Day fourteen: Where we have more leftovers than we should
Posted on | June 8, 2009
Today, day one of international cuisine and our only day of vegetarian food, my team made a Middle Eastern menu.
It consisted of eight dishes.
I served seven.
“A typical adult visits a fast food restaurant three times a week.”
~ Chef Rushmore
Here is the menu we made:
- Hummus
- Tabouleh
- Tzatziki
- Couscous
- Mint Tea
- Falafel
- Spanakopita
- Vegetable Tagine
I made the hummus, tabouleh, tzatiki, couscous, and mint tea (it sounds like a lot, but these are all salads and sides, so it’s not as massive as it sounds). Asian Guy made the falafels (the chickpea balls) but forgot to assemble the falafel sandwich (pita with the chickpea balls and tahini and minced parsley) which was a shame. Sweet Line Cook made the spanakopita and the three of us made the vegetable tagine: Sweet Line Chef cooking, Asian Guy and myself cutting.
The tabouleh and tzatziki were fine, but the big hits among my dishes were the hummus and (surprise) the mint tea. Asian Guy and Sweet Line Cook scoffed at the tea. But I loved serving it; it seemed like such a gracious thing to offer people.
The falafel ended up being quite dry (Asian Guy made them early and left them in a warm oven for over an hour to their detriment) but the vegetable tagine turned out nicely, especially bearing in mind that we pulled it together at the last minute, and the spanakopita was the best I have ever had.
And as for the couscous?
Yeah. Forgot to serve it. Didn’t find it until we were cleaning up and, oh no!
(And, erm, I asked the Chef why tzatziki and spanakopita were on the Middle Eastern menu he gave us. He told me to just make it. But I think these Greek dishes do not belong on a Middle Eastern menu; what do you think?)
“I used to work in this restaurant and Robert Redford would come in and you knew it was Robert Redford because he looked exactly like Robert Redford but he was only two feet tall!”
~ Chef Rushmore
Lectures these days follow a predictable formula: Some culinary math (we are now pricing herbs and spices and you know there are about twelve million of them), discussion on today’s production (everyone was pleased with their menus, and so they should be, all the dishes were wonderful), and a lecture that is related to the theme of the day. Today, that theme was vegetarianism.
Only, something new did happen. The Maitre’d of our school restaurant popped into the classroom and said he needed one waitstaff and one dishwasher for dinner service and was anyone interested? All the other students looked at each other with those round, vacant eyes that they hoped made them invisible (sort of an if-I-don’t-see-you-you-can’t-see-me ploy). I, however, shot up my hand so fast and so high that the breeze it generated swept three students and a chair into the hallway and left fingernail scratches on the ceiling.
I have never waited tables. So, of course. I volunteered for that job.
I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.
Right now, I’m not very nervous. But I do hope I remember to bring everyone their food!
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9 Responses to “Day fourteen: Where we have more leftovers than we should”
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June 8th, 2009 @ 6:43 am
Good luck waiting tables. I’ve never done that, either, so I’m excited to hear how it turns out for you.
Any secrets in your hummus recipe? It’s one of my favorites, and I think I make a pretty good one, but I’d love to hear any tricks you learned.
Also, I’m curious how things work at your school … Are your instructors giving you recipes to follow or are you making some of these things up on your own?
I’m enjoying your blog!
Happy cooking!
June 8th, 2009 @ 6:57 am
I’ll tell you all about waiting tables in my next post. If I survive!
Hummus – I add a good shot of lemon juice (squirt, taste, squirt, taste) and give it a sprinkle of smoked paprika on top for color and a gentle kick. Hummus is great stuff, isn’t it? Sometimes I smear some of that in a pita and stuff it with salad vegetables and shredded, sharp cheddar for a fast lunch. Then I get addicted and do that for a week solid until the husband says, “Erm, sweetie, you think we can have something else?”
As for the school – we are given recipes, but encouraged to experiment. Sometimes to very interesting results!
I’m so glad you like the blog. It’s a lot of work, but the comments make it worthwhile.
Cheers!
June 8th, 2009 @ 8:23 am
I’d love to hear how you made that mint tea.
June 8th, 2009 @ 8:41 am
Mint tea … sure!
The recipe called for black tea leaves, but all we had in the school were some Earl Gray tea bags, so that was no good (the bergamont oil was just all wrong for a mint tea). So, instead I got some green tea (nothing special, just whatever tea bags were around). Then I chiffonade some mint leaves and threw them into a pot of hot water with the green tea bags.
I seeped it for about seven minutes, then removed the tea bags, strained out the mint, stirred in some sugar, and served it.
Every last drop was gone in about three minutes.
June 8th, 2009 @ 9:04 am
“…I think these Greek dishes do not belong on a Middle Eastern menu; what do you think?”
I can say the Greeks and Middle Eastern peoples would agree with you! Still a fun menu nonetheless. I bet it was super yummy!
June 8th, 2009 @ 9:30 am
Thanks so much! Hot mint tea sounds like the perfect comfort drink in this cool June gloom.
June 8th, 2009 @ 9:37 am
Tabbouleh, eh?
http://d8c.org/2009/05/12/tabbuleh-the-song/ – yes, I can’t stop singing that whenever I make Tabbouleh, so I’d be careful about going there if you’re easily infected by the whistling bug.
June 9th, 2009 @ 11:46 am
Interesting lesson plan.
I would imagine a lot of Greek cuisine has it roots in the Ottoman empire.
Phyllo is used in many Middle Eastern desserts and maybe the idea was to give you an idea of using Phyllo in conjunction with a vegetarian menu.
June 15th, 2009 @ 9:00 pm
middle eastern menu…. hmmm if you called it mediterranean then I can see the connection. I love hummus. being a Texan I eat it with corn chips
or sun chips if I can get em. mint tea is my fave. followed by chamomile