Day 16

This morning I had our second Latin Cuisine class. We are still doing Mexican food which is interesting, but the menu isn't the greatest. I am feeling terrible today. Chef Polegri sent someone to find cold medicine for me yesterday because trying to find it myself would have been interesting. I don't think its as strong as the stuff we use though because it doesn't seem to be helping much. So of course I am just not in the mood to be there today. I am the good student though, I got all my homework done, even though it seems I might have been one of the only ones. I would take it easy on myself though, I took a few salsa recipes and a recipe for pickled red onions. All stuff that I could get done and not put too much strain on myself. I made a roasted tomato, onion, pepper, and garlic salsa, which basically had all the ingredients charred and then put through the meat grinder. It was good. I also did a pico de gallo and the red onions are just what they sound like. Everything was good, I do enjoy doing that kind of work, carefully layering the flavors of citrus, heat, salt and sugar. The rest of the menu was a garlic soup, refried beans, rice again, tortillas again, churros, and a steamed turkey dish that seemed the most interesting item on the menu. Unfortunately the turkey wasn't there yet and we weren't expecting it till at least 1o....the guy didn't show up till 11 and we were serving at 12:30. So of course we couldn't exactly cook it whole. It was also supposed to marinade for about an hour. We ended up cutting it up and marinading it quickly and then steaming it on the stovetop. We got it done, but it wasn't what it was meant to be. Everything was good at lunch, but we still had way too much food. Luckily the restaurant crew told us to save it all and they would have it for dinner tonight. As soon as I could, I got out of there, I was supposed to be back at the restaurant in about 1.5 hours and all I wanted to do was take a nap. I got to sleep for about an hour and then went back, but much to my surprise, it was all locked up. Of course when the restaurant isn't open and the students aren't there, its locked. So I would just have to wait and try again later. We had a scheduled wine seminar tonight so I went back at 6 pm. The wines are all excellent. Our teacher is a sommelier, so of course she is very knowledgeable. She handpicked all the wines we are tasting dependent on the region we are studying. All the wines are pretty expensive as well. That is a class we all enjoy and it is full of a lot of information. We were there for over 2 hours tonight and we only had 4 wines to taste and we are talking 8 bottles between 20 of us, so its not like we are getting hammered.....some of us were. After that we had a small group dinner. Some of the group seems to get frustrated with the food we have here. I have no idea why because it is all great and its free. I ate dinner with the group, which was great, and then I headed for some much needed sleep. Tomorrow is another group trip out of town. We are going to a chocolate seminar and will be making our own candies. The bus leaves at 7 am.