Reviewed by Daan and Joep
Tuesday 2nd of April: a new message in the Koornbeurs announcements. Loek is making a vegan Chickpea-tomato curry. Moreover, he will be experimenting with eggplants and dates! How this went? Read on and find out all about it.
Main Course:
First off was the main course. A red curry, vegan style with chickpeas and tomatoes. After a bit of waiting, it was ready to be attacked at 19:10. A bit late, but we’ve had worse and it’s the Koornbeurs after all. The curry was accompanied by white rice, oven grilled tomatoes (fancy!) and pita bread. The pita bread was self-made and very delicious, big ups for that. The slight saltiness of the bread really accompanied the fresher taste of the curry, which was not spicy at all. To complete the taste pallet, coconut yogurt was added on the side. This however did not go unnoticed. Loek was very enthusiastic about the coconut yogurt, as one can be, and slammed it on the bar so hard the yogurt blasted all over the place. Luckily, no major injuries resulted from this so the mensa could carry on! We would also like to thank Loek for not putting in/on any coriander in advance but keeping it seperate. The coriander hate gang is pleased. After enjoying this main course, there was even enough for a substantial bijhaal. Then, it was on to the desert…
Dessert:
After a successful main course, it was time for the well anticipated eggplant-date experiment. Unfortunately, disaster struck and the mousse collapsed, resulting in no desert. Loek was however not defeated so easily and tried to save it! While many a hungry mensa go-er was breathing down Loek’s neck, self-raising flour was added to the eggplant-date mixture in the hopes a cake would rise from the mousse-left ashes. To no avail. The cake was deemed ready at 21:00. It was however not fully cooked, resulting in a floury paste of dates and eggplant, surrounded by a tough crust. It also kinda smelled like beer that was just brewed, which was unexpected. Although we admire the effort to save the desert, it was not to write home (but certainly to the redakkie) about.
Final Remarks:
So we have an excellent tasting curry, with self made bread and tomatoes and coconut yogurt on the side, as well as an eggplant-date paste. This was at the price of 5 euro’s. We do think this is on the high side, but the main course did make it worth it, especially because there was enough for everyone to eat twice. Once more, the standards are set high for the rest of the contestants!
This review was brought to you during working/studying hours.