Potato Hummus with homemade chips. (Photo by Peter Currier)
SOUTHWICK- Entrepreneurs and food experts Joshua Houghton and Colin Fontaine hosted the third installment of Season 2 of the JoshuaColin Experience Jan. 18-19 at the Undergrind, and I am here to offer a review of the foods they served to give you an idea of what to expect should you choose to attend the next Experience.
The central theme of this month’s installment was potatoes. Houghton and Fontaine developed five different dishes using different kinds of potatoes sourced from local farms.
Potato vichyssoise, a cold soup. (Photo by Peter Currier)
The first thing guests were provided was a drink known as a fire shrub. It was a light red drink that Fontaine said was made with vinegar, cranberries, and fir. The drink was interesting, as it smells heavily of vinegar, which put off a lot of guests at first. However, when myself and others actually tasted it, the taste was nothing like how it smelled, and was actually a rather pleasant cranberry drink.
The first course of the five-course meal was a plate of potato hummus with a light chili oil and fresh made potato chips. Had nobody informed me that the hummus was made from potatoes, I would have thought it was standard chickpea hummus. It was only slightly spicy, which was perfect, as others at my table who do not like spice gave the hummus a rating of 10/10.
The second dish was a soup called vichyssoise. It is a potato-based soup that is made to be served cold, something I had never before thought to try. The soup was topped with crunchy onion strips and contained a small amount of poblano peppers for a little bit of spice. It also contained something that Houghton developed himself called bacon dust, which is exactly what one would imagine it to be. The soup was delicious while cold, but it also tasted like it would have been just as good if it was hot. To me, someone who enjoys spicy foods, the poblano peppers mixed into the soup really completed the whole course.
The smoked hash browns, wrapped in a frittata. (Photo by Peter Currier)
The third course of the night, and my personal favorite of the five, was a dish containing smoked hash browns wrapped in a frittata in an almost breakfast-sushi style. The smoked hash browns were made in a way where they almost tasted like meat. The dish was topped with a mustard aioli sauce that I did not expect to mesh well with the eggs and hash browns. I was pleasantly surprised.
The fourth dish showed off a somewhat familiar food to the area in a slightly different light. The potato pierogi alfredo was the heaviest dish by far. The dough was rich, and some of the best unfried pierogi dough I have ever eaten. The sauce on top of the pierogi was a sweet potato alfredo sauce that brought a nice sweetness to the whole thing in combination with sausage crumbles on top. The sauce was contrasted by the bitter radicchio strips that topped the course and complimented the dish well. One more of those pierogis would have likely filled me up without the rest of the five course meal.
The pierogi with sweet potato Alfredo and sausage crumbles. (Photo by Peter Currier)
The final course, dessert, was a sweet potato waffle that I struggled to finish only because I could barely eat anymore food after the four preceding courses. The waffle was made with sweet potatoes and topped with cranberry and apple chutney, maple butter, and crispy sweet potato skins. Much like the hummus, had one not told me that the waffle was made with potatoes somehow, I would have thought it a normal, well-made waffle.
The sweet potato waffle served as dessert. (Photo by Peter Currier)
My first time going to the JoshuaColin Experience was not quite what I had expected, only because the dishes were more creative than I had imagined going in. The next show will take place in the Undergrind, underneath the Daily Grind on College Highway in Southwick, next month on Valentine’s Day weekend. That dinner will primarily feature carrots as the main ingredient, and based on my experience this weekend, I already plan on going.
