A GOOD REASON TO SAY MACKESON

i feel somewhat blasphemous doing this, but i knew the job was difficult when i took it. it's no secret that we're guinness drinkers over here, so it might shock a few that we're actually saying the word mackeson on the blog.

well truth be told, in a realm such as this, we're equal opportunity. so when i was given the choice of stag bread or mackeson bread at maria's bakery, i opted for the only available stout option. decided to take one for the team.

turns out that things could have been much worse. it was actually a nice bun. taking one for the team wasn't bad at all. though it was a hefty bread that was very filling (it was part of a relatively big breakfast that rallied me through the entire day!!) the price tag puts this in luxury class for me. at $25, this will have to be a once in a while treat. i mean, i think two people can share it if done right, but that's still a good bit of coin to put down on a round. now the bun i got (yes, got as in got a free sample. thanks for the generosity) was from the daily display, so there is a chance that the price tag might be the loaf price. we'll double check and let you all know.

following the recommendation of the sales rep (my bad fuh not getting her name but... more times fuh dat), i wanted to try it with something cheesy, so i whipped up some cheesy scrambled eggs with a few strips of turkey bacon at the side. i also toasted the round a little for no reason other than i like a lil crisp to my bites. it did go well with the sharpness of the cheese as it had that bitter sweet stout flavor. not the alcohol flavor, but the dark, roasted aftertaste you get from stout. it worked in this situation. i think it could also be nice at the side of a spicy chili bowl topped with cheddar. or even with a flavorful stew. i would imagine the beer versions might do well with a soup.

i would have preferred the flavor of guinness bread more (which they also make) because i don't really like the sweetness of mackeson, but that is purely a preference thing. it was a good bun with the right texture and flavor for a bread of that nature. if nothing else, it got me interested in finding out how the guinness and the stag versions would do. if you happen to be interested as well, you have to place an order to have it made as it's a specialty item. i think i'll be placing one soon.

de real burger kings

when we at bring it to the table talk about having it your way, we mean from scratch. that's how we were feeling on sunday, so we fired up the grill and got some prime meat sizzling for a few friends.


dawi built the grill while i went inside to start things off. now my apologies. this was a little too difficult to get detailed with the photosnappin', so i didn't document much of the meat preppin'.


Anyway, I took 5 packs of minced beef from pricesmart and added onion, celery, chive, parsley, basil, pimento peppers, green seasoning, garlic powder, all purpose seasoning, jerk powder, black pepper, bitters, A1 sauce and some lime. personally, i don't like egg in the mix, so i didn't employ the services of any eggs. worked in all the seasoning with my hands, hence the lack of photos. It's all about the seasoning, so I added the seasoning in portions and worked it all around to ensure the seasoning found its way through everything.



dawi started off manning the grill.



with some back up from kory, who is skilled on de grill.


it must be noted that the ladies didn't have to lift a finger.



except to take some video footage.


and to bring a mit or two. but nothig much more than that.


dawi mapped out the most efficient start point on the grill. he also suggested that we should coat the burger in a mixture of cornmeal, jerk powder, garlic powder and black pepper. that is what's going on in the white bowl there.



so the routine was to pat the patties into shape, coat them and place them on the grill.



the coating proved to be interesting.


but the heat wasn't quite right.


we had to make more fire.



which in turn created more sizzle.


finally, the right temperature. the burgers started to cook properly. after flipping them, we loaded some of them up with cheese. more trial, less error. the coating made a nice tasty crust. not bad at all.



with the new found confidence, kory broke out the tricks. first, he patted out some big boy burgers. then he made a little cavity and put some cheddar in the middle.


then closed them up and shaped them into some neat patties.


they had the grill lookin good.


they turned out to be hearty helpings of beef with hot melted cheese on the inside.


much success. the burgers were money. we topped them with all sorts of things. condiments like ketchup, mustard and pepper sauce. mayo and cheese wizz. onions, pickles, lettuce and tomato.


it ranked high up on my list of burger experiences.







good job fellas. let's do it again sometime.

Tuna Patties

Food Network has to be the best thing on cable. It’s a great and lucrative idea. Food all day, everyday? BRILLIANT! I was watching it by Dawi’s grandmother when I saw Paula making some Salmon Burgers. Dawi commented that it probably would be good to do something like that with tuna… a suggestion that was tasting right in my books. So I decided to try a tuna patty.



Whipped out some tuna. 2 tins of chunks in water and 2 tins of chunks in oil. Drained of course. Bumble Bee or Brunswick… don't really care that much. They're not paying for this big up anyway.



I put it in a bowl and just spread it around a little.




Enter lime. Makes it nice and tangy.




Then I cut up some shaddon beni, celery, onion, pimento and chive.





Mixed that up with the tuna.




In mixtures like these, one would usually use a bread crumb-esk ingredient. I tried these cheddar flavoured toasted Ritz Chips. I just put them in a sandwich bag and crushed them up a bit.




Then I took my premium quality rolling pin to them for that absolute crush.





The end result was not absolutely fine, but absolute enough to do the trick.




I usually wouldn’t use egg to bind, but I decided to take a chance this time.





Then I put some of my flavourful buddies into the egg, hoping that they would be transported all around the mixture.




The mixture ended up looking like this. Time to get to cooking.




But first, I had to heat up some oil in my trusty frying pan turned pizza dish.




As soon as the oil was hot, I scooped out manageable portions and put them in.




Well, the patties came out nice, with a light crust on the outside. I could tell they would make an interesting sandwich.




The Curious Mouth had hers with 8 grain whole wheat bread. But I preferred to have mine with marble rye.




Slice of tomato, lettuce, mayo, ketchup, mustard, pepper sauce. Some potato chips at the side and we on!




Good call Dawi. I’ll have to line you up with some.


Leh we bubble!

curious seafood sandwiches

this time around, the curious mouth decided to get into the action. the menu? something seafood. after considering the options, she decided to create some seafood sandwiches. that's right up my alley. yuh boy love ah seafood too! (well ah know xen not of the seafood conviction, and dawi doh fren up with shrimp so this is entry all wrong for them. hard luck dey fellas. but for the rest of us...)





she got some shrimp and scallops at pricesmart (they've gone green by the way, so they don't give out bags any more. you have to buy this re-usable blue bag which costs like $27 for four or something like that. or cary your own bags. or take the gamble and see if you get a box from them.)




seasoned them up with some lime juice, a little green seasoning, salt, black pepper and such. while they sat in the seasoning, she prepared a little batter station.




she cracked an egg in a bowl.







beat it up like it owed her money.







added some milk, and that was one stop.






next, she seasoned up some flour with paprika...






black pepper...





the all purpose...

garlic powder...





and some salt.

the next stop called for two things:

tortilla chips, inspired by dawi in a moment of culinary genius a while back,




and corn flakes.




she crushed them both, mixed them up in a bowl and placed the mixture in the line up.





let the coating begin! she started by dipping the pieces in the flour first...

then into the egg mixture...

and finally into the cornflakes and tortilla chips.




it was now time to whip out a gadget that i swore would not come out until the sentence "ah would hail yuh in a lil bit. ah now headin' to de gym." came back into my daily conversations. since it did, it was safe. bring out de deep fryer!!

she put the pieces into the basket,

then down into the oil for just a little bit. the shrimp was already cooked, and seafood doesn't take long to cook in general.




when they came out they were crispy, golden brown and ready.

now to build the sandwiches. she took out some iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup and mayo.

for her sandwich, she went with her favourite: oven classics country loaf with cornmeal.







her triple decker seafood sandwich looked inviting.






i requested garlic bread from the bakery, which made the mayo redundant. so she left it out for me, but added a slight touch of mustard and a little pepper.


it was a curiously different experience, and a tasty one at that. i'll be tryin this one out myself sometime in the future.


leh we bubble.