Mandlen

My weight this morning was 215.2. When I set out to start losing weight more than a year ago, I was 235. My original goal was to lose 20 pounds, and for the last 6 months or so, I was stable at around 223, which was fine, but the last few weeks at the restaurant have driven me to eat less, and eat crappier. I need to work on that, but physically, I feel good and have my health, mostly -- not enough sleep and a linger cough, but that's pretty much restaurant life. I'm experiencing the grind....and I look forward to jumping tracks to the grind of a new lil' bebe.

I got in at 4am, after working 14.5 hours in the restaurant then riding about 30 miles round trip to Coney Island for hot dogs and some listening to the waves. The day at the restaurant started on a high note, then slowly slipped away inch by inch until coming to a complete crashing by the end. Friday was long, and nobody got enough sleep to start on Saturday. We open at 12 instead of 11:30 on Saturday, but its still not enough time to prep. L and his family were late by an hour, and by the time they arrived, I had everyone in and prepping, moving along well, got L in a good-ish mood. Then service started, we weren't finished with prep by a long shot, and we got slammed with too many customers, a system where only 1 pizza is made at a time, kept on running out of stuff, prepping to order, L started getting yelly at everyone, and on top of it, for some odd reason the air conditioning decided to not function and the temp in both the dining room and kitchen rose close to 90. We broke for lunch and closed the restaurant for an hour and a half. I had the guys do some prepping, but the dishes were backed up and as it turned out, even with a dishwasher, there wasn't enough dishes -- we had to serve on paper plates at one point in the night! We cancelled delivery, but L took an order for 17 pizzas anyway -- at 8:30pm, at the height of the rush! Things spiralled downwards, with the refrigeration in the back failing because of the excessive heat. Between moving food between units, suffering a lazy dishwasher and a delivery person who was sent back there to help but didn't do shit, L withdrawing and losing his energy and focus, the heat rising, my guys prepping and never catching up, and just wanting to hide in the cold walk-in refrigerated room and drink lemonade until it all just stopped.

The highlight of the evening was the HVS and a small gaggle of folks from my prior career stopped in to show support, that was really cool. I just things were more in control so I could spent more time with them.

BREAKFAST: 1pm, 2 small donuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, mixed gluten, mashed taro treasure boxes, spinach dumpling, sticky rice, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 5 pieces homemade french toast, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Didn't eat pizza today, but busted out some focaccia out of the freezer from the last pizza place I worked and made an awesome batch of french toast, dead simple: batter of milk, egg, sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon, pinch of salt, soaked the slices for 5 minutes, fried in butter, sprinkled with powdered sugar, hit the spot. Needed more salt.

DINNER: 8:45pm, shrimp soup with mandlen, bagel with hummus and a little tabouli, grape gatorade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Took out some homemade chicken stock, added a dose of salt and curry, and lightly poached a handful of shrimp in it -- it's so easy to overcook shrimp, so difficult to undercook them. Added a handful of soup mandlen, which I picked up at the Streitz store around passover. They are small egg-based light and fluffy soup nuggets. I had them often at summer camp as a kid, everyone dug them, never saw them again until now.

Burnt

Holy crap, I'm crispy. Will write some stories tomorrowish.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, bottle of gatoraide, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Mmmmm purple. Breakfast of champions.

LUNCH: 4pm, hamburger, potato chips, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

RESTAURANT HAZE 4:30pm-midnight, small slice of sicilian, multiple glasses of lemonaide and mandorla, a few bites of another slice, a sprite, water, a bite of gelato, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 2am, 2 hotdogs with kraut and onion, fries, 1 beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Nathan's in Coney Island, rode bikes with a fellow kitchen worker after. Well needed, haven't ridden a little distance in sooooo long....

Burning at both ends, sides too

Woke up, rolled over to the 'rant and pretty much got hammered by L all day long until dinner service, where he seemed to run out of steam. Fortunately we have an experienced pizzaman to pick up the slack, but L has been butting heads, and the new guy might not last. Hell, will I last? L wants me to be more like....him. Aggressive, more pushy, eyes on everyone at all times. I agree, to be manager you have to be there and be interactive and know what's happening, but the yelling, the bullying, the fits of anger, the threats, that's just not my style or personality. I think I genuinely have the respect of the kitchen and other staff, but I wonder how much of that is simply because the captain of the ship is barking and they're looking for sense of calm in this job of theirs that they were able to land in this crap economy? I'm so tired...

BREAKFAST: 9am, organic cornflakes with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 3:30pm, penne with vodka sauce, a little bread, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

RESTAURANT HAZE: 5-10pm, 2 glasses mendorla, a few slices of cucumber, a little water, GuS orange soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, slice of pizza with roasted red peppers, onion, mushroom, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNORT: 11pm, tastes of two new wines in the 'rant

AM SNACK: 1am, cold slice of pizza, 3 cookies, quart of water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yes, after a long day at the pizzeria, I came home and ate cold pizza.

Long

Long day, class in the morning, boiler pressure most of the day at the restaurant. L is pushing me to work the other stations, which is cool, but things are still running on edge a bit. Still, we shut down for an hour, had a nice lunch, vibes weren't totally negative.

BREAKFAST 1: 6:30am, good yogurt with honey, cashews, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM ZING: 8am, Manhattan Special, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Took one to school in hopes of fighting the good fight, but the sleepy demons got me in their grasp again during the numbers of cost control.

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, choco donut, apple fritter, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Unusually hungry, I wish there were healthier options around for breakfast when on break from class.

LUNCH: 4pm, Italian parsley sausage with onion, pepper and salad, 1 slice of pizza, lemonade, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

RESTAURANT HAZE: 5-10pm, a few bites of applewood smoked bacon, a sprite, a glass of mendorla, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 11:30pm, 7 prosciutto balls, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
A new appetizer on the menu, I did a plate minus the oil we cook it in, came out darn good.

AM WATERING: 12:30am, quart o' water

My piece of pizza

Fell asleep in management class, did some shopping for the 'rant then spent four hours there, before having to take off to meet B for birthing class. The restaurant was very quiet, lunch during the week seems to be a dead zone right now, I wonder if we'll squash lunch service for now. Birthing class was silly, I didn't need a rubber doll to figure out how to undress and dress my future baby. If I was a klutz, maybe, but I ain't. My baby is gonna be a piece of cake! Excuse me, a piece of pizza. Mark my words, he he he he.

EYE OPENER: 7:30am, swig of apple cider

BREAKFAST: 8am, 2 cart donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, tuna sandwich, hamburger, lemonade, a few prosciutto balls, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
L again weirdly generous with a homemade 2 course lunch. He showed me the most charming recipe book his mother wrote for him, made me sad that I didn't come from a cooking family, where I could get such a soulful artifact.

PM SNACK: 6pm, cup of matzo ball soup, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B brought it from Eisenberg's, unfortunately it wasn't enough to keep me fully awake during the birthing class.

DINNER: 9:45pm, pint of shrimp lomein, homemade mint chip ice cream. 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Double lunch

Interesting day at the restaurant. L served up lunch twice, after we had a meeting last night over crappy pizza where I gently scolded/warned him if we don't serve a regular staff meal, we're going to have a huge staffing problem in the future.

New pizza maker today at the restaurant, an older Italian guy, shockingly went smoothly with L. Have mixed feelings about it, we'll see how things play out when things get busy and the pressure is on.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, badly reformulated organic Cheerios with organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Ugg. The packaging said 'new', but this is a whole different thing. The original tasted hard and oaty and dense, this is light and crisp and corny. Will not buy again.

LUNCH 1: 12:30pm, meat stuffed cabbage with dill sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Given to us by the Polish garbage man, who fancies himself a cook. Really good, actually.

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, slice of white pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 2: 3:30pm, hamburger with chips, bad pickle, lemonade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
L felt like making burgers for everyone. The wonderbread buns I could have done without, ditto the jarred industrial pickle.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, glass of lemonade
Made lemonade in the restaurant with a made up recipe, satisfying that everyone dug it -- I guess c-school was good fo' sumtin!

PM SNACK: 7pm, glass of mandorla

PM SNACK: 9pm, small square of Sicilian

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, small cup of chocolate gelato, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNORT: 10:15pm, small cup of tap beer

MIDNIGHT WATERING: 12am, quart or water

No pizza....wait, no, there was pizza.

BREAKFAST: 8am, 2 street cart donuts, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, swiss and turkey on rye, French fries, chocolate egg cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to Eisenberg’s Sandwiches, across from the Flat Iron, where B works. I hate to admit it, but I found out about this classic NY institution from Bourdain’s TV show. It’s a lunch counter and small dining room that’s been operating for over 75 years, and its menu, motif, and style hasn’t changed much. I sat at the counter, ordered without a menu, and had exactly what I ordered in under 60 seconds. I say exactly, because I wanted lettuce, tomato, a pickle, a little slaw, but I guess you have to ask. B had a mediocre veggie burger….but this is not the place for veggie burgers. The sandwich was perfectly serviceable, and the fries were good, but looking at what other people were eating, I probably should have gotten the matzo ball soup.

I heard someone order an egg cream, so I thought, OK, this is a place where you should order an egg cream. Thing is, I never had an egg cream before, despite my father's fond reminiscence of having them as a child. I know, in theory, what it is: milk, chocolate syrup, and seltzer. In practice it is…..well, nothing special. Watered down chocolate milk with a bit of light fizz, not impressive. It’s like Yoohoo, minus all the chemically thickeners and preservatives.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, bite of falafel, bite of chocolate
At K's house, she's ever the good hostess.

PM SNORT: 5:45pm, 12 oz of beer, peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Midtown after-work drink with E. The sink in the bathroom at Brasserie is trough-style and is slightly low hung, and there's no urinal....for a second, I thought it was a trough-urinal. If I were drunk, I would have totally peed in that sink.

DINNER: 9:30pm, 2 slices crappy pizza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out in Soho with L and his daughters, talking restaurant business. We went to Arturo's on Houston, a coal-oven pizzeria that's been there forever. L even ate there in 1969 and thought it was mediocre then. And it still is now. At least they're consistent!!

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, 1 crappy frozen waffle with home made mint chip ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
That ice cream will make even a crappy waffle sing.

Hungry Vegan Confab

Spent the day collecting a few ingredients and cooking with B in the other room napping, a peaceful Sunday with friends and wife and some home made pizza. Tomorrow, no pizza. Maybe.

AM SNACK: 2am, large hunk of chocolate chip cookie dough, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, a few cold spare ribs from left over Chinese food that I missed last night, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, bottle of purple gatorade, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, bowl of whole wheat matzo ball soup from yo momma in law, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, 2 frozen waffles, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLE DINNER: 5:30pm, 4 pizzas (salad, marg, sopressetta and shrimp, banana & semi sweet chocolate), mint chocolate chip ice cream, prosecco, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made pizzas at home for the HVS and the HVM, good vibes. Used dough from the restaurant, but had to reball this morning, making for very hard dough to work with -- the pizzas were not stretched enough and were a bit small and thick, but because of my oven, it probably worked better than if it was super thin. Made a few alternative vegan pies, too. The red came out a bit dry, but I did one with cooked spinach and mushroom (hit with a little fresh garlic and salt at the end of it's cooking), roasted red pepper and fresh thin sliced tomato, was surprised how pretty good it was. Enjoyed the shrimp pizza, which from bottom to top was light coat of moz, thin slices of tomato, single piece of sopressetta per slice, three small prosecco-poached pieces of shrimp per slice, one clove of roasted garlic per slice, finished with parsley and basil. Crust got a sprinkling of romano which made it turn golden in a good way. Ice cream was a little soupy, but I attempted a soy ice cream which never came together, so I served it as a shake!

Second week down

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Bad acid pizza party trip, maaaan!

Long day at the 'rant, but a good one. Due to crap weather, we remained very quiet until dinner, then we did a nice steady clip that we were able to keep up with. Prep came together in the morning, and L's good mood elevated all ships. He busted my balls a bit during the day, but at the end of the day it'll make me a better pizza maker. Still, glad to be home and spend some time with my B. Got a big ball of dough, now gotta figure out the toppings for the HVS Conference...

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, too dazed, don't think I ate anything

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, pieces of freshly cooked slab bacon, slice of egg pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4pm, meatball hero, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

RESTAURANT DAZE: 5-midnight, a meatball, a rootbeer, small piece of Sicilian, 2 glasses of mandorla, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 1am, 2 veg dumplings, small scallion pancake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Exactly what I was wanting! I love my B!

How one feel like after a second 80 hour week at a new restaurant. That large Mexican man wasn't actually there, he was just a figment of my imagination...

My brain is mush, my body is beat

Long day at the restaurant, 14.75 hours to be exact. Wow, an 8 hour work day, now that would be cool! L faded during the day and we closed for an hour to collect ourselves, down some Manhattan Specials, then do it again. Staffing issues were abound, and L fired a kitchen guy we were trying out on the spot...which is fine, it's his business; but, when I confronted him in private about it ("so, now that we fired the trainee, what's out game plan for tomorrow?"), he tried to lay into me and some of the other guys. When I confronted him with his own logic, he didn't seem to appreciate it, and got a bit yelly. It was weird, but I'm glad I found that little piece of Brooklyn my mom instilled in me that allowed me to yell back without losing my shit. I'm tired. Looking forward Sunday and the Grand Snickle Dinner. Which may be home cooked or may be at Broadway East, depending on my sleep requirements...

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic chex with the organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 4pm, a few quickly eaten slices of pizza, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

RESTAURANT HAZE: 5-midnight, a small slice of Sicilian, a Manhattan Special, a few glasses of latte di mendorla, a few glasses of water, a rootbeer, a small amount of beer near the end, 1.25 bowl, hunger ?/5

EARLY MORNING WATERING: 1:30am, quart o' agua

Passover 2

Spent the first half of the day at the restaurant, and we got creamed with too much business, due to the good weather, I assume. From 12:30 until when I had to leave at 4 for B's family's seder, it was slammed, all pistons turning, and we were understaffed and underprepped for the large quantity of service. Need to get to sleep early tonight, I imagine I could be coming into an unhappy hornet's nest tomorrow.

The seder was megafun, really enjoy B's side of the family, lucky to have mostly cool inlaws who love the lives they lead.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, small bowl of ygurt, honey, vanilla, nuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

RESTAURANT HAZE: 1-4pm, 2 small cold slices, a little water, bottle of rootbeer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM DRINK: 4:45pm, apple cider, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

SEDER: 6-9pm, various cookies and homemade macaroons, matzoh and maror, gefilte fish, matzo ball soup, turkey with ratatouille and asparagus, sip on wine, water, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The homemade macaroons had a crazy amount of soul to them, so much than the stuff out of the air-tight can.

Passover 1

School in the morning, then picked up a rental car and kicked it with the old lady for a few hours before bearing Passover traffic down to New Jersey Land. Go dowwwwn, NJ Turnpike, way down in Monmouth county....tell the traffic, let my rental gooooo!

BREAKFAST: 8am, 2 street donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTING: 11am, 4 tastes of wine, 7 kinds of cheese, hunk of bread, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, spoonful of homemade icecream, snippet of homemade chocochip cookie dough, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, another hunk o' cookie dough, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Too good for words. Must save some for cookies this Sunday for the HVM.

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, slice of "Brooklyn Style Pizza", .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
We got to the seder in deep dark NJ a little early despite bad traffic (because I'm crazy like that), so me and B just road down to the local mall and found a slice joint, which had an odd Passover menu. We skipped that and had slices, which billed it self as 'brick oven' -- it was not -- and "a taste of Brooklyn" -- it really was not.

SEDER: 6:30-9:30pm, shot of slivovitz, gefilte fish, meat balls, matzoh ball soup, chicken, spinach kugel, matzo farfel, salad, matzoh w/ maror and horse radish, water, diet sprite, chocolate covered coconut macaroon, chocolate covered matzoh, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I would have eaten more if it wasn't for that slice. The farfel went down a storm -- people just don't eat shmaltz anymore, and that dish is nothing if not a delivery system for chicken fat -- it's hard to make it bad if you use the real stuff. It was really nice to be with people who had strong fond memories of my parents (and my aunts and uncles who also have passed). Food wasn't bad, some of it was clearly store bought, some of it could have been tweaked, but that doesn't matter, it had a lot of soul and a lot of love in everything from the food, to the presentation to the service to the desert. No complaints here. But next year I want to tackle this seder's central traditional app, a Viennese meatball in a sweet tomato sauce which can be kicked up several notches with just a few adjustments....

Short day

Mellow day at the restaurant, lot of prep in the morning and afternoon, service was pretty chill, send a bunch of people home early, ended calmly and was able to get out of there before 11pm. Only 13.5 hours, a short day! Looking forward to passover with other Wildmans in the wilds of Joisey, and passing around my farfel.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, glass of apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices, chicory salad, cream soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm meat ball, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 9pm, half slice of bacon avocado pizza, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNORT: 10pm, half a beer

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, 1 scoop of homemade ice cream with homemade rumbled chocolate chip cookie dough, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Dark Circles

I did 83 hours at the restaurant last week. Woke up with dark circles under my eyes, tried hard not to fall asleep in class, had a wonderful vegan lunch with HVS and the HVM, spent too many hours with L at the restaurant, then too many hours banging out work on the home computer. Getting to sleep early, going to take a protective nyquil and sleep like the dead.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic chex with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10am, cart pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLE LUNCH: 1pm, seitan, brussel sprouts, rice with chickpeas, choco-coconut-hazelnut ice cream, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACKS: 3-5pm, hamburger, hotdog, beer tasting, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
A film crew was using the restaurant as a holding area so I got to eat out of their shitty commisary truck.

DINNER: 8pm, momma style salad, pint of pork fried rice, quart o' water, gatoraide, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4.5

And on the Seventh Day, He Ate Pizza Again

Got to bed around 4pm, but got up around 10, looking forward to a day with B after an 80 hour work week. Did some chores, food shopping, made matzo farfel for the seders this week, and made some pizzas for B and a couple and their daughter this evening.

BREAKFAST: 10am, snippet of chocolate chip cookie dough, bowl of baby carrots. 1bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, big piece of chocoalte babka from Russ & Daughters, .5 bwol, hunger 4/5

PM TASTING: 3pm. bits of matzo farfel

PM WATERING 3:30pm, half a bottle o water

PM TASTING: 4-5:30pm, wine reduction, sliced sopresetta, a cookie, .25 bowl

DINNER: 6pm, little slices of 3 homemade pizzas, a little matzo farfel, vanilla custard ice cream, 1 chocolate chip cookie, half glass of wine, bottle of gatorade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 3/5
B's friends and their charming little girl came over for dinner. I brought home one dough from the restaurant, but I was so wacked out of my skull, I didn't think that ONE medium dough might not feed 4 people, it's really more for 2. So I improvised, made three mini pies, cut the first two into 8ths. The first was a standard margarita, the second was a white with sopressetta and a little black pepper, like L likes it. I realized then that it wasn't enough food, so I gave a mid-meal tasting course of the matzo farfel I made, which is delicious simply to the fact tat it's full of chicken fat and chicken stock. The last pizza, if I was going to be tiny on portion, well, wasn't going to go out being tiny on flavor, so I popped my head in the fridge rooting for toppings. After dismissing B's tepid fat-free ricotta, I ended up thinly slicing a plum tomato onto a bed of fresh moz, unfroze three frozen shrimp, chopped them and put them on the pie, finished with fresh garlic, oregano, olive oil and the shrimp all covered in pecorino. Baked to a golden crisp, the shrimp came out surprisingly perfect. My only regret is that I reduced a bottle of old white wine in the fridge today, I should have splashed some on the pizza to see what it would do...

Getting a little better

Cranked out pizzas all day, it started around 12:30 and did not stop until around 10pm. We did our best at prep in the morning and got it down mostly, but once it started rolling, all I really did was expedite, make the hot apps in cast iron pans in the pizza oven, guide L with our (non)system for tickets, deal with various issues that came up in the dining room, and try to suck down a bit of energy/food along the way. Afterward, went for a drink on the promenade with a fellow kitchen worker to unwind for a few hours and go over the past week in detail, as well as geek out talking about pizza.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, I can't remember, I may not have eaten anything after only 4 hours of sleep

RESTAURANT DAZE: 10am-midnight, 2 Manhattan Specials, various small quantities of pizzas, a few snippets of salad, water, a beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

POST DAZE BEER: 12:30, maybe a pint and a half of Brooklyn Local 2

POST BEER DAZE: 2:30am, 2 cheese burgers and a small fries, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Drunk, tired, missing home and my parents, indulged in a sinful thing, the only thing open and on the way home that wasn't Chinese, a McDonalds. Makes me miss my grandmother. People really eat this stuff on a regular basis?

Buzzzzzz

If I write a book about my life in pizza, today's events and goings on will definitely emerge as the begining of the fun part of text. Yesterday started in chaos and miserable feelings and emerged and ended into order and happy vibes. Today started with happy vibes and a lot of productivity and ended in chaos and upset people and a chef/owner who was threatening mutiny at himself (!?) There was not a communication breakdown between me and L so much as a personality breakdown, something that I've never experienced and don't quite know how to describe. L apologized and copped to making a mistake by the end of the night, but it was all a bit...weird. It's now 3am, I need to be back at the shop in 7 hours, and I'm still buzzing on the fumes.

It all started with a side of fresh garlic requested by a customer. It all went quickly downhill from there. Remind me to tell you this story some time. I'm goin' to bed and gonna snuggle hard with my B and her big ol' B-belly!

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple juice, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, small organic oatmeal with mango and grapes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
L was nice and brought me a hi-quality energy food get us going.

LUNCH: 2pm, a slice, a Manhattan Special, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

RESTAURANT HAZE: 3pm-2am, not sure what I ate, vaguely remember a cream soda, a couple of small pieces of experimental squid pizza, a few bottles of water, a taste of meat ball, a scoop of chestnut honey gelato, ? bowls, hunger ?/5

AM WATERING: 2:30am, quart of liquid NYC tap

The Most Passive Aggresive Pizza Ever.

Weighed in at 219.4 this evening, after a long hard shift at the restaurant. I went to school this morning, and when I came in, L was on the warpath and the kitchen staff was literally on the edge of quitting. My hunkering down, sucking it up, leading by example, and offering some positive commentary helped to calm things down a bit. But when L gave us a lunch of one meat ball each, I went back to him and pointedly asked, Ware we having with that? So he sent out the most passive aggressive pizza EVER, a medium pie with only sauce and basil leaves...no cheese, no oregano, no nuthin'....and he didn't even let me cut it, he said, "Tear it." Weird.

The dinner rush came, and despite all the ill will and yelling, we pulled it together and got each other's backs. Not too bad. By the end of the night, L and I were smiling at each other. We did better. Not great, not even good, but better. I'm not ready to crank out pizzas along side him yet, but I've been watching closely, taking the abuse, taking notes, and feel ready for tomorrow.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic chex with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9am, salami on french bread slices with herbed butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 5:30pm, 1 meatball, small amount of cheeseless pizza, sprite, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

RESTAURANT DAZE: 5:30pm-12:30pm, water straight from tap, a few snippets of mushroom, a cream soda, a cranberry lime GuS, half a glass of tap beer, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
I gotta bring in a water bottle tomorrow.

AM WATERING: 1:15am, a quart o' aqua, por favor.

No More Cheese

Played hooky from school to spend the day at the 2nd full day of the restaurant being open. It went both a lot better and a lot worse -- on one hand, the kitchen staff is really coming together, we're figuring out who does what, who can do what, who can't, stations are being established, we're getting some the supplies we need, and the lunch services was a lot more organized. On the worse side, by 8:30 we were deep in the weeds, some customers were PISSED because they were waiting over an hour for a pizza, and on top of that, we ran out of friggin' mozzarella! We closed the pizza kitchen down to new orders at 9pm, with the line that we were 'sold out'. Yeah, sold out, but that's more poor ordering than being too successful. L copped that it was his fault, but in the next few weeks, when things are smoother, it'll be my fault!

Remembered to eat today, and reminded L to feed the staff, which we did, good vibes all around. Becoming friendlier with the front of house -- all the comments I collected from them yesterday, I was able to respond to today after consulting with L.

Long day, but it was cool. Looking forward to going to school, and looking forward to the weekend -- spend some quality time with the B and hopefully do some presential trading with the HVS!

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, glass of apple cider, .5 bowl hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices pizza, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM TASTING: 4:30pm, small slice lobster pizza, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SODA: 7pm, cream soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM DRINK: 9pm, glass of latte di mandorla, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:45pm, a few small squares of cheeseless Sicilian, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM WATERING: 12:45am, quart of the wet stuff

Open Sesame

Got to the restaurant at 10am, left after midnight, went by in a blink. Lunch was only a handful of customers but we had a good 2 seatings, near capacity, the kitchen didn't collapse but we did get backed up, one customer waited an hour for their pizza. A lot of systems and habits to be worked out, but the team is...good. I suspect there is a lot of accounting and reflection tomorrow.

I will be playing hooky from management class tomorrow, as I have to...actually manage a newly opening restaurant! How neat is that?

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, yogurt with nuts, honey, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

RESTAURANT HAZE: 10am-12:30am, a meat ball, a GuS soda, cup of latte de mendorla, a few glasses of water, a slice of pizza, a taste of wine, a small portion of house salad, a few bites of over-fried cheese, a Sprite, 1 bowl or so, hunger 2 to 4/5
Wouldn't have had that Sprite at the end of the night but I was running my mouth at L, telling him everything we needed for the next day, and my throat just started to stick to itself.

AM WATERING: 1:15am, quart of the wet stuff

On the cusp

After class, shot over to the restaurant for the first and only real day of prep before opening. Most of the day was spent trying to get organized, figuring out how things will be made, where they should go, discovering what equipment we need -- and what we really need NOW -- while L dealt with the circus of salesmen, purveyors, and friends...just when I needed his attention the most. There was a front-of-house staff meeting, at which I spoke. By the end of the night, only 1 specialty pizza and a few toppings will be available tomorrow, thanks to thoughtful menu design (pat myself on the back here.)

Don't know how it's going to be tomorrow, but I hope it's not too much of a sh@tshow! It's a soft opening, so hopefully no one will judge us too harshly if things don't go totally smooth.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, swig of apple cider

AM SNACK: 10:15am, apple fritter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, quarter of a turkey sandwich, half a soup, cream soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM TASTING: 4-9pm, bits of cheeses, vegetable, a meatball, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, 2 slices Sicilian, 1 beer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:30, quart

Pizza geekfest

Volunteered at the Astor Center today on a pretty excellent pizza class from this guy, really impressive. First a short walking tour of some classic food supply shops on Grand Street, Little Italy, then to the kitchen where we made dough and banged out a series of pizzas. It was wonderful to talk to and relate to a guy who has similar passion for pizza as myself, but clearly knows much more, has much more experience, and can cook pizza much better.

Since his class was geared toward home cooking, we used a fresh rather than aged dough, in ovens running between 500-600 on stones. He demonstrated a straight-ahead marg similar in style to L's, then a white pie redolent in rosemary and potato, similar to R's at the Prospect Heights restaurant. At the end of class, he demonstrated a dessert pie which at first had me doubting -- he was using tallegio, a cheese that I love, but the only pie with it I had was at Otto, and it was just not working. But Mark's application of the cheese was nice and light, and he matched it with a little bit of thinly sliced pear, honey, and truffle oil. Oh my, this guy knows what he's doing.

I talked with him a bit, we both confessed our love for Stouffer's french bread pizza, he's very much a Totonno's guy (like L) and our feelings on various pizza topics like Franny's price-point, the recent pizza trend, our shared passion for Pepe's clam pie. He does a pizza roundtable in his home for his friends, I could only hope to someday be invited -- a pizza-geek's wet dream.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, organic chex with organic dead milk, 1 chocolate chip cookie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 11am-4pm, taste of different cheeses and salamis, various tiny wedges of many pizzas, taste of 5 wine paring, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER; 7pm, bulgogi, dumplings, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, a couple of spoonfuls of chocolate ice cream

Another Day at the Resto

Fell asleep around 10pm, woke up at 4:15am, with details of the restaurant rattling around my head. The only way to quiet it was to get up and organize and do the things I knew I needed to do this morning.

BREAKFAST: 5:30am, brown rice crispies with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 7am, 3 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B (and maybe me) are going to a dinner party tonight, thank goodness I made cookie dough the other day and froze it, so I could make a top-shelf quality cookie with minimal effort.

LUNCH: 10am, most of a large turkey sandwich on nice fresh whole grain bread, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Knew enough to pick something up on the way to the restaurant, did want to forget to eat again today.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, cheesy pork sausage roasted with parsnip, a little wine, a little cream soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
After menu review with the kitchen crew, L cooked up a sample staff meal, a nice flavorful Italian sausage with some parsnip that was turning him on. Poured a nice red wine all over everything mid-cooking which cooked off and gave a nice thick savory coating to the whole affair.

DINNER: 7pm, sausage and broccoli rave, whole wheat spaghetti with shallots and butter, 2 chocolate chip cookies, half glass of prosecco, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The half glass of booze knocked me for a loop. Dinner at a friend of B's -- and the recipe for the dinner was from Rachel Ray! It's not so much nervy to attempt to cook her stuff as much as nervy to admit it!

EVENING SNACK:10:30pm, 4 chocolate chip cookies
My evil wife baked off more dough while I was out today! Hrumph!

I forgot to eat

Slept enough, but went straight to bed last night without doing any work; had to wake at 6am on a non-school day to grind. Calm before the storm at the restaurant, things starting to come together -- programmed the register with the indecipherable manual, created a hit list of the last food stuffs we need to cook the menu, got Hobart repair man to fix our floor mixer, scoped out a place to relocate the gelato, coordinated all sorts of details with front-of-house manager, and hosted an assortment of locals and visitors throughout day. For the first time in memory, I pretty much forgot to eat, not a very me thing. By the time I left, I felt a little nauseous from not eating, and by the time I rode my bike home, a bit woozy and acidy stomach!

BREAKFAST: 6:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Banana, frozen organic blueberries, half a kiwi, good yogurt, organic dead milk, freshly ground flax, shot of agave, vanilla, pinch of salt. Better flavor this time, nice balance of tart and sweet and earthiness. Too thick, though, maybe less yogurt next time.

AM SNACK: 10am, Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, handful of olives

PM SNACK: 3pm, glassful of latte de mendorla

PM SNACK: 5pm, snippet of gelato

DINNER: 7:45pm, shrimp in garlic sauce with black beans, yellow rice, small salad, crappy cheese cake ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Tired again. How odd!

Too much work to do, worked till I had to sleep last night, got not enough of it. Had a fun time in class, had fun getting the details in order at the resto.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, swig of apple cider, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Grinding out stuff for the restaurant, printer acting up, wanted to make a smoothie but didn't get to it.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, small shot of Manhattan Special, numerous chocolate chip minimuffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

I brought a Manhattan Special to share and another classmate at the table brought muffins, good times, good vibes.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, various small slices of pizza, 1 sprite, small amount of Manhattan Special, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, wonton soup, shrimp toast, steamed dumplings, beef chowfun, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hey Shorty, it's mah birt-day!

Certificate of Occupancy is now in order, so looks like the restaurant is opening for real next Tuesday. Oy! Had class today, then off to the restaurant, mostly set up how we want the tables, dealt with the media (Time Out NY was there taking pics), went to a local copy shop to get delivery menus sorted. Then had to run out to hit up a birthing class with Beautiful Bodacious B! Full day. It's now 9:30 and I have to generate all sorts of signage and docs for the shop, and set up a presentation for class tomorrow....

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, 2 cart donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 2 slices pizza, small amount of "Pepsi Natural", 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pepsi distributor gave up a sample of a new product, which is in a glass bottle, made with cane sugar, sparkling spring water and koala nut extract or something....and it tastes just like Pepsi, which means, it tastes like ass.

DINNER: 6pm, BLT on rye, fries, half a crappy piece of cake, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Snarfed down a sandwich from B, which we brought into birthing class. Had to get it down quick before they started talking about exploding hoo-hoos and sploshy pain! Gah!

Cheesy thoughts

Closer and closer we crawl to getting the restaurant open. Spent a good part of the day at the restaurant just fielding all-comers as L took care of business outside the shop, another good part of the day straightening out the wine list, eating pizza and tasting cheeses. Weird to taste cheeses, then consider how much you need. If we do well and go through 100 lbs of cheese a week, then the difference of $1/lb between two different brands of fresh moz is potentially...$52k a year! And that ain't a small amount of cheddar.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices Sicilian, 1 slice red, 1 slice white, sprite, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM CHEESE TASTING: 5:30pm, 2 kinds of moz, glass of latte di mendorla, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, half a cream soda, snippet of gelato, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had to test the consistency of the gelato. Hard work, I know. Just wait till I have to start testing the keg beers!

DINNER: 9pm, large green salad, 2 home made choco chip cookies, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Chillaxing

Had the day off from the resto, so after class, headed over to Brooklyn and HVS treated to me some home cooking. She was a bit hesitant to cook for me but even her brussel sprouts were pretty good. A relaxing afternoon of a movie and yoga, then some chillin' in her crib until I went off for a meaty meal to celebrate myself.

Haven't yogasized in a while, felt really good to get a little physical, though my left shoulder had a new twinge -- old age is coming on! HVS expressed concern about me eating pizza everyday of the week - she's right, I need to think about how to keep my eating in a healthier way while working around seriously yummy but nutritionally stunted food.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, smoothie with good yogurt, dead organic milk, frozen blueberries, kiwi, grapes, pinch of salt, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good to eat something super healthy for breakfast again. Not sweet enough, the tart and the bitter was a bit much, maybe a shot of agave? But for the first smoothie of Spring (and 2009), not a bad start.

AM SNACK: 9:45am, apple fritter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From Starbucks. Feel bad about shopping at the corporate behemoth, but the product is just better than cart cake -- the pound cake from the cart makes my stomach feel achy.

HVS SPECIAL: 12:30, brown rice with pumpkin seeds, baby arugula with tamari (!) pumpkin seeds, lemon, nutritional yeast and salt, steamed brussel sprouts, carob peanut butter cup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Delicious snickle at HVS Fortress. The basmanti brown rice was really fragrant, and the salad zinged loud to the rice's low bassy note. I'm not a fan of brussel sprouts, but HVS cooked 'em not too hard and not too mushy. The carob cup, however, was a bit of a sad impostor. I must make HVS some vegan peanut butter cups using sinful dark chocolate and cartoony childlike supermarket peanut butter!

POST YOGA SNICKLE: 6:15pm, 4 flax crackers with tahini

DINNER: 8pm, braesola and arugula, pork goulash with fresh noodles, brownie with scoop of ice cream, prosecco, madeira, water, bite of steak, a few french fries, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was taken to Flatbush Farm for dinner for my birthday -- it's fun when people are singing Happy Birthday to you to sing along and shout "ME!" when they say your name.

Pizza for breakfast, Steak for lunch, and Cheesecake and Cookies for dinner

OK, not the healthiest eating day but turned a corner by the end. Played catch up on some work stuff and enjoyed the day with my smiley, pregnant wife.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, digiorno pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
This has been in my freezer for a while, and with nothing else in the house, gave it a shot for breakfast. Weirdest thing is that despite it literally rising like freshbaked bread in the oven, it STILL tasted oddly stale. That is, well, amazing! It looked inflated and thick, like a weird discus of pizza matter, and the thick pad of cheese on top had no flavor. The sauce was bright and acidity, kind of a cartoon version of what pizza sauce should taste like. Left over a lot of cheese, it was just kinda silly.

AM SNACK: 1:30am, 2 donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Just in the mood for these. Walking down Grand Street past the Donut Plant, short line of people, got a meyer lemon and a triple chocolate, both as fresh and moist as can be.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, steak frites in a red wine pan sauce, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Just craving meat. The hanger steak was a bit chewy, but still good, though the an sauce really needed some butter and a shot of acid to really make it sing. Sucks when you have a meal in a restaurant, and you KNOW you could make it better at home. Not because you have superior skills, but the patience to focus on the dish and access to superior ingredients.

PM SNACK: 5pm, 1 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Baked them to go with some ice cream I picked up, an after dinner treat.

DINNER: 7:30pm, large green salad with olive oil and vinegar, stirfried shrimp, 2 cookies and cheese cake ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Now THIS is what I was craving! The first dad-style salad of the year (a.k.a.Noah salad, or what my mom would call blenderized salad), where labor is put into cutting all the veg finely into small to medium dice, so every bite is similar and the flavors blend into a more complicated 'salad flavor'. Simply dressed with fresh veg, just wonderful. Stir fried some fresh shrimp in garlic and ginger peanut oil, sake reduction, finish with soy sauce, Worcester sauce and a drop of hot sauce.Pulled them off early and let them finish cooking on the residual heat, pretty damn good, thank you c-school.

Bought over the counter cheese cake ice cream, good idea but kinda disappointing -- it had ice crystals in it, probably softened and refroze at some point. Next ice cream I make will have cream cheese in it.

Celebrate Me!

Got to the restaurant around 11 to help with mise, random friends of the restaurant rolled in around 1pm, friends of the me around 2-3, and we just rolled out assorted pizzas until close to 6:30, was really nice and relaxed and social in a good way. I had the idea of a table situation, but once people bellied up to the bar, it just seemed natural, and I got to hold court behind the bar and get a good chat in with everyone and serve various beverages. Definitely probably the most enjoyable birthday party I've ever thrown for myself, though it's not often one gets to take over the majority of restaurant in downtown Brooklyn for an afternoon without having to pay a lot o' money.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, spoonful of yogurt, honey and vanilla
Not that into it without nuts, kinda amped for the coming day of pizza.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 2 pancetta balls, a few bites of vegetable mise, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Prepped at the restaurant a bunch of salad stuff, including celery, cucumber. We reheated some 4 day old deep fried pancetta balls in the pizza oven and they came out quite good, may be a menu item because they held so well.

LUNCH: 2-6pm, various slices of pizza, various sips of wine and beer, a small portion of gelato cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Normally I would eat a massive amount in a situation like this, but I was just having too much fun talking to people.

DINNER: 9pm, matzoh ball soup, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oh my! My mother-in-law gave me a pack of homemade frozen matzoh balls today for my b-day, and poking around the kitchen, considering ordering in, then found these...right near my frozen chicken stock I made a while back!! BWAAAAH!!! The code in my DNA made me immediately crave bits of chicken and noodle in the soup, but I made it straight up with just the stock, balls and a bit of salt and pepper. Man, my momma-in-law is good to me.

Intense Day

A long but fun day at the restaurant. A blurb on line got a few more people popping in and calling, asking what and when it's all going to happen. Tomorrow, I've invited friends to come to the restaurant for a pre-soft opening / birthday lunch. We've been talking it up to some locals who might join us, and a harpist hungry for work is playing for free, which is nice/weird. Never had a harpist play at a birthday party for me!

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl

AM SNACK: 11:30am, samples of 3 different kinds of soup with excellent baguette, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From Almondine down the street, really high quality.

PM SNACKING: 12noon-8pm, various snippets of gelato, a sampling of cheeses, celery and olives (an appetizer we're figuring out the presentation), a few sodas, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tired again!

Weird day. After class, took the subway to work as my bike had a flat. Led the first staff meeting of the restaurant, was a good vibe. Still absorbing everything.

BREAKFAST: 7am, BLT on toasted bagel with homefries, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to the diner on my block, something I used to do often before I went to c-school and realized how shitty the food was. Still, I'd gone there with my parents, and it was nice to commune with them for a few minutes before starting the day. Though it does make me wish that my parents took me to, say, a juice bar rather than a greasy spoon!

PM SNACK: 12:30, pretzel roll with a small dollop of cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Right before work, from Almondine, really nice.

PM TASTING: 5pm, several wines, a few olives and cheese, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, roast chicken, mussels, piece of bread, glass of wine, bite of cake, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dinner at Vinegar Hill with L and his daughter V, who is also the head of front of house. Really nice place, in an out of the way corner of the greater DUMBO area. Usually don't eat chicken or mussels, but it was on L's recommendation and he was right: they were both fantastic, honest dishes.

I can cook that!

I attended a birthing class with B this evening. Before, I was a bit skeptical about the utility of FIFTEEN HOURS (spread over 5 lessons) talking about birthing, and after...I still am. Unfortunately, they closed the class with a video, including exploding vajayjays and and wrinkly blue baby-monsters. One thing they talked about in the film is the minor contractions after the birth that dislodge the placenta (afterbirth)....of course, they had to show that, too. And the doctor playing with it in a bucket, showing us the bits....all I could think was, huh, that looks like sweetbreads from culinary school....I could cook that! Sorry. I'll spare you the method.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, apple fritter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Falling asleep in class, didn't want cart cake as it tends to give me a stomach ache. Wandered around the corner to evil Starbucks, was actually good. And a smaller portion than the big cart cake.

LUNCH: 1pm, street gyro, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
In a rush, on foot downtown doing restaurant errands. Had to eat, grabbed this because it was cheap and available. Good the first 3/4 of the way, disgusting the last 1/4 -- not a good sign.

PM GELATO TASTING: 3pm, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
We got gelato in! Me and a bunch of folks just sat around and had little spoonfuls of the stuff and talked about the flavors. Hard work, but someone's gotta do it.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, half a Manhattan Special

PM WATERING: 5:45pm, bottle of seltzer

DINNER: 9pm, shrimp and stringbeans, a little brown rice, shrimp toast, quart of water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Chinese food, not very hungry, tired, busy.

Tired

Absolutely exhausted. Was at the place under the bridge from 8:30-5:30, then at the Prospect Heights joint cooking 6 to 10:30. Now that we're aiming for a soft opening next week, there is too much to do and not enough time in the day. It was nice to be able to go into a fully set up operation and turn off the brain a little and just toss dough and pull pizza. I'm so tired right now.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, a few olives

PM SNACK: 12:30, a couple of square of my rice crispy bar from the weekend

PM SNACK: 2pm, quarter bottle of Manhattan Special

PM SNACK 4pm, a few tastings of dry sausage

DUNCH: 6pm-10pm, slice of pizza, 3 sodas, tiramisu, chocolate cake, 1 meatball, water, a few snips of bread, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It's easy to graze when working in a fully operational restaurant!

Wine makes sense all of a sudden!

I spent the evening volunteering at class about pairing wine and food. I've taken a bunch of wine classes related to my culinary education that were mildly interesting, but in the end kind of unappealing and too full of hi-falutin' wine culture. This class, however, pretty much rocked my world from beginning to end. I never liked port, it's kinda like cough syrup mixed with wine and corn syrup. However, when matched with dark chocolate, the grosser elements of port got calmed down and it was all of a sudden like drinking a luscious cherry cordial. Wow! I still don't know a lot about wine, but all of a sudden it makes a lot more sense.

Between school and the class, spent a few hours at the restaurant -- we passed the DOH inspection! Now the only excuse we have for not being open is ourselves. I'm spending the day there accepting and inspecting deliveries. L referred to me twice today as the manager...which is fine, as long as I get to cook, too....

AM SNACK: 6:45am, bunch of baby carrots, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

BREAKFAST: 8am, cart sesame bagel with butter, water, .75 bowl hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, 10 pork & chive dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, quarter of a roast beef sammich, half a cup of mulligatawny soup, 8oz of coke, .75 bowl
We got some food from Almondine Bakery. Oh my, this was the best mulligatawny soup I ever had -- same flavor profile as the thin stuff I've had at crappy Indian restaurants, but this had a cream element to enhance the chicken stock and the lentils were fresh and the spicing just right. Wow.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, prosciutto balls, Manhattan Special soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The landlord stopped by to help celebrate us passing the DOH inspection today, brought us these amazing breaded deep fried balls of chopped up prosciutto and ricotta, spiced with a touch of black pepper, fresh and ungreasy and amazing. And the espresso soda to get me wired.

EVENING SNACK & WINE: 6:30-8:30pm, equivalent of 1.5 glasses of wine, tastes of prosciutto, salt, smoked almonds, piave cheese, dark chocolate, barbecue potato chips, honey, hot sauce, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING WATERING: 11pm, quart o' water

Wasn't supposed to happen, but pizza snuck in

I think I lazily ate too many sweets today, I just feel it in my stomach and head.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 2/3 of a pint of B&J's "Half baked", .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the computer doing restaurant business all morning, didn't want to think about food, just sucked in what was convenient. Made me feel a bit bleah. Half-baked is one half chocolate chip cookie dough (bits of dough in vanilla) and one half fudge brownie (brownie chunks in chocolate ice cream) -- the ultimate B&J's-style garbage ice cream. Made me appreciate how little gelato goes such a long way, with those big clean flavors.

PM TASTE: 1pm, a few spoonfuls of peanut butter chocolate bar components
Made a recipe out of the Baked cookbook for one of B's best friends, who we hosted a little birthday get-together this evening. The base is cooked sugar to the softball stage mixed with butter and rice crispies, then a milk chocolate-peanut butter ganache, topped by a dark chocolate ganache. It's all very tasty, I just hope the consistencies come out right...came out ok, a bit chewier/tougher than I hoped, but definitely edible.


DINNER: 5pm, 1 glass white wine, handful of tiny sausage & kraut pizzas, 2 peanut butter chocolate bars, handful of baby carrots, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The focus of the canapes were supposed to be sausages and home-fermented kraut, but I couldn't stand to put it on a boring croute, and I had dough just sitting in my fridge from Friday night's Roman pizza class....so I banged out tiny 2" pizza shells, and topped them with pre-cooked sausage and kraut. For a laugh, I lined some mini-muffin tins with dough and filled them with a little raw kraut. I pinched the tops and baked them off...they were a similar vibe to the wonderful cabbage peroshki I had when I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, a few years ago. I really need K to come over and do some Grandma-style Ruskie cookin'....

Porno Apples

On the way out this morning, passed a Burger King and saw this sign. OK, they're selling pre-cut fresh apples to kids. But really, aren't they trying to make a connection in adult and children's minds that for food to be fun, it must resemble deeply unhealthy food? Like for sex to be fun, it must be like a porn movie?

AM SNACK: 8am, swig of apple cider

BREAKFAST: 11am, half a bagel with cream cheese and salmon, pickle, chocolate babka, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, chocolate babka, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, popcorn, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, three kinds of Roman pizza, a little fava bean salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Dinner at Pala with T and B, a pizza place thats a bit more upscale and pushing Roman-style, the oblong stuff with less-sauce focused toppings. I had a Buffala crudo, which was tomato water, whole cherry tomatoes, then finished with hunks of cold buffalo moz and lots of basil. Good, but needed salt, the crust was fluffy but flavorless, could've stayed in the oven for another 5 minutes. B got a pumpkin thing that was also under seasoned and didn't really taste like pumpkin -- must of been out of a tin. Still, nice crust mouthfeel. T's was vegan potato-pesto thing with odd moz soy-cheese, and the potato must of been pre-fried or something, because it was just too greasy. I've made potato-pizza at the Prospect Heights joint, and was soooo much better than this.

Pala has an Italaforno oven, three decks, similar to the one at the DUMBO restaurant, except they were running then at 325 degrees -- no wonder the pies seemed a bit pale-tasting! I wonder why they do that.....it increases cooking time and prevents browning.

Bad Pizza Day

Whatta pizza day! No class, met L at the 'rant at 8:30 and we drove out to Maspeth (the last big scary industrial section of Brooklyn, just low rise warehouses around industrial equipment, dirty canals, some streets not paved), which was a thrill simply because I've ridden my bike through many times over the years but never had any personal connection to the area. We went to a large food purveyor who specializes in Italian food, and we got the grand tour. They spent a few hours with us talking about our needs, and gave us plenty of samples. We toured their gelato classroom (because they sell a large line of pre-made mixes and equipment) and were invited to come back for classes. Huh. A few weeks ago my class did a tour of another food distributor, and we were treated well, but nothing like this. Money talks and BS walks. I feel like I just went from playing basic dungeons & dragons to being in the middle of an advanced game! It was a lot of fun, seeing all the Italian meats and cheeses in the refrigerated warehouse. We sampled a few little things, and we were on our way.

We got various Italian grilled vegetables, all pre-packed in air-tight containers in a vinegar solution. We tried them on our pizzas, and they were all uniformly crappy, all flavors muted to a very flat and boring vinegar flavor. The seafood salad was absolutely picked by the stuff. It made the pizza dance a little bit like salt would, but after being in the mouth for a few more seconds, kind of dominated and killed it. Oh well.

I spent the evening at my culinary school for a recreational class on Roman pizza with the chef who taught my pastry mod when I was in school for the arts program. It was a bit disappointing -- I thought we'd geek out on specifically Roman style things, but really it was a generic pizza class with a few different toppings thrown in (zucchini flowers, potato), but it turned into a free for all by the end and most people made margs or garbage pies. Between being exhausted from the day, feeling a bit out of place among the the very nice but inexperienced enthusiasts, and just wanting to go home and squeeze my wife, it wasn't the most fun ever.

One thing I did notice was the incredibly poor quality of the pies we were producing, and it made me think of why. One, the oven was electric, and the chef explained they had to keep the three decks at 450, or it would blow out the circuit -- thin pizza really should cook at a minimum of 550. Another, the dough -- it was too wet and hard to work with, a bit tricky for me, very hard for the new hands. That wet, you can't really get it thin. I would give credit for the high quality ingredients, but everyone was throwing too much on their pies and making a lot of sloppy messes. I made a simple potato-caramelized onion-sweet sausage thing, which I finished with small dollops of cold ricotta (L's technique) and it was ok, the crust just wasn't browned and didn't have the brown flavor.

I sampled a lot of people's pies looking for inspiration, and was only surprised by one, simply because it was the ugliest of the class, but also the best tasting. The dough was not stretched enough, so it was round but small and stood high. It looked like it had a lot of sauce and cheeses strewn on top without much thought. -sigh- I took a bite and....huh? Wots this? The crust was light and airy, and while it was chewier more than crisp, there was a bit of a contrast. The thicker crust held up to the topping, giving some balance. It tasted....good! I'd pay for this. It occurred to me, in talking with L, that the ideal for Sicilian pizza is 450 degrees, and this person in a roundabout way made a thick crust pizza -- he or she should have let is sit in the oven for another 10 minutes to make it sing, but it was still pretty good. -huh- I'm glad I went, I learned an important pizza lesson despite my snobbery!

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with agave, vanilla, raw cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, small piece of chocolate babka, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3-4pm, equivalent of 2 slices with assorted seafood and vegetable toppings, 2 small sodas, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:30pm, assorted mini slices of student pizza, half glass of wine, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:15pm, small amount of Ben & Jerry's Ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4.5

No Pizza Day

Good day, class in the morning was invigorating as we're getting into more interesting matters -- supervision of a restaurant, which happens to run parallel with what I'm doing in the afternoon. L and I took a trip into Manhattan to pick up the liquor license then hit up Katz's for lunch before spending the day on the Bowery, looking at equipment and dishware. It was kinda cool going into Bari, the main manufacturer and distributor of pizza equipment on the East Coast. I think I may go back and buy a proper peel to replace my fartsy Batalli peel. And I found the good pint glasses you can never get at Ikea!...

BREAKFAST: 7am, organic chex with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, 2 cart donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, half a pastrami sandwich, half an order of fries, pickles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:45pm, fried catfish, mashed potatoes, spinach, mini corn dogs, BBQ ribs, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, handful of chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hidden deep and away from B, gobbler of all that is sweet!

Kelly Clarkson, why am I not turning the TV off?

A day of class then restaurant. End of day, feel wiped. Kelly Clarkson is on American Idol. Trying to edit all the collateral I'm designing and editing for the shop. Ate so many baked good today, not enough veg. Got some salad in at the end of day, though.

BREAKFAST: 7am, handful of apple mini muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, cart donut stick thing, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1-3pm, equivalent of 2 slices of pizza, 1 small sprite, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, ice cream cone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, shrimp pad thai, green salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Spent a good part of the day making sausage, frankfurters in particular. Had all my ingredients in line, grabbed a recipe off the internets, remembered the technique from school, did the triple grind, cooling things along the way, etc etc. Boiled gently for 20 minutes, took a bite and.....yuck! Something didn't work, the texture was crumbly and dry, the flavor less like hot dog and more like bland boiled meat. Not sure what I did wrong, have some suspicions.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, chocolate chip muffin, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices pizza
Out of the freezer, from the Prospect Heights resto. Good, it's been in the back of the freezer for 6 weeks and still cooked up well, no off flavors. Scary how I was desiring this for lunch despite eating this stuff professionally.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 5 pork dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At my favorite cheapo dumpling house in Chinatown with K.

DINNER: 8:15pm, baby carrots and potato chips, granola and dead milk, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

Lovely Dinner with a side of guilt

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good yogurt with agave, vanilla, cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, cart pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30-4pm, various pizza slices, 1 sprite, half glass of prosecco, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Things developing slowly at the restaurant, hope to be open next week. Had some practice stretching and topping pies, finding the subtlety in L's style, the logic in his distribution and balance. We worked more on the Apple & Ricotta pie, this time with a small base layer of moz and more honey. Needs less honey, more apple, apple needs to be peeled and maybe a tangier cheese to contract with the apple. Delicious as all hell with the cold florettes of smooth ricotta, but can be better.

DINNER: 7:30pm, bread and butter, waygu carpaccio, half a suckling pig, bluefoot mushrooms, gnocchi, pork risotto, pureed potatoes, chocolate waffle with chocolate sauce and roasted banana & peanut butter caramel-crunch ice cream, mint tea, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Birthday dinner for brother in law at Craft, one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Food was outstanding, but the style of service -- food delivered on family-style platters, coming out when they are ready instead of all at once -- seems a bit out of step with expectations. Still, enjoyed myself greatly, though the check made me feel guilty -- perhaps this money should've been given to charity or kept in savings or something?

Wobbly Day

Too much going on, felt ill all day after oversleeping, probably too much pizza and too little sleep. Better too much pizza than too much crank or booze, huh?

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, large handful of apple cinnamon mini muffins, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Notes on the 3rd week in a row of making these minis: Closer. I've got the cooking method and time down -- 375 for 15 minutes, let finish cooking in pan for about 5-10 minutes after leaving the oven. And premix all liquids with shredded apple before gently folding into the dry minimally. I let some small pockets of dry mix go, they got absorbed in the cooking, and came out nice and soft and tender.

Need to reduce the salt from 1 teaspoon to maybe 3/4 teaspoon. Up the cinnamon for 1 teaspoon to 2 teaspoon. More vanilla from 2 beans to 4 beans. Instead of sprinkling brown sugar on top, maybe a brown sugar glaze?

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, hammentashen, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
A religious organization left little purim kits on everyone's doors, and I was just coming out of a couch-driven haze...

DINNER: 7pm, pasta a la Noah, Gatorade, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hunger comes back. Boiled some pasta, made an odd pan sauce with everything in the fridge: chicken stock, white wine, heavy cream, olive oil, butter, garlic, chives, Worcester sauce, a random firm cheese from the farmer's market, grape tomatoes, salt. Good but unfocused.