10 Attachment(s)
The I Quina's Cook-Off: The Results
Attachment 43829
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Do you enjoy results shows? Do you enjoy revelations? Do you enjoy fun?!:save:
The Results: Dishes!
The road has been long, and it has been a rather tumultuous inaugural event, but, like a wise moogle once said (probably), we shall look toward the future and unveil just who was worthy enough to best all others and cook a dish that would rival even the best of Quina's dishes!
But enough pageantry. Over the last month or so, the judges have been marking and so here are their results!
N.B: Sadly, Gau was too busy running around the Veldt to be of service. Similarly, Lulu was on maternity leave, and so was tucked away in Besaid. Wakka offered to take her place, but Lulu insisted that he would burn their hut down if he attempted cooking!
N.B: Back again! I was tempted to use average scores, however I got an absolute string of joint placements, like four dishes were at 17/25 averaged! So instead, in the interests of actually ranking people and keeping things orderly, I used the straight, combined method. For your convenience, I have included both scores, but only the combined total actually counts.
With all the notes out of the way, NOW lets get on with it! And first...
8th Position!
Attachment 43834 shaibana Siren
Lightning
Taste - The recipe was unspecific, but from the ingredients I used, it didn't taste bad, but it also didn't taste good. The egg didn't fit well in the dish and the pie crust, while good, fell apart easily.
2/5
Value - The dish cost me $28.67 in ingredients. Considering I wasn't a huge fan of the flavor, it wasn't a great value. It also contained 3 types of meat and meat is expensive.
2/5
Originality - Meatpies are a bit hard to judge because they can vary greatly. However, I've never had a meatpie made quite like this.
3/5
Presentation - The pies could be made to look more appetizing, although the view from the top is nice.
2/5
Difficulty - The dish itself was not difficult to make, but the recipe was unspecific and unclear. One instance is the recipe called for milk and in the directions it said water when there was no water in the ingredients list and the water had an unspecified amount. I used the milk since I didn't see that milk measurement mentioned elsewhere in the recipe. The recipe was also unclear on how much meat, cheese and sauce to use, as well as what exactly was the meat and sauce.
2/5
Notes: For minced meat, I used ground beef and ground pork. For the grilkorv I used beef smoked sausage. For the minced meat sauce I used a moderate amount of marinara with ground beef sauce. Measurements were unclear so I used what fit in the pie shell. It is hard to determine how accurate the recipe was since the recipe given wasn't very clear.
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Zell
Taste - I've never been a fan of meat pies of any kind, and this didn't do anything to change my mind.
3.5/5
Appearance - I appreciate multiple shots of the dish, but the overhead shots make it look boring, and the one good shot from the side is blurry and blown.
3.5/5
Value - Not too bad in general, but it can get expensive depending on what meat is used for the mystery meat.
4/5
Difficulty - It probably shouldn’t have been as difficult as it was, but the recipe instructions are not very specific and possibly even misleading.
3/5
Originality - Well, it’s a pot-pie really, but the combination of meats, including grillkorv, makes it slightly more unique than others.
3/5
Lightning: 16/25
Zell: 17/25
Average Score: 16.5/25
Combined Score: 33/50
Exciting stuff so far eh? Let's crack on with 7th position!
7th Position!
Attachment 43837 Fujiko Yojimbo
Lightning
Taste - This pie tasted like brownies. So it was quite yummy.
4/5
Value - The dish cost $14.37 in ingredients. It was cheap, but didn't make a large portion.
4/5
Originality - The dish is pretty traditional with ingredients commonly found in baked goods.
2/5
Presentation - It looks very appetizing, especially with the icing sugar and whipped cream.
3.5/5
Difficulty - It wasn't particularly easy or difficult to make.
3/5
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Zell
Taste - I'm not a fan of super icky sickeningly sweet uber-desserts, so this is sort of over-the-top for me. But as far as such things go, it was good.
3/5
Appearance - The submitted picture is quite lovely. The blue plating is super fresh, and everything is just right.
5/5
Value - I didn't have to spend anything at all to make this as I had all the ingredients at home already. Because of that, the value is good. However, it's really just a simple brownie mix, and the taste wasn't so different that it trumped a simple box o' brownie, in which case the value is slightly diminished. Also, as a dessert, its value as food is clearly less than the other dishes. These are empty calories that make people fat. As such, money spent on such things is squandered. Okay, okay. It's not all that bad, but clearly it's not as efficient a source of nutrition as the other dishes.
3/5
Difficulty - Just about as easy at it gets. The one fault I have with the recipe is that the chef does not specify what size baking tin to use, and the standard average baking tin that I have was too big and spread the mixture out too thin, which meant no "lava."
4/5
Originality - I hate to knock the simplicity, because it's definitely a selling point, but that gets reflected in "Difficulty." Here I have to evaluate whether or not the dish is unique, and it quite simply is not. It's a brownie.
2/5
Lightning: 16.5/25
Zell: 17/25
Average Score: 17/25
Combined Score: 33.5/50
Two down, now we have a joint placement! I shall do these one after the other, so away we go!
6th Position!
Attachment 43831 LocoColt04 Ramuh
Lightning
Taste - The noodles had a nice, smoky flavor and were not at all dried out. However, I did not like the ratio of noodles to the rest of the ingredients. I am also not a fan of onions and peppers, but I can see how they work well for the dish.
3/5
Value - The dish cost me $32.88 in ingredients and is one of the more expensive dishes due to the high cost of chicken. It did have a good variety of ingredients in it though, for the cost, which was nice.
2.5/5
Originality - As far as originality goes, all of the ingredients are ones commonly found in stir fry’s although the spices were a good twist.
2/5
Presentation - There is a definite splash of colour with the peppers and the bowl it was served in, but it looks slightly monotonous.
2.5/5
Difficulty - The recipe was long but it was user friendly and easy to follow. The dish would probably be easier to make a second time around. It was a very involved process and took a while.
3.5/5
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Zell
Taste - I love stir fry, and this was a particularly good one, so *joy*. It would actually be a 5/5 but I had to take off a half a point for the "optional additions according to preference" which I think takes away from the dish. Of course, if you tell me to put in the things that I like, I'm going to like the dish more. I don't want that. I want you to tell me what to put in; I want you to make me like what you like.
4.5/5
Appearance - After seeing the stir fry come to life in front of me, I was disappointed by the pictures that were provided because they don't do the dish justice. The vibrant peppers make this dish enjoyable to look at as well as eat, and I just don't think the provided pictures gave us that.
3.5/5
Value - This made more than I thought it would, and ended up feeding my whole family. The only things I had to even buy were the noodles, chicken, and peppers. Good value, especially for the taste!
4/5
Difficulty - Other than dealing with the chicken, wasn't too bad. Actually I'm bumping this from 4 to 4.5 because the instructions were just perfect. Very thorough, especially compared to some of the other recipes we worked with.
4.5/5
Originality - The chipotle noodles added something to the fry I had never personally encountered before. The combination of flavors was simple but unique and they all really went well together to make the dish special. Again, though, I'm docking a half a point for giving us options. Options take away from what is otherwise a special dish.
4/5
Lightning: 13.5/25
Zell: 20.5/25
Average Score: 17/25
Combined Score: 34/50
6th Position!
Attachment 43833 Jiro Gilgamesh
Lightning
Taste - The dish was tasty, but it could have used a bit more flavor. It could benefit from some extra spices such as garlic, pepper, and italian seasoning. That being said, the flavors that were there fit well together.
3.5/5
Value - The recipe cost me $29.89 in ingredients, which is on the more expensive end. i Was expecting it to not be a great value, but actually I was able to stuff 10 tubes generously with the filling recipe provided.
3/5
Originality - The dish is pretty typical of an Italian dish, although the chicken threw me off a bit. I was expecting something more along the lines of ground beef.
2.5/5
Presentation - The dish is well presented, the way the cheese is melted and the colour shows through in a few areas. It looks very appetizing.
3.5/5
Difficulty - The recipe seemed easy to follow at first glance, but there were a few unclear spots. One thing is that apparently the recipe maker bought noodles that didn't need to be cooked beforehand and this wasn't specified. It was after reading the recipe on the box of the noodles I bought (it had a very similar recipe) that I noticed I needed to precook my noodles, which set me back a few minutes. Also they said shredded cheese but did not specify which kind. Stuffing the tubes was also interesting.
2.5/5
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Zell
Taste - Had several tastes that I like (mushrooms, spinach) and was in general a great mix of flavors. It's not perfect, though, as standard "tomato sauce" is not the greatest red sauce to bring everything together and its sharpness drowned out the spinach and even a lot of the mushroom. But still very good.
4/5
Appearance - The colors go well together if you find the right balance. I love the dark green spinach peaking through the cheese and sauce. It's easy to make this look appetizing. (Of course, that's the power of cheese)
4/5
Value - Considering that it fed 5 people, the $12.50 price tag on the meal was a fantastic value.
5/5
Difficulty - Easier than I thought it would be. Truly the only thing of difficulty is stuffing the noodles, which could be annoying without a utensil specialized for stuffing. There are few ingredients, which is nice, and they are all used in rather simple ways.
4/5
Originality - The dish kind of takes a dip here. I mean, I've had this before. There's nothing very specific about it and "tomato sauce" is especially generic.
2/5
Lightning: 15/25
Zell: 19/25
Average Score: 17/25
Combined Score: 34/50
That's the only joint placing in the entire competition, so the rest is plain sailing. The next dish is my personal favourite because it is from a different culture. That, or it just has a very nice name. Even if I can't pronounce it.
5th Position!
Attachment 43838 Yerushalmi Ultima
Lightning
Taste - It tasted very...interesting. A lot of the flavours worked well together.
2.5/5
Value - The dish cost me $34.16 in ingredients and made a good serving.
3/5
Originality - This dish is unlike any I have ever had before. I am glad I got to extend my tastes.
4.5/5
Presentation - The dish looks tasty and appetizing. It has a few splashes of colour which look nice.
3/5
Difficulty - It wasn't easy to make and the ingredients weren't easy to come by.
2/5
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Zell
Taste - The combination of tastes was quite weird to me. The chickpeas in the dish seemed odd, and I'm not a big fan of them anyways.
3.5/5
Appearance - I'd like to have seen it plated, not just in a pot.
3.5/5
Value -This was actually not bad for me. I feed 5 people every night, so the group meal aspect of this was great.
4.5
Difficulty - Out of everything we've made other than the cannelloni, this dish seemed to have the most convoluted preparation. Perhaps it’s not that it was hard to make so much as it was time-consuming and had multiple steps involving standing over the stove for blocks of time.
3.5
Originality - I've had plenty of stews before but this was pretty interesting, even if, in the end, I'm not personally fond of several of the tastes involved.
4.5
Lightning: 15/25
Zell: 19.5/25
Average Score: 17/25
Combined Score: 34.5/50
And with that very interesting dish marked, we are getting closer to our top three! Who will it be? But first, the fourth placed summon!
4th Position!
Attachment 43836 Faris Leviathan
Lightning
Taste - The soup was good but it could have used a bit more flavor.
2.5/5
Value - The dish cost me $18.52 in ingredients. Considering you can buy a can for about $2 the value doesn't seem great, but it made a very generous amount and homemade is still better.
2.5/5
Originality - The recipe isn't very original and the ingredients are commonly found in this dish. However, it is common for a reason.
2/5
Presentation - The soup looks creamy and the broccoli looks appetizing, but it's nothing mind-blowing.
2.5/5
Difficulty - The soup was very easy to make and the recipe was straightforward. I had no difficulty.
4.5/5
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Zell
Taste - I love broccoli. I love cheese. It stormed the other day and stormy days are great soup days.
5/5
Appearance - Loses points for not using a spoon of holy eating +1 and for the keyboard photobomb.
4/5
Value - Great value, I doubled everything and made enough soup for a few days and it was still a palatable expense.
5/5
Difficulty - Seriously easy. Couldn't be much easier really.
5/5
Originality - This is straight up standard brocco soup. While it’s great, there’s nothing really unique about it at all.
2/5
Lightning: 14/25
Zell: 21/25
Average Score: 17.5/25
Combined Score: 35/50
I bet you're just dying to find out the top three aren't you?
Well... I'm going to be mean and let you wait for an agonising few hours (which in this case means, me going to bed for an exam in the morning) and then I will reveal your top three! There's just three left. Who will win?
Will it be Hecatonchier's chicken parm meatballs?
Will it be Sacred's meatloaf?
Will it Odin's zantetsuken killer curry?
You guys will just have to wait until later! However, don't fret. A full six dishes have been revealed! Feel free to talk and discuss all about the dishes revealed thus far and speculate as to who might have won!
My personal favourite dish out of the ones seen so far has to be Ultima/Yerushalmi. It's just so different and original! Even though chickpeas don't go down well with me, I'd be more than willing to try that hearty looking meal, but then the others also look great if you look at the recipes by clicking the icons.
But what about you? Talk to me people! I know you've just been dying to see this competition reach it's thrilling climax!
2 Attachment(s)
A Thank You To Our Judges
Before I let you go gabble about the contest, may we give a standing ovation to these absolute troopers....
The Troopers
Attachment 43898Shion
Attachment 43899Chionos
They have literally worked and spent tons to make the contest the best it could be. Seriously. Wanting nothing to detract our fabulous contestants, our judges had to cook, eat and judge ELEVEN dishes. That alone is worth a medal.
I will be doing my damndest to try and get these two a prize they deserve, for without them, this contest would have been going nowhere. Praise too should also be given to Shion for actually thinking of the idea in the first place!
Talking about prizes, the lucky winner of the contest is going to be given a special gift... Details to be presented shortly... this tale is not over quite yet.
