Mark Burger

Mark Burger is known for their amazing sliders.  I decided to try it after all the hype and buzz.

original ($2) & with bacon ($2.75) & fries ($3)

Candied Bacon (that's right) Shake ($6)

The cook rocking a fitted worked right next to the bartender.  I could see this guy working the flat top, cooking more than 10 burgers at once accurately, I think the beer he was drinking helped with all of this  The burgers were cooked to order and were cooked to a perfect medium.  Quality was great and they even grind their own beef.  To end the meal, I ordered a bacon shake.  It was really unexpected.  It worked well but left a weird aftertaste.  The bacon added a smoky and salty touch to the sweet and rich shake.  4/5

Cook's Ink

Tattoos are not widely accepted in many professional fields and if you do have tattoos, the boss might encourage you to cover them at work.  But, in the kitchen, it's a different story.  For some odd reason, it's normal to see cooks with ink.  So if you have a lot of tattoos and can't find a job, start cooking, just kidding.

Quick story: When I was working at Tabla as a line cook, I remember I kept my sleeves down to hide my tattoo from Chef Floyd Cardoz.  I was cooking papadum in the salamander (I miss those crab cakes) and of course Chef saw it.  "AY! what's that?!"  I replied, "Chef, it's a tattoo" (I probably looked a little embarrassed) and I remember him saying, "this is why I shouldn't give you guys a day off, you always go off and do something crazy."  HAHAHA, well a couple of hours later he told me something in the lines of, "it's okay, it's how you express yourself, I'm not against it."  I was really relieved.

My tattoo started last year on September 1st, 2010.  It's still in progress and I'm guessing it'll be done by next month.  The parlor I go to is located in the Bronx, called Bronx Ink Tattoo & Piercing.  Hoga is my tattoo artist,  also one of my close hyungs.  He's a very talented man that specializes in Asian art.  I'll post up progress pictures I took in the course of 7 months to show you how it started and ended for those who are interested.  By the way, it's a full sleeve of koi fish.  I know my former senior cook Josh would hate me for posting these pictures up, he's one jealous dude, just kidding on that too.

Hoga working

Retouch

Common Injuries

It's very normal for cooks to get injured at work.  Minor injuries include cuts, burns and bruises.  Every once in a while a cook will be sent to the emergency room for cutting the tip of their finger off, I saw it happen twice already, and it's not pretty.  Well, today, I burned my hand and wrist during dinner service while cooking two orders of striped bass, salmon, pompano and a lobster if I remember correctly.  This is a pretty normal fire, but I was careless and the hot oil inside the cast iron pan spilled directly on my arm.  I was pulling the pan back to throw into the oven, but the angle of the pan and the speed of which it was pulled back made the oil spill right out towards the handle and onto my skin.  This all happened around 7:30 pm, when we were starting to get slammed.  So, I quickly ran my arm under cold water for about a minute or two and went straight back to work.  When you get a pretty severe burn, anytime that wound gets near heat it burns like crazy.  Almost like getting burned AGAIN.  I toughed it out and around 9:30 pm when things finally slowed down, I went to Roosevelt Hospital's ER, following the advice from Sous Chefs.  I waited around 2 hours and saw a doctor.   He rubbed Bacitracin Ointment on the wound and wrapped it with roll gauze, which can't be removed for 3 days since I had first and second degree burns.  The doctor prescribed ibuprofen and oxycodone, which I'm probably not going to take.  I also got a tetanus shot and he instructed me to take 3 days off from work.  I'm going in tomorrow, I'm gonna help the chef at the pass to plate food, that's the least I could do.

Some before and after pictures (it might be a lil nasty, sorry!)

 

Scars and wounds stay in our minds.  I will never forget what I ate this morning, what I wore, what the weather was like, who I spoke to, why I burned myself and the people I worked with.  This is the beauty of scars.  It's history and memory and I might sound like I love getting hurt but I really don't.  But I do appreciate battle scars cause the crew won the battle with a few nicks and brusies. Damn, I should have been a poet.  

Back in the kitchen after 2 1/2 months of unemployment

After Tabla closed in late December of 2010, I took some time off for myself.  I trailed around in different restaurants and finally decided to take a job offer from Oceana as a Fish Roast line cook.  It was my first day last Monday (3/14) and I forgot how exciting it was.  Oceana is an American restaurant that specializes in seafood.  Here's a picture of the lobster tank in front of the open kitchen.  A new chapter begins and I can only grow from this experience.

If anyone is really interested about how a professional kitchen runs, I recommend that you read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.  It'll really open your eyes.