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Archive for March, 2009

Advice # 1: Quality
To keep your customers coming back, please make sure that you offer quality food and services. Too many Chinese restaurants have gotten away from it. The word will spread quickly that you are doing it better than the rest.

Advice #2: Cleanliness
Too many Chinese take-out restaurants forget about this one. Remember customers can see much more of your take-out restaurant than most other restaurants. All places should be kept clean that includes the illuminated menu and the cup that the pencils are in. If a customer can see it, it should be kept clean. The 1 hour a day will pay back for ever, it worked for McDonalds…..

Advice #3: Clean Uniforms
The chefs should look like cooks with their nice clean white uniform. Clean cooks shirt, clean apron, clean pants. The person in the front taking orders should be nicely dressed and organize his/her work area. A clean looking staff makes the customers feel comfortable and wanting to come back for more delicious food. If your take-out menu is online, please tell your customers of this convenience. This way, your customers can easily order your Chinese food via the online Chinese menu that you have posted.

Working at a job you dislike, day after day, can be tiring. Most people don’t think they have a choice. Nothing could be farther from the truth! A variety of creative, interesting jobs are available in today’s job market for those individuals willing to seek them out. A perfect example: there are many culinary jobs available that would make use of your natural enjoyment of cooking. Even if you don’t have any culinary work experience, there are many cooking schools with associate and bachelor’s degree programs that will help you get the culinary job of your dreams.
Cooking schools plan their degree programs to cover all aspects of culinary jobs, so that students will be fully prepared as they enter their new career. Cooking schools usually have associate’s degree programs for students who would like to pursue basic careers in the culinary arts, with bachelor’s degree programs for more ambitious students. Some cooking schools may even hold recreational classes for students who simply love to cook. There are culinary schools offering associate degrees in the culinary arts and the confectionary arts, a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts management, and a variety of evening and weekend recreational classes.
There are a variety of skills and information that cooking schools will teach in their courses. Anyone who works with food should be familiar with topics such as food sanitation, food storage, and basic food production skills, making these important parts of most cooking schools’ programs. Most cooking schools also offer courses on basic nutrition, menu planning, and various cultural and international cuisine, preparing students for a variety of cooking jobs. Some programs may include more specific courses, such as classes that teach special cooking skills, such as baking. More advanced programs, such as a culinary arts management program, may include classes on business management or hospitality law.
An education at one of the cooking schools in your area can prepare you for a number of jobs in the field. There are a number of cooking jobs, everything from food preparation positions, in which the cook mainly assembles the ingredients for complex dishes, to positions that involve more responsibility and decision-making skills, such as the head cook or a cook employed in a private home. Even culinary workers such as some service workers and fast-food or short-order cooks need to have a solid understanding of food sanitation, food storage, and other skills that cooking schools teach.
Even if you don’t know much about cooking, you probably know whether or not you enjoy cooking. If you find that you look forward to making dinner throughout the day, or that you delight in finding, or even making up new recipes, you might enjoy pursuing a career in the culinary arts. An education from one of the cooking schools in your area will help you in finding the culinary job of your dreams.

Written by Andy West our expert of the day.

Desiring to take pleasure in the sun, feeling the wind on your face? Looking for a breathing space to relax at the same absorbing the sights and sounds and ocean adventures? Welcome aboard Thomas Cook Cruises or Cruise Thomson.

For the newcomer, cruises are pleasure trip aboard luxurious cruise ships. Life on board is very much what you want it to be. There is total quiet and peace, cool and the relaxation you always wanted to do. But cruises have also nightlife and entertainment. Here you relax in paradox. It is having the best of both worlds.

Dining at Thomas Cook Cruises is as special as their services. You can have a choice of fine dining, dining al fresco and ala carte. You have the options. As you can also have your choice of cuisine. From Mexican buffet to Italian pizza, it is yours for the asking. Although the right scope of dining options differ from ship to ship.

While in the British Cruise market, Cruise Thomson occupies a distinctive place. Since its inception in the 1990s as a budget cruise operator, Thomson has gradually evolved into more conventional in the cruise industry. It has progressed to improving its ships, amenities and facilities and diversified by widening its itineraries.

Culinary arts school is the educational institution that teaches the students about cooking art, meaning, about cuisine or food preparation. Arts cooking schools are evolving enormously and many people are now keenly interested in enrolling into top universities of culinary arts schools. This is because cookery arts have a bright career in a student’s life. In fact, at present, the top universities in all nations are witnessing massive number of students coming for admissions every year.

At present, with the competitive industry of restaurants, hotels, resorts and food service parties, the significance of cooking arts schools have increased furthermore. The main aim of cuisine arts educational institution is to teach the students about superior arts of cuisine. The culinary art is mounting at a tremendous speed, and hence there is a need of professional schools to manage the industry with prosperity.

The culinary art will not be anymore considered as simple and easy. In fact, the gastronomic art is linking to a lot of proficiency and innovation. Thus, many aspiring students are now applying for culinary universities to take this as their professional occupation. Myriads of culinary arts schools that have evolved around the world just do not to teach the basics, but also some peculiar field of culinary such as sauces, desserts, knife skills, wine class, and pastry class, preparation of healthy food and, course for making fine chocolates.

Been kicking this recipe around for some time as an alternative to Buffaloe Wings. Some recipes call for the wing but I think Im going with Drumsticks being more meatier and less time consuming.One recipes calls for corn flour and I am not too sure if I can find it in the local store.Anyhow cut the skin around the top of the leg and pull the meat down.Then you are ready to bread,fry and cook.Im thinking of frying and I will marinate first with some soy and Thai Chilli Sauce.Sounds good to me.

These lollipops are an absolute blast to eat. Granted, they are very labor intensive to prepare, but when it is all said and done, the sheer fun of eating these tasty creations makes it worthwhile. Since the meat is bunched down in a tight ball, it is exceptionally more tender and juicy than the average fried wing, and the right sauce put it over the top. While these are labor intensive, they are fun to eat and can easily impress your guests.I used a jar sauce for simplicity, and you can use BBQ, hot sauce, or any of your favorite wing sauces.

Most do not know the important role New Mexico has played in culinary history. Researchers and archeologists agree that New Mexico was one of the earliest settlements of the Mongolians and Tibetans when they came over the Bering strait to settle the Americas. The area has attracted visitors from before recorded history, who in turn created the pure, often spicy flavors known in New Mexico’s foods.

Primarily chiles are both king and queen. Chiles themselves have been more developed in New Mexico than anywhereespecially since World War II, when Dr. Jim Nakiyami, a Professor at New Mexico State University gave his leadership to developing many, many new varieties of chiles.

And, most do not know that the first American wines were made in New Mexico. The priests, Jesuits and Monks brought the first cuttings of grapes here in the 1620′s from Spain, thus predating the California wine industry by 140 years.

Poker is cooking. While it is certainly a lot sexier to compare poker and coitus, such a comparison leads to an ungainly conclusion – do you really want to think of 10 un-showered old guys sitting in a smoky room and sex at the same time? Cooking is the better metaphor.• First of all, poker is a game of patience just like cooking. Even for the most aggressive of players, most of your time at the poker table is spent folding your cards and waiting. Likewise, most of your time spent cooking is time spent waiting for the right opportunity to fuss with your ingredients more.• Once the time is right, a lot of things happen all at once. In poker, you’ll fold five hands in a row then pick up pocket tens. Immediately, you have to factor in your table position, how many players are already involved in the pot, who those players are, how many poker chips you have and THEN you have to figure out how to bet. Same thing goes for cooking: you wait and wait for your skillet to heat up then you have to add two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, three minced garlic cloves, pinch of salt, a teaspoon of cumin, a little chili powder, a bay leaf, then sear the chicken but flip it before it burns, then add the white wine then simmer, cover… and wait for another twenty minutes.• A card room or a casino works a lot like a restaurant. First thing that you do is walk up to the person at the counter and put your name on a list to sit down. Then you go wait at the bar for them to call you.• Finally your name is called and someone in a suit leads you to a chair at a table. Once you sit down, someone even brings you chips just like at a Mexican restaurant.• The dealer is your server. If you cook at home, everyone usually serves themselves, but once you enter the friendly confines of a restaurant the server is there to speed your meal along and take care of any special requests you might have. The dealer will take care of your table in much the same way. The dealer also expects to be tipped.• While you can make most any dish in most any place provided you have the ingredients, cooking tends to be very different in different parts of the world. From the beans and rice of Costa Rica to the high priced gourmet of LA to the fried everything of Great Britain, food changes from place to place. So too does poker: go to Costa Rica and expect to get involved in slow Limit Hold’em and Stud, go to LA and you’ll be involved in high stakes action-packed No Limit Hold’em and go to Great Britain and get ready to play Pot Limit Omaha.• Whether you play in a home game or go to out to eat, it’s always nice to do it on a neatly set table.• Great chefs and poker masters come in all shapes and sizes – from the Mario Batali/Doyle Brunson type to the Gus Hansen/Bobby Flay type. Body type is no pre-requisite for either activity.• Movies about both tend to be awful. If you are looking for a truly awful poker movie, and there are so many to choose from, check out “All-in” with Michael “Mr. Blonde” Madsen. For a recent wretched cooking movie rent “Spanglish” with Adam Sandler. On the other hand, for a good poker flick check out the seminal “Rounders” with Matt Damon and Edward Norton. And for fine food cinema you can’t go wrong with Stanley Tucci’s all-time great “Big Night”.• At the heart of all cooking there is a simple equation – change in temperature + food = cooking. Every last bit of food you ever eat has been through some derivation of this equation. At the heart of all poker there is an equally simple equation – cards + bet = pot and every cent you win or lose in poker has been done under this equation’s umbrella. Any beginner can pick up a get a seat at a table and win a pot just like any ten year old can make scrambled eggs.• Of course, to master either takes a lifetime.

Written by Nick Taylor our expert of the day.

The American chop suey recipe was popular in the 1900s, when Chinese “chop suey” was becoming widely popular. American chop suey usually contains ground beef, macaroni, and tomato sauce and is very different from “Chinese chop suey.” The dish is often called “goulash” in many parts of the United States. The recipe is quite adaptable to taste and available ingredients. Nobody knows why it is called American Chopsuey, but it is one of the most common recipe on the Chinese restaurants in India.

American Chop Suey is a popular Chinese recipe. Learn how to make/prepare chicken American Chopsuey by following this easy recipe. Classic American chop suey consists of elbow macaroni and bits of cooked ground beef with sautéed onions and green peppers in a thick tomato-based sauce. American Chop Suey was my very favorite food, and even now this is often my first choice when I’m looking for a tasty, quick, and easy dinner.

The news has had alot to show about the demonstations regarding those who have crossed the border of the USA illegally. Now I am not a proponet of letting everyone in. Our nation simply cannot take all the worlds masses. I know many nations would not want to come here anyway. For the most part, however, the news has shown people gathering with placards and signs on this issue.
Many of those were Mexicans. I grew up with Mexicans, Indians, Spainards, and cowboys. I could point to many types of people in all groups. Some good, some bad. The mexicans, however, were usually in gangs in my home town. That is the young people had gangs. I’m sure the adults would of wanted no gangs. Being a white, we had our own gangs. We did alot of things that were not good. I’m not proud of those days.
The thing that stands out are some of the people. For this article I will speak of the mexicans I knew. The first time I knew what green stuff was, which looked like a gravy, I was asked “you want some of this over your huevos”? “Yea, sure”, I replied, not knowing what it was. One bite later and I was in a greenish-yellowish nightmare of hot. Even today, I remember Mama Martinez’s green chile that was put over my eggs. It was her son I ran around with. His name was Martin.
Then there is the time Ernie Montoya and his group were visited by myself and friend Martin Martinez. There was a stack of beer cans in the corner. These guys and gals had been partying for some time. It was daylight, on a school morning and we passed by their place on to school. After we entered, Martin left to do something, and that left me alone on the couch. Pretty soon Ernie came up and sat alongside. He had a beer can in one hand and a switch blade in the other. After a thump from plopping down hard, Ernie opened the blade and put it up against my throat. “what ya goin to do whitey”..smiled Ernie with a beer breath. I looked at him and said “nothing, nothing at all”. Ernie burst out laughing and slapped me on the back.
I left this neck of the woods and moved to a city some hundred miles away. Over the next course of ten to fifteen years I was a Chef and manager in many restaurants. I came to know many illegals. In those days, they were the only help I could find. No one else wanted to work. I came to know them as hard working men and women. Most could not speak english very well. So I had to learn spanish. It was a broken work I had to speak this language. But overall I could communicate what I needed done. I never knew any of them to steal or drink on the job. Maybe I was just lucky. Those Mexicans I knew and worked with became a fabric with me.
I fondly remember the recipes I learned. Working with many mexican women, I would watch how they re-fry the pinto beans with bacon grease. As well, I would smell the pot of rice that just came out of the oven with spanish rice in it. From green chile to red chile and enchiladas and more, I tasted and cooked my way with many a mexican. When they first passed the law that required the mexicans to have cards, it hurt. We could not find anyone to help.
This puts me in a fond memory of one day on Interstate 80. I was Sous Chef at a very large Truck Stop. We did tremendous business. On staff were many mexicans, cooks, janitors, bussers, dishwashers, and the like. I was pouring out a large vat of prepped sauces when the word got around the Immigration people were pulling up. Those words are like a bomb going off. Before I knew it I was virtually alone in that huge kitchen. The enforcers came in. They looked at me in that large kitchen and took a look around the place. After a shrug of the shoulders they headed out back to see if they could catch up with all the mexicans that left in hurry. Out back was a large desert full of cactus and prarrie dogs. Miles and miles of it. After a number of hours my help returned. They hadn’t caught them afterall. I was glad, too much work all by myself. If they had been caught, I usually would see them back on the job within two weeks. I don’t know how they did it, but they always seemed to find a way back.
To this day I still have mexican friends who worked with me. They greet me whenever we see each other. Usually shopping. We all have grown older and the kids are raised now, but we are all legal. They smile and tell me how things are going as the realization that they now are legal americans. These whom I have met and worked with are genuine friends. I take it to heart when I think of them. I also have had mexican gangs who were evil and beat me up. But in this life there is bitter and the sweet. I have had the “sweetness” of friendship from across the border.
I relate all this to say, there has to be a solution to all this. I know we cannot take everyone in. It is also a reality that there are bad people who want to hurt us here. They don’t care who we are mexican or white, yellow or pale. They want to kill us simply because we are a free country and we are americans. I have laughed heartily with many of my Mexican compadres and worked along side them. It with much gratitude to the Good Lord that I knew them. Too bad we have to have bad apples, hatred, and strife along the way..
I hope this helps you today to appreciate a friend, no matter where they are from…

Written by Dana Smith our expert of the day.