Days 235 - 240 - HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU !!!!

So, last week has been and gone and it was pretty much the same old story!

More roadworks, the quiet November continues, but a good Friday night and a good Sunday! Oh, and I lost 2 lbs!

That's more or less what happened at work, apart from one major piece of news!!!

For a few months now, I have been teasing you with news of an impending something...... Well, that something has NOT come to fruition! I was talking to a hotel about he possibility of 'taking over' their kitchen and talks had reached an interesting stage. That was until I was informed that they would be closing the hotel for a few months in the new year for refurbishment and then were unsure as to the direction they were going. It is possible that it will be turned into apartments or similar, so I shelved that particular project. There was also interest from a 'company' who wanted to talk to me about the possibility of me becoming a chef for them in their 'new venture' in the new year. Nothing happened there.

So there I was on Thursday afternoon, prepping the food for the evening service and wondering what next year was going to bring, when a chap came upstairs to talk to me..................

He is the owner of a successful sports bar about a mile up the road from us and he came to talk to me about taking over his kitchen. We had a good chat and he left me with a huge decision to make. I had to weigh up whether to continue in the restaurant that we had built from nothing over the past 3 and a bit years, or undertake a new challenge.

On one hand, we have a restaurant that we have put our all into and turned from an ailing pasty shop into a very successful concern. Maybe its not the most financially successful concern, but customer wise, we have grown from strength to strength. We reached no.1 on the Tripadvisor rankings and received a achievement of excellence award for 2012 from them. At one point we were ranked 3rd from over 4,000 restaurants listed on the Costa Blanca. The problem we have are the overheads. You cannot begin to imagine the crap we have to pay out! Without listing every bill we have, if I was to say that we have to earn 5,000€ a month JUST TO BREAK EVEN, you can begin to understand how difficult it can be. So yes, we have made a 'success' of our restaurant, but financially, it has been very difficult to survive at times, especially during this recession. So, on the other hand, when we receive an offer like the one we got on Thursday, we have to give it plenty of thought.

We have thought and thought and though again and have decided to undertake the new venture! From a financial point of view, we wont have anything like as many commitments as we do now, so a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders. From a challenge point of view, I probably need a new one, and am really looking forward to it. The bar is currently NOT serving food, so we are basically starting from scratch again. I don't think I'll be able to serve 'my food' at first, but I look forward to designing a menu more in tune with my new clientele. It'll probably start off pretty basic, but I hope to introduce them to my talents quite soon! I am happy to listen to any food suggestions or ideas you have...

Although it will be sad to leave the restaurant, it wasn't a difficult decision in the end. We have decided
 to make Christmas day our last and we start at the Sports bar on Wednesday 2nd of January, so we even get a week off! It'll probably take us a couple of days to move our stuff out and in to the new kitchen, so still might be able to relax for a bit.

Okay, that's it for now, apart from letting you know that today they started paving the little section outside our doors that they have left for 6 weeks! A touch of irony there somewhere!

Sweet dreams all and I  ill speak to you all very soon. Thanks for reading

Jimbo

Days 229 - 234 Busy Friday, Busy Sunday, but Thursday and Saturday a little quiet. Oh, and they've dug the bloody road up AGAIN...

I haven't blogged for a while, so here is the last 6 days news for you all to peruse! I will quickly start by telling you that they've just dug the bloody road up AGAIN. Yes, only 4 weeks after laying it, its up again. Don't know what the heck they're doing... Some pictures to help set the scene for you...

 Absolute joke. There is nothing more to say on this subject. Well, at least until I whinge about it again next week!

Back to the Friday of last week. A decent day in the cafe for November and a good night in the restaurant for  fish and chips. Really hate doing the whole fish and chip thing, but it pays the bills. Well, some of them anyway!

Saturday was desperately quiet both in the restaurant and the cafe, so nothing to report there. Nearly forgot to report that I gained 3lbs this week. Not sure how, not sure why, but sure as hell gonna shift it this week!

Sunday started off as a bit of a worry as we only had 14 bookings. Doesn't sound too bad having 14 bookings, but we're used to having it in the 20's. The problem I face on a Sunday morning is not knowing how much food to cook. How much of the 25 kilos of potatoes do I cook for the roasties? How much for the mash? How many Yorkshire puddings do I cook. How much of the 5 kilo piece of Topside do I cook? How much of the 3.5 kilo piece of Pork Loin do I cook? It goes on.... We always get phone calls on Sunday morning asking for tables, and we always have people just turning up on the day, but it's still a dilemma when the bookings are down.

I took the decision to cook the lot, and fortunately it paid off. We ended up being full! I have decided just to cook the lot now every week irrespective of the booking situation. I hate waste, but if there are any leftovers, they always end up getting eaten at home!

So far this week has been pretty quiet in the cafe, so we'll see how the rest of the week goes. I will update you all with news as soon as it happens!

Nite nite
Jimbo xx

Day 227 & 228 - ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz...........

It's been a VERY quiet couple of days at work, SERIOUSLY quiet, so not much to report on that score. I will put a picture up of tonight's set menu, so you can salivate...

Oh, and a picture of the Christmas Day menu...

Well, that's about it for work! On to home life...

I have cycled 10km for the last 2 nights, but still not really over this cold yet, so no cycling tonight... Limp excuse I know!

Thats it! The most boring blog I've ever written, (actually there are probably more boring ones!). I hope something happens over the next couple of days to excite you lot.

Speak soon

Slimbo xx

Day 223, 224,225,226 - 10,000 views on my blog!

So, after whizzing round the supermarket first thing on Saturday morning, I popped over to the 'Beauty Box' for my weekly weigh in before work. I felt lighter and was very confident of a loss. I was right to be confident, as I had lost 3lbs! Yipee, I have finally started losing weight again. I had been on the exercise bike on Tuesday and Wednesday night and managed 10km each time, but man flu set in on Thursday, so I was too achy and run down to attempt it again that week. In fact, tonight, (Tuesday) is the first time I had been back on the bike since and I managed 8km before having enough. Although I feel better than last week, it hasn't completely cleared yet...

On to work...

Not only have they STILL not finished the paving outside, but they've now stuck some fencing up where we have been temporarily  putting our chairs and tables whilst we have no pavement! I think the young ones out there use the phrase WTF! Absolutely ridiculous...

So, although no one can currently sit outside our cafe AGAIN, we were pretty busy on Saturday. I say pretty busy, we ticked over nicely... It was a quiet night in the restaurant though. November is notoriously the quietest month of the year, and this year is no different!

Sunday's never disappoint though, and this week was no exception. Once again we were full and we didn't even manage to take any leftovers home! I suppose it's a good thing that a) we sold out of food, and b) I didn't have to fight the temptations of roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings etc. 

The last 2 days at work have been pretty much a wash out, both financially and weather wise. I spend a lot of my time winding up old mates in England about how great the weather is here, but at the moment, Calpe seafront might as well be Blackpool, Brighton, Hastings, Torquay or any other seaside resort back home. Its horrible here at the moment and the forecast is not much better for the next week or so! To show you how bad it is, here's a short video that Laura took from the car whilst I braved the weather and collected Harrison from school!...

I've only lived here for 3 1/2 years, but this is definitely the worst I've seen it. Spain has virtually no drainage, so the roads are under inches of water and everything gets flooded!

Okay, that's about it for now, I hope to bring you some more news soon. Can't say too much, but may have some interesting news at the end of the week............. ;0)

Take care all, thanks for reading, and speak to you all soon

Slimbo!

Day 218, 219, 220, 221, 222! - My thought's on menus......

Helloooooooo!, I'm back! It's been a funny old week...

Monday was our 1 day off in 14, and as usual, it was spent doing all the things we cannot do on the other 13.... There isn't a lot we can do anyway, as we drop Harrison off at school at 9am and collect him at 4.30pm. Calpe doesn't have much in the way of shopping facilities, so we either have to go to Benidorm, (which is a 30 minute drive), Alicante, ( an hours drive), or Murcia (an hour and 45 mins). The nearest 'Ikea' is in Murcia, and we have only been there once in 3 1/2 years! I used to go to the one in Brent Cross once a week! So you can see how not much in the way of shopping ever gets done. I bought a bean bag (on Monday)for a fiver off one of those local Facebook selling sites, as I've always wanted one for playing games on the TV etc. I am yet to sit in it yet, (it's Friday night as I type this), as Harrison has accosted it and it's now his....(little shit!)

Tuesday was a pretty slow day in the cafe, and by about 10.30am I was really bored, so I started 'playing' with food in the kitchen. I had been thinking about doing some sort of sushi type thing, a) because I like it, and b) because on the whole, it's pretty healthy, but as I didn't have ANY of the necessary things to make some, i.e nori roll, wasabi, sticky rice etc, I decided to improvise! Here's what I made...

Nothing to do with sushi, I know, but it's what I had, so it's what I used! As always, the picture isn't great, so if you cant work out what it is, here goes. It's simply 2 eggs, whisked, and then poured on to a plancha, (a flat hot plate thing used a lot in Spain) in a rectangular shape. Once cooked I put it to one side and made the filling. It was just 1 rasher of bacon, (fat trimmed), 1 hash brown and a couple of mushrooms. all cooked and then chopped pretty finely. I placed the 'omlette' on a board and spread some grated tomato, (seasoned with a little salt, pepper, sugar and olive oil), all over. Then spread the filling over and wrapped it up into a long sausage shape, using a bamboo mat... Simples!

Okay, so it's not sushi, but it's the best I could do with the ingredients I had! Didn't taste bad either!

Wednesday was a slightly better day financially, but nothing of any excitement to report,  unless you count the 94th minute winner from Moses for Chelsea in the Champions league! Another game that I don't think we deserved to win, but happy with the result!

Thursday was prep day, and as always, at about 11am, I left the hustle and bustle of the cafe for the relative tranquility of my upstairs kitchen. My music choice this week was predominantly Jaime Cullum, with a little bit of 'The Script' thrown in for good measure.

Here's the menu, so I don't have to keep explaining what I was doing...

I had seen some sweet potatoes in 'Aldi' of all places and,  as I hadn't cooked with them since moving to Spain 3 1/2 years ago, I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I am trying more and more to not think about what I am going to put on the menu, but instead, let the produce guide me. I know that sounds a bit poncey, but I think it's far better to see an ingredient and be inspired by it into coming up with a recipe, rather than composing a menu and then trying to look for the ingredients. Surely that's what being a chef is all about? I know some restaurants here in Calpe, (and probably everywhere else), that have had the same menu for years and never changed it. How can they call themselves 'chef's', when they are just content to churn out the same boring old food every night for 20 years? It shows a complete lack of passion, invention or care. So many take the easy option and just stick a load of starters on their menu that they can just chuck in a deep fat fryer. Okay, so it's easy to deal with several tables at once when you are just chucking everything in the fryer, but it's not cooking. It's not creating anything, it's just putting frozen produce into a fryer to be cooked and served on a plate. What does that tell the person reading the menu? I grant you that 90 percent of the population of Calpe couldn't give a toss, but I personally, wouldn't want to eat in a restaurant that never changed its menu. Do these places not use the seasons to determine which produce they will buy? What they are saying to their customers is that they are not using seasonal produce, they have no inspiration to come up with different and interesting recipes, so therefore they are not in it for the love of cooking, they are just there to earn a crust. As I said, I would not want to eat food made by a chef who didn't give a shit....

So, with the sweet potatoes staring me in the face, I wondered off into a moment of thought and decided to put them with some belly pork and a little sauce made from the pork juices, a few bacon lardons, a little of chicken stock and a touch of cream. The picture is a terrible one, as I didn't present it particularly well, but believe me when I say it's one of the tastiest things I've EVER cooked. Firstly, a picture of the mash, and then the completed dish...

I really believe that I would not have come up with that dish if I had not seen the sweet potatoes. That's why I believe that the produce should dictate some of the choices on the menu. Not every choice can be made that way, but there has to be some inspiration somewhere, or menus become boring. Maybe some people would look at my menu and find it boring, but at least I try to change it around and come up with new ideas, and most importantly, serve food that no other restaurant anywhere near here is serving. It wont be everybody's cup of tea, but in my view it's better than just eating the same food over and over again....

There, it's off my chest now!

On to today... Another really busy Friday in the cafe today and we managed 38 covers for Fish and chips, which isn't bad for this time of year. 

Thought I'd give you an update on the state of the pavement outside. Instead of explaining, I'll just upload these pictures and they will tell you all you need to know.... The first is right outside our door, and the second is a view of the rest of the street. You will see that the road is STILL closed and the pavement is STILL not finished outside our door...

It's weigh day tomorrow and although I have only been on the bike twice this week as I have been a little under the weather, I still managed to cycle 20km and I feel that a loss of weight is on the cards! I feel lighter and thinner, so I'm hopeful. I will of course fill you in with the result tomorrow. If you can't wait for the blog, just have a look at my Facebook page... www.facebook.com/groups/185455448234743/

I'm off now to suck on a Halls mentholyptus and watch Eastenders!

Nite nite

Jimbo :0)

Man flu....

Sorry for my lack of attendance over the last couple of days. I am shattered and in the middle of a bout of 'man flu'. I hope to be back tomorrow....

Poorly Jimbo :0(

Day 214, 215, 216 & 217 - A good Thursday, an okay Friday, a fantastic Saturday and a good Sunday!

Well, the unfinished pavement works still remain! The eyesore is still outside, but it doesn't seem to be doing trade any harm. For the beginning of November, we're doing pretty well. We will never get back the money we lost during September and October, but at least we're ticking over int he cafe. The figures are up on this period last year, so we'll just keep on plugging away and see what happens...

The restaurant is performing well too, and Thursday night was exceptionally good for this time of year. We had 24 in and I was so pleased that 12, yes, 12, had the set menu! I have added a couple of choices to the menu so that there is a little more choice. It used to be three starters, three mains and three puds, but as more and more people choose it, I can afford to put a couple more options on. This weeks menu looked like this... (forgot to take a picture of it, so had to type it!)

STARTERS

Home made 'Jiminestrone' soup

Tomato and mozzarella salad with Basil oil

Goats cheese, Serrano Ham & caramelised onion bruschetta with balsamic syrup

Home made smoked 'Jimackerel' pate

MAINS

Italian sausage casserole with polenta

Spaghetti with tuna and tomato

Pan fried cod with lentils

Confit of duck leg with cannellini beans and bacon lardons

Tagliatele with bacon and cream

DESSERTS

Home made Strawberry cheesecake

Pears poached in cider with caramel and pecan ice cream

Affogato

Ice cream

Coffee

All for just 11.95€ including a drink!

Everything fresh, everything freshly cooked, everything made with love ....!

Friday was okay... Managed 25 for 'Fish and Chips', which is down on a normal Friday, but still a decent turn out. I think there's many a restaurant that would be glad of those sort of numbers...

On to Saturday and 'Race night'! Every so often, we hold a 'race night' at the restaurant, which is always a cracking night. Hosted by the very talented Matt Mason, it's an evening of horse racing, a bit of fun, a quiz and some grub. I managed to win 7€ on the last horse race and 15€ on the pig race at the end of the night! Good times. Really enjoyed the night, it almost feels like I'm not working on these nights as it's one of the few occasions that I can get out of the kitchen and get involved a bit. A very big thank you to Linda Banks for rounding up a huge group of customers for us too! I owe you a drink or 2 Linda :0)

We served up our usual fayre of Steak, ribs, chicken, coleslaw, potato salad etc, but this time I decided to experiment with the chicken a little. I normally serve chicken breast, but decided to do something on the bone for added flavour and ease of serving. Here's what the chicken looked like. Not a good picture, but....

Carrying on my tradition of renaming foods I 'invent', I have called this one 'JFC'! Didn't actually get to taste one, so will have to make some this week!

Nearly forgot..... I had my weigh in this week, and yet again, stayed the same weight. Less carbs, more exercise required. This plateau is far too long!

On to today and ANOTHER full house for Sunday lunch. We had a table of 8 who travelled for an hour to get to us today from a place called Pego, purely on a recommendation. We must be doing something right... After finishing their lunch, 2 of them booked for Christmas Day!

Got home at around 5.30pm and decided that as the pool temperature was 19C, I would have a little swim! I lasted about 15 mins and then my extremities started to numb, so I got out! It might be the last swim of the year methinks... Just in case there are any doubters out there....

I may not be Michael Phelps, but I do my best!

Ok, I'm off now, its been a hard couple of weeks without a day off and I am relaxing with a glass of Merlot and a game or two of poker.

Speak to you all soon

Jimbo xx