Looks like my postings have become more and more sporadic. I do apologize. So, anyways... last night I had special dinner with my fraternity. You ask, it's just dinner, what is so special? Simply put, a "special dinner" is prepared by a chef solely devoted to your group's event, which makes for good quality control, and typically, better food than the dining hall, but many steps below the food you might find at Bouchon.
Let's run through some of the food we had. For hors d'oeuvres, we had a wonderful concoction of spinach + goat cheese on a filo pastry, some baked bread with roasted garlic, plus your typical fruits and nuts. Our salad was made up of sliced mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, and a piece of fresh basil. A boring dish, to say the least. I was eagerly anticipating the New York strip steaks and the grilled salmon with mango salsa, only to find out that the former was way too overcooked. Which chef doesn't know that in order to be able to properly appreciate the flavor in the meat, it has to be done medium, even medium rare? A well-done steak is too dry and tastes like cardboard. As for the salmon, I'd give it 6/10 points because I love fish, but seriously, it was like it'd been taken out into the burning sun and dried to a crisp. Still, the food was admittedly better than what we get in the dining halls usually. The high point of the night was the chocolate dipped strawberries plus a vanilla ice cream pastry. Sue me having a sweet tooth.
NY strip steak, grilled salmon w/ mango salsa, mixed vegetables and red potatoes
Chocolate dipped strawberries w/ vanilla ice creamOn a related note, I was reading a brief released by Sodexho, a foodservice provider to over 600 campuses in the United States and Canada, which talked about college students' taste buds. Apparently, we're all well-traveled (cough), celebrity-chef exposed (Rachael Ray, really?), and green-minded (definitely) students.
Sodexho thinks that 20 years ago, people our age liked to eat chicken nuggets, chicken chop suey, Spanish beef and rice, and Algerian lamb stew, to name a few of their observations. In 2009, we like locally-grown vegetables, crispy garlic-ginger chicken wings, Vietnamese Pho, and Mac 'n Cheese, in addition to other comfort foods. How insightful.
Read the brief and let me know what you think. Thanks for checking in and I hope to see you again soon.
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4 comments:
huh. i wonder whether the "made to order" thing is more of a psychological "this food must be better" trigger. is it really that much better? i suppose.
nice fine.
i love chicken tetrazini!!!
Judging by omelets I find in Lag, the "made-to-order" concept really works. Stern? Not so much.
I totally identify with your comment on overcooked meat, but I'll admit that I'm often timid when it comes to ordering steak on the rare side. Once, I even asked the waiter: "If I get it medium, there wont be, like, blood on it, right?"
was there the waffles? no dinner good w/out the waffles
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