As I said in my last blog, I was invited to be a judge at the Family & Friends Cook-out at Suit, made possible by Soeng Ngie & Co and Suit NV. I got there around 5:30 pm and there was a crowd, but not that busy yet. There were at least 3 bouncy castles on one side for the kids, drinking stations, and at the other side Soeng Ngie had a widespread set-up. In between were the participants and other stand holders. So, there was quite some to see.
I thought, as the past experiences, I would also be part of the technical judge team. But no...this time I was part of the tasting committee. This is so cool!
At 6pm, all participants have to hand over their participating dish. There were 7 participants, so quite some to taste!
Just like before, I'll be giving my opinion about the dishes and at the end the top 3.
#1. Samenkomst
the meaning of this dish is 'get-together'.
The participant hollow the cassave and filled it with 3 different fillings. One was salt fish, the other shrimp, but about the last one I was not sure what it was.
Pro's:
- I give them an A for effort!! Hollowing out cassave is not easy to do and it's quite some work.
- they used the Her Heri concept and creatively create a different dish out of it
Cons:
- the cassave was still tough. It could've used some more cooking time, but I believe they were afraid it would fall apart. My advice in this would be to hollow it out and deep fry it. It would give the cassave a nice crispy yet soft texture and still keep the form.
#2 . Creamy wonton
The creator substituted the commonly known meat filling for a cream cheese-veggie filling.
Pro's:
- The crisp of the wonton wrapper and the creamy filling made a great combination.
- The flavor was really good.
Cons:
- The sauce was not a good match. They used the sweet chili sauce, which overpowered the flavor of the wonton. It would be a better choice to use the Turkish sauce participant #3 used in his dish.
- The presentation was so-so. The food would have popped more if they'd used a different background. What would've made it looked really nice, would've been a white-blue porcelain plate.
#3. Popcorn chicken
The chicken was coated in a tempura batter and deep fried.
Pro's:
- The Turkish sauce was awesome!! It came with two sauces, but the Turkish sauce surely left an impression. I hear the other judges say that it's sold in Soeng Ngie, so I should check that out.
Cons:
- I missed creativity in this one
- The plate used was brown. Since the popcorn chicken is yellow-brown-ish it did not really pop.
#4. Crunchy Monster
BBQ chicken 'patty' on a home-made sesame bun and baked potato strings. At least I had my burger.
Pro's:
- The presentation is appealing.
- The bun was fluffy and light. And since it's home-made they got extra points from me for that
Cons:
- The chicken was a bit burned, so it tasted a bit bitter.
- They were a bit heavy with the five spice. That flavor was a bit too much.
#5.Seafood pasta
Fish on a bed of creamy tagliatelle pasta. My apologies for the missing picture.
Pro's:
- I don't have any pros for this dish actually. It's not bad, but not that good either.
Cons:
- The flavor was blend
- It was not creative for me
#6. Orange Pineapple Fish
Rice with sweet and sour tempura-battered fish
Pro's:
- The presentation of this dish was the best. The white bowl with the green and yellow of the broccoli and fruits and the green dummy chopstick. And especially the dummy chopsticks were a great add-on. Anybody can use it!!
Cons:
- the broccoli was either overcooked or undercooked. Those that were cooked with the sauce were overcooked and the garnish was undercooked
- the fish was surrounded by a thick layer of tempura batter. It was a bit too much
#7. Hete Bamie
Translated from dutch this should be a Hot Javanese noodle.
Before I go to pros and cons, I'd like to mention my expectations. For one, I expected hot in temperature and hot in spiciness. And next to that, I was thinking they either went traditional with this one or totally different from it.
Pro's:
- there are no pro's for this one, but I'll give it that they substituted the chicken for chicken kidneys.
Cons:
- the presentation was bad!!! In the picture it was in a foam box, but we were told it was not even given that fancy when it was handed over.
- the kidney was tough and lacked taste
- the noodle was blend
- no pepper in the noodle and also none on the side
The top 3 dishes were finally:
1. creamy wonton -> Bits II Bytes
They received $1000,- prize money,their dish will be sold in Sha-gi's for a year and they get to cook their dish on the tv show: Soeng Ngie's Keukengeheimen
2. popcorn chicken -> Pink Events
3. Crunchy Monster -> Lounge One
Overall it was a great event! By the time the winners got announced, the place was packed!! Micle Fung gave a great fried rice demonstration. He really knows how to give out a show!
The nice thing about the organization is that all participants got their participating fee back.
The nicer thing is that the judges got red pockets from the organization!! I really like doing this and don't expect anything back, but it was really an awesome surprise. It really showed us the great appreciation from the organization!
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