IAmMoody

Events | Promotion | Fashion

cooking

BK Family Restaurant

by

BK Family Restaurant is situated in a hidden sliver of businesses or former businesses tucked away behind office buildings and a small cemetery in Coon Rapids.

Locals here know the location well.  We arrived on a Saturday morning to a crowded parking lot and even more crowded dining room.   The owner didn’t really give us a choice of where we wanted to be seated as he placed two menus on the table behind the cash register/hostess stand and said “you sit here ok” not a question, but not a statement either.

The dining room lacks any kind of intimacy or sections.  Like a large room with tables and chairs, you feel like you are at a church social or family reunion rather than a restaurant.  If you like a quiet time with your coffee and eggs, this is definitely not the place to be; because once the place is full the din and cacophony vibrate through the dining room like the buzzing of bees.

The service is quick and impersonal.  But the day we were there we did get to see what happens when the wait staff forgets to shout a time tested server caveat: “coming out” as they leave the server area into the dining room.  Trays, glasses and ice cubes did a merry dance in the air before landing on the carpeted floor in a symphony of crash, tinkle and bang IL concerto for the red-faced waiter.

The menu is a cook’s nightmare.  The breakfast items alone tally up to fifty one choices. That doesn’t include the specials board, the table tent with specials and the children’s and senior menus.  The rest of the menu reads like a deli/lunch counter/diner/ from the 1980’s with Its diet plate of cottage cheese, tomato slices with a hamburger patty and the dreaded half sandwich and soup choice that plagued chefs sanity everywhere during the Reagan years.  There are items on the lunch special area of the menu, and the same items are listed above them under specialty burgers at a lower cost. It all seems a bit too confusing and busy.  I can only imagine the work that goes into ordering the food, the prep work to get it ready and tempers flaring during service when uncertainty of which burger, sandwich or omelet off the countless choices the customer actually ordered.

The food is satisfactory but you get the idea that the owner is cutting corners on quality to save money.  My wife’s skillet had some sort of processed, shredded ham product that any food establishment should be ashamed to use, and there was a thimble full of cheese buried in the uncooked recesses of green pepper, onions and hash browns.  My chicken fried steak and eggs was fine, but equivalent to anything you would find at any Perkin’s or Denny’s, but at least the potions were larger.

Of course there are salads, burgers, dinner items like pasta, steaks and chicken, wraps, hors d’oevres and the above listed senior and children menus.

BK also boast catering for in house and outside parties, and all weddings, banquets etc.

All in all the food was enjoyable, and certainly enough to satisfy the biggest appetite, just make sure you have enough time to look over the menu.

BK Family Restaurant is located at 11496 Martin St in Coon Rapids MN.

Pearldivers Need Love Too

by

I have written about cooks, chefs, and wait staff, but have given no love to those who wash and scrub the dishes and mop the floors. 

So here is an ode to those with dish pan hands.

They come in all different shapes and sizes, all kinds of diverse backgrounds, many don’t stay in one place for a long time, and many use the dish room as a stepping stone onto the cook’s line, but there are individuals who strive to be professional dishwashers.

I know there are some of you out who are unfamiliar with the inner workings of a restaurant (thankfully  you have me to enlighten you), but if you can imagine 8 hours of washing plates, bowls, cups and silverware,  scrubbing pots and pans, washing everything the cook can find in the kitchen,  cleaning the restrooms, bussing tables, spraying down the rubber mats,  vacuuming the floor in the dining room, sweeping and mopping the kitchen, climbing up on the stoves to get the grease filters from the vents, and carrying bus tubs full of dishware all day;  all for minimum wage;  then you just imagined a day that the genius ponders and the insane laments.

They are called by many names-dish dogs, pearl divers, burros, dish rats and sanitation engineers, but whatever moniker we attach to their service, the restaurant, would not run efficiently without them.  They are the back bone of the industry, sometimes working harder and making less than everybody else.  Ask any self respecting chef about their dishwashers, and they will tell you they feed them well and they treat them with love and esteem, because if they walk out- guess who has to do the dishes?

Good Cook or Great Chef?

by

I knew when I decided to write about this topic I would probably offend a whole lot of people and have death threats made against me.  But in my endless drive to educate the unenlightened proletariat on the truth and madness of the restaurant/ foodservice industry, I had to express myself on this subject.  Please bear in mind I literally have 34 years of blood, sweat, and tears invested in this business, with a myriad of observations, and in no way am I trying to demean anyone, I am just pointing out the truth after interviewing many people like myself in the trade, and drawing from my own humble experience.

It seems the term “chef” is given out like candy to anyone who can lift a knife and cut a vegetable.  Someone who graduates from culinary school with no previous experience is called a chef and enters the work force expecting a huge salary and an executive title without paying the dues.  I decided a long time ago I would rather be a good cook than a great chef. I have worked and run the 4-star hotels and resorts and I know how to make the fancy French cuisine that impresses the ostentatious crowd of gastronomic snobs. But by choice, most of my career has been getting down and dirty making burgers, sandwiches and chicken wings for the everyday people who just want a good meal at a good price.  Fancy food is exciting, but no one eats like that all the time.

Now don’t get me wrong, if you graduated culinary school and cook for your family and friends that is great, I am happy for you and wish you the best.  But if you are looking for a job as the executive chef or kitchen manager position on a line filled with people who have worked their way up from the bottom of the kitchen food chain (bus boy or dish washer), you had better be prepared to work 60 or more hours a week, sweep and mop the floors, wash the pots and pans if needed, and scrub down the kitchen like the rest of them.  You can’t sit on your laurels and write the menu and spend all day at the organic produce market and then expect everyone else to sweat to make your recipe and menu ideas come to life.  You will never get the reverence you think you deserve.  I am sure you have great recipes and menu ideas, but I hope you are prepared to make them 40 times a day for 7 days in a row, 365 a year.  This isn’t a dinner party you are doing once, with 12 people showing up, and sitting at the table with their place cards and a glass of the flavor of the month.  And the dish needs to taste the same every time you make it, or when someone else is making it if you aren’t there.

For all of us who work and toil in the industry, we applaud the fact that you went to school, and we pray for your success.  My research has shown that a few things are not mentioned to the students.  There are long hours for low pay and you will have to work holidays. You have to cover when someone calls in sick or hung-over (believe me it happens all the time, especially after payday). You will be the only cook on a busy night and you will have to do dishes or wait on customers. You will have to put the deliveries away and you may get your chef coat dirty.  You might actually have to stock the kitchen yourself, do the prep work and cook all at once. Food you think is perfect is going to get sent back to be prepared correctly (gasp!).  It isn’t an easy life, and that is why we take exception to those who walk into the kitchen with big ideas and no understanding.  I am not bitter or resentful because I never went to school.  I learned a long time ago to keep my mouth shut and listen to those who have been around the block.  School is great, but this is an industry where you never learn everything. It is also an industry that will chew you up and spit you out if you let it.  You could spend a lifetime just learning the food of one culture.  So if you ever get the opportunity to run a brigade, make sure you tell them “great job” after every service, and buy them a round of drinks after you help them clean up.

 

 

 

 

The Bad and Good of the Chain Restaurant

by

There are a lot of good things to say about dining out in a chain restaurant, and there are a lot of dreadful things as well.  Let’s start with the good.  Let me think…oh yeah-average, lackluster food and automaton service.  Now don’t get me wrong, the service is great in some of the chains, but it is usually because the server is brand new with a personality that hasn’t been tarnished by the banality of the job, is passing through to better things, or a company drone with a 401(k) that is just biding their time until they are fully vested in the company and can one day reprieve themselves from serving the same dull food day after day after day, like a beat cop waiting for the day his pension kicks in.

And then there is the food.  You can’t blame the cooks and chefs for the dreary fare that is taken from box to plate and prepared with all the imagination of a factory worker on valium.  They bake, broil and grill whatever the corporate goons sitting behind desks 300 miles away decide.  And it is usually a trend or three behind the culinary curve.  If anyone remembers the great pesto obsession of the early 90’s then you know what I am talking about because it is probably on some chain restaurant’s menu right now..  They don’t create food trends they just copy them, and the chef should not be blamed for that.  Most chain restaurants are a great training ground for those just starting out in the culinary field, a boot camp for those out of culinary school who believe they will be an executive chef in Switzerland with a six figure income at a 5 star hotel when they graduate.  I know quite a few that ended up at Applebee’s or Denny’s to learn how the real world works because it wasn’t explained to them in school that there are long hours and you might just get your chef coat dirty while waiting for a phone call from the Food Network.

 

I recently moved to an area in Minnesota that has one of the largest malls in the metro area, and there are chain restaurants far and wide.  My wife and I have eaten in our share of them, because it is difficult to find a unique restaurant or bistro, and convenience is always a huge factor.  But we are bored and almost in tears to find a place that will excite us and make a distinct impression.  After eating breakfast at a place that must have had a job fair at the local trailer park, we both said “enough” and are on a quest to find decent digs at which to eat.  Hence I am writing this story to exorcise the demons.

 

Give me a chef driven restaurant that uses local produce and out-of-the-box ideas in the kitchen, with servers that labor for their tips out of love for the industry and the food.  Give me a ponytailed chef with tattoos and a lip ring that has figured out a new way to prepare calamari or a tapenade, and can make caramelized onions and a béchamel sauce without looking in the standardized corporate cookbook.  Give me a chef that has worked 12 days in a row, but still comes in to work because this is where they belong.  Give me a server that loves their customers and can do their job well without the benefit of the company manuals to show them how.  All of us would benefit greatly.  Especially the culinary field.

 

 

 

 

How to Be a Better Husband

by

This is dedicated to my mother. I am not writing this because I am the greatest husband in the world or because I have cornered the market on being a good spouse, I just believe in marriage and want to give those guys out there a few hints and tips on how to keep your wife happy and to maybe avoid getting pestered to do something around the house.
On one of my days off, I do the dishes, clean the house, empty the garbage, cat box, recycling and clean out the fridge. I have also been known to do some shopping and cooking dinner and breakfast. Laundry is optional; I will do my own, but leave my wife to do hers because as a male I am an idiot when it comes to delicates, permanent press and ironing. I am also very secure in my masculinity as I lint brush the duvet.
I don’t do these things because I am the sweetest guy on the planet; I do it because I was taught at a young age how to execute these duties. I was one of the original latchkey kids, with both parents working. So the arrangement was that my sister and I had dinner ready when mom got home, having the house cleaned and I also assisting with the shopping trips on the weekends.
At the time I had no idea that my mom had such enormous insight. I thought I was getting ripped off from the joys of boyhood because I had traded in my football helmet for an apron. Later in life I came to understand the importance of sharing the daily household tasks, that the wife is not solely responsible for everything. Sometimes both spouses need to work or the woman has decided she wants a career. Regardless of why, sharing the workload is a good idea.
If you are having people over for dinner or a family get together, vacuum, dust and straighten up the house without being asked. If your wife is working all day, maybe have dinner on the table for her when she gets home. Run errands and help out when you can, a small amount of consideration goes a long way.
Either that or put the kids to work.

A Night at Billy’s Burger Barn

by

Recently my wife and I stopped into one of our favorite restaurants (let’s call it Billy’s Burger Barn for now) to enjoy a comforting meal and perhaps a cocktail or two after a rough Monday at the office. As we drove into the parking lot our first thought was “Uh Oh, they look busy tonight” but agreed that we should stay because it was getting to be dinner time and no matter where we went it would probably be as hectic and busy as this.
Not one to like to wait in line, and having been in this environment as a restaurant employee, (it makes me edgy and I feel like I need to help out) I sighed and opened the door for my wife like the gentleman I was raised to be.
Yes indeed, the place was indeed packed to the rafters, but there was only one couple ahead of us and they were being led off to be seated.
“Table for two?” inquired the hostess”
“Yes please, a booth if possible” said the lovely and fetching Mrs. Politte.
“We have one in the back, please follow me” replied the young lady as she gathered our menus and graciously took us to our booth in the corner away from the children who were playing soccer with salt and pepper shakers in the aisle as the wait staff tried not to trip over them and their parent looked on with pride and admiration.
Out of nowhere popped up our server.
“Hello, may name is Debbie and I will be taking care of you tonight. Our specials are gorgonzola stuffed chicken breast with baby red potatoes and grilled asparagus, or a bacon and parmesan cheese frittata served with a Caesar salad. May I get you something from the bar?”
“Why yes please, do you have Sam Adams?” I queried
“Draught or in the bottle?” “We have both”
“A bottle please, and my wife will have an E & J Brady and diet in a chimney.”
“Great, I will be right back with your drinks, and I will let you decide what you would like for dinner.”
As we sipped our drinks and watched the hustling and pandemonium of dinner service, I couldn’t help but think how it is like a perfectly planned military assault. If you are prepared and trained for the battle, you will make a busy dining room hum along as precisely as the New York philharmonic. If you are not, carnage will consume the service. Luckily we were here on a good night.
Our food arrived a little later (a good sign the kitchen was in synch also), and it was fantastic. I had the Osso Bucco with Wild Mushroom Risotto, and the earthiness of the mushrooms in the Bordelaise sauce went perfectly alongside the tender pork shanks that were expertly braised in red wine. My wife had the Chicken and Fettuccine Alfredo that was so rich and velvety you could anchor a cruise ship with it. She usually lets me partake in what she cannot finish, but I received a fork to the back my hand as I tried with no success to take her plate from her.
Being too full for dessert, we order the triple chocolate cake to take home, paid our bill and said goodbye to Debbie and the busboys who were cleaning up the cracker crumbs and straw wrappers from the food fight at table 13.
As I reflected on our drive home, I thought to myself how sometimes we don’t appreciate all the things that have to go right in order for us to get a great meal and exceptional service, and how one little thing can ruin a night out-if you let it.
We should always remember those who take care of us when we do eat out, whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner, drive through or delivery. They work hard, very hard, and sometimes don’t get the thanks they deserve.
So thank you Debbie, cooks, busboys and bartenders. Thank you hostess, cashiers and managers, we had a great meal and we are glad you made it come to pass. We will definitely be back again.
But right now I am going home to have some cake and put Neosporin and band-aid on the back of my hand.