![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Soooooooo....
Feb. 17th, 2004 06:21 pmHad very odd dreams last night. ( Read more... )
Bad news: lab today kinda sucked. I started off great! So well prepared, with an efficient game plan-- set up mise en place, slice and dice all my veggies, make the sauce, then fry veggies to serve fresh at presentation time. I had gathered all my ingredients and gotten started; even when my partner showed up late, my feathers were unruffled. But, there were only 5 fry-o-lators, and everyone crowded me out until the very end so I had to do my tempura last. The batter was too thin, but by that time we were already supposed to be presenting and I was late and didn't have time to fix anything. I also didn't blanch my lotus roots long enough, so they were still mostly raw. My tempura sauce needed more dashi, less mirin and soy sauce.
Ahh well. next time I'll know better. The hot oil splatter thing was also not as scary as I thought. It was fine, I was just too rushed at the end to produce a decent product.
My partner and I made a fine comeback in the second half, though, wherein he made some great stir-fry and I made our presentation all pretty by making daikon radish flowers with little carrot centers since my cooking part was done.
The instructor loved them- everyone was like, oooh, ahhh.
Which was good, because maybe now we won't fail this lab totally due to my late and crappy tempura. -_-;
However, I know how to make tempura now, I understand what went wrong, and I feel that with practice I'd be good at it. The only problem is, frying stuff at home to practice is much more messy.
Good news: (Well, kinda. I'm kinda torn between "Damn straight, Respect mah authoritayy!" and "oh great, now they're ALL gonna want my time")
My IT Prof. (a PhD from London School of Economics) thinks I'm the bees knees, and has beaten all the students over the head with the fact. She sent them all an email telling them that they should all pay attention to the TA's [read: my] comments, because the comments are dead-on.
Then today, when I went to talk to her about questions that students asked me yesterday, but I didn't really know her exact answer to, she was delighted that the answers I gave them (which I pretty much pulled out of my arse) were EXACTLY what she wanted them to understand. She even re-wrote a bit of her curriculum on the spot in accordance with my suggestions that they seemed to understand it better this way.
Hahahah. I'm good.
I also took a bit of time today trying to explain to her the paradigm gap I see between those with liberal arts backgrounds (like myself, and her), and most hotelies who've been here straight outta highschool. It's just a very different style here, and it takes two very different mindsets. (exhibit A: my own GPA's rollercoaster ride.)
I hope that, over the course of the semester, I can bring her and my fellow hotelies to some sort of understanding with each other. Because... although I left what I felt was a lovely fluff degree for a hardcore money maker degree, I still appreciate the lovely fluff for helping make me a more well rounded person.
I think hotelies should get out more. "Statler High", indeed.
Bad news: My HP 12C calculator STILL isn't here yet, which is holding me back from studying finance very well because although I can review the problems, I can't actually DO them.
Good news: I caught my Professor in his office today, and he let me borrow one. Yay!
So I'll be staying up most of the night practicing away. Uhmm... yay?
Anyway, I'm off to a review session for my DEA 150 exam. I'm already late, but it'll be okay. And first I have to change out of my chef whites. Yarg.
Bad news: lab today kinda sucked. I started off great! So well prepared, with an efficient game plan-- set up mise en place, slice and dice all my veggies, make the sauce, then fry veggies to serve fresh at presentation time. I had gathered all my ingredients and gotten started; even when my partner showed up late, my feathers were unruffled. But, there were only 5 fry-o-lators, and everyone crowded me out until the very end so I had to do my tempura last. The batter was too thin, but by that time we were already supposed to be presenting and I was late and didn't have time to fix anything. I also didn't blanch my lotus roots long enough, so they were still mostly raw. My tempura sauce needed more dashi, less mirin and soy sauce.
Ahh well. next time I'll know better. The hot oil splatter thing was also not as scary as I thought. It was fine, I was just too rushed at the end to produce a decent product.
My partner and I made a fine comeback in the second half, though, wherein he made some great stir-fry and I made our presentation all pretty by making daikon radish flowers with little carrot centers since my cooking part was done.
The instructor loved them- everyone was like, oooh, ahhh.
Which was good, because maybe now we won't fail this lab totally due to my late and crappy tempura. -_-;
However, I know how to make tempura now, I understand what went wrong, and I feel that with practice I'd be good at it. The only problem is, frying stuff at home to practice is much more messy.
Good news: (Well, kinda. I'm kinda torn between "Damn straight, Respect mah authoritayy!" and "oh great, now they're ALL gonna want my time")
My IT Prof. (a PhD from London School of Economics) thinks I'm the bees knees, and has beaten all the students over the head with the fact. She sent them all an email telling them that they should all pay attention to the TA's [read: my] comments, because the comments are dead-on.
Then today, when I went to talk to her about questions that students asked me yesterday, but I didn't really know her exact answer to, she was delighted that the answers I gave them (which I pretty much pulled out of my arse) were EXACTLY what she wanted them to understand. She even re-wrote a bit of her curriculum on the spot in accordance with my suggestions that they seemed to understand it better this way.
Hahahah. I'm good.
I also took a bit of time today trying to explain to her the paradigm gap I see between those with liberal arts backgrounds (like myself, and her), and most hotelies who've been here straight outta highschool. It's just a very different style here, and it takes two very different mindsets. (exhibit A: my own GPA's rollercoaster ride.)
I hope that, over the course of the semester, I can bring her and my fellow hotelies to some sort of understanding with each other. Because... although I left what I felt was a lovely fluff degree for a hardcore money maker degree, I still appreciate the lovely fluff for helping make me a more well rounded person.
I think hotelies should get out more. "Statler High", indeed.
Bad news: My HP 12C calculator STILL isn't here yet, which is holding me back from studying finance very well because although I can review the problems, I can't actually DO them.
Good news: I caught my Professor in his office today, and he let me borrow one. Yay!
So I'll be staying up most of the night practicing away. Uhmm... yay?
Anyway, I'm off to a review session for my DEA 150 exam. I'm already late, but it'll be okay. And first I have to change out of my chef whites. Yarg.
