DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN MAN?

i've said it once before and i'll say it again. if baking is water, i'm a cat. if baking was oxygen, i wouldn't know how to breath. if baking was diesel, i would be a gas engine. aight, ah think yuh get the picture. i CANNOT bake. not good with flour at all! in situations like these, you understand the true meaning of that 1982 classic "that's what friends are for". BAIDAWI CAN BAKE! daz all yuh need. a friend with a good bakin' hand. check him out in some apple muffin action.

WHAT'S LE BRUNCH?

it's a refreshing thing when someone says they're doing something different and you really see the difference. even though a growing number of spots in T&T offer brunch these days, brunch isn't all that common (for example, this brunch started swinging at about half 1! i doh think we get it yet). so the idea of a brunch party is like a double whammy to most. different kinda party... different vibe of party... different time of party. now truth be told, i'm more of a limer than a clubber (got that out my system very early in the game), so i don't know how powerful my words are in this department. but to answer the question i've been getting since mentioning it on twitter, le brunch is the kinda scene i will attend. starts at 11. serves nice food for brunch. alcohol flowing. music in the background. friends to link up with and new people to meet. de occasional boogie if it come up. i good wid dat. at least while i was there, it was just a cool scene in a cool place.

apparently this was the 2nd le brunch. ah guess they got most of the kinks worked out, because i don't really have anything to complain about. chaud was a good venue for the intimate crowd, with the right kinda ambiance for an event like that. and with robert de gannes on board, yuh know yuh could expect some digital fun, like a live twitter feed updating on big screens.

this pic has no real significance to this entry. maybe somebody ordered it or got it as a gift or something, because i didn't see vodka on the menu. however i needed to document this to remind me to ask the question "aye! how come i doh have a cool ketel one bucket wid a bottle of vodka in my house?" ah mean, come on!!

not that i was lacking likka anyway. the media table was well taken care of. well, every table was well taken care of, but we were close to the bar so our drinks were coming super fast. on the drinks menu there was FRANZIA sangria which i only had much later on hence no pic. not really a sangria lover anyway. but this MT GAY rum punch was nice. the trick was to ask for a splash of bitters in it.

and there were SPERONE mimosas too. plus there was a MONSTER bar outside serving samples of different mixes. in other words, alcohol was abundant up in dis.

but on to what i really went for. the brunch itself. well of course, it's a food blog. they were wise enough to prepare special media plates so we could sample more than one of the menu items prepared by chef kahlid mohammed, the brain child behind chaud. we got a platter with 5 of the 7 options available which excluded a wild mushroom frittata with porcini sauce and a field greens salad, as well as a grilled tofu & vegetable kebab with tabbouleh salad and hummus.

these were just samples. the actual plate was bigger than this. decent helpings for a brunch. before i found out we were getting samples of more than one item, i selected this one. bangers and mash, served with mushy peas and some english mustard. i was right. it was the one i enjoyed the most. a well made sausage over creamy mashed potatoes. tasty.

also good was the bbq shrimp & white corn grits. the shrimp was the star here. real nice guava bbq flavour. points.

now i am very funny with eggs. freakishly funny some might say. so this dish, though it looked interesting and well executed, wasn't really my thing. smoked salmon with a poached egg, baby spinach and hollandaise sauce on an english muffin. i had everything but the egg, so i'd say i didn't really experience the dish. the remaining elements were ok though.

again my preferences came into play. i couldn't remember being asked about the temperature of my meat, but i prefer a medium to well piece of beef. the beef on my plate was more on the rare side. it was roast prime with a cheddar popover served with a traditional gravy and horseradish foam. not really my thing.

a lot of people were wowed by the idea of the chicken & waffles with spiced honey sauce. even i was. but i think the idea created a different expectation from what was plated. not that it didn't taste great. it did. it just wasn't the chicken & waffles i was thinking about. that being said, not a soul on the table left anything back on the plate. the spices gave it a kinda jerk flavour and the well executed waffle played a nice supporting role.

you can expect some swag from an event like this. what i didn't expect was to get one of the most suggestive swag bags i've ever come across. a shot of beefeater gin, some blue waters, a small colgate, a nature valley granola bar (nutty), 2 durex condoms, eclipse gum, monster coffee energy drink, a 15% off coupon for the naughty grape and a 10% off discount card for the lulu-rue boutique. according to cheryl lala's response to my twitter post "subtle like a ton of bricks!"

all in all, i think it was a nice way to spend a sunday. nice food, nice drinks, nice vibes. the team mentioned that they are trying to do 3 per year. i wouldn't mind if they have it in the same spot. chaud works. and if people really do make it le brunch and not le late lunch by being seated at 11 would be cool too. something different... good show. keep it up.