there's something fishy going on

Woah! I've never known a school to have such a big cock up in my life.

We were suppose to be making 2 fish dishes today, the whiting and the salmon but unfortunately for us, the school had other plans. They had some order screw up where they thought we were to go to this place called the Fish Market which has not been on the school's curriculum for two years. So we did not have any raw produce to create the dishes on the menu.

Fortunately for us, the chefs came up with a plan B, we could not do the whiting but they found some salmon and although it was frozen, at least we had something to cook with. We were also short of some other ingredients such as fish stock and sorrel to name a few. We only had enough fish stock for about 13 people so the other class in the other kitchen did not have fish stock to make their dish with. I heard from them that the fish stock they lacked was replaced with vinegar. ACK! I shun at the the thought of replacing fish stock with vinegar.

Anyway, to deviate from the topic, I realized that I haven't shown the exterior of my apartment so here is a photo of it.

Quaint isn't it? Looks like some sort of homely little cottage. Something a city boy like me isn't very used to. I feel more comfortable with the high rise buildings of Singapore's concrete jungle around me. I feel like a monkey who seeks comfort in hiding amongst the tall trees.

Back to the topic at hand, although we were unable to make the whiting dish, during our demo class, the chef was able to make it. The dish is called Merlan Colbert where colbert is the style in which the fish is prepared. The spine of the fish is removed, leaving a small part of the spine at the tail and the head intact. The eyes are also removed to prevent it from exploding when it comes into contact with the deep fryer. The dish is like a whole fish fish and chips without the chips and instead of tar tar sauce, it is served with a Beurre Maitre d Hotel aka parsley butter.

The Merlan Colbert is the one in the foreground and the one in the background is another whiting, prepared Colbert style but instead of being crumbed, it is coated with tempura batter and served with tar tar sauce. The tar tar sauce was delicious but when it comes down to fish and chips, I think I love Singapore's fish market & bistro alot more. Did I mention that the parsley butter was yummy too.

The other dish which was the salmon is called Supreme de Saumon a L'Oseille. We made a sauce called a Beurre Blanc to accompany the pan fried salmon and by god, that sauce has to be the most unhealthy thing I have ever eaten. It had 200g of butter and 260ml of cream in it and one of my classmates asked in disbelief if 200gms of butter was the right amount. The sauce obviously had other ingredients such as white wine, vermouth, shallots, sorrel and fish stock but the amount of butter and cream looked like it could clog some major arteries.



But on a side note, the sauce was unsurprisingly yummy! Why do I say unsurprisingly? Well it's because unhealthy food = awesome food! And that is a fact. Salt and fat is flavor after all. The top one was done by the chef and the bottom on was done by me. Mine was a tad bit underdone though. The chef said he would eat it, but some people might not. I don't know if it means he likes it or not or if it were good. I was cleaning up when he called me to review my dish so I was not around but a classmate said he said it was good so I don't know, but just in case, if I make this again, I'll go for the more mainstream, medium well (cooked & juicy).

The dish in the soup bowl is the last dish the chef made, it is a sort of thick fish soup called Fish Veloute. There not much I can say other then I felt rather "eh whatever" about it. It kinda tasted a little like a can of cambell soup, one of the cream of something. The soup is usually used as a base for other dishes so I can't really be blamed for thinking as such.

I don't believe I have shown you the kitchen where we work. So here are a couple of shots of it.


So there you go. That's our classroom and with that, I come to an end for this post. I'm tired and I just want to relax and watch some tv so til next time, arrivederci!