Smashing, 2011 Foodie Seminar in Jamaica

Hi! We are back with a post about The Observer's Foodie Seminar. Jamaica's #1 newspaper for 'Everyday Matters' along with event sponsors offered the seminar FREE of cost to Food and Beverage-industry people. The event was very informative, inspirational and well-supported. This year's guest presenters were: -

• Food Network Canada's Everyday Exotic, Roger Mooking;
• Kingston Live Entertainment Group (KLE);
• Paula Kerr-Jarrett, Event planner and attorney-at-law and
• Main Event Limited

In honor of Roger Mooking's Trini roots at this Jamaican event, steel pan music and reggae beats arranged by Dave James (Island Boy) were used as background music for our 3-min video blog. Rock and Dip. Grab a bite. Enjoy!

Read more about the presentations: -

Roger Mooking

Roger Mooking with Ed Khoury, C.E.O of Jamaica Observer

The engaging chef and musician was born in Trinidad and Tobago and migrated at 5years old with his family to Toronto, Canada. Roger Mooking is the first chef to have a direct deal with Food Network and will also be co-hosting an upcoming food show called 'Heat Seekers' with Chef Aaron Sanchez (best known from Chopped). NOTE: Roger is arguably the first Caribbean chef to enter the Kitchen Stadium for an Iron Chef battle. The episode will air this Sunday, May 29th (Save the date!!!).

1. Mooking's immediate family had a 'hand' for cooking and he also possessed the 'will' to want that special gift, had the 'desire' for it and was similarly blessed.
2. Like Oprah, Roger Mooking believes one ought not have as many blessings and not share it. "After all, helping people is what life is about!" This motivates him.
3. While honing his culinary skills, Mooking had a negative interaction that fueled his ambitions to do great things. (Oprah-styled, baby). His personal story reminded the audience to persevere despite obstacles and naysayers, keep an eye on 'the prize', 'practice, practice and practice' and 'help' people as much as possible. As a testament to his success Everyday Exotic (on the Cooking Channel) is now 3years old and broadcasts to approx. 400million persons across the world. 
4. Without a doubt, Roger Mooking has broken the 'glass ceiling' and is a role model for Caribbean people. His pearls of wisdom to culinary aspirants included "Peeling bags of carrot builds character!", "Be the best and undeniably so" and "If you don't love it, GET OUT!"
5. Mooking is just as passionate about his cooking as he is with his music. That's right the Caribbean national is also a recording artist who performed with the late James Brown and now wants to be a lifestyle brand. To make this a reality, Roger recently signed with Chris Smith Management Inc and Odessa Chambers, a successful entertainment executive and Jacqui Sinclair (Juicy Chef).

As a take away we asked Roger Mooking "How can we make Caribbean food 'hip' and healthy without compromising flavors?" His response: "Moderation and balance are key. Use what makes the food tastes good and if it's the last meal, man, it better be great :-)" Roger can be contacted via twitter @rogermooking or http://rogermooking.com

KLE Group: Creation of Tracks and Records (T and R)

KLE presenters: Gary Matalon, Tina Myers-Matalon and Kevin Bourke

The KLE team photographed above spoke on the brand creation of Kingston's casual dining restaurant, Bolt's Tracks and Records (T and R). [Please note the team also includes their friends, Ard Jarrett and David Shirley]. With an idea kernel, KLE put into motion a series of extensive planning and research that comprised of food and beverage franchise discussions. Armed with a concrete plan they approached Usain Bolt who frequented their nightclub, FICTION (another KLE brand). A quick reminder for our readers, Usain Bolt is the world's fastest athlete who has to date 4-million face book fans! 

1. A successful deal was brokered with Bolt having equity stake in T and R. (% undisclosed)
2. Together, they broke ground in Oct 2010 and a creative audio-visual presentation of the construction phase was shown. 
3. KLE values technology and integrated a high-technology system equipped with internet connectivity for social media access (twitter, face book and 4square check-ins), photos, touch screen menu and ordering in the contemporary-designed space. Today, T and R is the first location outside of the U.S.A to have the technology that is revered by families especially kids. This is to be congratulated esp. since T and R understands the power of social media networking tools and has set the platform to connect efficiently and effectively with their targeted audience. This no doubt will fuel brand longevity.
4. The casual dining spot is the only place in Jamaica that offers Draft Guinness. Other popular menu items include jerked chicken roll, island nachos (delightful helpings of green plantains, cheese and jerked sausage) and 'swims' (a play on Jamaican culture).
5. Michelle Rousseau, of Ciabello, is behind the menu design and food offerings at Tracks and Records.
6. KLE also partnered with Food Consultant, Bill Moore, who is known for work done at the Bahama Breeze restaurant chain (Darden Restaurants, Inc) and Round Hill Hotel.

We believe T and R will be the place to be for viewing the London 2012 Olympics and have opted to leave the details  about Bolt's Tracks and Records for a separate food blog. Will keep you posted. Until then we suggest that you visit Kingston's newest restaurant soon. (Connect also via twitter handle @UBTandR) Can you guess their television screen size?

 

Main Event Limited: Event styling using cutting-edge technology

Attendees were wowed by Solomon Sharpe's pre-recorded greeting via several LED displays throughout the room. This was complemented by effective sound and lighting and interactive touch screen monitors. 

The Solomon Sharpe-led Main Event team. Perfect for your event needs inc LED lighting and sound

Using a team of young talent, Kingston-based Main Event has clients throughout the Caribbean region including Bahamas, Haiti and DR. They are known for getting the job done quickly and well for clients with small and large budgets. See more about Kingston's best kept secret here  SPECIAL NOTE: Main Event has promised a surprise showing of cutting-edge technology at this evening's food awards. Don't miss out. Be seated at 6:30p.m

Paula Kerr-Jarrett: Seven successful steps to entertaining

This Montego Bay-resident is a trained attorney-at-law who loves entertaining. While studying in London, Paula took a course at Cordon Bleu where she discovered the essence of events was about planning. We also share her sentiments that "excellence is in the details." This Observer article  beautifully recaps Paula's tips for successful entertaining. We must say her delivery was spectacular and hastily recommend that our readers attend any engagement that notes Paula Kerr-Jarrett as speaker/presenter.

Paula Kerr-Jarrett with the Observer's Novia McDonald-Whyte and Ed Khoury

In the Q and A segment Kerr-Jarrett offered a fantastic approach for the following: - 

And what is to be done with professional crashers? 

PJK: Be open. When planning an event make room for more. If it is a great party, you did your job given that 'word' got around and your party is worthy of 'crashing'.

How does one handle the issue of foreign objects in a meal when dining out with a group you'd like to impress? 

PJK: Don't panic. Try to diffuse the situation.

Handling guests invited to a function when there are friendship issues with some persons

PJK: Don't get into politics. Do not 'uninvite' guests! If your job as host is done well maybe the people with issues will become friends. 

Now that's what we call the art of diplomacy. Cheers to Paula Kerr-Jarrett, a class act!

Simply put the 2011 Foodie Event was a smashing success! Congratulations to Novia McDonald-Whyte and the Jamaica Observer team. We are so grateful for having had the opportunity to attend. Willing the best for even more sponsors and an even bigger budget for 2012 when Jamaica celebrates its golden jubilee. All roads now lead to Devon House, Kingston for The Observer's Food Awards Ceremony this evening for a fine display of gastronomic island treats. Do contact The Observer for tickets at (876) 936-9576.

- Megaliciously yours

Emancipation - A Beautiful - Day

Hi! It's a beautiful day. In celebration of Jamaica's emancipation day we offer a short and sweet video blog about JCDC's Culinary festival held at Ranny Williams Centre in Kingston and Denbigh's annual agricultural show in Clarendon. We hope you will enjoy. Do share your feedback.

Until walk good.

- Megaliciously yours

Summertime - Its Ice, Ice Baby

Air-conditioning units blasting, misting fans going and persons are often found fanning themselves with a magazine, folded newspaper, bare hands - anything - to keep cool amidst this heat. Hello! Summer is really here...

So we offer ‘megalicious’ tips to stave off ‘summery insanity’. Enter - ice, ice baby - crushed, cubed or chipped ice. Either form is a must have! No ice-tray. No problem. Simply call Island Ice for delivery of Happy Ice to Go.

Ninety-six degree temperatures could see icy, cold and fruity popsicles hitting the 'spot'. Add Third World Band’s 96 degrees in the shade and all will be 'jamming' if only for a minute.

Consider cool beverages - refreshing and delicious - watermelon mint or cucumber popsicles – lovely and inexpensive afternoon snacks. In the evening, jazz things up with vodka or sake.

Watermelon-Mint Popsicles

Watermelon and mint make a sweetheart combination.

4 cups cubed watermelon

Juice of 1 lime

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup mint leaves

Begin by removing the watermelon rind and slicing the watermelon into small cubes. Since seedless watermelon isn’t common in Jamaica you can buy one with seeds (like I did) . RBe sure to remove the seeds before pureeing. This recipe says to strain the pureed fruit mixture but to add texture, do not strain. For even cooler beverages this summer, keep reading.

Cucumber Lychee Sake

Source: Tyler Florence

1/2 cup sake

2 Cucumbers

4 long thin slices of fresh ginger

8 oz simple syrup (equal part sugar dissolved in water)

1/4 cup lychee juice, plus lychees for garnish

Make ginger simple sugar by combining ginger, and equal parts water and sugar in a small saucepan. Simmer until sugar has dissolved. Peel cucumbers and cut half of one into thin slices. Puree the remaining one and half cucumbers in a blender. In a shaker, combine sake, pureed cucumber, ginger simple syrup and lychee juice. Strain and serve over ice garnished with fresh cucumber slices and Lychees. Oh La La! [Yield: serves 4] [Time: 12 minutes]

Coconut Water

Tried and proven a freshly cut ice - cold jelly coconut makes for a healthful and naturally refreshing beverage. Cut the coconut in two and partake in soft 'n delicious coconut jelly.

Lightly sprinkle with brown sugar, if the jelly is hard and crisp. Very enjoyable.

Away from fresh coconut water - try the So Delicious food brand.

What can I say about these luscious-looking frozen treats before tasting them? Well, they're made with organic coconut water, sweetened with fruit juice plus have only 100 calories which makes them a perfect guilt-free indulgence!

Frozen Fruits

Heading to the beach?

Take along frozen fruits - guineps, grapes, sweet sop (sugar apple), berries and or pineapples - they will be a ‘hit’ among family and friends!

Besides they are easy and economical additions to the igloo.

Put fresh fruit in a zip-lock bag, note the date, type of fruit stored and place overnight inside your freezer. In the morning your fruit will be nicely frozen and ready for your beach trip. Tell us if you have tried. We would love to have your feedback.

Fruit Juices

It's a great time to dust off the blender and use it to create many wonderful, easy-to- make fruit juices.

Perfect when on the run without time for cooking.

Cucumber cooler is fairly popular on a hot summery day. Awh. So good - vegetable in a glass!

Do you like?

Sno-Cone

After running around all day, there is nothing quite like a sno-cone to cool you down. Remember childhood days at Jamaica’s Coconut Park? or Stage shows – like Reggae Sunsplash? Nowadays, waiting on a bus in Half-Way-Tree, Cross Roads, Downtown or even at a kiddies party will likely see one and all rushing to the sno-cone machine to get one of these ice-syrup treats.

Put the above in a plastic bag and you'll get 'sky juice'. A favorite among many Jamaican school children. Another popular item these days is Kisko pops which have long replaced King Kong (a giant version of Kisko pops complete with a straw at the side) and considered an enjoyable treat for kiddies in nursery schools, primary schools or homes.

Some kids, become scarred, fume with vexation to this day like my younger brother, if a teacher dared to cut their Kisko pop into half so they too might share in its enjoyment LOL. In the event this has happened to you and your child, how about 'cheering up' with raspberry popsicles.

These are pretty easy to make along with kids. Don’t have ice pop molds - Shot glasses work very well and small Dixie cups would work too. On a diet, the sugar can be substituted by artificial sweeteners.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups frozen raspberries (or any other berry)
1/3 cup sugar (or to the taste)
1/3 cup hot water
6 shot glasses
6 pop sticks

Place the fruit and sugar in a food processor or a blender. Add hot water and beat for several minutes, until the mixture turns into a purée. Pass through a sieve, pressing well, and discard seeds. Transfer the mixture to the glasses and place the pop sticks. Freeze for at least 4 hours. To release the ice pops, dip the glasses in warm water for a few seconds. Makes 6 small pops.

Btw, if were to pour the liquid mixture in a plastic bag and freeze you'll get Jamaican 'suck-suck'.

Italian Ice and Gelato

As a tip for Summer weddings, esp. in August, your guests will be appreciative of this offering.

While I am at it there is nothing like Cherry Italian Ice in New York City.

And my-oh-my I must, must, must mention the city's gelato. So NYC, there is an upside to having 3-digit temperature :-).

Times like these I find myself reminiscing about Raphael’s that served up Kingston’s finest Italian Ice and Gelato (on Hillcrest Ave). With them closed for over a decade, one now look forward to visiting Calypso Gelato across from Doctor’s Cave Beach in Montego Bay. Simonetta Maffesantti ensures fresh ingredients are used and MEG highly recommends ALL to try their Guava gelato (when in season) – it is to-die-for!

Source: Jamaica Observer

So if you are heading to Reggae Sumfest, July 17-24, be sure to stop by Calypso Gelato on the Hip Strip. Unable to visit NYC or Montego Bay anytime soon enjoy family fun time making this recipe: -

WHAT TO GRAB -
1 1/4 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
1 piece of ginger (like 3 inches long, peeled and chopped into four pieces)
Zest of 2 lemons, chopped
1 cup of lemon juice (about six lemons)
Crushed Ice (I use one full ice-cube tray)

Yield: 10 to 12 Servings

Ice-cream

Locals and people from all over the world trek to Devon House in Kingston, Jamaica to learn about its history and architecture but truth be-told it is often for ice-cream.

Jamaicans.com

‘I-scream’ at Devon House – rocks!

Even Italians famous for gelato (Italian ice-cream) fall in love with Devon House. Flavors such as Devon Stout, Coconut, Rum & Raisin, Coffee and Grape Nut are ranked favorites by adults and children alike. It is said to be the most rich, wholesome ‘lick’ anyone can experience.

Say, can you keep a secret? In true ‘Allo,‘Allo style - "Listen very carefully I shall only say vis vonce…"Mondays & Tuesdays are J$100 scoop days. That is, only US$1.16 per scoop!!! On your next trip to Jamaica, MEG hopes you too will fall in love with Kingston’s best ‘I-scream’ secret.

We won't leave out vegetarians with soy ice-cream. No sooner tried we quickly endorsed gourmet soy ice-cream made by Debz & Ranaz - Product of Jamaica.

Coconut Pineapple, plain Coconut and Grape Nut are just a few flavors that we sampled and they were ALL delightful, lower in calories, amenable to lactose intolerant consumers and best of all cheaper than the overseas brands currently stocked at the local supermarket. AzMart (Barbican) and Mega Mart (Barbican) are suggested locations to get your pint.

Source: Low Density Lifestyle

Super Duper Ice-cream sandwich

This was a special treat and many prayed that 'Fudgie' did not run of stock before pulling up at their gate.
Likewise, faces would glow with smiles from the unwrapping of a nutty buddy ice-cream cone.

Handled with care to avoid the nuts from sticking to the wrapper.

In the U.S, popular ice-cream brands include Cold stone Creamery, Haagen Dazs, Rita's, Ben & Jerry’s, Carvel’s, Baskin Robbins, Dairy Castle, and are enjoyed by just about everyone – young, old, famous and not so famous. Here you see even American Presidents - Obama, Clinton, Bush, Kennedy and Vice President - Biden all in on the 'scoop'.

We say the love of ice-cream, like music, is universal – one love!

Across to Southeastern Asia, like the Philippines, the avocado (pear) has always been used as a dessert not as a salad ingredient. They open the avocado and scrape its flesh into a bowl, mix in evaporated milk and sugar and add some ice to make it into a nice, refreshing end of a meal treat.

Sometimes the mixture is put into ice- trays with little cubes of avocado treats to ‘suck on’ like popsicles on a hot day. If Thailand is anything to go by there are a lot of hot days.

Thai dessert typically includes green tea - ice-cream or tea.

Have you tasted green tea? Do share.

Well this brings us to the end of today's blog. See us next week for great ideas on sparkling, Lemonade (including Panaka - Indian Lemonade), Ole time favorite - Slush, Paletas (Cantaloupe & Cucumber), Sweet Lassi, Smoothies and Iced Teas - Amaretto & Jamaican Flower (hibiscus).

Budding Foodies please note the Jamaica Observer Food Awards will be held on July 22^nd when Master Chef, Marco Pierre White, is scheduled to sparkle. You won't want to miss it.

Telegraph, UK

"I am Jamaica's number one fan in the world," states an upbeat Marco Pierre White…"There is no place else that welcomes you the way the people of Jamaica do...” As a Jamaican I read the above with pride and had to read it once more. Without doubt MEG is even more excited to attend this year's food awards.

Hey, did you know eight (8) persons could win a chance to cook with Chef Marco? Write to the Jamaica Observer and explain why you should be given the opportunity (in 250 words). Deadline: July 18th. Until next time, walk good!

* “Something Different” is written by Dana Jacobi, author of 12 Best Foods Cookbook and contributor to AICR’s New American Plate Cookbook: Recipes for a Healthy Weight and a Healthy Life.