Looking for a Job???

I'm still looking for a job and have had several good interviews. I will hopefully have something within the next week or so and then I'll tell you all about it. However, while I was searching on Craigslist, I came across a post entitled "Pizzetta 211 seeks someone who wants to cook food." I don't know what made me click on it, I knew it was going to be nothing that I could financially consider, but the sheer randomness of "cook food" made me curious. I was totally right!! Below is the post in full. I almost want to work for this person just on how fun they sound to be around!

Not trying to be a wordy asshole but I don't want to waste your or my time. And I apologize in advance for any gramatical errors or anything offensive.

The position I'm looking to fill involves a lot of cooking (potentially involving your very own dishes). So it would be beneficial to me if you are a good cook and have worked in a kitchen before. But not all experience is good and I don't discriminate against amateurs if you can make a convincing argument. More important to me than your ability with food is your dedication and willingness to learn and accept criticism. Beyond cooking you will be expected to do all the duties of a Pizzetta bad ass including making pizzas, baking desserts, doing dishes, dressing salads, waiting on tables, making espresso drinks, mopping the floor and whatever else I tell you to do that's not illegal. We don't exploit marginalized people at Pizzetta so besides all the fun stuff that comes with conceptualizing, cooking and serving food you will be expected to roll up your sleeves and do your own dirty work. You will also be very busy because Pizzetta is usually very busy. You will get to make tips and because of that fact you will probably make better money than most, if not all, line cooks/prep cooks/sous chefs around town (but that shouldn't be your main source of motivation because I HATE mercenaries). You will be treated like family because we are a family, albeit a sometimes dysfunctional one. I'm thinking about 35ish hours a week but nothing is in stone. An ideal applicant is someone who loves food and is hardworking, coachable and fun to be around. Sound good?

DO NOT apply for this job if...

-you think you are a rock star chef and like to do things your own way without learning the basics.
-you are in a band that requires that you miss freaking every other shift so you can go stand in line for a limited addition banjo pick or play at the battle of the bands in freaking Chico.
-if you don't like to be critiqued.
-if you are antisocial, awkward, and cannot deal with the public or your coworkers.
-if you plan on getting a "more" serious job in a month or two.
-if you are a self-entitled brat and think that just doing your freaking job is a huge imposition to you.
-if you can't wake up to be at work by 7am (on some days).
-if you can't work hard for more than 2 hours without taking a break.
-if you can't work on weekends.
-if you plan on going on more than 3ish vacations that are a week or longer throughout the year besides the holidays.
-if you don't have command of the English langauge because you will need to speak and interact with the public.
-if you can't hack it working in a busy and sometimes stressful restaurant.

If this all sounds good BRING your resume and cover letter to Pizzetta sometime Wednesday November 30th between 7am and 10:30pm. Your cover letter will probably determine whether or not you get an interview and should address why you would like this job and why I might actually want you at Pizzetta. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT email me your resume and cover letter because I will not read it and I gurantee that you won't get the job. If you cannot make it in person Wednesday because you're on a 3 day mushroom trip in Joshua Tree or off fighting against Japanese whalers have your roommate/mom/friend drop it off for you. If you have any legitimate questions (besides "where are you" because if you can't find Pizzetta 211 in this day and age I don't want you working for me) please ask via email and if I'm slow to respond it's because I'm too busy wading through the morons who are undoubtably emailing me their resumes. I WILL get back to you though. That's it. All the best.

Awesome!!!

Blood

When I got back from China, I had a stack of mail to go through. Several of my Food Arts magazines had piled up and I set them aside for later reading. Now that we have somewhat settled down, I cracked one open from this past August that really caught my interest just from the cover above. It's all about blood and how it's underused in modern day cooking. The article is written by Chef Brad Farmerie of Public Restaurant in New York City and gives a pretty good account of blood's travel through time and food around the world. At the end of the article, it gives you "A World of Blood Cookery" where they list foods from different spots from around the world and how blood is used in different preparations. Here's the link to the article. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Our Wedding Ceremony!!

So if you remember back in August I told you I was going to upload our wedding ceremony. Well finally after a lot of trial and error, changing formats, cutting the video into smaller segments, and uploading it several times till it worked, I finally have it for you!! Now the entire thing is in Chinese, so be prepared! The ceremony lasts about 23 minutes, so you'll need some time if your going to watch it all. Also, I had to use a software that put a watermark in the middle of the video at certain parts, so just
ignore it. 

Here is Part 1. The presenter talks for the first 3 minutes all in Chinese and Andi's mom lights some candles, so feel free to skip ahead to the 3:00 minute mark where we enter if you want. You'll notice the entire time I'm looking quite serious or lost. When we first talked to the presenter, he told me he would tell me when I should speak, what to say, etc. However, once we got started, he left me high and dry!! Dick!

Here's Part 2. In this section, Andi's father gives a speech at the 5:50 mark and last till the 9:40 mark. Just letting you know, since it's all in Chinese, you might want to skip ahead again. Let me know what you think!

Culture Differences

Being back in America, I have come to notice many differences between our American culture and China's. I don't have any photos to give you with this post so instead I'm going to show you my favorite cartoon food video from China at the end: Super Baozi! It has a rapping bun that knows Kung Fu, noodles with swords, and a bread stick that can really jam!! It's all in Chinese so just enjoy it for what it is.

1. There are no paper towels in China. They don't even make them. Instead they use tissues or napkins. I've even been to small restaurants that use the white streamers we use in the US at parties!
2. Monopolies are allowed in China. For all of China, there is 1 electric company, 1 gas company, 2 phone companies, and 3 Internet providers. They don't do "looking for the best price."
3. You ALWAYS take your shoes off at the door. This is a must! Most Asian countries do this.
4. Chinese homes do not have ovens. You'll only find them at restaurants or bakeries. A typical Chinese kitchen only has 2 burners and an exhaust.
5. There are televisions everywhere!! I have seen them in elevators, on buses, and even in bathrooms.
6. You can't find out the sex of your baby until it's born. They made ultrasounds illegal in China because most people want boys and their afraid that the mother or father will hurt the unborn child if they know it's a girl.
7. If a person has tattoo's, they are seen as a "bad person." Usually the person has been in jail or is in a illegal type of work. I got all types of looks because of mine and most people stay away from me. In a country where there are people everywhere, this works out great for me!! :P
8. Spitting, shooting "snot rockets," not covering your mouth when sneezing, interupting a person's conversation and talking with your mouth full of food are all exceptable forms of behavior.
9. You can do what ever the fuck you want when it comes to driving. Seriously. I have seen just about everything!! If you want to drive at night without your lights on, go ahead! Drive at night with your high beams on, sure!! Make a right turn from the farthest left lane, no problem! Red lights, optional! People drive motorcycles on the sidewalk, against traffic, where ever they please. I've seen cars turn around on the interstate and go up the on ramp. I've seen them drive on the sidewalk to get through traffic! Buses are first, then cars, then bikes, and last people. Somehow, very few people seem to get killed!
10. Almost all stewardesses and nurses are young, thin, and attractive. If your not, you don't get hired.
11. The idea of a line or queue is completely foreign in China. Everyone just pushes, shoves, kicks, and elbows there way everywhere.
12. Trademarks and copyrights don't exist in China. I have seen Garfield on bags of snacks, Snoopy on pens, and Transformers on everything!!
13. Have you ever been to Home Depot and your trying to find something but no one is around to help you. Well, not in China. The government helps to employee people at almost every location due to the fact that there are so many people in China. I have seen 8 women standing around the sock area waiting to help someone. Places like Dairy Queen will have 5 employees working when no one is there. Since everyone in China gets paid by salary, they don't have to worry about overtime or label cost.
14. It's very hard to find cold or "iced" drinks in China. Most of the time people carry around warm tea with them or your offered hot tea when you go somewhere. I even tried to order a cold in certain places and been told that they don't serve it "this time of year because it's cold out!"
15. Nothings closed on Sunday. Banks are open, the post office delivers, and even some government business still run.  

And now for the show!

And Then There Was Oakland

Well, not Oakland but right next door in Berkeley. Andi and I looked high and low around San Francisco but couldn't find a good apartment. The place either wasn't pet friendly or was in a bad neighborhood or wasn't close to the Bart(SF's train system). We decided to venture over onto the other side of the bay this past Monday and the first place we looked at we loved! Berkeley is a rich, little suburb of Oakland and is home to Berkeley College. Our place is in a really quiet, safe neighborhood, close to the Bart, grocery stores, and several little restaurants and shops.

View from the street. We originally thought it was the house but it's the apartments in the back. Of course it had to be raining the entire day so all of the photo's we took look grey!

Our place is the red circle.

The kitchen is quite big and has a mad amount of cupboard space.

The living room area. It's directly across from the kitchen.

The bathroom is bigger then it looks in these pictures. Currently its home to a small family of ants that will be leaving on Wednesday when the exterminator comes!

The bedroom had an amazing amount of light coming into it the first day we saw it. The rain and clouds that day make it look kinda dreary. The closet is huge and may just fit all of Andi's clothes. :P

We have a persimmon tree right outside in the yard...

...and our neighbors have a small lemon tree!

There is also a garden in the back that needs some love. I've already talked with my neighbor next door and we are going to revive it together. Should have some good stuff going in a couple of months.

China's Smoked and Cured Meats

Like every other country, China has a selection of smoked and cured meats. Since almost every part of the animal is eaten, they also smoke or cure everything. While in Wuhu awhile back, we stopped into a Walmart. Yes, Walmart's long arms have even reached to this side of the world. The store was similar to all other stores in China however they had an amazing section with all of these products. I have tried the duck legs and some of the sausage during my stay in China. There good but always super salty. This isn't a huge problem when using them in cooking however because the addition of salt in dishes is very rarely used.

I like the smoked piggy mask! :P

Whole chickens and sausages.

More sausages, pig feet, pig ears, duck legs. You name it.

A Different Way to Order

As I said before, I still have some posts I never got to in China. One of them is on ordering food. Whenever we went out to eat, most of the time people would order for us. However, some restaurants in China don't give you a menu at all but instead have you walk into a certain area where all of the food is in pictures or has already been made and wrapped in plastic. A waitress follows you around as you choose which dishes you would like to order. I can never seem to get into this style of ordering food as the pictures never really look that appetizing. Of course, once the food hits the table it's usually quite good but it's just so different from what I was raised on in the US.

Picture after picture of everything offered.

Whole glazed duck.

Vegetables will also be displayed raw allowing you to choose what you would like.

They are usually just stir-fried with oil and garlic.

They also have an entire seafood section, letting you choose which fish, crab, shrimp, etc. you would like to eat.

Mr. Turtle.

Mr. Crab

Lobsters are slightly different from our American ones. They are usually more orange and have a lot more spikes.

Strange looking fish.

Some of the fish were tired of swimming and decided to take a "nap."

Right now is crab season in China and everyone scoops them up when they can. They are similar in size and flavor to our soft shell crabs but you can't eat the shell.

There also quite expensive.