Flashback Friday # 56

The Royal Castle

Hello all and welcome. It's good to have you back (and it's really good to BE back). Hopefully I'll get caught up with everything you have posted in the very near future. But for now, we take another look back at the remembrances of my childhood.

When I started seventh grade, Sir Gattabout (my brother, for any new readers) got to start an after school job. Since he was 17, and in the 11th grade, my parents allowed him to get a job on the next exit from ours on St. Rt. 71. If you get off at the Deleware/Sunbury exit, there used to be a small truck stop across the street where the current McResturant is. The name of this truck stop was "The Royal Castle". Sir Gattabout got a job here as a short order cook. This enabled him to have spending money that he didn't have to beg or borrow off of Mom & Dad. It also gave him the wherewith all to pay or his own cigarettes (they cost an astounding fifty cents a pack back then).

My favorite story of his employment there dealt with a very fussy customer. This man came in, and ordered a steak cooked rare. My brother took the steak out of the cooler, seared each side, and sent the steak out to the customer.

The customer sent the steak back because it was overcooked. My brother really didn't know what to do.All the other rare steaks he cooked were just like the one he just served.

He took another steak out of the cooler and quickly slapped it on each side in the hot skillet. The steak barely had and cooking marks on it. He was sure the customer would like this one.

The customer once again sent the steak back because it was overcooked. My brother was at his wits end. How do you cook a steak without it touching the hot skillet and leaving cook marks? He then came up with an idea. He took another steak out of the cooler, held it in the air, and held his cigarette lighter under the steak. When he thought the steak was warm enough he tossed it on a plate and exclaimed, "Any more rare and it will be raw".

The waitress took the steak out to the customer. The man exclaimed that finally, someone figured out how to cook a rare steak. He ate it and complemented that it was perfectly cooked.