Part I - My Kulinarya Experience - The Semi Final Round

http://www.kulinaryashowdown.com/

On Saturday, January 21, 2012, I competed in the Amateur Division of the 2nd Philippine Kulinarya Showdown, held at the Carnelian by the Bay Lounge in San Francisco, CA.

The experience was "Out of this World"! It was nerve-wracking, but fun and exciting at the same time. At the end of the day, I was soooooo exhausted that i felt pain from the tip of my fingers all the way to my toes. When the cooking and plating portion of the Amateur Division was over, the first thing I asked for was 2 shots of Tequila and a cigarette!!!

LETS'S TALK ABOUT THIS JOURNEY..................from Beginning to end...........................

This journey started in October of 2011.  I received an email asking if I was interested in joining an walk on, cooking competition to help promote Filipino cuisine.  The competition was scheduled to be held on Saturday, October 22, 2011.  Whoever was interested in joining the competition was asked to cook, one of the following Filipino dishes:  Kare-Kare, Escabeche, Caldereta, Menudo, Sisig, Afritada and Pochero.

Now, if you know me well enough, you would know that I love to cook and I love entertaining at my house, just because, I get bored when I'm not doing anything.  When I get bored, I cook!!!!  So, when I was asked to join this competition (Semi-Finals), naturally, I picked the hardest of all the 7 dishes to make, which is Kare-Kare.  Ha ha ha ha ha!  It is so me to pick the hardest of all the choices.  At the same time, I make a pretty mean Kare-Kare.  Here's my biggest thing about food, never settle for just good!!!  When I eat out or scope up places to eat, I will never settle for food just being good, or OK!  It always has to be great.  I am willing to drive to Oakland to get really great Steak over Chow Fun or even drive to SFO, to get Ice cream at Mitchell's, or to the Taco truck on Industrial Blvd., in Hayward, standing out in the rain, just to get 1 taco from the Taco truck.

So when the opportunity came for me to showcase and to tell people about what I cooked, I grabbed that opportunity so I can finally tell someone about what I think about Filipino food in the United States.  Here's my thing about Filipino food...............................There are certain Filipino dishes that have to remain true to tradition, it cannot be fusionized (if that's a word) or de-constructed or adapted to the western taste, and there are certain Filipino dishes that are perfect to be introduced in a fusion state......Get It?????

Oooops!  Hey, its my opinion and thats really how I feel about Filipino food!  Ok, so I chose to cook Kare-Kare..........Of course, i prepared it and presented it the Traditional, Authentic, Filipino way......with freshy cooked steam rice, in a clay pot..............The only way, in my opinion to eat kare-kare!!!!

There were 6 amateur contestants, and only 4 showed up on 10/22/11.  3 were going to be chosen to go on to the finals.  I was one of the chosen ones!  Ahhhhhhhhh!  Trust me, that did not help me validate what I wanted to in this semi-final round. Honestly, I wanted to validate by competing in this round, what people who have tasted my cooking, have been telling me all this time, that I can cook.  Picking 3 competitors from a pool of 4????? Really????

So anyway, I walked away from the semi-final round, not feeling anything special about moving on to the final round.  Big Deal!  So, a couple of months later, not really thinking much about the final round of Kulinarya, I received an email from the organizing committee about the venue and the date of the final competition................................January 21, 2012 in a venue in San Francisco.  So, i put all the information aside, and I went on with my daily grind......................................Until about 2 weeks ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was told, i have to prepare 4 dishes!  Holy Crap!  An Appetizer, Adobo Dish, The Winning Entree from the Semi-Final round, and a Filipino Inspired Dessert........................You should have seen the look on my face, when I read the details of the final round!  I'm like, cool!!!!  I got this!  But then, reality hit me!  I have to cook all 4 dishes onsite, a-la Iron Chef in the time allotted, in a strange kitchen in front of a lot of people!  Again, Holy Crap!

So, with OCD, in full gear, my mind went straight to work, planning my meal, picturing what the final product is going to look like and planning, the tasting adventure I wanted to present from beginning to end!