Food Snob

I just don't enjoy eating out anymore. I'm so very often disappointed, perhaps my expectations are too high, but then when I know I can prepare food better than a trained chef who does it for a living, something must be wrong.  I'm not talking about your fine dining, Michelin Star restaurants that most of us only get to eat in on very special occasions. I'm talking about restaurants, where you pay a decent amount, and are entitled to expect reasonable food.  Finding those restaurants, where the chef obviously takes pride in what is presented, food that demonstrates his/her passion with the food they prepare, and the dishes they serve to their customers, those restaurants are so hard to find.

Personally I find this confusing, because culinary art is so in vogue right now,  with so many chefs in the spotlight, or seeking the spotlight, and shows and competitions on prime time TV, cooking has very much become the in thing, and restaurants really need to step up their game in order to bring the customers back. When a self taught, home cook can prepare a dish far superior to a trained chef in a 4 star resort, that's just not right.

While traveling back to Europe this week, we stayed overnight at an up-market, expensive hotel in Panama, and had dinner in their restaurant. I've been so looking forward to coming back to the UK, I've been dreaming about shrimp, or prawns as we Brits call them.  The prawns you get in Europe are so succulent and delicious, they're tender and have so much flavor, I absolutely can't get enough of them.   So when I saw shrimp on the menu I thought "let's try it" perhaps Panama has lovely flavorful shrimp/prawns like Europe! 

I ordered the shrimp cocktail, and Greek salad, nothing complicated, 2 pretty simple dishes, how could it go wrong?  I usually order what I term "safe" food when I eat out, something that I know is fool proof.  I really didn't think anyone could mess up these dishes, I was so wrong, the shrimp was frozen, and had obviously been quickly defrosted in the microwave (I can always tell when a microwave's been used) it tasted bland, and had a dry, woody texture, if I closed my eyes and someone put the food in my mouth I would have thought I was chewing on cardboard.  The iceberg lettuce was soggy from all the dressing that it had probably been sitting in since that morning, and the shrimp was drowning in a spicy overpowering sauce, I think someone must have dropped the bottle of hot sauce in during the preparation.  

"It came in a fancy glass", is about the best thing I can say about this dish. I'd asked for some bread for the table, and what arrived was defrosted, microwave heated rolls, that became hard as they cooled, and individual butter portions in plastic!

Then the Greek salad arrived, again soggy lettuce, and what must have been an entire jar of Spanish (stuffed) olives, and crumbled feta cheese, well I give them credit for getting the cheese right, but sadly the salad was totally overpowered by the olives.  Not wanting to appear ungrateful, as Bob was paying a lot of money for the meal I ate what I could, but it made me wonder what was going on back in the kitchen, and I also realized that I'm becoming a real food snob. 

If the ingredients you start with are sub-standard, then it doesn't matter what sauces you cover it with, the  food will always be sub-standard.

Anyway, back in the good old UK, Mum had bought prawns for me, so I set about preparing my version of a prawn cocktail, which was delicious.

Daisy's Sweet Avocado and Prawn Cocktail

12 ounces prawns

2 Avocado's, peeled, cut in half, pit removed, 

2 heaped tbsp's good mayonnaise

2 tsp tomato ketchup

2 tsp apricot jam

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 tsp lemon zest

dash of hot sauce

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Mixed salad leaves, rocket, cress, lamb's leaf, baby spinach

I freshly baked French baguette

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 thin slices of lemon for garnish

12 cherry tomatoes sliced in half

Dry the prawns on some kitchen paper and set aside.

Using a sharp knife, vertically slice a piece off the rounded side of the avocado halves, so you have 2 flat side's.

In a medium bowl add the mayonnaise, ketchup, apricot jam, lemon juice, lemon zest, hot sauce and black pepper, and mix well to combine.

Toss the prawns in the sauce.

Cut 4 thick (1 1/2 inch) pieces of the baguette and toast (broil) lightly on both sides, place one piece of bread in the center of each plate, drizzle a little olive oil over the bread, place the avocado half on top of the bread, (flat side down) place a lemon slice on top of the avocado and stack the prawns on top. 

Place the salad leaves on top the prawns and garnish the plate with the the tomatoes, and remaining salad leaves.

Serve immediately

serves 4

Enjoy :o)