Entry 16
After 30 years in this country rain has become routine but every once in a while it can go overboard. When the rain falls sideways, torrents dump enough to drown insects and canoes are necessary to cross the street mother nature has gotten carried away.
I arrived this morning to ribbons of water wiggling down the driveway and sidewalk of the café. Pools of water lay beneath employees’ hats and coats and customers had trod enough mud in to warrant frequent mopping of the foyer.
Today was lemon meringue pie day for me so I set out making 3 for the week. Apple and pecan pies were made last night by my loyal and completely reliable baker Ada. From the walk-in I grabbed eggs, lemons, butter and shortening. Most of the work is done at the stove so I hurried as not to get in the way of soup prep and other stove top needs.
I blended the eggs with sugar, cornstarch, lemon and a pinch of salt then proceeded to stir it over a moderate flame until well thickened. Adding butter once off the burner I poured the mix into a still warm baked pie crust.
I then cooked some cornstarch with water for stabilizing the meringue and beat the mixture into the sugar/egg white mixture.
Topping lemon filling with meringue is so exotic. Big billows of pure white, perfectly whipped whites, stiff yet really mostly air seem to float on top of the mouthwateringly tart and bright yellow mixture.
As if one mass of interdependent molecules, the meringue will shrink toward the center leaving a quarter inc or so of exposed filling unless it touches the edges of the pie crust.
Placing the meringue on top of the lemon mixture while it’s hot helps to cook the meringue from the bottom up while in the oven it bakes from the top down. I push the time a bit until not only the peaks are golden but the whole meringue is browned somewhat.
In making the peaks by laying a broad, flat spatula on top of the meringue then lifting it straight up I get mesmerized and end up making more peaks than necessary. There is artistry in the process, culinary design and no blow torch can cook meringue as beautifully as the oven.
Once the pies cooled to room temperature, I set one out in the pastry case in the dining room and the other two in the refrigerator. The pies had been off of the baking table not ten minutes when the ceiling above the table collapsed and my baking area lay beneath a mass of sheetrock, roofing and blown in insulation.
The rain had blown into the grates on our evaporative cooler, worked its way down to the attic and dissolved the sheetrock as only sheetrock can do.
The lunch crowd was starting to come in so I set one the cooks to cleaning up the mess once we’d photographed it. I jumped on line to cook but had only 4 burners because the huge pot of mushroom soup was still simmering. The one guy who could carry it away was on clean-up duty in the back.
I slapped some burgers on the broiler, made a Reuben sandwich and set it on the grill then set about making 2 orders of Pad Thai, one with chicken and one with tofu. On a third burner I started macaroni and cheese.
Some commotion was coming from the foyer then the hostess walked up to the window to inform me that some guy was accosting customers as they walked toward the restaurant. He had frightened a woman. Knowing the woman I wasn’t surprised, if any man looked at her she fell apart but as she wasn’t the only one reporting him I figured we’d better check it out.
I flipped the burger, flipped the Reuben, set the mac and cheese on low and slid the Pad Thai pans to the side. I had about 2 minutes to check out the scene.
By the time I got outside medics had arrived, tackled the guy to the ground and injected him with happy juice. He was pretty mellow when they lifted him onto his feet.
His poor elderly father stood helplessly by explaining that his son had gone off of his meds. In this world where we are trying to get everyone off of drugs to no avail why do we get the ones who genuinely need them wanting not to take them. I didn’t have time to ponder the question. I had a medium burger about to turn well done, or not so well done as the case may be.
The cook had cleaned up the ceiling disaster so decided to move the pot of soup to the back area. I can’t lift the monstrosity and felt helpless to assist. He never lets me take the other handle, probably for good and obvious reasons. Whether he’d burned himself out cleaning up the sheetrock or whether this was just our black Wednesday I don’t know but the pan hit the stainless steel table edge as he tried to place the pot on the counter and the pan tilted toward him. All I saw was a wave of mushrooms crest just over his sneakers. In a heartbeat he jumped back to avoid the 200º bath and to his professional credit held fast to the pot. It was a perfect hokey pokey move of “put your whole body in, put your whole body out….”
Guess I was destined to do lunch today. He set about cleaning up his second mess of the day but this one required a lot more than a broom.
If we’d been full in the front room for lunch I’d had been in hot water but as it turned out the most tickets I had up at once were 4 and I handled them OK.
At 3pm the masters of the night came in and got briefed on our day so far. Everyone in the restaurant business is just a little superstitious so the night crew didn’t want to hear too man details. They only hoped that three’s the charm and we’d used them up during our shift.
As I stepped outside I could smell the black locust blossoms. A perfume so powerful it is difficult to imagine the rugged and homely tree emitting such beauty. Steam rose all over the landscape creating a foggy, mystical ambience. Rainbows are frequent this time of year but I hoped there wouldn’t be one. It would just be too cliché.
There is no end to surprises in this business, just respites but you wind up taking them every chance you can. They are the battery chargers.
You don’t dare get smug, though. Behind that back door are endless surprises and just when you think it is safe there is a slightly different tone to the latch as you open it on a cool, still morning that almost imperceptivity gives you a clue, warning you to be prepared but it takes “spidey sense” to catch it.
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