hash browns

Was at Grizzly Manor Cafe in Big Bear, CA over the weekend. Sat strategically at the bar so I could see the cook prepping all the breakfast on a giant 5-burner griddle. This place has HUGE pancakes the size of a plate, big servings, local attitude, and reasonable prices.

Here's what I learned:

Omelette/Eggs: Chef scrambles in bowl, pours out as a flat sheet onto the griddle, about the size of a dinner plate. It bubbles up and cooks pretty fast. In the middle, he adds a pile of ham, a handful of cheese, then using two grill spatulas, flips the sides up on top. Total process was maybe 1-2 minutes.

Hash browns: hash browns come frozen in a transparent 1 or 2 gallon-sized plastic bag. Looks like potatoes, grated on the big holes on the grater into approx. 1.5" x 1/8" grated strips. Hard to tell, but it's possible that they were par-boiled in this form, then flash frozen. In any case, potatoes are as white as a sheet of paper. In any case, chef mashes the frozen bag to loosen them up, then pours them out on the griddle, evening them out into a fairly thin later, no more than 1" thick (easy to do on a giant griddle with a lot of surface area). Then using a ladle, pours what looks like oil or clarified butter (about 7 ladles full) over the mass. Flips the hash using two grill spatulas, as necessary, when it begins to brown.

Had sushi last Friday. I've become much more of a yellowtail fan: it tastes smooth, lightly buttery (not as much as tuna or salmon) and precisely clean. Yum!