Tested at the STD Clinic

I went to a municipal building up on 100th Street today to take the test for my Food Protection Certificate. The Department of Health mandates that a minimum of one person must be in an operational licenced kitchen with this certificate at all times, typically a supervisor. So if I hope to ever move beyond prep, it's a proforma matter that can't be overlooked. I took the online course, which was a ridiculously slow process (due to artificial roadblocks the designers put in the test-taker's way), but I wasn't quite prepared for how dumb the in-person experience would be, either.

I arrived 15 minutes to the run-down early 70s-era building. A surly rent-a-cop directed me to a room...within the STD clinic! A locked room. A random person in the hall told me the room doesn't openuntil 1pm, the time the test was scheduled for. So I sat on the row of chairs outside the room....and was told that is only for people going to the STD clinic. Ewwww. I sat on a seat reserved only for people with STDs... so I stood in the hall with 3 or 4 others. Stupid city.

Though the test was for 1, the proctor took attendance in a variety of ways, instructed us on the proper way to take a multiple choice test, and how to fill in an ID card (I also had to stand on a long line to take a picture). We didn't actually start the test close to 1:45pm. Fifty multiple choice questions, I finished at 1:57pm. I got a 90/100, passing was 70. I'm now certified to protect your food, and STD-free to boot!

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, apple pie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
No apples, gotta go shopping today

LUNCH: 2:30pm, lamb souvlaki with greek salad, fries, fried pita, water, herbal tea, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Surprisingly good food at a diner on the UWS. I was expecting processed gyro 'meat', got gamey flavorful hunks of marinated lamb.

PM SNACK: 7:30pm, 1 olive oil torta, .125 bowl, hunger 4/5
Found these at the market, nice round cracker-like sweet tortas flavored with anise from Spain, had these once when I was volunteering at the James Beard house...

DINNER: 8:15pm, spaghetti with chorizo, handful of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was intending to make something totally different, but at the last second just didn't feel like it and just used the sausage. Boiled up some dry pasta, heated up some frozen mushroom tomato pasta sauce, sauteed the sausage in butter with shallots, then thin sliced it and dropped it in the sauce. It totally changed the sauce, made it taste all spicy and chorizoey. Really good, fun to see such a boring dish I've been cooking for myself for most of my life is totally transformed with some buttery spicy pork.