Ingredients for a great Christmas

First of all, I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas day the way they wanted to be.
Next, I'd like to apologize for my moodiness in my last blog. I think after yesterday, I finally get the important ingredients for a great Christmas: good food, good alcohol and good company. Whether it's family, friends or total strangers, anybody could be good company at Christmas day. For starters, you need to be good company first.

So yesterday, we went for Christmas brunch at Courtyard by Marriott. It started a bit off since they wanted to put us on a table for two next to the buffet table, so we could literally feel everyone passing us by in the queue for the buffet table. After some complaints and suggestions, we were finally put on another table.

The restaurant was full, there were two ladies singing Christmas carols and the decoration was not too much. The ambiance was great! However the ladies are great singers, but it was a bit too loud for such an occasion I believe. Brunches are for friends and families to catch up, so a lot of talking and preferably not yelling.

Most people love brunches since it's all you can eat in a time frame. At the same time, there are people who would like to avoid it since every time they come from a brunch, they feel so full as if they're going to explode. For those who never been to a brunch, you might get a bit overexcited! But this is what I mostly do:

- hardly any starch: so no rice, no potatoes, no pasta. They swell up in  your belly.
- what I've learned is that mostly the goodies are at the end of the buffet line
- you can go more than once, so don't pile your plate. Take a little from everything that seems delicious and after the first run, you'll know what else you'd like to have more of
- have several courses: there is the buffet line, the salad bar and the dessert corner. Give yourself time to wander around the tables, even if it's only to get a chocolate-dipped marshmallow.
- and very importantly: wear something comfortable. Eventually you might get a bite too much and if you were wearing a tight skirt or dress, it might feel extra horrible to be that full.
- sin for a day: if you're on a diet, don't go to brunches. 

What I liked about the brunch at Marriott:
- the attentive waitress. I didn't pay attention to her name, but she's the skinny, Javanese lady. It seemed that she's always looking our way whenever we needed something.
- the beef in creamy sauce. The texture was so soft and delicious. I can go for some more now....
- the set up: different sections creates space to walk in and time for the food to digest (even if it's a little bit) 
- and ....last but not least, the marshmallows! I think somewhere deep down, the little kid in me never had enough marshmallows.

However they were doing a great job, but there are some improvement points:
- the carving guys need some more training in carving the turkey and ham. The ham was still ok, but guys, the turkey is already dead, you don't need to kill it once more. I know it's not easy, so for those who can use some pointers, here is a step by step instruction with photos of how to carve turkey:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/how-to-carve-a-turkey-thanksgiving-steps-photos_n_784258.html

- the employee standing near the buffet tables. I believe he's the banquet captain or something. I'm not sure if he's lacking to see that some chafing dishes needed to be refilled or that the food was just not ready yet. It looked kinda empty at some point.

All in all, I had a great experience at Courtyard by Marriott. It seems a bit pricey, since it's $35,- per person, but it's really worth it. No fuss, no headache about what to cook, just relax and enjoy the food, the drinks and company. 

The meaning of Christmas

It's one day before Christmas and I'm not feeling any Christmas spirit. Year after year, I'm encountering the same issue. I feel less and less Christmas cheer. So, what's the meaning of Christmas actually?

 

In movies, it is shown the miracles and magic of Christmas, where families go through obstacles, through snowstorms to be home with Christmas. In Suriname, we don't have snow, but we have queues and queues of cars and grumpy people on the roads. It seems like a virus every December. I will call it the 'street syndrome'. Just like whenever it rains, every car in the city seems to be on the roads....the same thing with December. But it's just a worsened type of the virus, where some people become douchebags and some too afraid to drive. For the second group, I would recommend for them not to. If you're too afraid to drive and constantly driving with the feeling you might eventually hit or get hit, it will happen like you imagined it (law of attraction).

But let's get back to the main question! What is Christmas? Is it the presents that you get to open Christmas morning, the Christmas decorations you put up or is it the many Christmas dinners you'll have to work off in January? For me, every time Christmas is nearing, I'm asking myself the same question. It is so frustrating not to know how to get the Christmas spirit. It's not like there is a button I can push and then magically the spirit is on. Won't that be a relieve?

I still haven't got a solution for this, but I have a Christmas brunch with my love one tomorrow that I'm quite looking forward to. It is the season where everyone seems to feel some kind of obligation to be present at family brunches/dinners, but it will only be magical if you also feel to be there, not because you need to.

I hope this post did not made you all moody and stuff, but I really needed to get this out of my system.

So...whether you're choosing for party, family time or sleeping till noon, I hope you all enjoy this Christmas your way. At the end, I believe the Christmas spirit will be felt if you are in some way relaxed and content with whatever you're doing. The whole year, there were so many obligations done for others, why not choose for yourself this Christmas?

Burger Battle @ Bar Zuid

When I heard about this battle, I was wildly enthusiastic about it. What came to mind is lots of smoke, MEAT and all kinds of different variations of burgers.I already envisioned how I'll put my teeth into a juicy, fat burger with all the gooey goodness flowing out of it. Hmm,,,,the taste of bacon, the juicy, soft patty and the lighty toasted bun. Ugh....just could not wait to have it!!

But next to the burger, I was also anxious to see the location. I've heard so much about it, but just haven't had the opportunity to visit. Bar Zuid used to be a Dutch bar with many middle aged customers. Whenever I passed by, it never appealed to me as much. But now it made a total transformation. Its simple chic and outdoor appeal give it a relaxed feel to the environment. Maybe it was the music, maybe the ambiance or simply the great company, it gave me a pretty good first impression!

 

Ok, back to the burger battle!! It started at 4, so according to my calculation, I wanted to be there at 5. Not too early and not too late. But I quess sometimes, not everything goes according to plan, so I got there at around 6, which by the way seems to be the perfect time! There were 5 participants: 

The first one I tried was from PUUR. They used a very thick patty, with fried onions, bacon, cheese, lettuce and cucumber. Not all too creative, but loved the size of the patty on the grilled bun. The taste is a bit too salty for me. And it was expected with the many salty ingredients: cheese and bacon.

The second one I tried was the idea of Alan Tijseling and Christiaan Smith under the name 'Rockin' Republic.




They went into the competition with the Charcoal Grilled Swiss Perfection. This is a burger made with chocolate!! Who doesn't love chocolate? And the grilled toast was also new to me. This burger was more sweet than salty. Instead of the standard greens, he used beansprouts and tajerblad ( my apologies, I really don't know what it's called in English). The beansprouts were a good idea, but not the tajerblad especially not if it's raw. I could still taste the green, uncooked taste of veggie. It taste like when you cook veggies, but didn't give it enough time to cook. But one of my friends loved the sweet of the chocolate in the burger.

And I had to make a final choice. Normally I only eat ONE burger and I'm already stuffed. However I only had to eat half of every burger, but one more half was the limit! So my choice went to Food Therapy. I heard so much great things about food therapy, so my expectations were pretty high.
 

 Their approach to this competition is to substitute the standard ingredients with something else. Patty is standard, the tomato is standard, but they used spinach instead of lettuce, a different kind of bun: the mini ciabatta instead of the sesame bun. My very first bite was not pleasant. The crust was hard instead of crispy and my first bite didn't have any ingredients. And maybe because I was already full, but it did not impress me much. The patty had the right amount of salt and flavor, but the other ingredients were a bit plain.

And unfortunately, I could not taste the other burgers anymore, but here are the pictures made possible by Victuals ( respectively Bar Zuid and Pane & Pasta):

   
- And the winner of this competition: Umar Nazier of Bar Zuid.

I did not taste it, but heard many great things about it already. The reason I did not choose this one was because I know I can always go back any Friday or Sunday to taste it. Also interested in the winning burger, check it out here:

Moksi Aleisi Strey 2!

 

 

It was finally here!! I am not only talking about the 2nd Moksi Aleisi Strey, but also a step forward in my food critic wanna-be career. However it was on such a short notice, but I was honored to be asked by Micheal Hermelijn to be part of the technical judge team for the Moksi Aleisi Strey. For those of you, who don't know the dish, I'd recommend you to read my post from last  year first:

http://atastybit.blogspot.com/2012/11/moksi-alesi-strey.html

The day before the event, I was kinda excited and having second thoughts at the same time. What's the job of a technical judge??? (yeah, I walked with the crew last year, but still...this time I am really part of it!!). Is there something I should prepare? Am I strict enough to be a judge? I even googled if there were any advice on this subject, but unfortunately couldn't find any. So I just went with my common sense and my passion for food into the competition scene with my assistant (just kidding, it was my friend Stephanie who loves to make pictures) under the blasting sun.

Since I was part of the technical judge, my blog this year will be somewhat different. I still won't be mentioned most of the participants , but whoever did go to the event will know immediately which group is which. However the technical judge does not judge the taste, but we were allowed to taste it too, so here also my own opinion about the moksi aleisi's. There were 6 competing groups:

 Group 1
A group consisting of youngsters, who are very energetic and however amateurs, but still possess great skills. They were actually from all the amateurs, the only ones working with chef knifes. Their approach was very professional, but what amazed me the most is the spark in their eyes when they talked to me about their dish.


The decoration of their stand was simple, but the two centerpieces gave the whole stand a special touch. 

Their approach was to mix three different kinds of moksi aleisi's together, also called Moxi Moksi Aleisi. It is made with 3 different kinds of beans ( djarpesi, sebijari & sperzie bonen) and 3 different kinds of meat: shrimp, salt meat and chicken.

Unfortunately, their moksi aleisi did not taste remarkable and even tasted a bit burned.

Group 2
This group has a big advantage in that it consisted of chef/cooks, who were already working for a restaurant outlet. They were very resourceful and neat and set up the place professionally, but which is expected of such a group.They decorated their stand with many Srefidensi (independence day was the very next day) accents, but the way it was placed looked a bit chaotic.

Their competition dish is the Obe-batjauw-pinda-moksi- aleisi, (Obe-Bacalao- Peanuts- Moksi Aleisi) also known as a type of Anitri Beri.         Anitri Beri is rice mixed with bacalao, onion, tomato and pepper. The meaning of the name is literally 'funeral of hernhutter'. A bit cruel if you ask me, but hey, the name's got a nice ring to it. Obe is a black/orange fruit, which is mostly used to produce oil.

This is the only moksi aleisi that I could smell from a distance. I did not need to stand next to it to smell the heavenly smell of the bacalao. The rice got a very nice yellow color and the fresh wild thyme gave a nice contrast to it all.

And since it smelled so great, I couldn't wait to taste it. It tasted as good as I expected it should be. One thing that they could improve was the peanuts in it. It could use a longer cooking time.

Group 3
This group was very ballsy!! Sorry for my french, but Surinamese people are known for their affection for meat. However the group of vegetarians is slowly growing, but making a vegetarian moksi aleisi was really a gutsy move!

What was most remarkable of this group was how neat they worked. I mean, let's face it, whenever I cook, how much I try to keep it clean, but I'll have maybe the spices on the table, which is most likely not in line or so, but NO...they were so neat I even wondered if they were cooking.

Their vegetarian moksi aleisi is made with vegetarian bacon and tofu. They even add a vegetarian fish ball as part of the dish.

Their stand was neatly decorated, but a bit too plain for my taste.

Probably you'd think I'd be very biased, since I'm a meatatarian, but I tried hard to taste it as neutral as possible. It could use a bit more flavor for me and I don't know if it was in my head, but both the veggie bacon and the fish ball tasted artificial. (Yeah, maybe still a bit biased?) And sorry to say this, nothing beats the real bacon!!


Group 4
The perception I got from this group is that it's a group of people supposedly going out of town, but had to stay in town for this competition. So since they could not go to chillax, they brought the chillaxing to domineestraat. A very loose and relaxed group, with 2-3 of them in charge of the cooking and some of them just sitting there and not even caring to talk to anyone about what they are cooking. But probably the main reason for that was because only several knew what dish was going to be served.

Maybe a bit rude, but the group made me think of what people say " je hebt werkpaarden en sierpaarden" meaning that in a group you will always have persons working their ass off and persons, who will only be there just to be there and look good.

The only thing that they added to their stand was banners of the company they work for and some office plants.


Their special touches to their dish was the fachong pepper and the stuffed wings. They made two different kinds:
- Godo Godo-> made with sebijari, mixed meat and of course the stuffed wing and fachong pepper
- Ala kondre -> made with agu tere (pig's tail), smoked chicken and wurst and no beans/peas in it.

Their rice was very mushy, but taste was not bad. I expected more heat from their fachong pepper, which was more sweet than spicy.

Group 5
This group have one big strong point and that is their cook. She knows so much about Srefidensi and Moksi aleisi that I believe that some visitors only come for her knowledge and stories. And the most important thing is, she's willing to share her knowledge about these 2 subjects. She gave me two advices for cooking Moksi Aleisi. One is have a cloth covering the lid of your pan/pot. Another thing I've learned from her is that if you want your moksi aleisi not be so mushy, put a plastic bag in the rice and the rice will slowly but surely dry up. It sounded so strange to me. I mean...is there a scientific explanation to it? But next to her, there was also another group that used this method, so probably something to research later? The only thing I would like to recommend is to use a new (out of the package) plastic bag.


Her stand was decorated with all kinds of Srefidensi accents and many items from back in the days. It was nice to see those items, but all added up made the stand look cluttery.


This group made 3 different kinds of moksi aleisi. The most remarkable one was the one with the botro pesi (butter peas). The way the peas look made me think of soybean, but unfortunately was not cooked long enough to be soft as butter. The moksi aleisi tasted good, but did not leave a lasting impression.

Group 6
This group had the biggest stand, but the size was because this group consisted of both promo team and competition team. Only 1/3 of the stand members were in charge of the competition dish and all the others focus on their promo items.


The main set-up was also focused on promoting their company's products and not on the competition. The cook was giving his utmost, but it kinda felt as if he was left alone with this task. He did have 1-2 helpers to assist him with keeping the area clean and some cutting and cleaning.

His dish was the Masoes/ Black-eye pesi moksi aleisi. The most appealing of this dish was the way he tried to make a ying yang from these two different types of moksi aleisi. His strength lies in plating the dish.

This dish was kinda mushy, but actually tasted good, but a bit boring. His side dish made with tofu and bean sprouts was very delicious. They had a great chance to become prizewinners, but unfortunately some of the judges tasted uncooked rice in it.

The winner of the best moksi aleisi was the group of Torarica and for those of you who does not know it yet, they were group 2 in my blog. They did indeed win it fair and square. The only thing they'd need to improve is their plating creativity.


If I have to evaluate this event, I have to say that it went way better than last year. Some of the improvements:
- all the garbage bins near that area were empty
- the portable sinks were a great help to the participants. It looked way better than last year, where participants had to wash their stuff next to their stand
- all participants worked pretty much to hygienic standards. However some are still stubborn about putting on gloves before cutting their ingredients.

While talking to some visitors, there were some suggestions for the organization:
- adding a bigi sma ( mostly an old lady, who knows a lot about the dish) to the jury
- have a teach-in with the participants. Some mentioned that a bean/peas type is part of a Moksi Aleisi

My own  suggestion is to give both the participants and the visitors a time, when they can sell/buy their Moksi Aleisi. I saw enthusiastic people around 10:30 already looking for moksi aleisi when the time it's supposed to be ready is around 1:00 pm. At the end, I saw them leaving just before 1:00pm with several meals from Popeyes.

If I have to evaluate being part of the technical judge crew, I'm glad I was 'the assistant' of Mr. Hermelijn. I can learn so much from him about cooking, the ingredients and the several aspects to look at. It was so much fun to see the different groups, having their own approach and probably their own reason for taking part in this competition. For whatever reason it might be, I am proud of this year's participants. They made it hard for the technical judges to find errors.

** The images for this blog were made possible by Victuals Magazine and Stephanie Boldewijn **
For more images, please visit https://www.facebook.com/Victuals.Magazine

Cooking like a professional chef at SHTTC

For those of you who are not aware of its existence yet, SHTTC stands for the foundation Suriname Hospitality and Tourism Training Centre. Their main purpose is to provide professional guidance and training to people in the tourism and hospitality industry. If you want to know more about this foundation, check them out at their website: http://sshttc.org/nl/

When I received an invitation from Micheal Hermelijn, the teacher of the practical class of the chef's training course, I could not wait for the class to begin. However it was kinda of a hassle to be there on time (4pm), but for this time attending the class late was unavoidable since I get off work at 3.30 the earliest. When I finally arrived, I was already half an hour late.

I was totally astonished how professionally the room was put together. The room is very spacy and all equipment was made of stainless steel and I counted 4 complete kitchen stations. Each station includes a range with 4 stovetops, an oven, a shared grill top and flat top, a shared deep fryer; all under an extractor hood and a counter with a commercial washbasin. I am in love with the set up.

So when I walked in fashionably late, everybody was already busy prepping the 3-course meal that they need to have finished at the end of the class. The class was divided into groups of 3-4 and I was put into one of the groups. The first course they prepped was the caramel vanilla pudding and there were really many restrictions: no garde beater, no touching the food with your hands, only with tools, no slouching at the counter, chef's jacket and hair cap is a must.




For someone like me, who is mostly used to home cooking, where everything is allowed, it was a totally different experience.
The next step was the appetizer: Thai chicken rice noodle soup with chicken quenelles

"Quenelle

A quenelle is a mixture of creamed fish, chicken, or meat, sometimes combined with breadcrumbs, with a light egg binding. It is usually poached. Wikipedia"

It always looked so much fun and easy to do when watching chefs on TV making the quenelles, but in reality, it was not easy at all. I felt so clumsy when I gave it a try. The chicken quenelles are seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper and fish sauce.
The chicken broth was prepared by first blanching the chicken and then putting it in water to get a clear broth.

And the most important meal of the course if most definitely the entrée: rice with grilled fish and mango sauce.


The mango sauce is prepared with fresh mango's, fresh pepper, djira and some mango juice.

However every group received the same menu and instructions, but you see a different presentation with every menu item. Some were even using a technique that they just learned from a guest lecturer last week. The best part!!? I'm part of the taste committee, yay!

Except for one failed pudding, all items were made remarkably well. Some better than others, but it was obvious everyone gave an extra effort to think about the final presentation of their creation. Whether it's a mango rose on the rice or a cherry on top of the pudding, they thought it up themselves.

It was really like a peak into a commercial kitchen, where people are busy preparing the food to be served. All aroma's, the smoke coming from the grilled fish, the students giving their utmost to present a good product. I know that most people despise working in the kitchen, but I believe that you need to have a heart for it. If you don't love the smoke, hate it when YOU smell like food, then the kitchen is not a workplace for you. For lovers, it's a heavenly place to be in, for others, it's a hell, where you will need to cope with the heat and the grease.

 

But if you're really serious about learning the knicks and knacks of cooking like a professional chef, please check out more information about the 15 month course here:

http://sshttc.org/nl/index.php/2012-04-26-01-13-48/cook-training

 

 

Amazon Flavors 2013

After last year's Amazon flavors, I could not wait for this year's. For those of you who haven't read it yet. Here are the pages:
http://atastybit.blogspot.com/2012/11/amazon-flavors-culinary-weekend-to.html
http://atastybit.blogspot.com/2012/11/amazon-flavors-culinary-weekend-to_22.html

Last year I had so many information that I wanted to share with my readers, that I could not do it in one single blog. I had to divide into two sections, so that I could give my readers a thorough walk-through of my experience. This year....it was kinda different!

The first remarkable thing about this year is the media exposure of this event. It could be because I'm so isolated from media outlets, but I hardly notice anything that had to do with Amazon Flavors. Just to give you a head's up, my only media outlet is Facebook or e-mail. And I haven't noticed any postings or whatsoever on Facebook: the media when it comes to reaching everyone on a budget.

It is that I got an invitation from my friend, Jill-Joy Landburg, again that I knew that it was held in the weekend 1-3 November.  But I thought, it has to be because I was so busy with work that I might have missed the media coverage. I remember that last year they had a breakdown of all the chefs, who were gonna participate in the Chef's competition. I'm not sure if they did that this year.
But no sweat, I was psyched to participate in the program of the day:

I probably missed the first one about the food trends, since I got there when Ms. Liz started talking about meat. It was really educational for me and these are some of the tips:
- never rinse American beef (actually all kinds of beef, but since she was from America). Just dab   
  with a napkin or so to dab the juices, but never rinse it with lemon/vinegar water. Rinsing makes the
  meat lose its natural juices.
- never press the meat or poke the meat after searing it. Searing the meat creates a grilled film
  over the meat, which keeps the natural juices inside. If you're gonna poke or press the meat after it,
  it will cause the meat to lose its natural juices.
- the more marble, the more done you can cook the beef that's still tender
- 14-18 days aged meat is more tender than fresh meat.
- when it comes to pork, the whiter the meat, the tougher the meat.
- when cutting beef, cut across the grain and not with the grain.

And the best thing about the workshop is the tasting of the different pieces of meat: the difference between choice and select meat, along and across the grain, pork well done vs. pork done the right way. It was a real eye-opener how a simple thing as cutting it differently can affect the texture of your meat.

Chef Gerrit Greveling was accompanied by the MC Ramon Beuk. The MC is the best thing the organization did this year!! He knew a lot about food and has the talent to keep the audience amused. Chef Gerrit is a Michelin Star Master Chef. For this event, he specially prepared an earthy dish with potatoes, cooking cream and truffles. I never had truffles, but I pretty much like its earthiness. And I don't expect anything less from a Michelin Star chef.

Thereafter, we got to taste some pastries from Chef Monti. The whole intention of his workshop is to promote PreGel, an instant product to make pastries within minutes. For more information, please check this site: http://www.pregelamerica.com

I don't know if it has to do with the product or the constant flow of pastries one after another, I got a bit overwhelmed with the taste of PreGel. Call me old fashion, but I like the pastries made from scratch. The pastries made with this product look really gorgeous, but for me it tasted a bit too sweet and I don't know if it's in my head, but it kinda tasted instant/artificial.

Starting at the pastry workshop, visitors are starting to become very chatty. Constantly the visitors needed to be shushed. This was really irritating. It is not only a nuisance for the rest of the visitors, but most of all, very disrespectful to the person giving the workshop.

For instance, during the workshop of Master Sommelier Noel. He seems like a very kind person with a soft voice. At some point, it seemed like he gave up trying to overpower the chattering of all the people, who got their glasses filled with wine. For a wine tasting, the pourers were very heavy-handed. And I gotta say, we got about 10 different kind of wines and unfortunately I was not amused with the line up of the wines. The two wines that did it for me were the Trapiche Merlot and Trapiche Syrah.

I gotta say, this year they really invited some impressive people over for the event:

- Chef Gerrit Greveling - A Michelin Star Master Chef
- Chef Monti- Pastry chef with 30 year's experience in Ritz Carlton
- Noel Van Wittenbergh- just recently awarded with the title 'Best Sommelier of the Netherlands'
- MC Ramon Beuk, who is known for his TV shows like 'back to my roti'

Overall, I have to say that this year's event did not meet my expectations. However the price of a day pass went from $100,- (including lunch) to SRD75,- ( about 1/3 of the price), the whole set up was a bit chaotic. Visitors don't need to sign up for any workshops/ seminars anymore, but just walk in at anytime they'd like. The group of visitors also seemed like a different group compared with last year. Last year, the visitors were eager to gain knowledge and this year's group seemed more interested in having fun and enjoying themselves than listening to anything the invited speakers had to say.

Next to that, the focus of such an event is supposed to be on the chef competition, but with all the seminars happening at the same time the competition lose its attention. I only went on Saturday, so I don't know if Sunday was better with the Iron chef battle.

A positive change in the program was the several food stands, providing lunch options. There was choice between Spice Quest (however I do believe that they were selling Dumpling's #1 menu items), Indian food (roti and snacks) and Creole ( every day a different menu).

But my compliments to the following participants, who highlighted Amazon Flavors :

- Ramon Beuk -> you contributed to a greater experience during the seminars and made many attempts to shush the crowd, while at the same time trying not to show your annoyance.

- Lavazza -> it really gave me a boost of energy whenever I was really in need of it. And I'm sure I was not the only one appreciating this.


- Jethro Wirht- one of our Surinamese culinary pride. I was not present during his battle, but he won the 3rd edition of the International Iron Chef battle of Amazon Flavors. With this victory, he did not only put himself into a higher level, but creates a role model for the Surinamese culinary world.