Have you ever met a brussoccogus?  Welcome to the BC Healthy Chef Competition 2011!   Meet Freggie, part brussel sprout, part broccoli, and part asparagus with a few other fruits and veg thrown in for good measure.  Yessirree, he’s a power-food of epic proportions.  I love it.  Him?  Her?  Erm… it.

What a deliciously healthy event.  This competition took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on March 16th and it was a graaand affair.   There was live jazz, ladies in dazzling Vegas-style outfits, balloons, prizes, Mounties, an impressive silent auction, and liquid samples to enjoy.  And that’s what I encountered just in my first few steps into the ballroom!    Oh, and Freggie, of course.

When I arrived, the stars of the event (the ten culinary teams from local restaurants, schools and hotels) were busy completing the last of their plates and a river of guests was already streaming around the tables.  Flashes flashed, mouths watered and the judges (a panel of industry professionals) tasted.  What were they looking for?  Flavour.  Freshness of the fruit and vegetables.  Visual appeal.   

This event, put on by The BCMPA and the British Columbia Chef’s Association (BCCA), challenges teams to incorporate a cornucopia of fresh fruit and vegetables in every course and promotes the use of fresh fruit and vegetables in every meal.  A fine and noble cause, I’d say.  (As a matter of fact, one of my New Years resolutions is to eat more of the healthy stuff and apparently I’m doing it in style!)  The result was an elaborate, delicious and decadent-feeling yet (mostly) good-for-you array of dishes that made for an excellent dinner and lively table talk. 

Take a look at the photos and enjoy!

Competitors included:

• Chinese Canadian Chef Association – Best Table Showcase and People’s Choice Award
• Delizia Fusion Cuisine
• Dynasty Seafood Restaurant
• Executive Hotels & Resorts
• Goldfish Pacific Kitchen – Best Dessert
• River Rock Casino Resort – Healthy Plate Award
• The Hyatt Regency Vancouver – Best Entree
• The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Vancouver
• The Well Restaurant
• Vancouver Community College

• Laphroaig 10yr (46% vol)

• Finlaggan Old Reserve

• Tantallan 10yr  old

• Finlaggan Cask

• Caol Ila 29 year old scotch – $325 a bottle!

And of course which one was my favourite?  Yeah, it was the $325 one.  Honestly, I don’t consider myself to have “expensive” taste but there is a definite reason why a bottle costs that much.  It was soooo smooth and the flavours… oh man, I’m smacking my lips and inhaling as if I could smell and taste it again right now.  I wish.

Caol Ila Single Malt Scotch- 29 yr old (46% vol)

Nose – Light Light and grassy, then some Abroath smoke and citrus.  Lightly perfumed (sage) with a vanilla lift, very subtle sweet smoke.  Good balance and intensity.

Taste – The sweetness continues.  Light fruits, some creaminess and buttery character, but fairly woody with a balance of sweet, spice and smoke.

Finish – dry, extremely long lasting smooth finish; filled with all the subtle characteristics first detected in the nose

It was paired with:

Amano Madagascar Chocolate – 70% Single Origin

Gold award winning chocolate bar by Amano

Created from Criollo coacoa beans from the Sambirano Valley, Madagascar.  A light chocolate flavour with intense flavour notes of citrus and raspberry

* Thank you to whoever took most of the people shots in this album (identified without black border).  I slotted them in so that you could get an overall feel for the event as most of my pics were close-ups.  

** I’m in the midst of trying to figure out lighting and it would seem that lighting is everything.  Or it definitely makes a huge difference.  It’s a work in progress but I’m having fun with it.

October 15 – November 10, 2010

I attended Panache, the grand opening night.  It (and I) was full of chocolate and port and chocolate and vodka and chocolate and churros and chocolate … well, you get the idea.  It was so so good.

Stay tuned for pics from the Chocolate and Scotch Pairing Seminar.

Heh, who knew?

As one of the most (how should I put this) “non-east indian” east indians ever, I feel somewhat distant from my east indian roots. Let me explain.  I am a first-generation Philipino-East Indian-Canadian who knows only English because that was the only common language between my parents.  Oh sure I know a few words of Tagalog and Punjabi here and there but the rest of it is Greek to me.  With my multilingual family background I just feel a little … unilingual (*shrugs).  Well, quite happily, the food in my family was always true to both backgrounds in the best ways but I didn’t really get serious about cooking until recently (the past few years – and eons after I had moved out of my parents place.)

Anyways, today I made raita, which is a delicious yoghurt-based, cooling condiment bursting with cilantro, refreshing cucumber, and tomato accents and great for dipping.  Use samosas, lamb, all sorts of yummy things to dip.  I am (and my dad would be)  extremely proud.

Key to this narrative is that one of the most delicious ingredients involved is cumin.  Sooo good.  I toasted it first (which causes the flavours to really open up and make my tasetebuds do the happy dance.)  The next step is to rub the toasted seeds vigorously between your palms so that it grinds to a dust and blends well throughout the whole mixture.  The result is a multilayered taste experience… first the tangy sourness of the yogurt hits the sides of your tongue and then the crispness of the tiny vegetable bits crunch between your teeth and theeeen the cumin hits with a warm sort of surprise over your whole palette.  Cumin is key.  I highly recommend making a batch of raita and keeping it in your fridge for the oppotune moments.

The sidebar is that (and I tell you this at the risk of totally turning you off this great spice) the cumin seeds seem to have reacted with my body chemistry and now my palms sort of smell like feet.  Weird!  How could something so yummy make me smell so funky?  S’ok though.   It’s temporary and somehow it’s just not the same if you use a spice grinder… the warmth of your palms continues to release those spicy aromas and everyone has a different body chemistry.  Your hands may very well come out of it just smelling plain old tasty.  

In any case, I highly recommend this scrumptious dip.  Give it a try.  I apologize I don’t have measurements for you… it’s cooking al la “my mom’s style” but you just need to throw in what you feel is right.  The yoghurt is the main thing.  The rest of the ingredients are the accents.  Aaaand go.

RAITA:  

Equipment – mixing bowl, wooden spoon (doesn’t really need to be wooden I suppose but they’re my favourite), cutting board, knife, small frying/saute pan

Ingredients –  plain yoghurt, red onion, tomato, cucumber, cilantro, salt, cumin seeds, water

Procedure – Brunoise (very small dice) your red onion, cucumber and tomato.  Give the cilantro a fine chop.  Put the yoghurt in the mixing bowl.  Mix in all the vegetables.  Heat your pan up on the stove and when it’s nice n’hot throw in the cumin seeds and toast.  Take the pan off the heat and crush the seeds between your palms into the yoghurt mixture.  They won’t all crush completely but don’t worry about that.  Mix mix mix.  Salt to taste.  Add a little water to smooth out the texture (so that it’s not really lumpy)  Mix.  Et voila!  Enjoy.

Well, here I am… blogging.  Fancy that!  

A little bit about me…I am aaall about food and photography.  When I was accepted to culinary school last year I (first did the hardest happy dance ever) immediately went out and bought my knife kit AND a badass point and shoot camera on the same day.  Learning to cook damn good food is the goal but I’m a very visual learner and there’s no time to take notes in the kitchen so ‘snap!’  I take photos and go back to make notes on them later.  Of course the pics are taken on the fly so tons of them are blurry but they serve my purpose.  My little camera has been through pretty much everything except for being completely submerged in liquid.  It’s been held inches from fire, covered in flour, smeared with cooking oil, lost and the found months later under a chair on an outdoor balcony (it had survived two rainy autumn months out there and STILL works).  

Just one month ago I completed the culinary program and I photojournaled the whole thing.  What a ride!  It was definitely one of the best years of my life and I’m currently in the process of compiling my favourite pics.  So stand by for those in the near future.  

In the meantime there are all sorts of other culinary/social/musical events and activities in my life.  Please feel free to browse, comment, ask questions etc.  Enjoy!