Students Supporting Street Kids (SSSK) aims to raise awareness about the issues affecting street children, and to raise money for projects that work with and for children in difficult circumstances. Thursday's dinner was for a great cause- raising money for the Street Child World Cup, which is taking place in March in South Africa, ahead of the Football World Cup.
The dinner began with a artichoke and almond soup. The Dutch introduced artichokes to England, where they grew in Henry VIII's garden at Newhall in 1530. They were brought to the United States in the 19th century, to Louisiana by French immigrants and to California by Spanish immigrants. The name has originated from the Arabic al-kharshof, through a Northern Italian dialect word, articiocco.
Following the soup we served sea bream with lemon sauce, crevettes and sage risotto. This recipe came from Aiden Byrne's book Made in Great Britain.
Our cherished vegetarians were served the quite stunning, Penne Nicoise.
To finishe the meal we served a sweet tarte tatin with apples and vanilla bean ice cream.
I hope everyone enjoyed the meal, and that plenty of money was raised for this great cause!
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteFor a few different reasons, some of us felt last night's dinner did not meet the high standards that our kitchens usually set.
The soup was quite bland, and the salt and pepper made more than a few passes around the table during the first course. While the lemon sauce with the fish was excellent, the risotto was underseasoned. The guest of a friend who was visiting from Christ's remarked 'It seems like the chef didn't put salt on anything tonight.' The dessert also fell a bit flat, with some apples overburnt and bitter and others undercooked and tangy. Taking bites with the ice cream helped to even out those flavors, but there wasn't enough ice cream to pair with all of the tarte tatin.
Also, many of us felt that the portions last night were insufficient. There seemed to be less soup than is usually served, and combined with the lightness of the fish and risotto, this meant that quite a few people were still hungry at the end of the second course. The dessert, which wasn't particularly rich (though that is not in itself a bad thing), did not fill the gap left by the first two courses. To put this in perspective: Someone ran out right at the end of the meal and ordered 4 large pizzas from Domino's, which were all devoured as soon as they arrived.
The basic components of a great meal were there; the changes I and my friends would recommend all have to do with seasoning, sizes, and a careful pairing of heavy and light courses. As usual, the presentation and service were fantastic.
Best,
Urvesh