The menu for that night was:
The first thing I received was the welcoming's cocktail. I noticed that mine looked different compared to the one of my dining partner. Mine was a nice Ying Yang of yellow and green and my dining partner's drink was layered.
The drink was a bit on the sour side and like my other experience, no one gave instructions to stir/mix the drink.
What I do like about the idea is the use of Surinamese fruits in this one. It's made with Katahar and guava as the main ingredients.
In the flyer, there was mentioning of a surprise. So instead of a 3-course dinner, we received an amuse with it.
From the information I got, this was from the host restaurant. A Bara and a deep-fried fish ball. I miss the fluffiness of the Bara and however for me the chutney salsa was not hot, I believe it should be given as a choice to the guest if he/she would like to spice it up.
The appetizer was the trio chicken.
The first chicken was a piece of chicken breast with the corn salsa. The chicken was blend and the corn was still hard!!
The second chicken was the omelet. Yeah...eggs sort of are un-hatched chickens.
And the third chicken is probably the ones in the ragout. The ragout had a very nice flavor and creamy texture.
The chefs explained that they received fresh corns and it didn't get soft after hours of cooking. After some research on the internet, I came across some similar issues, but they mentioned two reasons why corn might be rubbery and hard:
- overcooked
- salt
The entrée is brisket with loofah squash and potato rosti.
The brisket was soft, but not as soft as I expected it should be. It has an ok flavor, but nothing fancy and not impressive.
The loofah squash had the hard edges and a soft center.
The green split pea puree had a nice flavor, but very unfortunate to still have some uncooked peas in it.
My potato rosti was burned and was very greasy.
My advice for this dish would be:
1. peel the edges of the loofah squash.
2. the potato rosti soaked up so much oil. It could be that the oil was maybe not hot enough. And after deep-frying, place it on paper towels to soak up the excessive oil. And it goes without saying that someone should really pay attention while deep-frying it.
The dessert is coconut flan.
The flan is soft and creamy and is well-flavored. Not too sweet.
The flan has pieces of coconut in it, which adds texture to the dessert. For me, the pieces are still a bit too big. I understand that the chef would like to really bring out the coconut in the flan, but I would prefer coconut shreds in it.
However I do love dark chocolate, but I believe a caramel garnish would've been more suitable.
Compared with my previous SCA fundraising dinner @Marriott, I am quite disappointed with this experience. Probably the mystery baskets are getting tougher nearing the competition, but that should be expected by the chefs.
During these coming 2 months before the competition, I expect the chefs to be training themselves with all kinds of unexpected ingredients. For example, watch Chopped and use the ingredients to create a dish. Ingredients that need a longer cooking time, browse the internet for solutions to tenderize or ways to speed-up the process.
In Dutch there is a saying" goed begonnen is half gewonnen", which means if you are prepared and have a good start, you have won half the battle already.
I don't hope my post will come over as a discouragement or offensive, since I do support the chefs in this upcoming challenge. I hope this will be an eye-opener and a wake- up call that everyone should be on their A-game towards the Taste of the Caribbean Competition.
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