Renka

Wow guys, thanks for doing a mini bakery/bread tour. A carb-phile like myself greatly appreciates that gesture. Now I'm psyched for a future rendez vous with the vast array of scrumptious baked goods offered in Seattle. That baguette - oh la la. Especially the end bit. Just curious. I've noticed a blurry spot in the lower left hand corner of all your pictures. Is that normally there (i.e. I read somewhere that some cameras do not take 100% clear images) or is there, um, a smudge on your lens?

...which is a strong indicator of who IC#1 is! Plus the other giveaway was Lorna commenting that the peach "foie" idea was actually a Ferran Adria recipe, which of course, is her way of outing Henry's originality LOL ← OOoooops! Is it too late to say, um, I think, or um... nevermind. I guess it would be too late to go back and edit out my last post...

Lorna and Henry, Even though I know who made what (and yes, it is obvious with just the plating) I think I'll break down my vote as follows (can I be the proper looking old gentleman in the glasses? I don't remember what he was... a scholar? ): Starter: Iron Chef #1: Not a huge huge fan of strong cheeses, but I know I would enjoy the flavour and textural contrasts of the flakey (it does look so!) biscuit juxtaposing the smooth and light avocado cream. In addition, I would also appreciate the strength of the tangy gastrique that accompanies this dish. As it hits high on my scale of requirements: texture, flavour, colour contrast, this dish gets top marks. Iron Chef #2: Although the dish and simple plating of this starter are comforting and "light," I fear that I would tire of the sweetness of the dish and the monochromatic nature of the soup. Kudos on the use of MG and the beautiful even scoring of the peach. If there was good bread with this... but I digress. (If you didn't already know, I love bread (ha ha, maybe Iron Chef #1 did her research - which is key to winning on the show! - and used this to her advantage. ) Main: Iron Chef #1: The appearace of the dish is messy, although rustic, almost a don't-be-afraid-to-dig-in-becauce-you're-not-messing-anything-up sort of call. Again, good use of the three factors noted above that are key to winning my tastebuds over. However I feel this dish maybe a little too heavy although the pickled items should aid in helping create an appetite (it's a Chinese thing, eh?). Iron Chef #2: I like the idea of the pulled pork sandwich. It's in this preparation that you can take advantage of the goopy sweetness of the peaches (as a BBQ sauce). As much as I don't appreciate one American Iron Chef's over reliance on creative sauces, I really do think the use of ripe peach in sauce form is key to this competition. That said, I am sure I'd enjoy this dish (looks slightly lighter) maybe based on nostalgic reasons. I do think, however, that if you were aiming for a finer dining experience (to match the rest of the dishes you were presenting), that a grilled brioche roll might have served you better. Plus, where are the fries?? I would have done some spicy seasoned sweet potato fries here!! (No sweet potato fries, no bonus points. Ha ha). Dessert: Iron Chef #1: Presentation is lovely and the use of curry to spice (yes, pun intended) things up was creative. The mint ice cream looks like a sploge of speckled sour cream, and unless that was intentional, it really doesn't pair well with the neat plating of everything else. Bonus for carrying on the theme and great use of the golden rules to win over this judge's stomach. However, by this course I wonder if I could stomach something that is on the denser side as the filling mains were right before this... oh wait, it's me we're talking about. The bottomless pit. And there weren't any sweet potato fries (JK). Ok, never mind. Iron Chef #2: JK about the sweet potato fries (well, not really, but I won't hold that against you. Kee kee). I love, love, love how you finished things off with a play on the use of MG as you did in your first course. Bonus points for keeping things light after so many dishes (unless your judges have huge appetites). The prosecco snow sounds fabulous and I am a big fan of bellinis. I know I might be greedy, but just a small spoonful? I agree with an earlier judge that this might be appropriate for a palate cleanser. Overall score: Given all the comments above I'd give IC#1: 8.5 and IC#2: 7.5 (I lied, the lack of sweet potato fries really did you in) I commend you two for taking on this challenge. I've been threatening it with my friends, but the lack of a kitchen stadium to work in is really discouraging. I think it would be funny if you did cook this all within 1 hour (which I know wasn't the case) but then again, you didn't have sous to bark orders at or an unlimited budget. When I saw your menu, I was wondering what you might have done if you got a little piece of "free" foie (such that it wouldn't be counted in your $50 budget) as it has appeared on your past menus.

So what's in the plans for today? As terrible as it sounds, I'd love to see a bread tour of Seattle!

If a cute little bird already gave me the inside scoop on who made what, should I do the honourable thing and not vote?? Even if I have neither seen the pics nor tasted the dishes? Or should I wear my Team ----- T-shirt? Good luck you two!

oh that is sad, he will be so disappointed! pocky is just a great snack of little bread sticks with sesame in them dipped in different candy flavorings. yum! ← Actually, Pocky is not really a bread stick as much as it's a biscuit. Think of something close to a Ritz cracker (a bit flakey and buttery) but very narrow and thin. I comes in regular biscuit flavoured or with cocoa in it. These fantastic thin cookie sticks are then dipped in cheapie flavoured chocolate that run the range of "milk chocolate" (the classic red boxed pocky), "dark chocolate" (aka the unfairly named Men's pocky - apparently because men favour less sweet items compared to their female counterparts), and fruity "white chocolates" (ie strawberry, chestnut, green tea, taro, black sesame (yum!), kinako, etc.). Some pocky have chopped bits embedded in the chocolate layer (ie freeze dried strawberries, coconut, chopped almonds). Pocky also has a sister product: Pretz. These are flakey buttery biscuit sticks for people who like savory items. My fav flavour is the "salad" flavour. They come in classic roast (roasted buttery biscuit), "Hokkaido butter" (this is really like the Ritz cracker), tomato, shark fin soup (found exclusively in HK), and an assorted variety of limited edition flavours available in the country in question (which are usually found in the GIANT size). Canada carries the maple flavoured stick. The large "Pocky" are actually large "Pretz". They come individually packaged and are pretty much bread sticks. Just flakier and more flavourful (due to good ol' MSG). Think of geometry... there's more volume of wheat stuff in the large pretz sticks vs. the thin regular sized biscuits. More MSG always makes things taste better.