JONG: HOT ! HOT! HOT!

It was like an episode right out of "The Top Chef". Our Week-Eight instructor, Chef Manoj made our Asian Cooking 2 session more interesting by giving it another twist ( I don't want to disclose the 'twist'... I might spoil the excitement for his future students). I could mention though that we were virtually on our own. No explanation about the ingredients nor about the methods were given. We had to figure out and work on the dishes by ourselves with minimal assistance from Chef and his assistants (in fact, Chef Manoj was out of the kitchen half of the time).

Of course, the complicated and "showtime" stuff was still done by

Chef Manoj.

Each group discussed the dishes assigned to them and started working.

Well, I also had my share of work like the rest. Liezel and I worked on the Sweet and Sour Pork (By the way, welcome back Liezel! She will be leaving the country again this week for Macau... I'm beginning to hate her. hehehe).

After that, Jay and I worked on the lamb for the Lamb Shawarma with Yoghurt Sauce.

I was also in charge of grilling the pita bread. Each pita bread should be grilled for 5 seconds on each side. I thought, "Hey, this would be easy." The griller in Kitchen 1 was already crowded so Lani, Jack (who worked on the kebabs) and I transferred to Kitchen 3.

I had no idea that the griller in Kitchen 3 was the portal to hell. It was extremely hot! Ironically, instead of having toasted fingers, my hands felt raw long after I finished grilling.

There was very little socializing and chit-chat that went on among the groups during the session because the class was given a time limit. All the dishes should be finished, plated and must be piping hot by 11:30. But of course, that didn't stop us from intermittently striking a pose for the cameras.

This is Dang... the official class mascot.

The Group Three Girls

Kita mo itong si Dang... dinadamay pa si Chef sa kalokohan nya.

At exactly 11;30, all the dishes were set and were up for Chef Manoj's critique. Needless to say, we still have a lot to learn about plating (Chef Manoj commented on one dish as having a "Jurassic Park" theme... ouch!). He also mentioned that the food we presented were warm but not hot (by top food critics' standards, that's unacceptable).