No la... It's no biggie, I've made it to NOLA!!-- 20150322-20150331: Trip to New Orleans, Louisiana for RCA Annual Conference and Culinology Competition

Excuse me for the lame pun, I just had to. Sorry~

x.

After weeks of sleepless night and exasperation tasting the same shrimps and biscuit over and over again, finally I was there, Hall D of Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, carrying out my last routine before I officially bade farewell to this pandemonium. The food was served, the judges tasted the food and gave their feedback, not really welcoming as what I understood.

"It's over," I thought to myself.

"No more self doubt, you've done your best, no regrets." I told myself.

I thought it was a relief, but I was in fact desensitising myself to all competition related stuff to a point that I couldn't feel anything even at the moment when we knew we were one of the top 3. or maybe I was just flabbergasted, cause I sincerely thought the other team would make it instead of us. But it's a fact, we got 1st runner up, once again beaten by Johnson and Wales (ish!). But what am I to complain? 2nd out of the 17 teams worldwide that took part in this competition, that's a helluva achievement! You go girl!

x.

And that was two weeks ago, now as I'm back to school and my FYP, everything that happened back there was just too surreal. It literally (I mean it!) felt like a dream. Did it happen? Did it not happen? I think it did, at least I have photos (though not many) as my alibi. xP

D -3

Touched down New Orleans after a long haul flight! Our flight was delayed for an hour, so it was 7 something when we arrived. Guess what! We went to the hotel on a limousine! What an experience!

1 stop before New Orleans, it's snowing in Chicago! FIRST SNOW IN MY LIFE

Squeezing our best smiles on our tired faces..

First dinner. Tried fried alligator, tasted like chicken. LOL #Asianatwork

D -2

Walking towards the future of food-- 2015 RCA Annual Conference happening in NOLA!

So, this was taken when we went for registration on the second day, after we went through a long morning doing "ingredient hunt". Right, we woke up at 5 and went out around 6 am to a nearby grocery, Rouses Market (which turned out to be my favourite 'shopping' place), to source for ingredient. They had most ingredients we needed, except for a few, so we decided to walk another 3km to Walmart to get our stuff.

Louisiana owned grocery-- Rouses Market

Only had we known that Walmart was not any better than Rouses Market! It did have a wider selection of goods, but the quality of food did not seem as good as Rouses. But at least we had a good walk there bought lots of snacks and souvenirs. 

Scenery along the way from Rouses to Walmart featuring Helen

And we took a bus back to the hotel after the grocery shopping. 

That night we had dinner at Mulate's, which is just outside of the convention centre. The seafood platter was not bad, but we were all thrilled by the Cajun smoked oyster (sorry, no pictures). It was garlic-y and the oyster was so sweet I couldn't even... 

Too bad we came a bit too early, the band was only there when we were about to leave. =(

Top: Mulate's Seafood platter- good but not breathtaking =X;

Bottom: Jambalaya- we had this almost everyday and this was the best I've tried.

After dinner, it was time for a retail therapy (as if the morning grocery is not enough). We went to Riverwalk which is just next to the convention centre, Guess what? Since it's Easter, the shops were all having great sales, and you see everyone started grabbing Coach like none other's business, but what would you expect? It's 50% off store-wide after all, cheaper than Malaysia's price by a few times even after conversion.

A great place to chill, especially in the evening. Enjoy the sunset while overlooking the Mississippi River. 

D -1

The conference officially started. Spent the morning attending workshop and the afternoon setting up our speed rack. We met our opponents and the judges for the first time. My adrenaline level was reaching its maximum, guess that's why I was so unaware of what happened during the set up. LOL! All I could remember was suddenly the atmosphere tense up and made me unconfortable. I only found out later coming back here, that Kenley and Vinson almost got into a fight. Ah,  the stress and tension! I think that's basically my condition for most of this trip, not caring whatever was happening around me cause all I wanted was a good sleep. So yeah, couldn't handle any more activities that evening, we skipped the reception dinner and headed straight back to the hotel that night hoping for a good night sleep. 

D 0

Competition day! I woke up at 3.30am as we needed to gather at the lobby at 5am and depart to the convention centre. Adrenaline continue to build up. I wasn't in my state of mind anymore, more than the day before I guess. Couldn't even recall what I was doing then. All I remembered was I wanted the whole competition to be over. Anyway, we were the earliest bunch to reach the convention centre, which were later joined by the Canadian team. After rounds of photo shooting, we finally settled ourselves for the competition. Canadian team went first and close after them was team Titan. We were supposed to start right after that, but it was somehow delayed so we lost some mise en place time. Thanks to our practices back home, we didn't need 15 minutes to get prepared. So the competition officially started once we got ready.

Quick 'breakfast', needed some sugar rush to get me through the day.

Team ACE ready to rock the competition!

My dad took a screencap of me during the live stream of the competition. >.<

We all performed our roles like what we have been trained to. A little part of me had a feeling that something would go wrong, cause Murphy's Law always have this thing on me. And there, it was proven once again, when I couldn't properly switch on the weighing scale. Fortunately we brought an extra weighing scale, though not as accurate. Phew. Then just as I thought everything was going too smoothly, I found my biscuit dough to be super lumpy. It delayed my time in cutting it and I became frustrated when my team mates kept checking on me cause I was already behind the time.

"Dong, expression management! You look like you're gonna eat a person up!" Wilbert was kind enough to remind me even he was also experiencing problems with the shrimps. 

Yeap, as well as I know myself when I was too focus and engrossed in doing my job, I hissed back impatiently, "SHHH! Don't tell me what to do, I need to focus right now! I know what to do!" Sorry, Wilbert... X目 Alas! I finally managed to finish cutting though some of the biscuits were out of shape. But one thing I was really grateful was the oven. Thank goodness it was a convection oven, it saved me the time I'd lost cutting the biscuits. Great!

We're almost done with the competition, all we left was plating up and waiting for the commercial product to heat up. Yet, another delay announcement. The first team used up too much time for reheating thus affecting our schedule. What a day! As we thought we had more time, the judges informed us that we have to plate the commercial product individually instead of serving in one big portion. This time, I was really really grateful that we foresaw all these situations and prepared our plan B's ahead! Yet another near miss, phew! So yeah, we finally managed to serve our food on time, you have no idea how relieved I felt! Like the feeling you get after a short distant sprint, I just felt like I'm collapsing after giving all out.

Our product--
Left: Gold standard; middle: commercialised product (frozen ones in the box); bottom right: plated commercialised product.

Oh, the happy faces.. Competition's over! Team ACE ftw!! Photo courtesy of Wilbert.

Yet, as much as I wanted sleep, there's so much more for us to explore. We visited the Culinology Expo in the afternoon, and were being hollered back to the hotel as others were just too exhausted. While others were deep in their dreamland,  four of us went out to the student's reception thinking it's a party. But tadaa, it ended up to be a Culinology student meeting. Err, it was super awkward as we were already late and there were only less than 10 in the room. *awkward crow flies by*

Anyway, we did manage to find out where the real party was and made it there with Rick joining us on the way. Once again, the atmosphere was still, as we knew nobody there. We chatted with Shakira and her SMSU team for a while thinking of moving somewhere else to get dinner. But then, we were later caught up by the Canadian team, and there we were stuck in the party for the whole night. The rest who were sleeping in the hotel earlier on also joined us. I admit I'm not a social animal to the bone. I did manage a few small talks here and there but I found myself eating and drinking most of the time. Gah,,, I tried my best, maybe this is just not my thing....

At the Tobasco party.. Photo courtesy of Nicholas

D +1

New day after the competition, I slept in for a bit, finally I was not the earliest to wake up. LOL! Helen woke me up in fact. We attended the conference in the morning, had crawfish which was not up to my liking for lunch, and went to Riverwalk again before attending the Award Ceremony at night. 

Somehow thinks I left my luck back in Malaysia.. The others who went for the other workshop get to 'taste' alcohol in the morning, what I got was two leaves of  radicchio lettuce, one gulp of orange juice, one sachet of sugar and three jelly beans. *pouts

Crawfish and vegetables for lunch. It was extremely salty and tasted nothing else. 

Oh, before I forgot! I tasted beignet from the famous Cafe du Monde. It was so so, imagine a fluffier slightly undercooked "you tiao" being generously sprinkled with icing sugar. Yup! that's it, not worth the hype at all. 

See, I ain't bluffing.. It does look like it, no? Photo credit: Cindy Lo's pixnet 

5.30pm, we head to the ceremony hall as the Awards ceremony would be held in half hour. 6.00pm, we entered the hall and sat at the last rows. Before the ceremony started, a guy from SMSU (forgotten his name) came to us, "Good look, good look" he repeated a several times. "Thank you," we replied, but I was weirded out as to why did he wish us 'good look', did he meant we were good looking? but why? When I found out later that he meant "good luck" Argh!!! that was so embarrassing! Helen and I guessed he must be a Brit, and Shakira confirmed that he's Irish. Lol. 

Anyway, I wasn't paying much attention during the ceremony, since I was not prepared to get on the stage. Then the top 3 of the student competition were asked to forward to the stage. 

"Northern Exposure, Johnson & Wales and ACE" 

"ACE" ACE!!!!! It echoed in my ears, and I was stunned for a second. This can't be real, I still couldn't believe when I was standing in front of the hall. We were announced as the 2nd runner up. We went up the stage, cheque received, photos taken. Went down the stage, people started to congratulate us. Honestly, I really didn't know how to respond to all these wishes, I didn't felt the happiness I thought I would feel but I feel sorry for the other two teams instead. Issh! Dong, why can't you be tougher...

After that, we had a cocktail reception. We thank the judges, had our share of food and drinks and left the place for Bourbon street. 

Group photo with the papa of Taylor's Culinology. He was the winner for the professional team! photo courtesy of Nicholas

It's 2500 dollars!!!!

A view of not-so-wild-part of Bourbon street. Too many people, me no likey. 

D +2

Last day in New Orleans! Had a not so enjoyable morning at TJ Maxx, but a super satisfying dinner. 

Loving the sun! Finally I smell spring.. Photo courtesy of Wilbert. 

So we splitted into two groups that morning, one went to TJ Maxx for shopping and the other group went to French Quarter. I really didn't know why I chose not to go to the French Quarter, because that is what I would opt for any other day. Anyway, choice was made and we made our move there. The weather was super good that day, sunny day, blue sky, no clouds, and green is everywhere. 

No filter, no edit. This is spring.

Mexican food for lunch, everything just looks the same even though the names are different.

I'm actually iffy about having red bean paste as a salty condiment, but it was actually not bad!

Meanwhile, the other group was having fun at the French Quarter tasting oysters, enjoying jazz and eating the world's 2nd hottest chilli. Hmmph!!! Regret to the max!!

Video credit to Nicholas. 

But I did get a chance to roam about the French Quarters in the evening, and the sunset makes everything so beautiful. 

Didn't get a chance to ride on one.. =/

Before a wedding reception..

Dinner! Best dinner I had in New Orleans goes to.. *drum rolls*

Mother's Restaurant!! They boasted to have the best baked ham in the world!

which as indeed very good! This is a po boy with their ham and it tasted like Chinese braised meat. Some had the ham plain and found it too salty though.

My favourite! Fried chicken with dirty rice and butter biscuits. Super satisfying as the chicken was real good, crispy and juice but you can't really taste the grease. 

Not to mention this hot sauce which is sweet, sour and spicy at the right balance. 

After dinner, I went back to the hotel to catch up with my long needed sleep, while the others continue to explore the night life of New Orleans.

And that was our last day in New Orleans, we departed for airport 3 am the next morning. A "little" incident happened at the airport. Our baggage almost couldn't get back to Malaysia! But I think I'll keep the story for some other time as this post is already getting too long. 

So, stay tuned for more updates as I am now fully back to working mode. Updates on my final year project would be coming up next!

Till next time, 

Dong