Rain. Part 3.

Rain. Part 3. 

“ Alien space ships?”

She shrugged her shoulder. “ I think I saw it once on a Sci-Fi movie.” 

Jack let out a soft chuckle. 

“ Do you know what movie scene comes to  my mind?” Jack asked, a mischievous smile on his face. 

She shook her head. 

“The Good Mother”, Jack said. 

“ The Good Mother?…..Diane Keaton?” 

“ Yap.” Jack nodded his head.

It was her turn to laugh, Jack and his love of movies, including chick-flicks. How many male on earth willing to admit that with complete honesty. “ What scene?”

“ The scene after they saw the movie. “ There again, that mischievous smile blooming on Jack face. 

It took her awhile to recall the movie and the scene Jack mentioned. When she remember it, she felt her face turning hot red from embarrassment. And Jack noticed it too. 

“ What do you think? We have the truck, the rain, the fog, the alley. We could do what they did, “ he said innocently. 

Her embarrassment forgotten, she stared at him with anger.  Are you out of your mind? 

Rain, part 2.

Rain,  part 2.

It was on their second date when it happened. 

They had gone to early dinner and planned to catch a movie at a downtown theater. But the storm, carried over from the hurricane touching the East coast, had arrived before they did. The old and mostly one-way  downtown streets were under water, forcing Jack to find an alternate route. He drove his truck through an alley, between a bank and a closed gift shop, in attempt to make a short cut to the next street. But a few yards in, he realized the  alley was getting narrower and narrower.  His pick-up truck wasn't going to make it all the way through. They were stuck: A too- narrow alley in front and a street quickly becoming a  creek behind. 

“ Now what?” Jack asked. “ Should we wait here, or back up to the street?” 

She looked back, watching the street behind them for a few minutes. In that very short time, she saw two small cars being washed away into the unknown by the water current. 

“We, wait? “ she suggested in the end. 

“ Are you sure?” 

She smiled. “ I don’t  have any other plans this evening. How about you?” 

Jack returned her smile, appreciating her sense of humor. They both knew they were stuck in this town with nothing to do, until the highway to their destination reopened.

Jack shut off the  truck's engine. Soon, the heat of their breath combined with the difference  in temperatures inside and outside of the truck’s cab fogged up the truck’s windshield, cocooning them from the outside world. 

She used her right palm to wipe the fog. No sooner had her palm cleared it, then another layer of fog formed in its wake.

 “ We couldn't see a thing, “ she said, “if an alien space ship landed in the front of us, ready to kidnap us, we wouldn't  even know.” 

Jack raised his eyebrows. “ An alien space ships?”

                                ................ To be continue next week...............

Rain part 1.

Rain part 1.

“ It is raining here,” she said. Watching the outside world from  her   bedroom window, the window panes were wet from the rain.

“ It is? “ he asked. 

“ Yes, “ she answered, “ rain, thunder, gusty winds and maybe some hails. The whole nine yards. We almost lost our maple tree.” Our maple tree, being the tree he planted three years ago, on the border of their property. “ To remind you, I’ll always be there for you,” he had said. 

“Are you alright? “ he asked. 

“ I am. “

“ And the tree?” 

“ Lost few branches. The wind whipped it up good. But at the last minute, the wind changed its mind, tearing apart the old oak tree next to it instead.“ 

“ It was a big rain then, “ he said.

“ Yes, it was.”

“ As big as, ‘our rain’?”

“ No rain nor storm, could be as big as ours, Jack, “ she said with a shy chuckle. From the blurry reflection on the still wet window pane she could see her cheeks had turn a little pink. The memory of that night always made her feel that way. Embarrassed, yet full of longing and wanting. 

*****

It was on their second date when it happened……,

          …….to be continue next week…….

The Chicken Breast Affair

The Chicken Breast Affair. 

Why did  the chicken cross the road? Some say, “to get to the other side”  (sound like the “ Twilight Zone” other side, doesn't it?). Some say,” to catch the bus.”  Some say, “ to chase the handsome rooster”. There are so many answers, yet none of them is more correct than the other. But, I know why the chicken crosses the road, to run away from me! To run away from my sharp cleaver, to be exact. 

                                           

                                         

Every week, I have to clean and then cut almost 600 pounds of chicken breasts. One side of a chicken breast weigh roughly a pound. Each chicken has two breasts.  So,mathematically speaking, I butcher nearly 300 innocent chickens a week. Some say ( this again) , I am the chickens’ murderer. At best, I promote cruelty to animals, namely chickens. But hey, I don’t like to picture myself as a mass murderer (who does? ), so I say, I help those poor chicken get to heaven. Sound better right? 

Well, to make a short story stay short, I will briefly explain what I do to those chicken breasts  and what happen to them in the process from being raw chicken breasts to yummy chicken dishes in the restaurant where I work. I have to warn you though, you  might not be able to see your General Tao’s Chicken or KungPo Chicken in the same way again. 

Chicken  breasts arrive at the restaurant, in boxes. Each box, weight precisely 40 pounds. If we were to get fat chickens with super large,  triple D, rated R chicken boobies, the box would contain fewer chicken breasts. Less work for me. If the chickens happen to be skinny ones, more like an a A cup breast (there aren't such thing as flat chested chicken are there? ), each box would have more breasts in it. In other words more work for me, to clean them.

 First, I had to place the chicken breasts  in the two compartments food prep sink and let the faucet water throughly  run through  them. The running water  help to clean the slippery slime around the chicken breasts. “Slippery slime? What are you talking about?” you might ask. Oh ya, trust me, there is slippery slime. The grocery stores employs a   different method to clean them, before placing  those chicken breasts in their packaging in order to make them look more presentable to you when you browse the meat shelves. 

 

Then, I trim all of the visible, unsavory, ugly-looking  fat around the chicken breasts. ( I  wish, I could  do that to my  own unsavory ugly looking fat, have a  lots of that).After that,  I cut them into several different sizes:

- Nugget size pieces, for Sweet and Sour Chicken dish or General Tao’s Chicken dish. 

- Thinly slices, for any stir fried dishes, like KungPo Chicken or Szechuan Chicken

- Fillet, for Almond Chicken or Teriyaki Chicken dish. 

Then, I marinate the chicken slices before storing them in the refrigerator. That way they are ready to be stir fried with different vegetables and sauces to create one of the restaurant’s stir fried dishes. I deep fry the nugget pieces and the breast fillets. Then let  them cool to room temperatures before storing them in the refrigerator. The cook will deep fried them again to the correct temperature before he adds some sauce to them to be served as Sweet Sour Chicken or Almond Chicken. Now, the chicken breasts are no longer breasts, they are part of the delicious dishes we serve at the  restaurant.. Pictures of a few dishes I mentioned are on the following page.