Blessed with Angels on Earth

Amuse-Bouche: "What is a friend? I will tell you...it is someone with whom you dare to be yourself.” (Frank Crane)

Entrée: The inspiration for this post on my blog is due to a great vacation with great friends. Individuals who come from different walks of life, but not like family which you can’t choose but you are born into. Friends are people whom you have an option of choosing who to share those special events and times in your life, people who are the ink which you will use to mark the blank pages that will add another chapter to the book of your life. Due to my job, I don’t have much of a social life. Although I face that hard fact as a young person who wishes his circumstances were a bit different. I can surely say I have been blessed with great friends that understand me no matter what, friends that I can compare to a wine. I believe a friend is like a wine, it may not be always that great but it always gets better with time. Spending a few days in Wildwood New Jersey has left me with a very satisfied taste in my palate and soul. When I mentioned taste, I refer to the great satisfaction I obtained by being able to educate and enjoy various good satisfying meals with them. Being able to have my friend Lisandra taste ingredients and foods she’s not familiar with, was an exquisite accomplishment for both her and me. Having the opportunity to hear my friend Jonathan say that the dish he was eating, he compared it to an orchestra of taste in his mouth, which he was able to explore the different flavors, that constantly come together with every scoop of his fork and dance with great harmony in one’s mouth. I was able to say “that’s the beauty of culinary,” being able share beauty of gastronomy, which means the study of the relationship between culture and food. That’s what I would like to present to the people I come in contact with. Not only we had the chance to share the table with good meals, but I was able to learn from them and each other. Learn different outlook and ways to view life itself. That came along with funny and hilarious moments Jonathan and Stephanie shared with everyone. This couple is a match made in heaven. Jonathan, which always seems to have a philological explanation to everything. And Stephanie, being the sweet wife she is, was something like an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, viewing the comic aspect of the show. This couldn’t have come together without mentioning the future to be weds, Daniel and Lisandra. Meeting Daniel for the first time, one would be intimidated by his quietness and deep voice, but once friends. He was the reason for laughter at the dinner table, and like always. Lisandra capturing every moment with her camera, took pictures for visual memories for all to enjoy. Literally, until the last moments we were there. People may say that going on vacation is a waste of time or money. But I beg to differ. It’s foolish not to. It’s an investment. Not only on you, as well on others but most important on life itself. I can have the privilege to say that I have special people in my life that will accept me for who I am. Individuals, who are unique in their own ways, but have a similar view to a loving and caring friendship, are the medicine for life. For friends are born and not made.

Dessert: "Life is partly what we make it, and partly what is made by the friends whom we choose."(Tehyi Hsieh). Having the chance to know someone here or there, people with whom you can feel that there’s an understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed, these are the seeds which will bloom with interaction and can make life a garden. I can’t wait for our next year vacation.

Balancing the Adding and Subtracting

Amuse-Bouche: When life gives you lemons, you can either have a sour face, or squeeze them and make lemonade.

Entrée: How many times haven’t we been through certain roads where we don’t feel comfortable walking through? There are moments in our life, where things seem to go sour and all we are looking for is that little sweetness to cross our path. Now, life is all about a balance. We can’t have too much of one thing and less than other. To me, what comes to mind as I write this is the process a pastry chef encounters when baking or exercises any kind of pastry. Most of the recipes in pastry call for a certain measurement of ingredient. If we add too much of something, or less than others, it will throw the outcome of the product off. That’s why we have to be careful and pay attention on what we are doing, but the tricky part about all of this is when we have our problems. They just don’t show up when everything is going wells and calm. It seems to happen when other things are going on at the same time. Just like a busy night service in the restaurant. Many things are going on at once, things like special request, little details on certain orders, dealing with issues that the wait staff might have, a chef yelling because either the production line isn’t moving to its best capability or plates aren’t going out consistent. Plus, how can we forget working under a hot environment? A place where ovens are cranked to 350 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, grills, hot sauté pans and blasting fire are at its fullest heat. Cooks yelling at each other to make sure orders are getting complete while still cooking upcoming orders. This more goes on at the same time, and surely could turn out to be the best ingredients that lays the icing on the cake to a stressful environment, which can boil up, and will be ready to diploid its WHAMM at any moment, this is the moment where one can lose focus. You can see this description as the way problems are presented in your life. Let that be personal, or social, outer or inner issues or other things, they all start creeping up on you or just show up at once. Now it’s up to us to have a positive attitude, a focus and calm outlook on taking things. Otherwise all of the orders that you have to cook during a busy Saturday night service will backfire at you and you will find yourself deeper in the whole then when you first stepped in. Now let me ask you a question. Imagine a life where everything runs fine and dandy? We would get tired of perfection, we will become bored of walking outside all the time and all we see is a sunny day, birds chirping, grass always lively green. If that was to be our everyday life, then we will be and feel handicapped at some point. We wouldn’t know to fix bad grass; we wouldn’t enjoy a cloudy day with rain that will nourish that brown messed up looking grass. Or give us a free car wash or cool us from a beating sunny day. That’s why we need a balance of good and bad. Even though when we are living in our down time and all we want is for the sun to rise and begin a brand new better day, it is necessary for us to go through bad situations so we can learn and gain wisdom to share with others. If we really think about it, the sun shines more for us. When the night comes around, most of the time we are sleeping and aren’t really aware of it, allow me to take it a step further. We as humans spend more time awake and moving under the sun then darkness. More time under the sunshine then in the silent night, but quite often we don’t see it that way, this is nothing new but a routine we live in our everyday life. Nothing will last forever, issues, struggles, and problems will come and go. It’s up to us to learn from them and live to help others. Like they say “you live and you learn.” Always try to remember your winds may be someone else’s storms.

Dessert: Life will hand you a mystery box with many ingredients in it. Now it is up to us to make something out of them. Things will not get done by just looking at them and not try to fix something from what’s in front of you. Why not give it a try. What do you got to lose? Failure is not to have tried and not succeeded, but to never have tried at all. You may not be as creative as other people, but you know what’s in your ingredient box more than anyone.

1 comes before 2 or 3

Amuse-Bouche: Greatness is not in where you stand but in what direction you are moving. Running water stays fresh and healthy when is flowing and moving. When water stays in one place, with time it will start to stink and breed bad results, such as mosquito’s and bacteria. It’s important to keep it moving and don’t stop your flow.

Entrée: One day hanging out with my friend Eddie. We were talking about sneakers, he loves Jordan’s. He collects them, he’s fascinated by them. I asked him. “Why do you like them so much?” I mean, to me it’s just a sneaker. This guy was telling me all about them. How they are numbered, the different styles, colors well he basically gave me a crash course on Nike Jordan Sneakers. While he was telling me all of that, one thing stuck out the most. He said, “The most important thing is what’s on your feet.” So I started thinking about that, and said, “That’s so true”. Many people talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, because they aren’t wearing the right shoes. Not only that, but they might just say things and are not equipped to do what they journey themselves to. I mean, how you can say you are going to take the challenge of climbing a mountain or climb rocks if you are wearing sandals. Go to the beach and wear snow boots. It would seem a little awkward. Don’t you think? That’s why I believe you should always stay true not only to others but most important to yourself. Sometimes to please others we take on many charges, objectives or stuff of such matters to hold an image or a certain lifestyle but at the end of the day we are working ourselves more then we should have simply because we aren’t equipped or have the right footwear. One thing I emphasize in the kitchen and tell my staff is that “I’d rather you guys take your time on a dish and make sure it goes out right. Instead of trying to rush it out because you are falling behind and need to get other things working.” We should learn how to prioritize and focus one thing at a time. That way we won’t be as stressed in trying to get things done, and actually get a solid result of one task instead of a thought of many things done but half right and half wrong. Also not stepping on grounds we aren’t prepared to walk on shouldn’t be something we have to bring upon ourselves. I believe with time comes wisdom. Why put yourself in an environment we aren’t too familiar with. I know I have talked in previous blog post about taking that step of risk and doing new things. This is not what I mean when I say stepping on grounds we aren’t prepare to walk through, I mean if I was a fire man who is called to put out a fire. I wouldn’t wear a bathing suit in this situation right? The job calls for me to put on a right outfit for the correct scenario. So by doing this, I will be identified as capable of going through with the job, or having the necessary training and to be in that place. When one goes to a hospital, Doctors can be picked apart from a janitor because of the outfits they wear; a cop is respected when wearing a badge and proper uniform. He or she stands out because they are dressed or equipped for the job, but now days many people want to be soldiers without going through boot camp. This is in the professional and personal lives. We want to hurdle situations or think we can take on races without preparing or examining the grounds. Remember one has to crawl before one can walk or run for that matter. In my opinion, I say. Take on jobs or tasks you know you can accomplish and do well. With time you will be equipped with the right tools and experience to take on other jobs. Prioritizing shouldn’t be something just for us to think about, but something we should know and most important. We should get familiarized with the practicing it more often in our everyday lives. Strap on the right shoes because that’s what’s going to protect your feet. The very same that will take you from here to there without blisters, cuts but comfort and protection.

Dessert: We don’t have to be heroes. Heroes are made up in fantasy worlds. We are real people living in a real world, with real actions and consequences. Think what you need for your journey; make sure you have the right footwear to help your feet get there without having any friction with your flow.