At the judge's table:
At the far left: Tom Colicchio a.k.a. Dorothy Pei '11, a restauranteur, whose palette is not compromised by his love of eating, will be reviewing Thorne.
At the far right: Gail Simmons a.k.a. Alicia Satterly '10, a Food and Wine editor whose culinary skills have given her a refined palette, will be reviewing Moulton.
The challenge: One of Bowdoin's most notorious rivalries, Thorne versus Moulton.
Let the games begin.
Dorothy/Tom's Review:
As my eyes first scanned across the entrees at Thorne, I felt the very emotions that a child experiences in front of a colorful assortment of candies—eagerness, delight, joy and of course, hunger.
Presentation, I thought, was always one of the strengths of Bowdoin dining.
I find color to be a great enticement of appetite since it is something that we can immediately see. Sight—one our of most crucial senses—is definitely an essential sense to appeal to.
Being quite a fan of seafood, I naturally dug right into the haddock. Immediately, I knew that a key ingredient was missing—lemon juice.
I was relieved to find a slice of lemon on top of my fish and found the light sprinkle of paprika on its edges to be a great plus.
I feel like a lot of seafood, especially fish with meat that is white, soft and flaky, requires a touch of acidity to bring out the light, fresh flavor that I attribute to seafood.
After squeezing the lemon over the haddock, I realized how much just one ingredient can change a dish.
Instantly, I found the haddock to be not bland at all, but rather appetizing and quite flavorful.
As I chewed and chewed...and chewed, I began to wonder why my fish had a rubbery texture that one finds in microwavable dinners. Clearly, the fish was slightly overcooked—a common consequence of leaving already cooked meat on a hot surface for too long.
Considering this flaw in execution, it was a good thing that there were other components of the dish to divert one's attention—the seasoning on top, consisting of bread crumbs, cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach and peppers, reminded me, upon first sight, of the festive sprinkles on a holiday cookie. Combined with the acidity of the lemon, I found the result to be very satisfying.
It was not until I was more than halfway through the dish that I became aware of the sauce, of which I unfortunately did not get much.
The sauce, which was orange and possessed a creamy texture, was very tasty and I could easily get a sense of its blend of ingredients—wine, tomato puree and a touch of butter.
It surprised me because I usually associate such rich, creamy sauces with heavier forms of meat, such as beef or pork.
Therefore, I applaud Bowdoin dining for serving this appetizing dish and realize that the one error in execution was a result of cooking fish on such a large scale.
My only suggestion? Give me more sauce next time, please!
Alicia/Gail's Review:
Last week, I dined at Moulton, knowing that I wanted to review their Indian food spread.
With a full plate, I sat down with my group of friends and immediately demanded that my friend tear off a piece of his garlic naan for me.
The thing looked like an enlarged english muffin, and I wasn't sure it would be worth the effort to get a separate portion for myself.
My instincts were right; the naan was basically dough browned in a skillet, and lacked the seductive buttery puff of true naan from a tandoor oven.
Oh well—strike one.
Really all of the starches in this meal lacked flavor. But since I'm no longer a vegetarian, I just shrug at this and feel grateful that I don't have to sustain myself off of Moulton's insipid lentils and rice.
The bland side dishes were obviously just a cunning lead-in and prepared my palate as a blank canvas that could readily surrender to the spice rampage.
By comparison, when I tasted the Indian chicken vindaloo, I guzzled down a full glass of water before taking another bite.
It was spicy and assaulted my taste buds—perfect. The East Indian fish curry also was quite flavorful and tender, though a bit tomatoey for my liking.
I'm admittedly not much a fan of fish preparations that veer too far from seasoning simply with salt and lemon juice—I find that the delicacy of fish is easily overpowered. I ate it all though, and justified it as a pretty tasty way to get my Omega-3's.
While I was unable to discern the individual components of spices in either the fish or chicken, the presence of garam masala was seemingly ubiquitous.
Overall, the seasoning was a little muddled and even strange throughout, but I liked it nevertheless. The flavors were not necessarily authentic, or anything to write home about, for that matter. Still, I am happy to get some semblance of Indian food from the dining hall; it provides a respite from the monotony of spaghetti marinara and grilled chicken that plague my palate at other points during the week.
The strange, but flavorful, automatically trumps the safe and under-seasoned in the world of Bowdoin, where dinner is frequently one of my favorite times in the day.
Judge's verdict: Thorne takes the win this time. Gail's still hungry and Tom just burped and exclaimed, "Ooh, that smells like the haddock!"