Salad Is Slaughter

Dinner last night was at Manresa for the much anticipated guest chef night featuring David Hawksworth of West in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Unlike the last guest chef evening where they had one seating at 6:30 and tried to keep every table at the same course, this time they had three seatings.  We probably could have made the early seating at 6:30 but I didn’t want to rush and made our reservations for 7:30.

Each place setting had a menu of the evening’s dishes along with the wine parings.  I was glad to see the wine parings because normally the sommelier does such a detailed description of the wine you forget the basics like what country it’s from.  We began our evening with the amuse – little single bite treats.  I was a little surprised that they had a wine paring for them.  We started off with the wild salmon with avocado and pineapple.  The salmon was very rare (that’s why it said “lightly seared” on the menu) and didn’t have the strong flavor I normally associate with salmon.  It went very well with the subtle avocado and pineapple.

They also brought out the pomegranate sangria at the same time.  The server recommended that we drink the sangria slowly to allow the flavors to mingle.  It was the best sangria I’ve ever tasted.  The pomegranate flavor was very sweet and tasted really fresh.

Next up was the chestnut croquette.  Again the server gave eating instructions; this time we were to pop the whole thing into our mouth at once because it had a liquid center.  I haven’t had a lot of deep-fried food lately and the chestnut croquette made me realize how much I missed it.  It was wonderful.

The final little treat was served on one of those big white soupspoons you see in Chinese restaurants.  On top of the spoon were the crispy sweetbreads with pancetta and a truffle sauce.  The flavor I tasted the most reminded me of bacon (that would probably be the pancetta).  I liked it.

After the little appetizers we had the first “real” course.  It was yellowfin sashimi with golden kiwi and jalapeno citrus jus and fresh wasabi vinaigrette from the visiting chef.  It was amazing and may have been my favorite dish of the evening.  The golden kiwi was prepared as a chip and had an incredibly intense flavor.  The sashimi (yes it was raw – that’s what sashimi is) matched perfectly with the jalapeno citrus jus and the wasabi vinaigrette.  I could have sat and eaten that all night.

The next item was from Manresa’s chef.  It was roasted sea scallops on a bed of onions perfumed with cumin and dates.  This dish ranked right up there with some of the best scallop dishes I’ve ever had, and was a very close second to the sashimi for my favorite item.  The scallops were cooked perfectly and sat on a bed of onions that had been cooking for about 7 hours.  The cumin flavor was really nice.  In fact, I had just used cumin with scallops myself last Friday so I kind of knew what to expect.

Following the scallops was an offering from the guest chef:  marinated sablefish with pine mushrooms in an oxtail broth.  I though the sablefish (or black cod as it is also known) had a very powerful flavor; something I normally don’t care for in fish.  However, the oxtail broth seemed to mute the strong fish flavor and I was surprised to find that I had finished the fish and was looking for more.  I could see how a person could acquire a taste for it.  Usually I’m not a big mushroom fan but the pine mushrooms in the oxtail broth were wonderful.  They disappear as quickly as the sablefish did.

Manresa’s chef was behind the next item:  slow roasted squab with dried fruit and nut risotto.  The squab breast was very rare – you could almost hear the cooing – but it was very good.  The first time I tried rare squab breast I wasn’t a big fan, but I’ve come to really like it.  The squab sat on a bed of dried fruit and nut risotto, and it was the best risotto I’ve ever had.  I could see using it as a base for lots of different dishes.  After dinner I was talking to the chef and he told me how he finishes off a risotto.  He takes a spoon of whipped cream and mixes it in just before serving.  That keeps the rice grains separated and imparts a nice creamy flavor.  I loved that risotto.

The final savory dish was from the guest chef.  It was lamb served with tomato and basil ravioli.  The lamb was encrusted with herbs and like most of the evening’s dishes was served very rare.  It didn’t have the overpowering flavor you sometimes get from a really rare lamb.  Possibly that was masked somewhat by the liberal use of herbs.  The ravioli accompanying the lamb was wonderful; the tomato and basil flavor exploded in my mouth.

Dessert was spiced panna cotta and gingerbread “croustillan” with pear caramel.  The caramel-flavored pear was wonderful and went well with the panna cotta.  The panna cotta reminded me of frozen custard.  I liked this dessert a lot.

Finally, they brought out a couple of little dessert treats to end the evening.  Every dish served last night was amazing and it was a nice way to spend a Thursday night.

The menu can be found below the fold.

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I’ve been doing some interviewing the past couple of weeks and I’m usually amazed when I’ve finished talking to a candidate.  And when I say amazed, I don’t mean in a good way.  The following are things an applicant should know.

1. Show up on time.  I’ve got you scheduled to talk to three of us, and we had to fit you in to our meeting schedule as well as move around other tasks we need to get done.  If you show up late you’re screwing up our schedule and we either have to cut you short or miss our meetings.  Try Mapquest. 
2. Act like you care.  I swear, there are people I’ve talked to who come off  like they don’t care if they get the job or not.  If you’re not interested don’t waste my time.
3. Don’t dress like you’re off to a day at the beach.  I can dress in a golf shirt and jeans because I already have a job.  I don’t care about a tie, but shorts and a tee shirt are a bit much.
4. Don’t use the word shit during an interview.  I interviewed one guy who was a bit more casual in his conversation than I expected.  Just because they said shit 162 times on an episode of South Park doesn’t mean you should use it in an interview.
5. Don’t put skills on your resume that you don’t have.  If you say that you’re an expert in Unix, and I ask you for the Unix command to rename a file, you’d better know the answer or I’m going to suspect that everything you claim to know is bullshit.
6. Don’t answer questions with just one word or one sentence.  I’m trying to get an idea of the depth and breadth of your knowledge as well as get a feel for your personality.
7. Don’t play with objects during your interview.  If you’re fumbling with your cell phone for half an hour, I’m going to wonder why.  Is it a nervous habit, or are you expecting a call that’s more important then getting a job?
8. Look at me when you talk.
9. Have some questions ready before you walk in.  If I ask you if you have any questions for me, show me that you at least went to the company web site and did a little pre-interview research.

I hate interviewing people.

I called the slime balls at Pick Red yesterday demanding to know what the hell was up with my bill; why were they charging me over $ 2800 ?  The guy in the customer “service” department said that he had received a memo that morning about my account and that the charge was in error.  No shit, I thought.  I then also remembered that an alternate definition of “service” is “to screw” as in “the prostitute serviced her client.”  He assured me that he would call back.

The guys from the reputable company came in and did the electrical work on the house.  They started off with two guys at 8:00, and then called another guy to see if he wanted to do some work.  The three of them decided to work through lunch and finished around 1:00.  They didn’t replace all of the plugs and switches, nor did they replace the breaker box as recommended by Pick Red because those tasks didn’t need to be done.  I found one switch yesterday that doesn’t work, but I’m sure that they’ll be back today to fix it when we call them.

I called Pick Red several times after my power was restored and was having nothing but problems getting through.  Usually the dispatcher who answered the phone insisted on knowing my name and when I refused to give it (because they’ve been pissing me off) they hung up.  If I did get through, the phone would ring off the hook.

I finally reached the customer “service” department and found out what happened with the charge.  The morons they have working in their billing department entered my 6-digit contract number in the amount field when they were charging my card.  That’s how I got a 2800-dollar amount charged to me.  The amount is supposed to be reversed, and you can bet that I will keep an eye on it.

I’m still paying $ 751 for their troubleshooting, which is really high, but I consider it a form of tuition and I’ve learned my lesson.

FROM:
Frank Hofer

TO:

RE: Contract xxxxxx

Date: October 5, 2004

Dear Sir or Madam:

This letter is to inform you that we are canceling contract number xxxxxx signed on October 4, 2004 during our discussion with your field supervisor Peter Jones. Upon further investigation we discovered that your California state contractor license has been revoked and we feel that allowing you to start work on this contract would be irresponsible on our part.

In addition, when questioned about the status of your contractor license, you informed us that it was still valid. Upon further investigation we discovered that your license was in fact revoked. We also discovered that you are not bonded, and that there are several outstanding complaints against your company. Had we known about any of the above we would never have contacted with you.

Further, I am very upset with the high-pressure tactics employed by your Peter Jones against Ms. xxxxdeletedxxxx after she had repeatedly informed him that we were canceling the contract. She felt physically threatened by his high pressure and abusive attitude. It was further proof that we have no desire to do business with your company.

Please do not contact us again.

Sincerely,

CC:

I spent most of the day yesterday sitting around while the electrician and his supervisor were troubleshooting our house’s electrical problem.  To recap, when I went upstairs Sunday night to work on the computer, the power went out in that room as well as the upstairs and downstairs hallway.  The rest of the house seemed to be fine.  The first electrician had to leave about 4:30 or 5:00 to take care of some personal business while the supervisor had to go deal with another problem.  He said that he would return between 7:00 and 7:30.

At about 7:45 the supervisor returned and continued his troubleshooting.  He had a general idea what the problem was, and just had to find the specific cause.  When they built houses here in the 1980’s – at least when they build the houses in our neighborhood – they didn’t strip the wire, twist it, and cap it.  They used little plastic do-dads that when squeezed cut the outer covering and held the bare copper wire together.  When these things get old, there can be a small arc and carbon gets between the two bare wires breaking the connection. 

That’s what happened to us.  The connection in the upstairs bathroom light switch, one that we almost never use, did this and knocked out my computer room and the two hallways.  We were told that this would happen with more frequency and the best thing to do would be to redo all of the plugs and switches so that they’re twisted instead of having that connecter deal-y.  The guy gave us an estimate for the work and he could start today.  We were shocked at the high price but figured that the honeymoon could wait – we’d have to get the electrical work done.

This morning Janet looked on a website to check out his contractor’s license.  It had been revoked.  She called this guy and basically said WTF?  You guys can’t work on our house because your license has been revoked.  They said that their license was good and that the information on the website was old.

Janet called the proper people and found out that the electrician had lied.  The web site had current information.  We also found out that these guys weren’t bonded.  They also have to use someone who has a valid contractor’s license to get the proper permits.  Since their Yellow Pages ad and their business cards had contractor’s licenses, we assumed that they were current.

Then the “fun” started.  They started putting pressure on Janet.  I ended up coming home from work to help deal with it.  We called the guy who was going to get the permit and I told him to stop.  These guys had been fired.  We tried to get a hold of the supervisor but of course he was hard to get a hold of.  We also called a contractor we found in the area that was in good standing and told him the story.  He almost sputtered when he heard the price for redoing our plugs and switches.  He also told us that it was probably not necessary to do all that replacement.  He is going to send out one of his guys to redo our switch.  Basically, it sounds like the guys we got out of the yellow pages are trying to screw us.

I left, and then the supervisor showed up at the door doing more high pressure.  Janet told him that I would call and deal with him.  I’ve left a message, so we’ll see what happens.  I’ll be out the 10 percent deposit, but that’s for their finding the problem.  From now on I don’t want to hear from these guys any more.