Food Challenge

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Hope you guys managed to stay DRY and WARM in the cold wind and rain. [=

So I know I'm a little late with this post, but I just wanted to congratulate everyone for working so hard on the food challenge. We know we did our best, and that's all that matters. Besides, we had fun that night, haha. Although we lost, we all know that we deserved to win as well. We all tried our best, researching and concocting all sort of ideas for our dishes... and on top of that, we spent HOURS cooking the chicken and marinating the shrimp for the salad and spring rolls, and good thing we did because they came out fabulous! =D

Anyway, I honestly felt like some of the judges were unfair when it came to the judging because they didn't really ASK what they didn't understand about the dishes. Yes, there are shrimp in spring rolls... but not garlic butter shrimp that's been marinated for 2 hours, and that's how the dish was original. Like Ryan said, it really was like having shrimp scampi in a rice paper. The lemon grass chicken salad was different because it was spicy chicken rather than just grilled chicken. In a sense, it was like we flipped our dishes - the salad was the American dish with the Vietnamese twist, and the spring roll was a Vietnamese dish with an American twist. I also felt like some of the judges were a little bias, and a little more critical on us than our competitors, and I know my team agrees with me when I say that.

When some of the judges said our dishes were "unoriginal", I feel like they didn't take the time to really taste the differences in the dishes, particularly with the spring rolls. The lemon garlic butter sauce drizzled on the plate was what really brought the spring roll dish together, so if the judges didn't eat the spring roll with the sauce, the full effect wasn't there, and thus, caused our dish to fall flat when it clearly shouldn't have. I read our competitors blog [210's Finest], and I do have to agree with Jiawei when he said the judges need to realize that we're all extremely busy outside of this class, and that all the time we spent late into the night cooking wasn't something easy to do. We all work, and we all have other classes that we need to study for, but we invest a great deal of time into this. I mean, I spent time at work researching recipes and trying to combine two dishes so that it would taste good and still fulfill all of the guidelines presented to us. I also agree with him when he says that this competition did bring out the best of both teams because it's evident that both teams put a lot of time and effort into their dishes and presentations.

Although we were extremely upset that we lost, we know we worked our asses off and that our food was delicious. [= And, I do congratulate 210's finest for winning - it was a close competition, but don't get cocky because we only lost by 2 points. You guys got lucky! Haha. Anyway, I included the 2 recipes for the lemongrass chicken and the garlic shrimp if you guys want to attempt making it on your own. Add and take out spices and seasoning if you'd like - we did. We adjusted it to fit our taste buds. [=

--Kim [=

PS: Donna - can you post up the pictures from that night? Thanks hun. =D

Chicken in Lemon Grass and Chili (Gà xào xã ớt)
Ingredients:
3 lb chicken
1 large onion
Salt to taste
1 tbs ground chillies
1 tbs granulated sugar
1 cup water
4 garlic cloves
3 tbs vegetable oil
2 tbs minched lemon grass
4 tbs Nuoc Mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)
1 tbs caramel sauce
Directions: Rinse chicken and dry well. Cut into small pieces. Peel garlic and slice finely. Cut onion into halves lengthwise and then cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch strips. Heat oil in large frying pan over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt, garlic and onion. Fry over medium heat until onion becomes translucent. Add lemon grass and chili. Fry 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant. Add chicken and cook until lightly browned. Add fish sauce, sugar and caramel sauce, mixing well . Add 1 cup water and cook 45 minutes or until chicken is tender . Stir occasionally and add more water if necessary. Serve hot with caramel sauce.

To prepare caramel sauce: Mix 1/2 c sugar with 4 tablespoons of water in heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and let boil until mixture changes color. Turn heat down to low and heat until brown. Add 1/2 cup water to mixture. Remove from heat.

GARLIC BUTTER SHRIMP
Ingredients:
· 2 pounds jumbo shrimps, shelled and deveined, tail left on
· 1 large clove garlic, crushed
· salt
· juice of 1 lime or lemon
· 1/3 cup olive oil
· garlic butter, below
Preparation:
Use scissors to remove shells without disturbing tails. In a non-reactive bowl, combine crushed garlic, salt, lime juice, and olive oil. Put shrimp in bowl; stir to coat well. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Thread shrimp onto skewers and grill 5 to 6 inches from coals for about 12 to 15 minutes, turning frequently. Remove tails if cooking under broiler.

Garlic Butter for Dipping
· 1/2 cup butter
· 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
· 1 tablespoon lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
· 1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
· 1 large garlic clove, crushed
· salt
In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add remaining ingredients; heat for 1 minute. Serve with shrimp or other seafood.