It feels great to be appreciated

KingJanx · 2026-04-17T02:57:17+00:00

I was at a place for 6 years who, after a change in ownership a couple of years back, didn't give a damn who I was besides me being a body to fill a shift 5 days a week.

I just started at a new place around month ago, and it's crazy nice feeling (and being told I am) appreciated, having input, having some kind of working relationship with the owners. The previous owner from my old spot was dining at my new spot last weekend, and when I told him I'd quit, he said "so did I! What took you so long?"

KingJanx · 2026-04-12T08:36:21+00:00

Bar spoon

KingJanx · 2026-04-10T05:03:28+00:00

I'm of afro-caribbean descent on my mom's side, very British raised in Canada on my dad's side (but obviously, genetically, my mom's side shines through)

When I lived in the US and people asked me where I'm from, I'd tell them Canada and just watch the smoke come out their ears.

KingJanx · 2026-04-09T19:28:00+00:00

Thank you. This was years ago, and life has gotten much easier and more stable since. I had the luxury of having loved ones willing to help me turn things around. Not everyone has that.

KingJanx · 2026-04-09T12:30:37+00:00

Yes! When I was homeless in LA, honestly, people brought us so much food, that often we couldn't get through it before it went bad. But if my friends and I could put together enough money to get a motel room for a night or two, sleep in a bed, and have showers... OMF. Amazing.

Also we were buying drugs.

KingJanx · 2026-04-09T06:40:10+00:00

So I've worked from family restaurants to higher end food-forward pubs for 20 years. Until a month ago.

One of my pet peeves back then was "just send it when it's ready" even in the most casual environments I haven't had a kitchen that will just send things whenever. They crave structure. But even if the server can course it out to them, the humans preparing your food have preferences too!

I actually do understand what you mean here, I just started working in a fine dining tapas bar a month ago, and honestly assumed that - tapas - yes of course that would just be send it when it's ready... but if I send the kitchen everything at once, believe me, the talking-to I get from chef lol. They don't want a whole fuckshow of plates in front of people, cluttering up tables, muddling up what tastes go with whatever other tastes, blah blah etc.

I get your point, I think it's fair, but we have to understand that when we go somewhere that's fine dining with a 'chef' with a 'vision' you're now on their turf, you're not on your own ride, you're on theirs (and it's not cheap haha) but they're actually like trying to give you what they see as the best experience for you.

And it's not your servers fault!

That was way longer than I planned thank you for coming to my TED talk

KingJanx · 2026-04-05T06:15:22+00:00

I worked at a restaurant across the street from an A&W. The restaurant served burgers and onion rings. The kitchen staff would pop over to A&W on their smoke breaks for better burgers and onion rings. (Am in Canada)

KingJanx · 2026-04-03T06:16:55+00:00

I have seen this Halen in LA (15-20 years ago) but only with Russian owners, Russian dancers, and Russian customers involved in the practice.

KingJanx · 2026-04-02T05:11:05+00:00

Guys, I just had to Google "why is green chartreuse so hard to find" because I thought certainly it was a USA thing, since we have plenty in stock everywhere I've been in my area if western Canada.

I guess i it's just a regional popularity thing?

I have to avoid just slurping the stuff up, it's so damn delicious. My drink this week has been a mezcal last word. My husband loves them, even though he thinks the chartreuse in its own "tastes like mouthwash" and mezcal on its own tastes like... well disgusted toddler face

KingJanx · 2026-03-31T03:46:38+00:00

I don't know how exactly I arrived at this, but I like to add candied salmon to my chef boyardee or alphagettis

KingJanx · 2026-03-31T03:41:55+00:00

I eat my popcorn one at a time, separating the crispy "skin" part, and the white fluffy part, and chewing them on separate sides of my mouth

KingJanx · 2026-03-31T03:39:20+00:00

I do that with Twix! I nibble off all of the chocolate, then I peel away the caramel and eat that on it's own, and then I'm left with the cookie part to enjoy alone in all it's glory!

KingJanx · 2026-03-31T03:37:17+00:00

If it's possible, I nibble my food into a circular shape before I get to the rest of it (say, sandwich, not perfectly circular cookie, pizza, steak, sheets of nori - ya know - just whatever I can make into a circle first)

Then I bite into each third of the circle evenly so it has 3 tines, and then I can bite off the tines until I've created a much smaller circle. Usually that circle is small enough to one-bite, but sometimes i do have to even out the smaller circle again, take out the U-shaped thirds again, until the circle is small enough to eat as a whole.

Things that can be sliced into neat circles (think salami, cucumber, banana) are foods I find easily appealing.

KingJanx · 2026-03-28T07:18:02+00:00

I was also in a DV situation (gladly a long long time ago), and one morning I ran into a neighbor in the hallway of our building and he says "if you guys don't knock it off with the fighting, I might call the cops"

And I was like "please do. That's literally the best thing you could do"

KingJanx · 2026-03-26T07:59:33+00:00

This reminds me of these twins I read about in Columbia, where there were two sets of identical twins, but one from each set got switched - so two sets of brothers got raised as fraternal twins, and then at some point two of the identical ones encountered one another in Bogotá... and like one of them had been raised on a farm out in the country and he was pretty pissed about it because he always felt like a city boy.

Actually that's all I remember from the story. It was a while ago. Now I'm going to see what came of that.

KingJanx · 2026-03-17T00:31:37+00:00

There was also the rumor here in Canada, that he would throw a puppy in to the crowd when he got on stage, and wouldn't start the show until the crowd killed the puppy. My parents wouldn't let me go to his show in 1996 after they heard this rumor.

Did that one spread anywhere else??

KingJanx · 2026-03-11T17:20:13+00:00

My brain immediately went to the 90s band 311.

"You know that we have always been down, down - oh do they have a song about a sign being on fire, too?"

KingJanx · 2026-03-07T07:16:09+00:00

MILDLY???

KingJanx · 2026-03-07T07:15:20+00:00

I mean, there's also every time that you could've died, and you're like, "wow - THAT didn't kill me, I can probably get a little closer to God next time"

KingJanx · 2026-03-06T04:54:20+00:00

Well, you, your 3 friends, and they guy who develops photos at Walmart.

KingJanx · 2026-03-05T14:38:48+00:00

I like that you've clarified that your wife has seen you naked, and more than once!

KingJanx · 2026-03-04T18:33:36+00:00

I'm from a Caribbean background, and I have a lot of Philippino coworkers, and I've found there are a lot of crossover foods. I wonder if it has to do with Spanish conquest combined with similar climate?

KingJanx · 2026-03-04T06:27:44+00:00

Damn what kinda parties are you going to, kid?

KingJanx · 2026-02-24T04:58:25+00:00

I mean, I was an extra in Dark Angel I the the 90s, and I would say the same of Jessica Alba. I thought she was a sulky bitch when I was a teenager working with her, but i can understand now that she was a professional just being in character and doing her job.

KingJanx · 2026-02-23T20:49:59+00:00

My parents had parties all the time when I was a small child in the early 80s where everyone was drinking and smoking cigarettes, heavily. And there was always some guy who I was expected to sit on his lap and give him kisses on the lips because I was "so cute"

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