Yum yum dim sum

Over the weekend I had a massive craving for Hong Kong style dim sum. Back in the states, I'd have to say I had dim sum probably every other week between bouts of Korean food, Vietnamese food, and the obligatory burrito.

The 13th arrondissement of Paris is teeming with Asian stores and restaurants. However, dim sum is quite specific and I really didn't think I'd find it at a Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai conglomeration of a restaurant. So what's a girl to do? I googled "best dim sum Paris" and went with a suggestion from Zagat.

Picard party!

For a long time, I've been wanting to have Picard party. And no, I'm not talking about Jean-Luc Picard ala Star Trek. I'm a nerd, but not THAT big of a nerd. I'm talking about Picard, the highly-popular chain of French stores specializing in frozen foods.

It seems as though in the states, anything frozen is generally deemed as either junk-food or something you turn to when there's absolutely nothing to eat. Americans (or at least Californians) generally hold up their noses to most things in the freezer chest. We can thank frozen pizzas and Hungry Man TV dinners for that. Well the French have it dialed when it comes to flash-freezing. At Picard they sell all sorts of frozen foods ranging from meats and vegetables, to baked goods, and full meals including appetizers, mains, and desserts. Its quite impressive, even if you just pop in for a look.

Oh oh okonomiyaki

According to Wikipedia, Okonomiyaki is a "Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning 'what you like' or 'what you want', and yaki meaning 'grilled' or 'cooked'."

Oh sheet...

So being an American, you'd think I'd jump at the chance to make some chocolate chip cookies at work right? Well, yeah if we actually used chocolate chips in the lab instead of having to pulverize Valhrona chocolate, and if I didn't have to make 12 kilos (~26.5 pounds) of it.. in one go. To make matters worse, these aren't Nestle Toll House cookies that plump up. They're cut out with a round cutter. Its blasphemy if you ask me.

Well anyways, today I had to use the Laminateur, aka pastry dough sheeter, to roll out my 12 kilos of dough. Well you know how they tell children to look both ways before crossing the street? Well kids, if you ever use a pastry dough sheeter, make sure to look on both sides of the belt before using it. I learned the hard way. One of the ADPA (Alain Ducasse a Plaza Athénée) pastry guys put a sheet of thin dentelle cookie things on it...and before I knew it.. crash.. splat.

After a slew of expletives from him, horror-stricken, I cleaned up the mess. He apologized too... since he should have known better than to put the sheet there! Oh well I'm tired... and don't really give a sheet full of dough.

Rest for the weary

I calculated that even though I only work four days a week, I actually work more hours than my friends at Pierre Herme, though considerably less than those who are at gastro restaurants. Still, I'm quite happy (aside from the throbbing feet and skin allergy).

Things I steal from work

Okay so it's a bit of an exaggeration saying that I steal things from work. More like I take the unwanted refuse and rejects of the day. Like my other staigiare friends have noticed, there are always rejects in the lab especially when you're producing high-quality goods. Though for me, I'm not picking through 2000 raspberries and eating 200 of them. Instead there are always cookies, cakes, madeleines, and financiers left behind. However, producing as much as we do, I'm rather sick of smelling, let alone eating, everything.

Pros and cons

So I've officially finished my first full week at Plaza Athénée, and its been rough. Luckily no catastrophes this week, but I'm still tired. I'm slowly getting used to the schedule, so I'm not as fatigued as last week...where I just wanted to curl up into a ball and die. It's a really good learning experience though and I'm humbled every day by how little French I know, but everyone is willing to speak slowly and help.

Every day I add to my mentally compiled list of pros and cons about being a stagiaire. I hope someone finds it a least mildly amusing...as this is my life for the next six months.

Pro: Working with a World Pastry Champion.
Con: Achy sore feet after standing for 11 hours a day.
Pro: Seeing the Eiffel tower every night on my way home.
Con: Not seeing the light of day for four days straight.
Pro: The sous chef is super super nice.
Con: The sous chef is only super nice if you haven't screwed up and he's not lecturing you.
Pro: The magical 'lingerie' where you swap dirty uniforms for clean ones.
Con: Cleaning the lab/kitchen three times a day.
Pro: Getting to taste/take home some leftovers from the day.
Con: Allergy to D10 cleaning product that is resulting in a rash.
Pro: Latex gloves for said allergy.
Con: Being too short to reach most things.
Pro: My best friend the stool.
Con: Spending at least half an hour in the walk-in fridge stocking and cleaning.
Pro: Doing everything from juicing 4 kilos of lemons to chocolate work to cake assembly.

And the list goes on and on. One thing I've discovered is that stagiaires generally don't stay very long. One girl just left yesterday after six weeks and two others, who started when I did, only have about a month left. So guess who gets to be the long-term kitchen slave? At least I'm paid, whereas they aren't, even if its a pittance and I could make more working at MacDo. On the upside, the longer I'm there, the more I get to learn...and hopefully there will be more staigiares to 'ranger' and 'nettoyer' the lab.

Barcelona

So I know this post is un peu en retard, but better late than never! A week and a half before school finished, my girlfriends and I figured we should plan a mini trip during the week we have off before our stages began. I know as a stagaire without a real income, I should be pinching every penny so I don't end up broke, but when they suggested a 4 day trip to Barcelona with tickets at 90 euro, I had to say yes!