Saturday, October 19, 2013

ToTT Taste Challenge + ToTT Sale till 27 October 2013

Recently I wrote a post about the ToTT Taste Challenge, which happens to be Singapore's Biggest Taste Challenge and probably one-of-its-kind in Singapore. The attraction of this competition was the Huge Prize! It was the winner-takes-it-all prize! The best person takes it all!

ToTT Taste Challenge

$3,333 worth of ToTT products and $200 worth of Jason's products. It's something most people who cooks or have their own kitchen would like to have in their home. Ice cream maker, sous vide machine and many other nifty gadgets that you would love.

I recently saw the Silit ecompact Roast/Steam/Smoke 5pc System being used and was tempted by it. A chef was smoking some food in that equipment in front of us and it was so easy! Of course the food that came out tasted great! That's the piece of thing on top of the Sous Vide machine. Hmm now to get permission from the wife to get it.

At the end of the contest, a lady won it all!
She's such a lucky girl and had very sharp taste buds! She got almost everything correct!
We were all so happy for the winner yet a little jealous that she won! Who won't be jealous?

Here's what happened that day!

ToTT Taste Challenge

They were not going to make it easy for us to win! There was a two-page rules and regulations. It's to make sure no one cheats. All the things that you can argue about, they have already thought of it. Yup, so Singapore style, so fair and square. They even read out rule after rule so that we agree to it! It was so hilarious at the same time.

We were given a blind fold and a small whiteboard with a marker.
We were to taste and then write our answers on the whiteboard all with the blind fold on. We were told it's possible, yes, it was indeed possible. After writing our answers, we were to wipe it off.

ToTT Taste Challenge

The photo I took of the crowd just before I was on blindfold and could not take anymore photos.
It was full house! People in all sizes, young and old, different nationalities were there.

If you are wondering where it was held at ToTT, it was held at the ToTT Bistro. They reserved part of the bistro and made it into a competition area.

The following few photos are courtesy of the organisers.

ToTT Taste Challenge

We were seated in 4 rows. Each row had someone or multiple person (I am not sure, as we were blind folded) to take care of the contestants and also to ensure fairness. 

We had 25 items to taste in 3 rounds. The major rule that we all had to remember was to have our hands on the table with our palm facing up.  It is to make it easy for the taste items to be placed in our palm. It's also so that the items are far enough to prevent people from smelling it.

We all had 30 seconds to taste and write our answers on the board. 30 seconds suddenly felt so fast!

ToTT Taste Challenge

A photo of a contestant's palm with the ingredient that was placed on it. The ingredients were either put a small plastic cup or a spoon for us to try.

Many items were really familiar items. However as we were blind folded and only had 30 seconds to guess, it became very difficult! Our brains blanked out and 30 seconds were too short to recall the name of the ingredient!

Eg, avocados are things that we are used to, but when they give you an avocado that is slightly ripening (still a little hard and crunchy), you would think very hard and wonder what it is! Of all things, I wrote down softened potato in the last 5 seconds!

ToTT Taste Challenge

Herbs like basil, when your mind is blank, is difficult to recall! So familiar yet the brain and taste buds are not cooperating!

Oh, I mentioned that our hands are to be on the table, so that we can't bring it to our nose and smell it. We were to pop the food into our mouths to taste and not touch or smell it. It was a taste test! Not a small or touch test.

ToTT Taste Challenge

Things that were in spoons were generally easier to answer to me. Those that were in liquid form and placed in the mini cups were the difficult ones.

One example is the Teriyaki sauce was difficult for almost everyone! We were told only 2 or 3 person got it right. Instead of the usual thick version that was ready to be used, they had the watery version that most of us thought was soya sauce!

It was also during the liquid taste sessions that funny answers came out. The MC told us someone wrote Unicorn's Tears for one of the answers! I think it was the foul smelling fish sauce that someone answered Unicorn's Tears. I got that right, even before tasting it. It was so distinct and it filled the air with a 'smell'.

ToTT Taste Challenge

The bananas was one of the easiest items to guess! I wonder if anyone answered minions!

We had 25 items to taste. The first 20 were single ingredients to try. The last 5 were different. They were dishes that they serve in the bistro. From a cup of gravy or sauce, we had to guess from a list of ingredients that were read out, what was not in the gravy/sauce. That was interesting as it really made us taste the sauce over and over again to make sure!

For example, Corn and Crabmeat Soup. The MC asked if Pepper, Eggs and two two other items were inside which I have forgotten were in the soup. Logically we could have thought that pepper would be inside, just to be sure, we had to taste it a few times to see if there were traces of it. There isn't any pepper!

We were glad that it was finally over because it was very stressful and it wasn't very comfortable when we could not see things that are around us. While they were tabulating the results, we were 'dismissed' from the ToTT Bistro area. Everyone walked to the main shopping area and you can see people started picking up things, all being tempted!

ToTT Taste Challenge

I walked around too and saw things that I think some of you would be interested in.

Planning a Halloween Party for adults or kids?
A range of Halloween themed boxes, paper plates, cups and many other things are all available here.

There are other party stuff that we have gotten for our parties at home.

ToTT Taste Challenge

For those who are into trying to get into molecular cuisine, you can buy the ingredients and equipments here too. I have been tempted by this shelf for a long time now. Maybe it's time to take the plunge and play with food.

It's a great time to come down and be tempted. Things are less painful on the pocket because the ToTT Sale is on. The sale is on till 27 October 2013. Hurry down if you are a kitchenware and tableware enthusiast.

When you are there, try out the new revamped ToTT Bistro menu. We live nearby and thought the food previously was only so so.  It seems that as they turned 3, their offering from the Bisto has grown up too. The Laksa with Crayfish and Shredded Chicken is very good.  It's for those who love 'lemak' kind of laksa and also want to indulge in some nicer ingredients in their laksa like crayfish. It was one of the taste test sauce we tried during the taste test. It was so delicious that we wanted to order the dish to try the whole dish!

The ToTT Taste Challenge was fun!
It gave me an idea, for my next invitation to friends over for lunch or dinner, maybe I should play the taste challenge game. It would be really fun ya?

If you miss it this year, hopefully they will organise this again next year!
Hopefully with even better prizes too!


ToTT
896 Dunearn Road
Sime Darby Building
01-01A
Singapore 589472

Tel : +65 6219 7077
Store Operating Hours: Mon - Fri: 11.00am - 9.00pm ; Sat, Sun & PH: 10:00am - 9:00pm
Bistro Operating Hours: Mon - Fri: 10.30am - 9.00pm ; Sat, Sun & PH: 9:30am - 9:00pm



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