Externship week fourteen

A label we use

Last week at the Mexican cafe

This week was the last for me at the Mexican cafe. I was able to learn some dishes and the more important the spices to use in Mexican cooking. I will definitely try to cook something at home to try. Also the Mexican food in general are quite simple, so it might be a good idea to have a Mexican dinner or lunch.






Monday

Fruit salad ready to go

I was working for the Grab and Go team. This is a team responsible for preparation of small dishes for Googlers. The idea is to have small salads, snacks, or sandwiches individually packed, so people simply grab the package and go away. For me there was a strange feeling working for this team. I felt that I was too fast for them. In general, I am not able to spend 30 minutes for the work I can do in 15. These guys can do this. The day was really relaxing.
In the morning I started washing cherry tomatoes and then cutting them in half. Then I packed a fruit salad into boxes, covered them with lids, and labeled each box. Then I worked on two salads. My job was to cover boxes with lids and label accordingly. Then with one girl we went to deliver our products to five different cafes. After delivery I had a break.
After break there was turkey to slice for me and ham to dice. Indeed it was so easy, except for cleaning the slicer. This is not my favorite job, there are so many surfaces, and you need to clean it thoroughly (you do not want to poison people). At 2 pm everyone from the team disappeared and I had two more hours to work. Only the protein guy accepted my help, so I worked with him for some time. He promised to give me a recipe for mexican pulled pork (it was on the menu today and it was delicious!)
The last 30 minutes I worked on the line serving food for the guests (this cafe is open till 5:30 p.m.)

Tuesday

Breakfast line is open

Tuesday was a service day. In the morning I worked on the line serving breakfast. There was an omelette bar where guests are able to chose what they want with their omelette. Then they would give me a small bowl with ingredients they chose and tell me what exactly they want (omelette or scramble eggs, whole eggs or whites only, and so on). I would give the order to the cook. As soon as it was ready I put a plate to a hot stone and call the name. Also I had to keep an eye on the line that there were enough food.
During the lunch time and late afternoon I was on the line serving burritos. So now I can roll burritos. Sometimes it's difficult because people want way too much feeling inside and tortilla is not stretchable.

Wednesday

House cured and smoked
bacon to slice

Was probably the most boring day so far, at least at this cafe. In the morning I had to make a guacamole. The sad thing was, that everybody was too busy and my temporary 'supervisor' was a dishwasher, a Mexican guy speaking close to none English. Guacamole is a good thing to do and I like it, but the lack of direction was not cool. We made it from eight cases of avocados. To cut them in half and then scoop the flesh out of skin was not a quick task, however it was not difficult either. So, get the flesh out of avocados, puree it with immersion blender until there is no big chunks, add lemon juice, salt, pepper to taste. Last thing we added was pico de gallo (tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, salt, hot sauce).
Then I took the lunch break and after  that the next three hours was slicing bacon. The chef made house cured and smoked bacon. Indeed that day was not too interesting at all.


Thursday

Chicken for burritos 

Was able to work with proteins. Came to work late, because I had drop off my car for the service. When I came to work 300 pounds of steaks were already cooked. With my lead cook  we started to cut these steaks for small dice. The second entree was chicken. It was also almost ready by the time I came. We finished chicken and kept steak warm. During the service I had o keep an eye on the lines and refill steak and chicken as necessary. The service was really busy from 12 to 1 pm. One hour was unbelievable. Then it got much easier.
After the service there were chicken thighs for the Friday. I had to place them  on sheet trays linen with parchment. There were total 23 trays.

Friday

Fried squid with chipotle aioli

Proteins again. In the morning we cooked chicken. First we roasted it in the oven at 500F for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile we sweat onion with garlic, added cumin powder and dry oregano. Then we added chicken and braised it for a long time, so it started to fall apart. We adjusted seasoning (salt, pepper, lemon juice) and it was ready for the service.
Another dish for today was deep fried squid with chipotle aioli. Squid was marinated in buttermilk overnight. Today it was drained and mixed with a mixture of flour, cornstarch, salt, pepper, paprika to get a coating before frying. I made a chipotle aioli. At the beginning I had a conversation with my lead cook, as he wrote 6 yolks and 6 quarts oil. I told him that there is no way that one egg yolk would take one quart of oil. The standard ratio for mayonnaise is one egg yolk to 8 fl oz oil. He said I can do what I feel necessary. I started with 14 egg yolk and used 4 quart of oil. The amount I got was enough for the service today. My aioli got a good feedback.
After my lunch I worked on preparation for Monday. Pork carnitas is going to be on the menu. I was told how to make dry rub, Then we cut pork butts for smaller pieces and dry rubbed them. It's going marinated till Monday ( I want to check it on Monday how good it is:-) Dry rub for pork  carnitas was made of chipotle chilli, garlic powder, onion powder, chilli powder, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, salt and pepper (equal amounts of all ingredients except for cayenne, salt and pepper - cayenne 30 %, salt 66%, pepper 25%).
Also for Monday we prepared turkey. We had to defrost them partially to get rid of giblets and small parcels they put inside birds with liver, heart, etc. Then we brined them.