I have been glad for every stage I did, including times I didn’t get a job. Now I sometimes get to bring people in to stage, not as an application but on their request to experience the work, and they’re some of the most rewarding things I get to do.

The chef invited you because they want you there, they like the cut of your jib. Go in curious and enjoy it. Be honest about what you do and don’t know, any task you’re assigned they are obliged to teach you. The restaurant probably does some things differently from how you usually would, which means you will now know two (or more) ways to do that thing. By all means be respectful, but you don’t need to be overly deferential; a modern stage is reciprocal, you’re doing each other a favor. And you really are interviewing them, if you get bad vibes there are a lot of restaurants who will teach a cook who shows up to learn.

They may ask you to cook something of your choice, so think of a few things you might be able to make with ingredients they’re likely to have. Beyond the obvious you’ll have miso, soy, kombu, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, sake, and probably rice, panko, and tahini. I might do a pan fried noodle dish. Often they’ll give you a protein, usually a chicken breast, or might even ask you if you know how to cook a specific protein and give you that.

If you show up with a Fibrox everything will be fine, it’s still the best knife with a plastic handle. I doubt the chef expected you to buy a new knife, but if you want one anyway go for it. I can empathize, I still have the Zwilling paring knife I bought the day before a stage terrified of being caught unprepared. Surprisingly the chef didn’t rifle through my knives. I don’t use the paring knife much.

I will say at $45-50 the Fibrox chef knife has more than doubled in price in the past ten years. The Mac Chef series has been my recommendation for a long time. They’re more, $70 for a 7.25" (180mm) and $80 for the 8.5" (210mm), but for many cooks it’s worth the money. There are several other options (Tojiro, Fujiwara Kanefusa, maybe a local store if you live in the right metro) but I promised myself I would not badger people about knives anymore.

The shoes, though, buy. Even if they’re Walmart non-slip shoes, or Crocs, nobody wants you falling.

Good luck! It sounds fun! I have never staged at a ramen place, and I doubt I’d take a job at one, but I’d be interested in doing a day or five now.

I will also suggest, I know unsolicited and likely unnecessary, you keep your tech resume updated. A lot of cooks spend years and a lot of their disposable income to get the sorts of degrees and certifications you likely have. Maybe cooking full time works out, maybe a part time gig at the ramen place or somewhere else scratches the itch, maybe the hobby remains an untainted hobby. Nothing wrong with keeping your options open.

In big budget movies, protagonists facing unambiguous conflict and getting a clear, concise victory peaked in the 80s and early 90s. A lot of the other movies mentioned in this topic (V for Vendetta, Dredd 2012) have serious throwback vibes. Smaller movies usually have murkier conflict.

For a given value of, “through the ringer,” Karate Kid is my answer. It’s extremely easy to empathize with both Daniel and Mr Miyagi. I appreciate some movies that absolutely destroy the protagonist, but their larger than life troubles are more difficult to empathize with earnestly. Aliens fits well, too, the oppression of a faceless corporation may be heavier now than it was even on release. The Top Gun movies fit pretty well as long as you watched the original a long time ago.

Regarding golf, the PGA is not a gendered league. Women and non-binary individuals are allowed to play in top level events and several women have done so.

https://www.golflink.com/facts_35396_has-a-woman-ever-played-on-the-pga-tour.html

I’m sure to some degree gender impacts opportunity to play golf, but women and girls from families with means do enjoy accessible training and competition these days. Among top non-male players, biology is the greatest limiting factor.

I hesitate to attack women’s leagues like the LPGA or WTA. They comes with problems, but also let us watch many of the best athletes in the world compete in their sports. That the world’s best female golfers cannot drive as far as male golfers does not diminish their ability to play the game. A good male collegiate golfer can beat an LPGA pro on a typical PGA course setup, the course length of which plays to the college player’s strengths, but only through brute force. Women’s leagues provide an opportunity for skilled individuals to show their skills.

Those leagues are also important for representation and promoting the game for everyone. If leagues like the LPGA didn’t exist, I do not think golf would be as acceptable for women and do not think girls and women would enjoy the access to training, equipment, and competitions they now have. As a result fewer women would reach the heights they do, up to and including playing PGA events.

It’s true that in sport gender is often used as a cudgel. However, after getting past blatant sexism, gender in sport is a very complex issue. Separation based on gender comes with some good that should not be dismissed out of hand. It’s not on par with something like, “Wet wipes should not be gendered,” which is not complex at all.

I made mooncakes for the first time yesterday, I wanted to be ready to make them for the Mid-Autumn Festival this year. I’ve been buying them for a long time and decided to finally make them myself.

They’re not as difficult as I expected, actually. Since the cakes are molded there’s some nuance to getting the dough the right thickness. Making them at home gives an incredible variety of options for fillings; I did purple sweet potato, cheesecake, and matcha.