http://www.kulinaryashowdown.com/contestants.html
................................It's January 11, 2012 and in 10 days, I will be competing at the 2nd Kulinarya Final Round......................What am I going to do????? Hell if I know! Ha Ha Ha Ha! Today, I was asked to submit my recipes for the Final Round. Are you kidding me????? How am I supposed to decide what I want to cook, without knowing, where Im going to cook it and not knowing how long, I have to cook it. But really??? if you know me well enough, you would know that no matter what environment I'm in, I can "Iron Chef" it and make it work. So of course, i was shooting for the stars and I submitted my recipes.........The hardest part of this entire process is typing up the recipies that I had locked away in my head! How do i convert what I can naturally do, into tablespoons and cups of measurements? Another obstacle? Not!
So anyway................I did submit my recipes and some of them, ive never actually tried before, they were just recipes I made up in my head that I imagined would work and taste good! So ambitious of me, you would say? But that's me! Pretty competitive and ambitious, always!!!!
So here's what I submitted:
Appetizer: VEGETARIAN FRESH LUMPIA
Main Entree: TRADITIONAL KARE KARE
Adobo Dish: ADOBO BANH MI
Dessert: TASTE Of The PHILIPPINES SAMPLER - Brazo de Mercedes Cupcake, Coconut-Pandan Mini Sans Rival and a Halo-Halo Cake
The first 2, appetizer and entree, I can cook with my eyes closed. The last 2, I made all that up in my head! Pretty Ambitious, huh?
So a week before the actual Final competition, I decide to have a tasting at my house. I called family and friends to try it out, not really knowing what they would say or how they would accept, the dishes that I concocted! As I expected, I received some great ideas and criticisms from them all. Did that sway my decision and made me change my final menu? Nope!!! I took their ideas and I said, i'd incorporate it and apply it to my recipes............except for the Coconut-Pandan Sans Rival idea. They all tried to talk me to change that recipe and just scrap it and i persisted and said no. I am determined to make that dessert in the final round. At the tasting, the week before, the sans rival base came out too thick, not crunchy enough and the pandan buttercream was just so-so, nothing spectacular...................Challenging!! to say the least.
I also had them taste the Halo Halo cake, which got a mixed review, some liked it and some didnt. But hard headed as I am, I continued on with that idea.
So, to make a long story short......................In my head, I knew what I needed to change to make my menu work......................
On January 18, 2012 (Wednesday), 3 days before the Final Round of Competition, all the competitors were asked to meet at the venue at 4 pm to go over Rules and Regulations for the competition. Mind you, at this time, I was panicking inside as we were only being given 3 hours to prepare and cook. and another 40 minutes to plate our dishes. How do I make Kare Kare, the traditional way and make the sans rival in just 3 short hours?????? Panic Mode!!!!!!
So for the next 2 days, i racked my brain and I just came up with a game plan on how I would get this all done. I was pretty confident but at the same time, I was scared as hell.
I packed up all my equipment, separated all my ingredients in boxses and went to bed...........Tomorrow, I wake up and I head to SFO to cook my ass off! Time to get some well deserved sleep!
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