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 **
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