Catering a Hollywood Movie—Half way through

Today marks the halfway point in the catering gig and, so far, I can give a mixed review of the experience. Catering breakfast and lunch (and sometimes dinner with less than 2 hours notice) for a 120 people a day has lost its luster. Initially it was very exciting to go in and cater for the same people everyday—getting to know your client this well is a pretty unique experience, but it has become extremely repetitive and we have lost connections with the other end of the business in the restaurants. In fact, since we started 2 weeks ago, I have only been to the other restaurants less than 2-3 times (except for the one I live in). We are trying to keep it fun and interesting for the crew (and ourselves) by making themed buffets and trying to provide creative options and our spirits are still high. If you have noticed that there has been a drop in the posts of this blog you can blame it on the long days. I would have to say the worst possible thing about this project is the moving. We rarely film in one location for more than 2 days and moving all of the equipment is an absolute drag. The typical schedule involves having the buffet ready by 630 and then serving lunch 7 hours later. After meal service we have to prep for the next day or move locations up to 2 hours away. This involves moving all of our tables (seating for 150), grills, 2 fridges and a chest freezer, prep tables, pots, pants, plates, EVERYTHING. Then we wake up and do it again. The shoot is also looking like it is going to start running late so we are starting to dig into the vacation time and on the “scared” weekends.

However, with all that being said, the best part of this project is the people that work on the movie. The catering base camp also serves as a central location for people to hang out when they have time off or to grab a snack, so I hear it all from everyone and the troubles that they are going through and how crazy it is to make a movie. The executive producer is also a Harvard man hailing from Dunster House, so I have had a few conversations with him about times in Cambridge. One of my other favorite things is to be hanging out in the catering area between meal services and have people spring special requests on us and to see if we are fulfill their needs. Some are simple like a diet coke (coke zero was a little harder) and an espresso machine. However, some people (cough cough the stars and directors) ask for completely separate meals, ice cream, and my personal favorite—a kind of bleu cheese that is only produced in Vermont.

Below are the pictures of one of our Mexican inspired buffets that we did for lunch. It was a Mexican fiesta with all of the works—quesadillas, guacamole, Cuban black beans, and a Mexican Mole.

Bangkok: Part III of III and Other Fun Stuff

I know that I have been lacking in the blog post department and all apologies. The reason that I have been so busy lately is that we landed the catering contract for a huge Hollywood movie. I signed an NDA, so I cannot really go into the details, but if you are a smart person you can figure out where I am living and what kind of movie would be filmed there. It has been tons of fun and I am meeting a lot of the Hollywood and New Yorker types. It is actually pretty funny, everyone is in a terribly shitty mood all day and then they come to the caterer and lament their troubles while enjoying the food. As long as we keep feeding them well they are extremely happy with that. We are basically the most popular people on campus. The physical catering job is fantastic too. We are doing a great job of supplying fun breakfast and lunches for the next month. The only trouble is that I am waking up at 3 AM to get the buffet open by 530 AM…. so, as you can imagine the hours are grueling.

I have also moved into my apartment in Ubud that is in the back of the bar. It is an extremely nice set up and it is nice to be living in a much more lively atmosphere. I am really enjoying it (although I haven’t had much free time).


Back to Bangkok:

There is not a lot to do in the city if you are a tourist. The eating and the shopping is great, but the city lacks many of the main attractions (such as museums and other arts) that most other large cities have. However, there is one great attraction that is known as the temple at Wat Arun.

Wat Arun is located on the river a little west of Bangkok and is accessible by one of the city water transport boats (interesting concept). From a distance, it is your basic large temple that was built by Buddhist monks a few hundred years ago. See picture below.


However, once you get close to the temple you see something completely different: the entire thing is made out of Chinese plates and china. Back in the trading days Chinese ships would load their boats full of china for ballast for their ships and set sail for Bangkok for spices and other tradable goods. When they arrived to Bangkok they would dump the china out on the dock and load it with the tradable goods. The Buddhist monks would collect the china and use it in the construction of the temple. See the pictures of the detail below, it is quite amazing. I was really impressed with the level of detail. The temple is comparable to a huge mosaic.



Next post: things that I think are interesting on the movie set.

Bangkok Part II of III: Eating through the City

Sorry for the delayed posting. Things have been crazy here. Days turn into weeks in Bali due to the lack of seasons and the weather always being perfect every day. My host explained that is why 2 weeks turned into 26 years for her. Next post will explain why I am so busy. Also, my lovely mother is in town, so I am trying to spend time with her.

Back to Bangkok…

We flew to Bangkok for one reason: to eat Thai food and learn the nuisances of the recipes we have at our restaurant, Siam Sally. I can promise you that the three of us did not get cheated. It is actually pretty funny—we had dozens of meals at restaurants and in the street markets, but only really tried the 4 main dishes in our restaurant that we felt needed the most work and fine tuning: Pad Thai, Tom Kha Gai, Sum Tom, and some weird mushroom dish I cannot really remember the name of.

We landed at 7:40 pm, went to the hotel, dumped our bags out and went straight the lobby to try the Sum Tom. The restaurant was nice and we ended up ordering about 3-4 dishes and were writing down reminders in small books and making mental notes on how everything tasted. After the first dinner we hopped into a cab and went to a hole in the wall called “Jay-Fai.” Jay-Fai is not a hard place to miss as you are walking down a crowded street in Bangkok; most noodle shops charge 20-40 Baht ($1) for their noodle dishes. Jay Fai charges 250-400 Baht and there is a line out the door. The restaurant has absolutely zero décor and the tables are plastic lawn furniture. However, after tasting the food (which in my opinion was the best of the week, even outdoing the Peninsula), my doubts were wiped away. The prawns were the size of golf balls and the herbs and veggies in their soup stocks were fresh and bountiful.

Woke up, ate the room service continental breakfast and were out the door to go to the big 10 story tall shopping center called MBK (mentioned in the first post). At the top of MBK there is a huge food court with over 60 vendors. I know what you readers are thinking, why the hell would we go to a food court in Bangkok to try Thai food? I was also skeptical at first, and I guess the only answer is that all food courts are not created equally. The entire complex takes tokens so that the vendor stalls you get food from do not have to deal with cash. The average token sale was around 40 Baht per person. When we went to the cashier and asked for 800 Baht ($17) worth of tokens for food the lady looked at us with a look of disgust and confusion and handed us a large cup of tokens. Typical Americans.

I cannot even count how many dishes we had there, but to give you some perspective, we were there for over 2 hours. If I would have to give a ballpark figure, I would say 13 dishes. This food court is where I discovered my favorite Thai dessert of all time, “NahmKai Sai.” Nahm Kai Sai is shaved ice with coconut milk, pandanus leaves, and a variety of “tidbits” that included jellied fruits, nuts, etc. See the picture below sothat you can see all of the lovely and colorful ingredients that you can throw in this dessert. It is basically like a creamy snow cone with natural candy in it. I had about 6 the entire trip.

The food court and the first day were the most memorable experiences of the trip. It is pretty funny when you look back at vacations like this—we ate at the Mandarin Oriental and the Peninsula as well, but the experience did not resonate as strongly with me in comparison to the street markets. Bangkok is also a strange town, as you get very very bored after about 3 days. There is really nothing to do there besides shopping and eating. We hopped on the plane and started preparing for the big catering project that we are doing. I arrived back home the same body weight! I guess it is because we walked a lot and Thai food is a lot of fish and stocks...not a lot of saturated fat.

Next post: Monuments in Bangkok, and what I have been doing with myself.

Bangkok Pictures are Posted!

Go to the Website and Click "Travel Pictures" to see my album on Bangkok.

Thanks!

Bangkok Part I of III: Initial Impressions

I recently just arrived back from Bangkok in order to discover the nuisances of Thai dining. BGF just opened up an amazing Thai joint and we also took the head chef so that he could also learn the correct flavors in a Tom Yum and a Tom Gah Gai. Bangkok is one of the strangest places that I have ever been to on earth; it is an interesting mixture of hilarious Asian customs and a very modern city with advanced transportation systems that would rival any city in the USA. One thing that was great is that the food is dirt cheap and delicious. Thai food is so good because it is known for using the freshest ingredients and top-notch seafood and made to order. I would have to agree—the produce that was available was incredible and the prawns and seafood lying around in the markets were the cheapest and freshest that I have ever seen.

Who is to thank for all of these wonderful ingredients available to the Thai people? The answer is the King, and in Thailand, the King is the most revered and respected people on the planet to an extent where it is almost comical. One of the policies of the royal family in the 1970s was to build a vast infrastructure of rail to connect farms and fishing harbors to major cities in Thailand. Interestingly enough, Thailand was also the only country to resist the perils of Western imperialism that Hong Kong, Japan, and all of the colonies in the 19th century fell victim to, making it very unique in comparison. The Thai people must be very grateful because every store, restaurant, and corner market all have pictures of the king proudly displayed in the open. When dining with a couple of ex-pats a conversation about the king arose and they told me to be careful. They explained that they have heard stories of people lamenting about the king in public and then the next day they would be visited by royal officials and asked politely to stop.



Above is a picture of the king that resided in the 10-story shopping mall called MBK. Just to prove that I am not making this king thing up. Another really surprising thing in Bangkok is how little English that all of the people were able to speak. Even at five star resorts such as The Peninsula and The Mandarin Oriental (which have both rated the best hotel in the world at some point in the last decade) lacked English speakers. Not saying that this is a terribly bad thing, however it made for some interesting conversations and a lot of bargaining to be made by writing numbers on paper or in calculators in the markets. Bangkok is also known for its terrible traffic. The city is completely accessible by overhead trains (Sky Train) or underground subway, but taking a taxi is usually unbearable. In fact, if traffic gets too tough and you are in a cab, the taxi driver will kick you out and leave you stranded. This happened one day when the cab driver did not feel like driving us to a restaurant that we wanted to go to. We ended up having to walk to the subway.

Part II talks about our adventures in the markets and eating copious amounts of Thai food. Part III will show some of the touristy stuff we did. Stay tuned.

Getting Pulled Over in Denpasar

One of the first days that I was in Bali, hanging out at the house, a police Sergeant walked into the compound and was talking to the family. After a little while, it was obvious that he was on very good terms with everyone that was present. I went up and introduced myself, but the man did not speak a lick of English and I do not speak any Bahasa Indonesian. Even so, everyone insisted that I switched phone numbers with Made Ketut (Name Changed) and that if “I ever got into any trouble with the police” that he would take care of it for me. I put his number in my phone and thought nothing of it.

A few weeks later I was driving downtown in the busiest areas of Bali, downtown Denpesar. In most cases, if you break a traffic law and are driving a nice vehicle, you will not be pulled over because the police officer will assume that you have the proper connections to get out of the ticket and possibly get him in trouble. However, this time I was driving the maid's motor bike (purple and black in color and a top speed of 60km) because it is the only motorcycle that I am currently comfortable to drive with (I hate shifting!). I was going through the main roundabout in the city and at every corner of the square is a police kiosk. First, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept of a roundabout, they are meant to divert traffic in multiple intersections so that none of the traffic has to stop. But, thanks to the admirable sense of Indonesian road engineering, this roundabout actually has more lights that number of streets converging into the circle.

So the only 6'2" white dude in Depensar on a shitty motor bike accidentally runs a very confusing traffic light in the roundabout (Mom- it was a completely safe maneuver) and a police officer runs out of the kiosk with his whistle thinking that he just scored a Christmas ham in terms of the bribe that we was about to receive instead of issuing a ticket.

I get off my motorbike and, very confidently, ask why I was getting pulled over. He said that I ran a red light and asked for my license and for me to walk into the kiosk. I hand the man my oversized international driver's license and he is dumbfounded and asks what it is. As he is thumbing through the booklet, I grab my cell phone and look for Made Ketut's phone number. 3 seconds later I go "Made Ketut. It's Samuel. Trouble with Polisi." I then hand the phone to the police officer (who looks even more confused) and goes "Hello?"

After about a 5 minute conversation (where it seemed that jokes and laughing were exchanged) the police officer says, "Made Ketut is a great friend of mine. I also hear that you are staying with the Ida Bagus' family. Just do not run the red light again. No need for a ticket."

I laugh with the man and explain that I am working for an Ida Bagus and give him a high five. He then says, "Hey my friend, it is very hot here. Give me some money to buy a drink before you go."

I hand the man $30,000 Rupiah ($3USD, strap on my helmet, and go along my merry way.


I am going to Bangkok for 6 days to scout/learn about Thai Flavors tomorrow. It will be very fun and I will have a very good blog posting in the near future. BGF is about to land its biggest and most high profile catering contract in its history, so stay tuned.

The 36 Hour Long Ceremony

Bali has always been one of the great tourist destinations of the world for the diverse range of attractions that the island and its people have to offer. Bali is unique because it boasts some of the finest resorts and spas, five star food and dining, a great nightlife scene, tropical beauty, and the outrageous religious ceremonies. I was lucky enough (mainly through my relationship with Gusky and Karen) to be able to go and see first hand one of the largest religious ceremonies of the year.

I will try to explain a little of what the ceremony was about, but honestly it was a little too much for me to understand. The ceremony was for the deaths of family members of Gusky’s Girya (which is the family temple) and the village followers of the Girya. The Ida Bagus family that Gusky is part of is the largest on the island with over 1 million followers, so the ceremonies are usually huge and take place in downtown Denpesar. The bodies of the dead (approx. 300) were already cremated, but the symbolic souls still remained and were placed in Urns.

The ceremony started at Noon and the whole family (myself included) was inside the family temple and eating and praying for the souls of their family members and the souls of the follower’s family members outside the temple (which totaled over 8,000 people outside the compound). There was music and reading of Sanskrit and Balinese texts late until the night. There were offerings for the souls, which included an unbelievable amount of food, colorful sculptures made out of rice, and a sacrificed ox (see pics). Karen and I left around 4 pm, but Gusky did not leave.

The next morning Karen and I woke up at 430 am and drove back to the temple to find the same 8,000 people sitting outside the temple dressed in all white with shrines containing the family souls. The final part of the ceremony was to walk to the ocean and pour the symbolic remains into the ocean. The walk is over 5 km long and you have to take some of the busiest streets in Bali to get to the ocean in Sanur. Everyone flooded out of the temple and the procession was over 3 km long and took over 30 minutes from start to finish. The traffic jam was unbelievable! I felt terrible when we were walking by cars (we were at the end of the line) and seeing the faces of people that were in cars waiting for the ceremony to pass. It is an understandable fact of life of driving on the island, as there is usually a procession or ceremony every week that will block some form of traffic. The ceremony was beautiful and it was incredible to see the lengths that these people got to ensure that their dead relatives are able to have a proper death. I was very impressed.

Observation: There was also a 30 foot high shrine that was being carried by hand at the end of the procession by over 50 grown men. In front of the shrine was the “spotter” that carried a 30 foot high piece of bamboo with a beach towel wrapped around the top of it. What was his job? He was to run in front of the shrine and lift (manually) any powerlines that were in the way. Oh, how the world differs.

Also, go to the "pictures" tab on the website to see the full album.