Thursday, January 24, 2008

things we cant plan

I was so happy to come to San Jose to meet my parents yesterday
morning and got this call from my dad, telling me they had to cancel
the trip because he was sick for a week and the doctors told him that
he cant fly...I could not believe it, I had no idea he was even sick
for the last 10 days...No one bothers to tell me these little details
when I am busy taking care of business:( I feel stupid sometimes, how
in my small world I worry about ice cream melting, running out of tofu
or not making enough money to buy a vehicle. Damn!

It was a huge shock in the beginning and mostly feeling alone and
disappointment. I wanted to do so much with them, we were going to do
a trip to Nicaragua, take time from work, celebrate my birthday,
ect...Of course things like this happen in the movies, but in my
perfectly planned life, I have no room for spontaneity...Well, another
lesson learned, life is all about spontaneity after all...I am
grateful that he is ok and they just have to delay the trip. I feel
lucky to have my family and I know they will be here eventually.

For now, I am staying with my amazing friend Maria, baking many kinds
of chocolate chip cookies and developing secret recipes and watching
food TV. The store is also open, I have friends and good employees in
charge...and Maria and I are leaving for Nicaragua tomorrow. It´s not
that shabby at all.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Maria´s Lemongrass Ice Tea

A great ice tea recipe, it is sooo hot here, iced cold tea is the best
way to keep cool!

A stalk of lemon grass, cut fine wrapped in cheesecloth
4 cups of water
3 bags of black tea or loose tea if you have

Boil water with lemongrass and let simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the tea bags and let cool.
Discard the tea bags and lemongrass.Refrigerate the tea for half an hour.
Serve with honey and lemon slice over ice!

Muy bien!

Sad!

Marlon left Montezuma yesterday. He was here for a month and he is by
far the coolest employee ever! We had so much fun working together and
he helped us sooo much working from 8 to 8 most of the days....He is
still at school so he went back to finish up a couple of unnecessary
classes, though I tried to convince him that schooling is
overrated...Well, work is even more overrated, but it makes such a
difference to work with fun kids! He is off to a bungee jumping
experience and a couple new tattoos, possibly a kitchen aid...Gallo
Pinto and Marlon (aka Maria) rules! Tuanis! (means cool in Costa Rican
slang!) Pictures sooon, I promise!

Burrito Special

It is great to live in a small town...Today I found out that one of
the restaurants ordered some stuff to take out from us, disassembled
and created the same to serve at their restaurant...Wow! I am happy to
see people take me serious! The restaurant is growing so much, its
great to be here.

Many new items on the menu, as always:

Mango-Passion fruit-Coconut is the killer ice cream on the menu...I
just cant find a good name for it...
Starfruit Shake, with pineapple and mango juice
Oatmeal cookies, with white chocolate, pistachio and apricots.
Spinach Salad with lentils, tomato, feta cheese and parsley


We also painted the store---It is now brightly green! My favorite
color! Days are going by...ups and downs, happy and sad, but it is all
good and very hot!

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Feliz Ano!

Montezuma reminds me of a big crowded city these days. It is packed
with people, loud, traffic, cars, crazy crazy people and very
impatient customers...All the tables are full most of the time, I am
trying to stay on my feet without collapsing but its been really
difficult. Managing slow times was hard but managing busy times is
harder. On top, I had a few day when an employee had to leave for a
medical emergency and I discovered a feeling I had no idea I had in
me. Anger! I am an angry person, if you can believe it! It wasn't nice
at all, I don't like myself when angry at all but I can't help it. Of
course, I signed up for a massage today and it was great.

In the middle of my breakdown, a customer asks if she needs to make a
reservation for lunch! Yup, we now accept reservations!

In the last couple of weeks, I made a new menu, got 3 new employees
(all boys!) and fell in love with Manu Chao! Since we have listened to
my ipod for 100 billion times, Melanie was sick of the same old music
and started to play her own ipod, after listening hers for 100 billion
times, we got a new one from another friend that I love her music
taste..However, the lastest Ipod we got is from Marlon and he has
heaps of techno music that I absolutely can not listen to...So we
agreed on Manu Chao. I am not sure if they are famous anywhere else
but I love it. Me gusta bailar, me gusta su!

Heading off to the cafe to finish a spiderman cake and prep for dinner
tonight. My parents are arriving in two weeks, and I can't wait to see
them!