THe meaning of Buffet....

So while in Brazil, I have had the privilege to tests my grounds, food wise. All "food" considered, the best food I had was at a Brazilian steakhouse. The restaurant we dined at was only 4 blocks away from our hotel so our group decided to give it a "test run".

The restaurant was located in an upscale neighborhood that catered to the influx of tourists from all over the world. Surprisingly, the Brazilian steakhouse is very similar to the etiquette of a buffet restaurant. EAT ALL YOU WANT ( ALL MEATS)!!! personally, this is a paradise to me since i'm a meat-lover fan. on your table, there is a small round card that has two sides of colors: green and red. The green side indicated a notion of "keep em' coming" and the red side of "let me rest". The servers looked at your card to determine if your table needs to be served or not. The varieties of meat were abundant...there were at least 20 servers holding meat skewers (giant ones!!!).

Since I've been home, I have done some research about the local brazilian steakhouse alike and the google's results for "brazilian steakhouse" came up to be amounted at thousands for the same name "Fogo de chaos". I scanned through their website and the price for each person is about $50 per plate, which i think is quite expensive but for the looooovvveee of food. I will try it out one day or when i can find some local brazilian restaurants like these.

Under 21, Read with precaution....

Well this is during spring break week and I am enjoying mine oversea. Yes, I'm sorry for the rest of you that just cannot join me on this trip. I feel quite bad too =[. I hope everyone is enjoying their spring break because this is the only time we can rest before final exams come around.

For this blog, because that I am in Brazil, I have to "relocate my lab" to Rio de Janeiro. My experiment for this session is an alcoholic drink called "caipirinha" (under 21....please don't try this at home hahaha). Caipirinha is an indeginous drink to the Brazilian people; famous for its name and taste worldwide. One of the main ingredient for caipirinha is "cachaca" (pure sugar cane alcohol). For the Brazilian people, this drink is defined as their national identity. Since I've arrived in Rio, this drink is too good to go to waste, even though the alcohol content is quite strong. Yes, I am a very responsible person so I drink to supplement with the food, not because I am an alcoholic. I gave an an attempt to make it in my hotel room and according to my fellow travelers (the judges can't be here) it is a 1.5 out of 4 thumbs (one thumb got chopped in half =]). I gave it my very best try. I will need to consult my bartender friends on this expertise....Until then, I would recommend "caipirinha" to anyone (over 21 of course) because this drink defined Rio as a city, Brazil as a country, and the uniqueness of the Latin American continent.

Failed Attempt Count: 1

So i received a request to make a milk flan for today's "lab" test. I spent a good 15 minutes looking up the recipe on google. Apparently, there are different versions of flan and there is such a thing as CHOCOLATE FLAN...I just thought that it was interesting...so I decided to follow this recipe and began shopping for my ingredients at the usual HEB store. What I like about this website is that the visual presentation of the site, which seems to be homemade and easy (as I thought.)

Well to make the story short, I failed to get even the basics of the flan right; the caramel part was, by far, the toughest challenge I have ever encountered. First try, the sugar was burnt and the whole kitchen smelled like burnt rubber; very foul odor. Second try, the sugar was burnt, again! Third try, I took noticed of the heat this time and removed off the stove a lil bit too early; thus, unsuable.....Fourth try, the color is superb, the texture is right, but the taste is horrible..I just dont know why....Fifth try, I RAN OUT OF SUGAR! I wasted soooooo much sugar for this "lab" and flunked the test horribly because I didn't have the ingredient. Oh well, I still have some leftover dessert from Chilis for my "judges"

=[

CHEESECAKE!!!

Task: to create the ULTIMATE cheesecake that 1) tastes like Tyler's version 2) melts in your mouth 3) look great 4) must be strawberry version (unlike the Tyler's version of blueberry) 5) cheap!!!
Shopping: I bought everything according to the recipe and it turns out HEB has it all so it wasn't that hard to these anywhere. (pre-thought) this is easy enough...

Preparations: So the "judges" want a strawberry version instead of the "weird" looking blueberry version. I bought the strawberry jams and fresh strawberry; very sweet ones too. This part is time consuming because there were numerous of ingredients and on top of that this is my first attempt in making dessert. I followed step-by-step of the recipe as instructed and things are quite much harder than i thought =[. The crust part was quite hard and took a big portion of my time for this cheesecake. ALAS....
Baking: Once again, i followed the instructions of the recipe and also modified a few things: strawberry instead of blueberry, my jams for the topping were not hand-made but pre-made, lime instead of lemon, hand-crusted graham crackers for the crust instead of pre-made crust. This is the final version fresh out of the oven...

Patience: So according to the recipe, I have to let it cool down and wait patiently at least 6-8 hours before serving and this is what i did, painfully and slowly...

Premiere:

Verdict: a 3/4 thumbs because Mctoosh thinks it's a great imitation whereas the other judge's comment was "too soft...i would like it to be more solid.." -_-


p.s. New judge name is Cherry Minneapolis