Miso Soup, Gyoza, Fried Rice and Vla-Flip by Nino
Reviewed by Samir and Wietse
Tuesday 21nd Nino kicked off the Mensa Masterchef competition, unfortunately without his sidekick Charlie. Nevertheless, Samir and I took it upon ourselves to judge Nino in his ambitious endeavour to feed the Koornbeurs with fancy food for the low price of only €3,-. Frankly, I had to double check whether I was supposed to pay only €3,-, since Nino announced this was going to be a whopping three course dinner, featuring miso soup as a starter, gyoza and fried rice as the main dish, and finally the classic Dutch vla-flip for dessert. That’s a lot for €3,-, but would that not hurt the quality? Would we still have enough money left over for some great merch at shop.lustrum22.nl? Let’s find out!
As mentioned, the mensa was kicked off with a miso soup. The attic was already quite crowded, but the food was served right on time and everyone got their food quite quickly. Soon, we were all enjoying our soup: though it was quite simple in a sense, the taste was certainly great. Nino was off to a great start, until disaster struck… Nino was forced to announce there was not quite enough soup, pleading for those who still had some soup to share with their hungry brethren.
The next course would have to satisfy the unsatisfied: after all, Nino prided himself on making a simply good mensa that would leave you satisfied. This would have to be done by way of fried rice and gyoza. Logistically, this was already a bit more difficult, since we had to cram ourselves into the abactisgang to get our fried rice first, then move back to the kitchen area to get our gyoza. Despite that, Nino definitely fulfilled his promise of making enough food: there was enough fried rice to feed an orphanage (maybe even several). There were, however, some critiques to be had. For starters: we hope that there wasn’t so much rice that it went to waste. The fried rice was not really fried: Samir came to the conclusion it was more of a rice pudding. Was it still filling and tasty? It sure was, but it was not the fried rice we were promised and didn’t quite look the part either. Then, the gyoza. Some gyoza had unfortunately been burnt. Not severely to the point where it wasn’t edible anymore, however burnt enough to spread an unpleasant smell in the kitchen. The gyoza also fell apart during cooking to form into one big blob. Well, two big blobs actually: a vegetarian and a meaty blob, which is a shame, because the teaser picture looked really good and the taste was nice. Generally, for the entire main course it can be said that the presentation was not quite it, but luckily the taste did not suffer.
Lastly, there was the desert: vla-flip! Honestly, the most confusing dish of the entire mensa. Miso soup with gyoza and fried rice? Sure, I can see how that fits together. But to then add a vla-flip? It made no sense to me. Moreover, we had to pour it ourselves into our dirty plates (which I can’t blame Nino for in all fairness), giving the remarkable taste palette of vla-flip mixed with rice. On top of that, we really cannot award Nino any points for either skill or creativity regarding the store bought vla-flip. However, we ought to keep one thing in mind: we actually got a desert and you can’t go very wrong with the proven, classic vla-flip. There have been plenty of mensa’s where I paid €3,- and only got one bowl of food that did not quite leave me satisfied, yet here comes Nino with soup, dumplings, rice, and a motherfucking vla-flip. Honestly, I can only compliment that.
In conclusion, despite some hiccups in the logistics and some troubles with the preparation and presentation of especially the main course, Nino definitely fulfilled his promise to make a simply good mensa. If you were out of luck you didn’t get any soup, if you were vegan you didn’t get a vla-flip, but you know what you got if you were simply hungry? Food. And plenty of it. Even if it was mostly rice. All for a low price.
This review was brought to you by Lustkie 110: Atlas, visit shop.lustrum22.nl to find lustrum merchandise with a price/quality ratio as great as Nino’s dinner!