been off of meats, and animal byproducts, even her doctor has claimed she's getting better, her blood tests look great, her energy is up where as if she was on meds, she'd be sicker than a dog, so going natural can be good, I take that back, going all natural will be good. God didn't make our bodies to consume man made destructive chemicals. Let's all eat better for the good of our lives and our loved ones.