Chaine de Rotisseurs’s “Roast A Steer” Night

It’s said that once upon a long ago, a member of the Chaine turned vegetarian and asked the Council to include a few Vegetarian events for a change. When this was related to me, I replied that this would be very difficult as not many people would dress to the nines and attend an event with lots of ceremony just to roast a couple of carrots and a turnip.

Once a year, the Chaine de Rotisseurs hold a Barbecue Night, strictly speaking it’s a roast (or a grill) night, but let’s leave definitions at the door to the dining table. All senior members would start regaling anyone they can seize at arms length, the time when they roasted a whole Bison in the emptied pool at the Marco Polo Hotel.

To know more about Barbecue, here’s a brief history.

Anyway, the bison’s dressed weight was 350kg (that’s like 9 twiggy hedonists). Those who were actually there remembered that it was a hard chew because it was very tough which resulted in lots of leftovers, but that’s ok because the leftovers were delivered to charitable homes for the aged along Thompson Road. This is known as trickle-down economics.

Anyway, to be ready for a 8pm carving, the roasting started at 11am. The calf was wrapped in foil and roasted over a very low and slow fire. The roastmeister is the Swiss Club’s very own Heinz Iten.

Finally, the fire was built up to brown and crisp up the skin and the veal was served in accordance to an ancient Welsh ritual known as “Whicheverpartlooksdone”.

From the pinkish interior, I was told, this was not milk-fed veal. Apparently milk-fed veal would be all white and creamy.

I’ve never been fond of milk-fed veal because it’s bland-tasting and there’s not a lot of different texture or flavors, i.e. boring. This veal however was great. Different parts had a different taste and texture; the ribs were juicy and very good bite that will satisfy your inner caveman while the flank was deliciously firm with a slightly sweetish flavor.

No decent barbecue would be complete without beer and because this is, after all, a Chaine function, we had Achipelago Ales on tap. While the wines were good, I was very partial to the Achipelago Samui that night with it’s light citrus flavors with a hint of Pandan.

There was a buffet spread too; it was very good but this is not a buffet blog entry. The entertainment that night was excellent with Terry and Spencer (playing regularly at the old Joo Chiat Police Station) who played songs that ranged from your father’s time to today.

Despite it was al fresco dining, it was a wonderful dinner where I had fun listening to people reminiscing about the past events that were wilder, grander and more elaborate. I guess the epoch of grand banquets have passed. One thing that bugged me throughout the dinner was the story of the reborn vegetarian, I mean, which part of “Chaine de Rotisseurs” did he not understand?

Posted on 24th Jun 2008 in Chaine de Rotisseurs

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There Are 2 Comments

Pete commented on June 26, 2008 at 11:29 am

I thought the part where you said “it was a hard chew because it was very tough which resulted in lots of leftovers, but that’s ok because the leftovers were delivered to charitable homes for the aged along Thompson Road. ” was quite funny. Imagine those poor old folks, some with dentures, I’m sure, trying to chew on tough bison meat.

ivan commented on June 26, 2008 at 4:03 pm

@Pete:

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