But my next, slightly more mature thought was about how maybe there's another option which is to use the poo to build a poo-deflecting structure of some sort. Which is exactly, at times, what I feel the last couple of years have taught me to do. Until now I referred to it as "surfing," which is funny because I've never surfed in my life but it made sense to me that I have to shift my weight to stay balanced on the ever-changing shape of the waves. Ah, but scatological humor is so much more fun! So in my new metaphor, I might say that difficulties (the poo of life) have taught me to become ever more quick and clever with the way I construct new solutions and each new pile of poo - though it stinks at first - becomes a part of the protective structure that guides me through life. This wasn't always my way. It used to feel perfectly natural to me to get covered in poo and then feel sorry for myself (while also getting pissed if you DIDN'T express pity for me) because I had clearly done nothing to deserve this fate. Sometimes, I still do this but it feels really bad.
My most recent encounter with the poo (should I start capitalizing that, The Poo?) came in the form of an extraoridarily awful job. It was a serving job at a corporate restaurant in the city, which I discovered (after two and half weeks of training) to be the most inefficiently run pit of despair I have ever encountered. It was worse than Olive Garden. I will say that again, it was worse than OLIVE GARDEN. Land of unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks. Where people ask questions like "What comes with the soup, salad, and breadsticks?" and eat up to eight refills of creamy chicken and gnocci soup after telling you that they're on a diet!! So anyway, the new job was poo and I had to quit and trust that I'd find something else by simply doing the foot work and actively reminding myself several times each day to TRUST. Trust and keeping calm are two integral parts of my poo-deflecting structure that I feel are direct gifts of The Poo. I used to feel so helpless to create these things in my life...like they were simply phenomena that, if I were lucky, would spontaneously erupt in my life. But that is a lie. They are choices, trust and calm. In my experience, the former always precedes the latter and I can choose to trust, choose to breathe and choose to chill the fuck out no matter what's going on. What a relief.
In the end, I got a job at a phenomenal restaurant, with indescribably delicious food, run by a family of intelligent and kind people right in my own town. It was my number one choice and each day I whispered to the universe that, while I didn't want to harp on the subject, I just wanted to remind it that my heart's desire was to work at this particular place but if there was some other way that I was meant to serve then by all means...but just in case you forgot, dear universe, I REALLY want to work at this one place, kthxbye. And then I'd go about my day, even to some degree enjoying my unemployment by laying in the sun and getting quite brown. I don't know what led to me getting to work there but even if my little prayers and deep breaths and yogic practice and whatever other spiritual tricks I used over those two weeks to stay out of my own way didn't have anything to do with the outcome, I am grateful that they kept me out of that miserable state of mind that can make life feel as though it is not worth living.
Now, I'm not sure what the rules are for disclosing your place of employment on a personal blog like this one. In any case, I am not so sure my employers would be thrilled to have a link to their restaurant on a blog that just talked about poop for three paragraphs. So, I will simply tell you about my favorite appetizer, entree, and dessert (each of which I had to try something new of after each of my six training shifts. Que pena, no?) The best app I tried was definitely our buttermilk blue cheese stuffed dates. This plate consists of mejool dates, cut in half cross-wise and stuffed with blue cheese. Then, they are broiled, which warms them through and slightly caramelizes the sugars from the dates. They are served with the most amazing reduction I have ever tasted - a pomegranate, port wine reduction - and toasted sliced almonds. I'll definitely be trying this one at home.
The best entree I tried was a salad, not terribly dissimilar from a dish that I often make at home with kale. The warm frisee salad is a bed of frisee greens and baby spinach, tossed with a light dijon vinaigrette. This is topped with duck confit (confit is anything slow-cooked in fat, in this case duck meat cooked in duck fat. Holy crap.), thick bacon (house-cut and house-cured), and a poached egg. As I have previously stated, I would eat almost anything so long as it had a poached egg on it. This is not a salad for anyone watching their fat-intake by any means. But it is perfect in my opinion because of the balance between the strong flavors of duck and bacon, the fresh and light flavor and texture of the greens, and the creamy cohesion of the poached egg yolk.
My favorite desert was the take on bananas foster that we offer. It is a house-made biscuit topped with caramelized bananas, fresh caramel sauce, a scoop of vanilla gelato, and an almond struesel crumb topping. I tend to like contrasting flavors (in case you hadn't noticed that from the sweet/salty dates and heavy/light salad). This pairs a warm, almost treacle-like sweetness with the earthy, bready flavor of biscuit and cool, creaminess of gelato. Perfection. Another one that I plan to try at home.
If you want to see any more of the delightful menu, feel free to take clues from my post as a Google scavenger hunt challenge. One more clue: duck fry poutine. Aaand, go!
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