HORRIFYING CONFESSIONS OF HOTEL EMPLOYEES
10:29 Mar 11 2016
Times Read: 1,657
GOOD luck getting some shut-eye next time you’re at a hotel. Over on Reddit, hotel workers are dishing in a thoroughly revealing — and often revolting — thread about life in the hospitality business.
They’ve endured it all, from drunk guests to rude kids to used feminine hygiene products stuffed in the coffee maker.
Here are a few of the revelations.
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU TOUCH
Yes, we all suspected the room might not be as clean as we hoped, but reading Reddit confirms it. Those glasses in the bathroom apparently don’t get cleaned sometimes (“they are just held under the tap and rinsed”), and the duvet rarely gets washed. One clerk recommends removing it from the bed and tossing it on the floor as soon as you arrive.
THE FRONT DESK CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH FOR YOU
One front desk employee recounts a late-night phone call from the penthouse suite. “The guest on the line asked if we could send a condom up to the room,” the clerk writes. “[The manager] told me no and to instead offer directions to the nearest gas station. I relayed this information to the guest. They thanked me and hung up.”
A call came in a few minutes later from the same room asking, “Could you please send up a latex glove?” A porter was dispatched.
IT’S PROBABLY BEST NOT TO MENTION YOUR AGE IN CERTAIN CASES
One clerk recounts a call from a young couple who called and asked for a room for a 21-year-old and a 17-year-old. The clerk checked the age of consent in the state and found out it was 18.
“Double no.”
HOTELS HAVE A ‘BANNED’ LIST — AND YOU’RE PROBABLY ON IT
One poster claims that in his city, an alliance of 15 to 20 hotels have gotten together to create a permanent banned list. Screw up badly at one hotel, and you’re banned from them all.
“Here are some things I learned,” the insider wrote. “Amber is a very popular hooker name. My city has a serious heroin problem. My city has a lot of dumb-ass criminals.”
BE NICE TO THE EMPLOYEES
“I had a man approach me at the desk to ask for ... a good non-touristy place to eat,” one clerk wrote. “I ... pointed him to my favourite local haunt.
“About four, five hours later ... the man returned. He walked straight to me and told me that the place I had told him about had apparently just gone out of business. I was mentally preparing myself to get yelled at (like you do), when he instead put a brown paper bag on the counter.
“He informed me that while my place was gone, there was a new place next door that specialised in dessert.
“He told me he appreciated my effort, though, and then said the following most beautiful words I have ever heard on the job: ‘I figured you might be hungry, so I ordered you one of every dessert on the menu. That way if you like them, you can recommend them to future guests instead of that other place’.
DON’T BE A DIVA
Normal requests are fine, and if something is not right with your room, do let the front desk know. But one guest took it a bit too far, demanding, “I need a pillow not facing north”.
IF YOU’RE GOING TO PUKE, PLEASE DO IT IN THE TOILET
The Reddit forum is filled with all manner of gross activities from guests, including using room corners as a urinal to one woman who did her business right on the floor and just laid newspaper over top of it. Another gross incident involved a drunk woman puking in the bathroom sink, apparently too drunk (or lazy) to walk another foot to the toilet.
“Plunged the sink, black-grey water and puke from last night flew out of the sink,” the clerk writes.
YOU MAY BE TARGETED FOR A SCAM
One hotel worker writes of a late-night phone call a guest got on their room phone, claiming it was the front desk calling and asking for the guest’s credit-card number.
“The guest said they’d just come down to the desk, but then the caller said, ‘Do not leave the room. If you leave the room, there are police waiting in the lobby to arrest you.’ ”
The guest gave over the credit-card information, and $3000 was quickly charged by the scammer.
This story originally appeared on the NYPost.
I DIDNT WRITE THIS I FOUND THIS ARTICLE IN ONE OF THE ONLINE NEWSPAPERS I READ DAILY.
HAWIANESE CHICKEN RICE
08:15 Mar 02 2016
Times Read: 1,685
THIS WAS TAKEN FROM A TV SHOW- NOT MY RECIPE
Ingredients
The chook
1.5 kg whole chicken
1 clove garlic, bashed
3 cm piece of ginger, sliced and bashed
5 spring onions, knotted together
2 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp light soy
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp light soy
3 tsp sesame oil
Rice
2 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, finely chopped
2 slices ginger, 5 mm thick, bashed
3 cups (600 g) jasmine rice, washed, drained in a sieve
1 tsp salt
1 pandan leaf, fresh or frozen
4 ½ cups chicken stock, from poaching chicken
Red sauce
3-4 long red chillies, roughly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled, roughly sliced
⅓ cup (80 ml) white vinegar
⅓ cup (80 g) caster sugar
½ tsp salt
Green sauce
8 stalks spring onions, finely sliced
1 x 6-7-cm piece ginger, peeled, finely grated
2 tsp salt
⅓ cup (80 ml) vegetable or peanut oil
sliced cucumber
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp deep-fried shallots
¼ cup (60 ml) kecap minas
Cook's notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.
Instructions
Cut the fat surrounding the inner part of the chicken cavity away and reserve for the rice. Stuff all the ‘chook’ ingredients into the cavity of the chicken and secure the opening with a short skewer. Lower the chicken into a stock pot that fits it snugly around the sides but is tall enough to allow the chicken to be covered with water. Bring to the boil, cover, and reduce the heat to poach it very gently for 1 hour, so that there is only a slow, steady stream of bubbles. Skim any frothy impurities and oil from the surface of the stock as it cooks.
Meanwhile, prepare the rub by mixing the soy and sesame oil in a small bowl. To test if the chicken is cooked, lift it by one of the legs and if it pulls away easily where the thigh joins the body, it is done. Transfer the bird onto a plate and massage with the rub. Cover and set aside, then bring the stock back to the boil. Boil for 1 hour or until you’ve reduced the stock by one-third (you’ll need at least 2.5 litres left).
To cook the rice, heat the oil and reserved chicken fat in a large non-stick saucepan over medium heat. When the pieces of fat have shrunk considerably, add the garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant and slightly golden. Add the rice and stir to toast the grains for a few seconds. Add the salt, pandan and chicken stock, stir and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until the surface is dotted with pits and no liquid is visible. Reduce to the lowest heat and cook for another 10 minutes, then turn the heat off and rest for 15 minutes before uncovering and fluffing with a fork. Cover and set aside.
Blitz all the red sauce ingredients with a blender or stick blender until smooth. If using a mortar and pestle, pound the chilli and garlic in small amounts, then mix with the vinegar, sugar and salt. Refrigerate.
To make the green sauce, combine spring onions, ginger and salt in a bowl, then sit it in the sink. Heat oil in a small saucepan over high heat until smoking. Stand back while you pour it over the aromatics to avoid the spitting oil. Mix and set aside.
To serve, debone chicken and slice into 2 cm pieces, then divide chicken and cucumber between 4 dinner plates. Pour about 1 cup of broth into 4 individual bowls and garnish with the sliced spring onions and deep-fried shallots. Press about 1 cup of rice into a small rice bowl, then invert onto individual dinner plates. Divide all the sauces and kecap manis into small dishes so everyone has their own. Don’t hold back on the sauces when you are eating this meal. Because the chicken is subtly flavoured, all the seasoning comes in the form of the sauces. Make sure you put a little of each in every spoonful
This recipe is from Poh & Co.
This recipe is part of Poh's Cook's Cuts, a series of video tutorials narrated by Poh Ying Leow.
COMMENTS
-