I hope this post will amuse-bouche you…

After work the other day I came home and found this note from Mrs. Abyss:

For dinner, can you please trim the chicken breast and pound it. Then put it in a zip lock bag and squeeze one lime over it, add about a tablespoon of tequila, 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp salt. Seal it up and throw in the fridge. Then slice 1/2 the bell pepper and 1/2 the onion into strips, like you would see in a fajita. Lastly there is a small square of jack cheese in a large zip lock bag. That can be shredded. I’ll put it all together when I get home.

“Yes chef,” I yelled enthusiastically into the otherwise empty kitchen. Sous chef powers activate!

Let’s see. First up the chicken. I can handle that. I know she likes it well-trimmed of all fat and then pounded. I grabbed the special blue cutting board reserved for poultry and knocked out that task.

What’s next? Hmm, tequila. I grabbed the Hornitos and a shot glass. (I must have been reading between the lines in her note.) What the hell? My Survivor shot glass is cracked? Oh the bitter irony. I better slug that down fast. Check!

I dumped the chicken in a baggie, squeezed in the juice from a lime, added tequila, cumin, and salt, zipped it up, mixed it well and threw it in the fridge.

Next? A white cutting board for the veggies. Chop, chop, chop. Oh how I love those veggies. I couldn’t help but nibble on a few onion slices. Delicious! Emboldened I figured what the heck, let’s try some raw green bell pepper. I love those but except for salads I can’t remember going raw too often. Very flavorful, crunchy, cool and crisp. Yummo. (Uh oh, I’m talking like Rachael Ray now. How many shots of Hornitos is that?)

Last up the Monterey Jack cheese. I shredded on that task. (Heh.)

“Prep completed, chef!” I shouted to myself.

Not too much later Mrs. Abyss came home and took over and chicken quesadillas were made for dinner. Fantastic.

This could very well be my most inane post of all time. I’m sorry. What can I say? The note from the head chef amused me!

OK, do you want the facts?  Or do you think that by watching Top Chef you could be a Chef in a professional kitchen?

First, you earn the title of Chef.  I learned this the first day at my French Culinary School.  Whenever the Chef walks into the kitchen you greet him, “Hello Chef.”, “Good morning Chef.”  When you leave, “Take care Chef, see you tomorrow Chef.”  Always.  This is the French Professional Kitchen way.

The shit falls down, remember that one also.  First there is the Chef, or Executive Chef, or in some cases Chef de Cuisine.  After that you have the Chef’s right hand man, his Executive Sous Chef.  After that you have a chef’s go to guy on the line, his best line cook, this chef is very versatile in the kitchen, can do anything in the kitchen, and does it fast, he is a Sous Chef.  Then you have the guy that places all the orders and manages Garde Manger (or the salad station), also a Sous Chef.  You may also have a Pastry Chef.  After that you have line cooks, prep cooks and dishwashers.  Maybe you give these guys titles, like Chef de Parti, or Saucier.

So, you think you are ready to step into a professional kitchen?  Lets say you went to culinary school, or you have been working in a kitchen for a while and you want to step up your game and work for a hot restaurant in your city.  Whatever the case, you come in as a line cook.  Maybe, if you are lucky you can make twelve bucks an hour.  Get ready to have the bejesus worked out of you.  You’ll go in at three p.m. and start running the minute you get there.  Back and forth from your station to the walk in refrigerator gathering your mis en place, your ammunition for the evening.  You’ve got creamed spinach, little cups of chopped vegetables for a shrimp pasta, demi glace, chicken jus, shrimp jus, chicken stock, cream, butter, parmesan cheese, chopped shallots, chopped garlic, julienned basil, chopped chives, chopped parsley, garlic confit, blanched green beans, par cooked linguine, spaetzle, roasted carrots, polenta, lentils, I think you get the idea.

Prepping for the station.  Getting all those different items set up in your reach in cooler and on top of your station, directly across from the French top range you are cooking on.  Dinner starts at 6 o’clock, so you only have 3 hours to get all those things ready.

You know you are going to get your ass kicked tonight.  Its Friday night, you know you are going to get murdered.  There are three hundred reservations on the book already, but you didn’t even need to know that, you just know, you just pray that you don’t run out of anything.  And Jesus h. Christ if you do run out of something that night.  Look the fuck out – I’ve seen it.

Out of linguine at 8 o’clock, when the chef is calling for the pasta that goes with the beef cheek, the one that goes for the shrimp, and the provencal.  Three different pasta dishes all with linguine.  And you are out of your linguine at 8 o’clock?  Fuck.  The chef is looking at tickets for six tables, ready to get plated and move, and in total you have twelve pasta’s just for those tickets.  You are out of your pasta.  Shit.

Shit hits the fan!  The chef is yelling down your throat, “You piece of fucking shit! How the fuck do you not have pasta!  Pasta! You are here to cook pasta! You have no pasta!”  Meanwhile the Chef de Parti is running up to the line with a huge pot filled with water, splashing all over the place to get it to the stove and boiled a la minute for approximately 35 more orders of pasta that night.  The meat guy cooking next to the douche bag that ran out of pasta is taking the brunt of all the Chef’s yelling, “And you! How the fuck do you not check his station before service! You call yourself a chef? You make me sick.  You are shit!  You are worse than him.  He doesn’t know any better, but you are just crap!”  You need to put blinders on for that shit.  Keep your head down on your cutting board, constantly clean your station, just stare ahead.  Whatever you do, do not engage, unless you want to fight, and even if you are right, it is a tough battle.

So if you have the courage and can take the yelling, you’ll finish cooking that night.  Service ends at 10:30, finish cleaning, lick your wounds, you’re out around 11:30.  If you decide that night you can take it, then you come back the next day at three o’clock.  And if you do come back, I’d put my money on you never running out of pasta again.

Segons un estudi de l’Eurostat sobre el nivell dels sous mínims a Europa a gener del 2009, realitzat entre 20 dels 27 estats membres de la UE (Bèlgica, Bulgària, Espanya, Estònia, Grècia, França, Hongria, Irlanda, Letònia, Lituània, Luxemburg, Malta, Països Baixos, Polònia, Portugal, Romania, Eslovàquia, Eslovènia , República Txeca i el Regne Unit).

Contrasta la gran diferència entre els 123 euros al mes a Bulgària fins als 1.642 euros al mes que es reben a Luxemburg. Espanya es troba en la meitat acompanyada de  Grècia, Portugal i Eslovènia.

Via: Eurostat

En me levant ce matin , j’ai trouvé la newsletter Mondes Persistants dans ma boite mail . Je me suis donc rendu sur le site, et je suis tombé sur l’édito de Septembre 2009 . .

Et la c’est le drame , pour les habitués du site . Fumble , le rédacteur en chef salarié , se retrouve au chomage .

Le réseau Mondes Online n’étant pas au top financièrement, le voilà obligé de tailler dans le personnel

Et comme il le dit :

Quand on voit le pognon déversé sur la Games Com de Cologne, on se dit que c’est pas la crise pour tout le monde. Il y a de l’argent là-bas. Mais point ici.

Excellente continuation à lui , en espérant qu’il retrouve du travail !

Source : Edito de Septembre 09

Envie de vous essayer au développent d’applications pour iPhone ? mais vous ne disposez pas d’un Mac ni d’un compte Dev ($99/an) ?

en attendant la version officielle du SDK iPhone OS pour Windows,  il existe une alternative non officielle, winChain !

Pour ce faire, vous devrez télécharger ces deux fichiers, winChain 1.0.1 et preBuiltToolchain (lien .torrent), puis lancer winchain.exe une fois unzippé, et séléctionner le dossier preBuiltToolchain une fois ce dernier décompréssé avec Winrar

En résumé :

1. Télécharger les 2 fichiers.
2. Extraire preBuiltToolchain.rar avec Winrar.
3. Exécuter winChain.exe et séléctionner le dossier preBuiltToolchain.
4. Attendre un moment pendant que winChain copie les fichiers .
5. winChain lancera l’installer Cygwin. Vous n’aurez qu’à cliquer sur ”Next” 
6. winChain vous avertira que l’installation s’est bien términée, et vous demandera d’ajouter le raccourcis Cygwin.
7. Redémarrez votre Ordinateur !!! Vous pouvez maintenant utiliser Cygwin pour programmer vos applications.
8. winChain inclut également un générateur de templates pour applications (“winChain Template Builder.exe”), et une option pour installer Notepad++

Pour finir, sachez que vos applications ne peuvent être signées par Apple, et donc ne peuvent être publiées dans l’AppStore (vu qu’il nécéssite un compte Dev), mais il vous restera toujours l’underground iPhone (Cydia/Icy )

Pour plus d’infos faites un saut ici http://code.google.com/p/winchain/ .

Avui, mentre repassava el meu Google reader em trobava amb un post dels amics de “vertele” que posaven sobre la taula un tema que sempre ha despertat força morbo…”El rànquing dels sous a la televisió nord-americana“… i aquí us adjunto el que realment interessa:

(Ah!!! i per a qui ho dubti en general es parla d’aquest sou PER CAPÍTOL)

1. Charlie Sheen (Dos hombres y medio): 875.000 dólares por capítulo
2. Kiefer Sutherland (24): 550.000 dólares 
3. Hugh Laurie (House): 400.000 dólares
4. Mariska Hargitay y Chris Meloni (Ley y orden): 400.000 dólares 
5. Protagonistas Mujeres desesperadas: 400.000 dólares cada una
6. Actores doblaje de Los Simpson: 400.000 dólares 
7. Zach Braff (Scrubs): 350.000 dólares
8. Tina Fey / Alec Baldwin (Rockefeller Plaza): 300.000 dólares cada uno
9. Marg Helgenberger (C.S.I. Las Vegas): 390.000 dólares
10. David Caruso (C.S.I. Miami): 375.000 dólares

11. Laurence Fishburne (C.S.I. Las Vegas): 375.000 dólares
12. Mark Harmon (Navy: Investigación Criminal): 325.000 dólares
13. Ellen Pompeo (Anatomía de Grey): 275.000 dólares
14. Julia Louis-Dreyfus (New Adventures of Old Christine): 275.000 dólares
15. Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer): 275.000 dólares 
16. Patrick Dempsey (Anatomía de Grey): 250.000 dólares
17. Kate Walsh (Sin cita previa): 250.000 dólares
18. Calista Flockhart (Cinco Hermanos): 250.000 dólares
19. Tim Roth (Lie to Me): 250.000 dólares
20. Simon Baker (El Mentalista): 250.000 dólares

21. Denis Leary (Rescue Me): 250.000 dólares
22. Patricia Arquette (Médium): 225.000 dólares
23. Glenn Close (Damages): 200.000 dólares
24. Patricia Heaton (The Middle): 200.000 dólares
25. Tom Welling (Smallville): 175.000 dólares
26. Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck): 175.000 dólares
27. Kelsey Grammer (Hank): 175.000 dólares
28. Sally Field (Cinco Hermanos): 150.000 dólares
29. LL Cool J y Chris O’Donnell (Navy): 150.000 dólares cada uno
30. Jennifer Love Hewitt (Entre fantasmas): 150.000 dólares

I ara penseu… o si voleu fem apostes… Què deuen cobrar els diferents actors espanyols per capítol i anant més enllà, Què cobren els presentadors més coneguts de la televisió/ràdio catalana o espanyola per programa o anualment??? Algú s’atreveix a començar amb les apostes??? Alguna pista???

I waaaant *moneeey money money*

Il y a un monde merveilleux, où les ours ont des têtes de chabidou Onyx….

You know a show has you hooked when you go back to watch previous seasons of the show. I watched the first 3 episodes of season 6 a couple days ago and have found myself wanting more (surprising for me, I usually hate cooking shows). So I went looking and found that Hulu has seasons 4 and 5 up in full. And being able to watch them commercial free (all I had to do was take a three question Estee Lauder quiz) just makes it all better.

Now that I’ve started season 4, and have something for comparison, I’ve had a few thoughts–

How do they choose the chefs? It seems like everyone’s food is always raw. And few of them have signature dishes that Ramsay finds edible. When Ramsay asks them to make their signature dishes, he likes maybe 3 people’s meals. He might just be nitpicking or they might all be nervous or not used to the time crunch, but it just seems like they don’t really know how to cook.

Are the people really customers? I can’t help but wonder why anyone would show up to the restaurant when it first opens. It’s not like you’re likely to get any food. Of course, they may just be hoping for their fifteen minutes of fame or a view of Gordon Ramsay. When they walk out in the first episode of season 4, was that something orchestrated by the show or just customer initiative? (I’m going to guess that it was arranged, because they all walked out at once even though the women’s side was putting out food and the men’s weren’t. It hardly seems likely that every diner would get up at the same time.)

What’s with dividing the teams into boys and girls teams? The teams is always a fun gimmick, but the whole guys vs girls seems a little overdone. And yet, there always seems to be a couple sexist guys who are all “I’m not losing to a girl” “women belong cleaning the kitchen…” Interesting is that in the two seasons I’ve looked at, the women always seem to start memorizing their recipes etc while the boys are talking or going to sleep. Why is that? (Not that it helped the women is season 6…)

Why do the chefs always get put table side? And how does he choose who does it? Sometimes it seems arbitrary, other times it seems to be a punishment for prior poor performance.

Can the diners hear what is going on in the kitchen? It’s glass, so they can certainly see the screaming, but can they hear all the shouting? Maybe they come for the entertainment and really eat beforehand knowing that they won’t get any actual food.

Why is there a chef who always thinks they know better than Ramsay? Regardless of how good they do, Ramsay is a renowned chef and this is his show. He will always know best. I almost wonder if while filming the “confessionals” they just ask the chefs to say Ramsay was wrong just so they’ll have more “drama” to air.

Is Ramsay as temperamental as he appears? Throwing food and dishes, yelling insults and curses…Can someone really be so angry so much of the time? Sometimes I wonder if he just complains about the food for the sake of it and really it doesn’t taste so bad. Most of the time it doesn’t look as bad as he says a lot of the time. (Maybe the chefs are worse in the most recent season, but he seems to be even meaner in season 6 than in season 4.)

What are we not seeing? I wonder how much of what is actually happening is the way it’s really happening. I wonder this because there has been more than once where the choice for elimination seems obvious and yet they aren’t even nominated by their team/team captain.

I’ve only watched a handful of episodes but so far they’ve already repeated jokes. (“All they want is a little sleep…that’s all they’re going to get…”) I guess no one would notice since they’re two seasons apart, but you never know when people are going to marathon watch the shows so it is something to be aware of. The delivery though, so deadpan no matter what is being said, makes it enjoyable though, repeated jokes or not.

Something that I really enjoy, even though it’s just a minor detail of the show, is the way they include the little pitchfork logo throughout in different ways by using smoke and fire. It’s such a random, unnecessary thing, but I like the creativity in it.

The least interesting part of the show is the reward/punishment part. I enjoy the challenges, probably in part because they seem to be pretty close each time so you never really know who is going to win. The wins seem to be only by a few points in either direction (or a tie as was in the case of the episode I am watching). The rewards/punishments themselves are just whatever. A trip on a yacht or a ride in a car is just not much to watch. And while I know this is a typical reality tv thing to waste some time, it’s just not all that interesting.

Vroutjie koop ‘n bottel met kerriesous vir haar en haar kêreltjie. Gooi in die pan, om dit te verwarm en sien snorbaarde en ‘n stert!  AAHHHH! ‘n Muis in die kerriesous. Net so vir die eronie, op die bottel is ‘n V vir vegataries! Hoe kan so iets in ons tyd nog gebeur met al die gesondheids-inspekteurs en streng maatreëls?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1193675/Whats-special-ASDAs-Extra-Special-Curry-Sauce–dead-mouse-it.html

Cette ville sahélienne, faite de constructions en petites briques rouges aux toits de tôles et de cases en pisé coiffées de paille, constitue le poste avancé des quelque 40 organisations humanitaires, dont de nombreuses agences des Nations unies, qui œuvrent dans la région.

À bord de jeeps et de camions militaires couleur camouflage portant la bannière de l’ONU ou dans des 4×4 blancs frappés de divers sigles, militaires et personnels humanitaires se déploient, à partir d’ici, vers les autres grandes villes de l’Est : Farchana, Goz Beïda, plus au sud, ou Iriba, au nord.

Ce déploiement impressionnant de porte-chars, camions, orgues de Staline, pick-up équipés de mitrailleuses, témoigne de la volonté du numéro un tchadien, Idriss Déby Itno, de prévenir les invasions, à partir du Soudan, de rebelles qui, en février 2008, sont arrivés jusqu’aux portes de son palais à N’Djamena.

Entre le mur de la préfecture et ce « rempart », des militaires, dissimulés sous des bâches, à quelque 200 mètres de la frontière, armés et équipés de talkies-walkies, surveillent le moindre mouvement en face.

Source:

http://www.jeuneafrique.com/Article/ARTJAJA2520p046-048.xml0/-desert-securite-rebellion-Refugie-Un-desert-sous-haute-tension.html

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