Havasu, that's called "Euro Style"---but it's usually only done when all other options are exhausted.
I dunno about "most embarrassing moment" but I'll tell y'all a funny story about my short "career" as a busboy at the popular Chu Dynasty Restaurant in Coronado. In its heyday, this Chinese joint cranked out some of the best Chinese food to be found in San Diego County... now, long after the restaurant is gone, my best friend Tommy still retroactively calls it "Die Nasty!" The place went downhill in later years, you understand. But I digress, lol. As a youngster in high school, I scored a job as "dish dog" in that restaurant, but it wasn't a bad gig at all, and I'll tell ya why: all the delicious Chinese food you could eat every night, plenty of sake and other wines left over in carafes brought back from tables, a pocketful of cash (shared tip money) as I went out the door around midnight, pretty Chinese waitresses who liked young white boys, etc.
I also had a coworker in the form of Lucas, an old Mexican guy who enoyed the job as much as I did... we'd get half-lit and mack Chinese food during lulls, then bust @$$ and keep the clean dishes comin', aye? Our work area consisted of a fairly roomy nook with a large, state-of-the-art, modern stainless steel dishwasher in one corner of a U-shaped stainless steel trough, with plenty of heat resistant plastic racks to load into the dishwasher. Some of the racks were for plates, bowls & saucers, some were for glasses, some were for utensils, etc. The waitresses and busboys would bring stacks of dirty dishes on trays and leave 'em at one end of the trough... Lucas or I would scrape leftovers on the dirty dishes into the huge Hefty trash can below, scrub the dishes a bit in the sinks if necessary, load 'em into the racks, and start the machine.
The racks full of steaming hot and clean dishes would exit the machine and be pulled over into a "sorting area" where they'd dry, then we'd stack clean dishes or racks of glasses in a "pickup area" for the waitresses and busboys. Not hard work, but hectic at times since the restaurant was so popular... but Lucas and I got along and we worked well together, and we also jumped at every opportunity to bag carafes of leftover wine and set 'em on a stainless steel shelf below the trough, along with serving plates & platters still half full of delicious Chinese food. Rich folks who patronized the restaurant sometimes left food and wine on the tables, as they had other plans and couldn't bother to deal with doggy bags, lol. So Lucas and I lived large off the untouched leftovers... we scraped the individual plates, but the serving plates & platters were fair game.
This may sound gross to y'all now, but in those days it was perfectly natural to do this, kinda like a perk of the job, and the owner didn't care what we did as long as dishes got done and there was no shortage of clean plates, glasses, etc. Another perk of the job was when we scrubbed a big ol' pot or pan at the request of the Chinese cooks, who couldn't speak a word of English but made their requests clear in sign language, lol. Whenever we styled out those cooks, they'd make a batch of something special just for us, something not even on the menu, but so damned good that it would've sold like hotcakes, lol. I always jumped at the opportunity to do those cooks a favor, as I knew the favor would be returned with interest later, lol. I'll tell y'all, it wasn't a bad job, I went home every night half-lit and stuffed with good Chinese food, plus I had $20 or more in shared tip money in my pocket, on top of my regular wages.
Anyway, there came a night when the owner asked me if I would try my hand as a busboy, since he had a special party of uber-rich Mexicans booked in a separate room of the restaurant. I was perfectly happy where I was, but I figured I'd do as he asked, so as not to endanger my job, lol. I donned the little monkey suit and started to fulfill my very first task as a busboy, bringing a tray of glasses full of ice water to the rich Mexicans, who were now seated around a special banquet table in that private room I mentioned... probably celebrating the latest successful cartel deal, lol. There were at least a dozen Mexicans around this table, maybe more, some kids but mostly adults, and I began to make my way around the table, delivering a glass of water to each customer. To balance out the tray, I first took a glass from one side of the tray, then a glass from the other side, right? In this alternating manner, I made it almost all the way around the table...
Then things went terribly wrong... you see, I had not thought far enough ahead in my system of glass removal from the tray, and as I stood behind the last two customers in the circle, I had two glasses left on the tray, but they were on opposite sides of the tray, 10-4? And the very last customer was this beautiful Mexican woman wearing fancy diamond jewelry and what looked to be a very expensive sweater, the soft kind that show a woman's figure to best advantage. Damned if I wasn't sidetracked by ogling that gorgeous gal... as I placed the penultimate glass next to the customer at her side, the tray tilted, the remaining glass slid until it hit the tray rail and upended, and that full glass of ice water went right down the front of that gal's sweater, lol. I wasn't even on the job for five minutes, and I already knew my "career" as a busboy would end right there, lol. And it did, with the owner himself apologizing to the party as I headed for the kitchen, lol.
But truth be told, I was HAPPY to ditch the monkey suit and return to doing dishes with Lucas, who roared with laughter as I related the details of my short busboy "career." He even slapped me on the back, in some form of congratulation, lol. He was a good ol' boy, Lucas... and I drowned my "sorrows" in heaps of leftover sake and other wines before I went home. I'll tell ya something else too: every last one of those adult males at the table who were NOT related to the gal who fielded the ice water spill, their eyes were SHINING in appreciation after that cold water hit the woman's sweater, lol. I don't think that gal was wearing a bra either, or if she was, it was nowhere in evidence... and THAT, my friends, is the story of my brief "career" as a busboy at Chu Dynasty Restaurant in Coronado in the late '70s. All in all, it was a great job, believe it or not... the "perks" were excellent, lol.
I was having to replace a pipe in my toilet and I took the part to the hardware store because I didn’t know what it was called. So, the store clerk was helping me and I couldn’t hold it back any longer and I let one pass. It was silent but deadly. After a couple minutes, the guy sniffed the pipe and said, “you must have a lot of sulfer in your water. I can smell it.” I made a hasty exit. I was SO embarrassed!!!!
