StarHub - Hubalicious with Emmanuel Stroobant

Heard of Hubalicious? If you a foodie who watch lots of food channels on TV, you would have seen the advertisement on TV about this event. It's the 3rd year that StarHub is organising Hubalicious!

I attended the very first Hubalicious event in 2010, featuring one of my favourite Vietnamese TV personality Luke Nyugen. Comparing the 2010 event to this year's that I attended over the weekend, the event is now so much bigger with so many more people attending!

This year there are 4 celebrity TV chefs that's hubbing with viewers. If you always wished that television could transit smell and flavours to you, this might be the interim solution till someone invents it!

The 4 are:
- Food Channel Asia's Aarti Sequeira,
- TLC's Bob Blumer,
- Asian Food Channel's Emmanuel Stroobant and
- BBC Lifestyle's Rachel Allen.

I attended Chef Emmanuel Stroobant's because I have been to his restaurants and  always wanted to see how he's like in person!

Another reason I chose Chef Emmanuel's event was I wanted to visit the spanking new W Singapore!


Held at the W Hotel Singapore ballroom, there were around 18 tables! Gulp, so many hungry people around! haha...

Don't you love the metallic shoe on the centre of the table as a show piece? So W Hotels!

If you are trying to see what's on the menu, it's available at the StarHub's website http://www.starhub.com/hubalicious even before you attend. ;-)



While we waited for the event to start, we were nibbling bread!
We were pampered with nice warm bread. I particularly like the small round sour dough bread.


Finally when Chef Emmanuel appeared at the ballroom, the hungry fans all cheered!

Not in his trademark black, he was in a very tight fitting blue shirt that showed off his muscles. The MC for the night, Lavinia Tan was teasing Chef about his muscles. How many other chefs has muscles all over?

Chef Emmanuel went on stage and explained his first dish. It's Grey Shrimp that he grew up eating while in his hometown Belgium. He shared about his time growing up and how he finally ended up in Singapore.

The theme of this year's event is The Heritage Trail. The different chefs will be sharing about what they eat growing up. Tonight's menu is what Chef grew up eating in Belgium.


Tomato Grey Shrimp


I want to buy this glass container and serve food like this at home!!


This starter has such an interesting taste. The dressing gave the shrimps a salty and slightly sweet taste. You can see they are quite plump. The tomatoes I think it was momotaro tomatoes. The shrimps reminds me of very hydrated 'hae bee'.



The night was like a "show and eat" similar to 'show and tell' but with food you can eat after!

The 2nd time Chef Emmanuel went on stage, it was with this man in black. It was Chef Emmanuel's 'everything also can do' assistant Tim Ong.

Reflecting on it now, it was a very entertaining night. The 3 persons you see on the photo above, they were like presenting a stand up comedy! OK, they have potential to be great, but not that great yet, but very entertaining though.


Pan-Fried Haloumi with Caramelised Watermelon

I have not tried Haloumi before so it was interesting that they served this. A very interesting texture I would say. (It kinds of squeaks when you bite it! So fun!!)

When Chef and his assistant was pan-frying the Haloumi, the ballroom smell so good! Ah, like watching TV, but this time with the smell coming though!

The preparation of the watermelon was most interesting. Even if you did not attend, let me share with you how it was caramelised. Cubed Watermelon was pan fried with soy sauce and butter mix! Can't imagine the taste right? Turns out quite well! Try it! (a bit of soy is enough, if you are trying it at home)




Slow-Cooked Salmon in a Rice Cooker

This was another interesting dish. Salmon that has been slow-cooked in a rice cooker!
It's time to put your rice cooker to good use! (You need one that has a Keep Warm function).


Want to make your dishes a bit classy, that black streak was squid ink painted on the plate before putting the salmon on it.


You need sashimi grade salmon and you roll them into a shape of a tube with heat-safe cling foil. It's then submerge in water that has been on keep warm mode. Leave it for around 20 minutes. The salmon will slowly cook and turn out like the above.

What you get is salmon that is cooked enough and don't have the whitish marks that appears and pale orange in colour when you cook it at home. This was so soft and delicious!

Yup, for those who cooks, this is like sous vide! Just approximate temperature that's good enough to try it at home without the expensive equipments!

If you want the recipe, the MC announced it would be available on the FOOD.I.Y app soon. You can download it on your iPhone, iPad or Andriod devices now and wait for the recipe to appear. ;-)
 


Beef Tenderloin En Croute with Sauteed Wild Mushrooms

Beef tenderloin wrapped in pastry. Quite a big piece too!
For those who were hungry, this was a delicious filler to our tummy!

Every dish was paired with a different wine. We had 4 different wines that night and we had a Ms Pretty (yup, that's her family name) from Lindeman's explaining to us how to pair and explained how they paired that evening's dinner wines.


Marzipan

The dessert was Marzipan! Chef Emmanuel said they only had this during Christmas when he was growing up in Belgium. They are only allowed to have this during Christmas, where they can play with their food and then eat it!

Both Chef Emmanuel and assistant Tim was on stage showing how they craft mini figurines out. Impressive! It's like playing with edible Play-Doh! So fun!

The diners were to make their down dessert and the following are what people on the table I was on made. Yup, the more creative people!


This was done by a writer by profession. Cute eh?


Someone else was making a chicken and mooncakes!


There's the Hubalicious event with TLC's Bob Blumer tonight.(3 October 2012)
I checked, it's Sold Out!
(Next time, read interesting news at GrapeVine.Sg first if you missed out.)

But if you are a fan of BBC Lifestyle's Rachel Allen, there are still tickets available for the 6 October (Sat) event. Book your tickets with SISTIC.

For more information:
Click on to: http://www.starhub.com/hubalicious

(a note of thanks to StarHub for the invitation to this event)