Monday, July 16, 2007

I've got answers?

I responded to a friends request for volunteers to play along with her in a game she called
Becky Has Questions, I Have Answers... So I guess I will call this Sue Has Questions, I Can Beat Around The Bush With Something Resembling Answers With What May Just Be Idle Ramblings Of A Seriously Long Winded Warped Mind. (is the title long enough?)

The premise:

  1. If you had the option to go back in time and re-do one event in your life, would you take the chance on a different outcome?
  2. Being a chef, what is the one thing you enjoy cooking the most – and the least?
  3. What is your favorite meal to EAT?
  4. If you were given the choice of being a famous writer or a famous singer/musician, which would you choose? (Since I happen to know you are extremely talented in both areas!)
  5. An easy one: What is your favorite color?

The answers

  1. I don’t know if just one event would have made much of a difference in my life, I do believe that if there were one event that might have changed the coarse of my path it would have been to stay in the Navy when I was younger. I had worked my butt off as a pollywog finally gaining my sea legs and was just coming into my own when I left the service for the “girl next door”. We were engaged and planned on being married as soon as I was discharged, as Debbie being an army brat wasn’t fond of the military. Debbie met a jarhead and was introduced to the world of drugs and parties while I was undergoing separation duty. By the time I returned, she had moved in with her new friend and was intoxicated daily bye 7a.m. I don’t try to second guess if I could have done anything to help her avoid some of the mistakes I made earlier in my life, she made a choice and ultimately lived with it. It didn’t take me long to realize that I wasn’t all that heartbroken as I should have been over the ordeal. If I had remained in the service, I would have traveled more, the military was about to pay real wages and I was moving up the ranks after several years of “growing” up. I loved being at sea and always had wanderlust. I was good at what I did and took pride in my performance and was a good mentor onboard ship. I think it would have been a good life and I really enjoyed the fantail band Cinnamon Reign that I played with and miss that life at times.
  2. It is a toss up between Saucier, Garde Manger, or Boulanger/Patissier. I worked at Sam’s Seafood as a Saucier making all the soups and sauces for the evening meal, then worked the fast paced shift as expediter or relief bartender as the need arose. The restaurant was owned by the “Skipper” from Gilligan’s Island; Alan Hale Jr. and was a lot of fun to work for. The atmosphere was laid back yet romantic with Polynesian music and a Koy pond complete with an eight-foot rock waterfall gurgling in the background decorated with elctric fireflies like at Disneyland’s bayou area at the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. After hours the employees and often Mr. Hale would set up a table in the lounge and play poker or Mil Borne until dawn. I was performing with a group called TNT in the Orange County area at the time as well and with Mr. Hales generous help we were able to get gigs at places like Jaspers, Moonrakers, Reuben E. Lee’s, The Rusty Pelican and more. Garde Manger was the position I shined in at the Aircoa Sheraton Hotel in Newport Beach. I was an apprentice there and working full time, carrying a full load at Orange Coast College, working a few graveyard shifts at U-Totem Mini Mart in Costa Mesa and teaching the (don’t laugh) New York Hustle and West Coast Swing at the Arthur Murray School of Dance in Newport Beach just down the street form the Sheraton. I also tried singing waiter at a restaurant across the street, but I just couldn’t fit in with the staff. And my stint in the Navy gave me my bakery roots, a job I didn’t much care for in the service but volunteered for because it got me first liberty whenever we pulled into shore. So I learned well and spent my landlubber days in exotic lands as a tourist instead of pulling inane guard duties while docked. It is a skill that served me well over the years, and when I opened my first restaurant I included a bakery as well as a catering service, which greatly expanded my income potential. Then later when I faced hard times and was in need of work, I accepted a job as poolside Hotdog vender at the newly built Ramada Express during their grand opening. As it happened, a drunk driver struck the Pastry Chef while he was walking home from work one night and was hospitalized and eventually retired from work. Chef Albert Hall III asked if anyone had experience as a pastry Chef and much to everyone’s surprise I came forward and stepped into the position, a decision chef Al never regretted. Later after the County of San Bernardino finally picked me up as a deputy, it was a close call between long challenging hours of Casino kitchen work and the better paying adventurous position of sheriff’s deputy and I chose the call of the badge. Who knew that in a few years I would be the head of Bakery operations and the R.O.P. training coarse and get the opportunity to design my own multi million-dollar bakery for the county? So it is very difficult to nail down what my favorite food prep is, but I do know I don’t care for working with anything with fresh tripe in it, I had a really bad shipboard experience involving a hangover and cleaning tripe in the hot humid south East Asian tropics one time.
  3. LOBSTER!!!! Hands down my personal favorite, preferably Brazilian or Zealand Rock lobster, spiny lobster is ok and so is Australian, Main or New England lobsters. Don’t bother offering me Langoustinos or fresh water lobsters (crayfish) I will hold out for the real thing. I love mostly broiled lobster tail, or BBQ’d lobster kabobs, lobster thermadore, lobster Newburg, lobster bisque, crisp lobster salad with mango and lime dressing, I love the rich sweet flavor with a hint of smoky slightly charred delight of a brazier or barbeque grill permeating the tender pieces of lobster. Ok, now I’m hungry.
  4. Hands down I would choose famous writer. As much as I love to sing and perform, I am not a crowd person, and if I were a famous in-your-face musician on CD labels and concert tours, I would loose much of my privacy. If I were a famous writer I could remain a recluse and not show my head to the public any more than necessary to promote my books. Then I would take time out to form a little local garage band as a hobby. I do love being a big fish in a small pond.
  5. Easy she says… I once liked the color green as a child, but my fondness for blue emerged in my teens. As a young adult Black became the understatement that defined my inner angst and by mid twenties avocado and persimmon pleased my palate. Disco broke the barriers and introduced me to bright psychedelic flamboyant color and chrome combos (I never adapted to pastel leisure suits) and wild paisley prints, I wanted many colors that would make me dizzy by bursting out in conflict of one another. This was followed by a brief brush with the combined red and black colors of some mystic significance I cannot recall at this time (probably involving a troubled woman). Then as my business like side settled down to take the helm of my journey; I preferred the influence of earth tone browns. Later as my independence gave me more personal definition I found comfort in power combinations of banker gray suits and bold red ties. Now days I am more fond of Silver, Pewter and Black and White.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for playing! I actually learned some more things about you... mwhaa haa haa...