Would you like patacones with that?

November 29, 2015-January 6, 2016

So I got another job. Really it kinda replaced the bar 'job' which had extremely uncertain pay and hours. One night I got talking with a group of family of Dario's and they said I should come help out at his cousin's restaurant.

My first day on a Sunday, which I came into having no previous waitress experience (unless you count serving cake at family parties) was a doozy. I was trying to figure out what the heck I was doing and the lunch rush filled the place up and had people waiting in the street for a table to open up. Definitely jumping straight into the deep end.

My coworkers were pretty much the best though, Alfonso and Tania especially helped with answering questions and providing explanations for things even before I asked sometimes.

On a typical weekday I showed up before the lunch rush started, either earlier to help with breakfast, or around 11:00.  In the downtime there were small taskes to do, including folding mounds of napkins to refill the napkin bucket that we refilled the table napkin holders from.

Napkins.  So many napkins.

There weren't usually many people for breakfast, which meant I got to watch the morning talk show and Ecuador trivia Jeopardy show on TV. It was exciting when I actually knew an answer.

It didn't happen very often.

At noon the soap operas started, always with lots of intense looks and dramatic music, but the lunch rush was starting anyway so I didn't have to watch them.

During the week, the majority of people come for an almuerzo, which is the set lunch menu for the day. We always started with two soup options and 3 main dish options, and then as things ran out, the menu would switch around a bit. Almuerzo came with a cup of whatever juice we had that day too. So it was lot of repeating options, not spilling soup, and remembering to bring the second half of the meal too.  I only forgot a couple times...

Sundays there are no almuerzos, its all off the menu. I learned our dishes pretty well by the end, and could even answer with some certainty when customers asked what came with a dish. (rice, patacones, etc)

I got more used to walking into the kitchen and just yelling my order to the world, which was more what they had me doing at the beginning. Someone would hear it and the dish would show up eventually.  The owner Narcissa, known as Nacha, was excellent at remembering all the details of an order, and what dishes were still missing.  She stayed at the main kitchen counter and acted as Kitchen General, making sure everything was running properly. I stll don't know how she does it. Years of practice maybe.

Once I figured out where the different dishes were prepped and who it was that cooked them, I could be a little more directed in my ordering and go straight to the source to say I need a fillet, a shrimp encocado and a rice with clams.  Ceviches came from the sink, encocados and al ajillos from the back, fried rice and fried/breaded/other things from the other room. Patacones had their own corner and we went through a ridiculous amount of plantains every day.

Green is plantain for patacones, yellow are riper plantains, for making maduro.  Both are cut up and fried in oil, the maduros end up being sweeter tasting.  I enjoy both of them immensely.

We kinda go through a ridiculous amount of everything actually. Whole days are spent by people in the back peeling shrimp to use, I'll come in to find tubs of fish looking at me.

Those are hunks of fish on the table, and not even fish containing spine.  Those are fillet pieces.

Laundry baskets are filled with onions, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.  Whole buckets of garlic are peeled at once.  The amount of rice we went through in once day would feed me for about 6 months of normal meals.

And the food that comes out of the kitchen is delicious and beautiful.

Arroz marinero, with all the different seafoods we had.  I think 95% of the time I saw the customer take a picture of the dish before they started eating it.

Encocado of camaron del rio.  I think they were the equivalent of crayfish and made for a gangly dish.

Lobster a la plancha

Encocado of a whole pargo (some kind of fish, maybe a snapper?)

The dishes were classy looking and we took care in plating. Adornments of tomato and cucumber, fish and shrimp came nestled on a bed of lettuce, and the rice dishes were symmetrical and lovely.

Lime slices go on almost everything. Portions are giant and well worth the price.

For the crab dishes they have a bunch of small cutting board type boards and little hammers for smashing the legs open.  Rather concise if you ask me.

Along with being prompt, polite, and efficient while working, I was the loony who was always making the food talk in high pitched voices, usually saying 'no me comes!' which is 'don't eat me!' When the fish still has a full face on it, it's just so much funnier!  I couldn't help myself.

And when the food was all done, we cleared ALL the plates to the back.  Usually dishes had at least two plates of things, since so many of the dishes had one plate for the thing and another plate for the accompanying rice, patacones, beans, etc.

The ladies in the back did a great job of getting evreything left on the plate table scraped, washed, and turned around to use again.  On busy days we'd go through our (not small) supply of plates more than once with the things being plated, currently eaten, and watiting to be washed.

For about two weeks we had our very own bard, which made me giggle when I compared myself to a tavern wench from the fantasy stories.

His name was Jose, he was from Argentina, and he'd come in and play for the customers for tips almost every day for at least an hour or two.  Sometimes going away for a break and coming back to keep playing.  The first time he came, it was a busy busy day, and one of my first, I was less than thrilled to have a standing person in my aisle and guitar music to talk over.

My job got more familiar though, not every day was as busy, and he was a very good musician.  Everyone at the restaurant came to enjoy his playing and talking to him every day, and we were sad to see him leave for another beach after a time.  I had grown used to having live music to work to during the lunch rush, and missed hearing it after that.

Overall, it was a job that was occasionally tough, had stress on more than one occasion, and improved my Spanish skills about 200%.  I can confidantly say I've had waitressing experience now if I ever try to get another restaurant job (though the reference might be a little hard to contact) and I've got new friends that I'll not forget.

Also the hand soap in the bathroom smelled like almond, and reminded me of Mom making almond macaroons at home.  I enjoyed washing my hands.