Betty and I doing our best C.S.I. imitations. Photo by Kath from A Cupcake or Two.
Picture this: six bloggers with their friends and or partners huddled around a dish. Some sniff, some look at it from all different angles, some close their eyes and inhale deeply. Then a portion is taken to the table where using a fork each piece is savoured, pulled apart and each minuscule, ground up piece turned over and examined as if under a human microscope. Welcome to a Forensic Eating Dinner party, C.S.I. food blogger style.
Ellie’s dish
This night we’re gathered at Trissa and Dan’s house and in attendance are Betty, Kath, Trisha and Richard as well as their friends and partners. I first heard of the term “Forensic Eating” from my friend Liss from Frills in the Hills who mentioned it in a comment on my blog. I then floated the idea of having a Forensic Eating dinner party while we were brainstorming a theme for a dinner party one night at Guylian Cafe and everyone seemed eager to give this a try. Fast forward a few weeks later and we’ve all brought a dish to taste. A sheet of paper and a pen is handed out to everyone. The rules are simple: forensically determine what is in these dishes using sight, taste and smell. The creator of each dish tells everyone how many ingredients there are in the dish and everyone sets about compiling a list of the ingredients.
You are only allowed to name as many ingredients as the creator says there are in the dish and points are awarded for correct answers (none are deducted for wrong answers). First up is Ellie’s dip served with French bread. “The dip has 7 ingredients and no salt and pepper” she says and we get to work. I’ve teamed up with Mr NQN who loves the idea of a challenge. There is a strong taste of garlic and it reminds me of a tapenade and there’s a salty fishyness which screams anchovy. “There’s something else in there to give it body” Mr NQN says “like bread and there’s also water”. I can see parsley and tomato and what I think is olive but he is less convinced about the olive. We come up with a list of 7 ingredients based on both of our guesses.
Kath’s dish
Next out comes Kath’s dish, or more specifically Mama Eugenio’s (her mum’s) noodles. “This dish has 11 ingredients” Kath says counting them mentally. There are some obvious ones like carrot and obviously noodles (points are deducted if you couldn’t figure that one out), Lup Cheong or chinese sausage, sugar snap peas, wombok and chicken as there are clear pieces of each. However we have trouble coming up with 10 ingredients.
Trissa’s dish
Trissa’s ravioli is up next. There are 12 ingredients including the ravioli ingredients. At first glance it’s covered in walnut pieces and balsamic and we can guess the ingredients to the pasta are flour, egg and water. When she first cooked the sauce I could smell the amazing aroma of browned butter so I could tell there was butter in itand I could see little pieces of eggplant and I think mushroom too. Mr NQN thinks that there is spinach in it too and I guess the cheese to be ricotta.
Trisha’s dish
Trisha’s dish comes up next and it’s a Philippino one. It’s a perplexing one. I can definitely see some items like sultanas and carrots but there’s a curious item in there which is a green item that Mr NQN prises apart and separate and examines on his fingers.
A more thorough examination was needed i.e. totally pulling it apart!
The tiny green speck is sweet and she tells us it’s what gives the dish sweetness so after a great deal of deliberation I hazard a guess at sweet pickles. This one is hard as things tend to be minced up much like Ellie’s dip and Trissa’s ravioli filling which makes it hard to identify things by shape or eye. Mr NQN thinks there is tuna in there but I am feeling more pork so I put down both.
My dish
My dish is up next. I firstly apologise for the look. It’s a stew so it’s not the prettiest of items and it was made a couple of hours ahead which meant that the sauce somewhat evaporated. Mine has 8 ingredients plus salt and pepper so I figure it might be easy for people to identify it and the chunks of carrot and onions and meat are clearly visible.
Betty’s dish
Last is Betty’s dessert, and we’ve actually had something similar at a Nepalese banquet so we are at a slight advantage. There are vermicelli noodles, milk, sugar and a nut which we have to examine as it has an unusual texture. Trissa has a larger piece of nut and shows it to us and it’s an almond. I also think there’s a little saffron due to the yellow shade.
And now for the reveal…
Anchoiade
With our pieces of paper ready, everyone reveals all of the ingredients that are in their dishes. There is an Anchoiade, a French dip made up of garlic, parsley, anchovy, tomato, oil, lemon thyme and olives . I’ve guessed 5 out of the 7. Mr NQN’s guess of bread and water are the only wrong ones and the two missing ingredients were lemon thyme and olives (and yes I wish I had left olives in).
Kath’s Dish: Pancit Canton noodles
Kath’s mum’s noodle dish Pancit Canton is then revealed. The ones we got correct were carrot, noodles, sugar snap peas, lup cheong (Chinese sausage), chicken, wombok and oyster sauce. I thought that soy and sesame oil were used but they weren’t and I didn’t realise that oil was being counted too so I got 7 out of 11. I missed out on the obvious ones like garlic and onion (so dumb!) and chicken stock.
Trissa’s Dish: Eggplant and tallegio ravioli with walnut, balsamic and butter sauce
Trissa’s ravioli was the next reveal and of the 12 I only got 7 correct. I guessed correctly for walnuts, flour, egg, parsley, balsamic, eggplant, butter but didn’t realise that water wasn’t being counted (to make the pasta) and got the cheese wrong (I guessed ricotta instead of tallegio which most of us did). I also thought that mushroom was another of the ravioli ingredients but it was just eggplant. Richard and I were convinced there was coriander but it was parsley and Mr NQN’s guess of spinach was incorrect. This one ended up confouding a few people.
Trisha’s dish
Trisha’ Philippino dish was then revealed and the ingredients I tasted correctly were sultanas, egg, carrot, pork, garlic and the sweet pickle. It was the hardest for me and I only got 6 out of the 12 ingredients. I said onion instead of spring onion and the tuna was wrong (hmm I was starting to doubt partnering up with Mr NQN at this stage 
).
My dish: Blanquette de Veau
My item which I was convinced would have been easy due to the small number of ingredients actually stumped many. It was a Blanquette de Veau (recipe to come soon) and it had veal, white wine, carrot, onion, bouquet garni, butter, flour and an egg yolk. In retrospect I guess many would have thought it was a cream sauce whereas it was a blonde roux and many got around 2 out of the 8 ingredients.
Betty’s dish: Semiya Kheer
Betty’s dish was a Semiya Kheer, an Indian dessert with what I tasted to be vermicelli noodles, milk, sugar and yes almonds. My guess of saffron was incorrect and the other missing ingredient was ghee. I got 4 out of the 5 ingredients in this one-phew!
Tallying it up was going to be hard. If we counted up straight numbers of points then some would be advantaged if they had a fewer number of ingredients in their dish so we settled on judging the number of firsts i.e. who guessed the highest number of items in each dish.
We then set about eating the rest of the desserts including a gorgeous leche flan from Kath (I could stare at that all day long).
A green tea and pistachio tiramisu
And Trissa’s mum’s signature dish, berries with toffeed cream cheese.
You know you want to see what’s under the toffee don’t you…take my hand and come have a look.
It’s luscious berries! So simple but so gorgeous!
Special thanks to Trissa and Dan who opened up their lovely home to our special brand of crazy and for a great night.
Tips if you want to hold your own Forensic Eating Dinner Party
- Decide on how many entrees, mains and desserts there will be (to avoid having 10 desserts).
- Establish whether water, salt, pepper and oil will be counted as ingredients.
- Try and use clean plates for each course to avoid one dish’s flavours contaminating another’s.
- You can upp the degree of difficulty by asking people to specify the cuts of meat used.
- If you’re making a dish, the easiest way to hide ingredients is by mincing them up.
- Keep it fun! It’s supposed to be a lighthearted challenge. Providing a prize is also fun
So tell me Dear Reader, which sense do you think you’d rely on most in a Forensic Eating challenge? Sight, smell, touch or taste?
The intermission entertainment: Trissa and her dog Baci doing tricks.
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61 Comments | Add your own
I love it! You’ve got such a talent for writing! When I read it – I was re-living every moment of the night – including the time when Ellie said she was going to eat Matt’s salami!!!
Thanks for sharing. Great post!
Oh my goodness!! That looks like it was so much fun. I am definitely going to be doing one of these- so many of my friends and family think themselves gourmet foodies but I think we would all struggle with this. It reminds me of the challenge on Masterchef.
I want the recipes for all of those desserts they look so so good. please
Oh, what a fantastic idea!! I LOVE it! Already thinking of who to invite… and that berry pudding… yum! xxx
Sounds like a fun night! Sight would help me the most.
Oooh, what a fantastic idea!! I LOVE it! Already thinking of who to invite… and that berry pudding… yum! xxx
Hehe. It looks like such a fun night!! All the food looks so interesting, especially love the desserts
And ooh a peek underneath the toffee – major food porn there… I actually tilted my head a little to see it.. lol. Also, love the hat! Very fitting for the forensic dinner methinks! 
First to post this up! Great chronicle of the night and the “secret dishes”. I have to look for my lab coat and goggles and bring them to our next Forensic Eating!
Aw, what a fun idea! I’d love to do something like that with friends.
That looks like a hoot!
I love the look of the green tea and pistachio tiramisu. Can you tell us more about that one day?
It was fun and all the dishes are delicious!!
What a great idea for a party! I don’t think I’d do too well, though. Well, I’d do much better if there were only desserts on the menu!
great idea for a dinner party – I imagine your noses were very close to the plates!!!
What a fabulous party idea! You could even theme the dishes. Sigh, I’d be much more into that than fancy dress. I can’t decide whether the tiramisu is gorgeous or a little out there, hmm . . . intriguing!
That looks like so much fun! I love the look of the last dish
What a great dinner party idea! That pistachio tiramisu looks divine… Am hanging on for the recipe
this looks like heaps of fun! these taste test concepts are harder than you would think. well done all!
It was an interesting night. I had a lot of fun. Everyone made such fantastic dishes.
awesome post lorraine it was such a fun night , dan & trissa are a lovely couple to invite us into their home hehe
oh HOW FUNNY. That looks like so much FUN! My husband refers to me as the ‘CSI Food edition’.. I’m terrible! haha
I’m coming (or hosting) the next one!!! OK??!!
Ahhh this looks like so much fun!! I want to do this!!! (Though I think I would probably come last at guessing haha) The food, while mysterious, looks very yummy, especially the leche flan – wow!
LOL – what fun!!! I’d be hopeless at this, so I can’t tell you what I’d rely on – possibly my eyes. Love the toffeed cream cheese with berries – I want!!
Wow, you have some Filipino dishes over there. And I want to invite myself to the Forensic Dinner of yours. Such a great way to break the routine and eat outside of the box. It’s also a great learning experience. Thanks for giving us an idea. I would love to have a Forensic dinner too.
What a great idea for a party! Sounds like so much fun… now I’m thinking of hosting one myself
How fun!!! Looks like you all had a great time…
I think I’d be using my sense of smell a lot…my nose has gotten sensitive to certain aromas, having worked in fragrance for a few years…but my sense of taste would surely be working overtime as well!
This is great idea! Can I steal it for a food party that I am planning?
What a cool idea! A bit like a marathon Masterchef taste test!
What a great idea. Its similar to the taste test on Masterchef.
What a cool idea! U are the queen of cool idea totally! Im with the others, can I steal this idea from u?
Such a brilliant idea! I will be doing one of these, for sure.
I have MANY cousins, and one of the games we used to play together when we were younger was to take turns being blindfolded and fed different things, having to guess what each item was. Incredibly, I don’t think that anyone was ever fed pet food.
What an awesome idea for a party! No doubt it would’ve been a fabulous challenge with a horde of food bloggers in the room!
I’d love to try it one day and put my powers of sight and taste to the test!
What a cool concept! I definitely want to throw one of these parties one day…what fun!
OMF GOSH, green tea and pistachio tiramisu, my mouth is still watering, and watering… I love all-things-green-tea but to top it off with an already LOVED dessert… YUM
It looks that you all had lots of fun, Lorraine!! What a fun & entertaining event!
All of the food looks delicious!!
sounds like you had a lots a fun huh? hehe. great post and all the foods sound amazing
most of all the luscious berries! 
cheers!
This looks so fun! I’m totally going to host a CSI food party someday. I think I’d use taste the most. P.S. That tirimisu looks amazing! I love pistachios.
What a fun idea! Loved reading about it!
That is one cool dinner party idea! No more sitting down at the table with civilised conversation! It does remind me of the Masterchef challenge =)
That looks like heaps of fun! It must be really difficult picking the ingredients, especially with cunningly pureed dishes.
What a crazy crowd you all are but you sure know how to have fun and make everything revolve around your obsession ,ie FOOD!! If I were party to this mayhem,lol,I would probably use my sense of taste followed closely by sight and smell.
The Tiramisu is a wildly, weird concept and though it looks pretty, should probably called more of a trifle as the Tiramisu ( meaning ” Pick me Up ” in Italian) is loaded with strong coffee and a good splash or two or three of strong Liqueur, hence the name.
What a super fun idea for a dinner party! I’d totally bomb I think – always forgetting the obviosu things like oil and water and salt!
How fun, and look at all that fab food. It all looks gorgeous!
sounds like such a fun night! (: and the food looks super yums, as usual!
You have such a fun life! I don’t know if I have a group of friends who would enjoy a Forensic Eating night. I’ll have to give that some thought!
I really loved this post! It was so much fun to read! I would absolutely love to do a Forensic Dinner Party, thanks for the inspiration! I think you did quite well, and it looks like it was tremendous fun!
Hey Lorraine
I’ve got a suggestion for our next forensic dinner – lets just buy some little plastic plates and cutlery so that the flavours don’t get diluted by the other dishes!
So fun! I tend to do that already, so organizing a dinner party around it would make it much more acceptable
what a cool party! frankly, it’s the best idea for a get-together that i think i’ve ever come across. personally, i suspect i would rely on taste, but i can’t say for sure until i try! awesome post!
That is so creative! I love it!
Now all you need is Horatio’s glasses…
Is the recipe for the berries with a toffee cream cheese topping available? I have eaten this somewhere in the past, and I’m really craving it, now that I’ve seen the pictures!
Recipes, please???? Great idea for a party too …
Just my sort of night. Sounds fantastic.
Toffee cream cheese berries sounds fantastic – can u blog the recipe, or have you already.
Love your blog.
All those dishes look so wonderful, it would be hard to have to dissect them before digging in!
PS: love your hat, it’s quite Agatha Christie.
Love your new hat!
I love the idea of a forensic eating party. Maybe they should come up with a new version of Cluedo!
what an absolute awesome idea. Fair warning…I’m going to steal it! lol
Love the mysterious concept of t his event and I think its a fantastic idea in terms of getting people together. Its a very very good idea and it puts the tastes buds to the test.
I love the idea of this, it’s brilliant!
This is all too much fun. I would LOVE to host such a thing. But,I’m already scared here in the south when I can’t guess what’s in the casserole. Can you please make the winning dish and give us the recipe?
Awesome dinner party idea!
Hi Trissa-Aww thankyou so much! Haha yes that was so funny!
ThankYOU and Dan for hosting us! 
Hi Sandra-It was so much fun indeed
Yes it was loosely based around that! Some of the dessert recipes are linked to where people have published them 
Hi Angela-Thankyou! Haha yes it adds another dimension to the ordinary dinner party!
xxx
Hi Anita-It was!
Yes that helped me a lot 
Hi Betty-It really was so much fun
Haha we couldn’t not have a pic of that could we? Haha you are so cute! 
Thankyou so much!
Hi Trisha-Thanks!
Yes a lab coat and goggles might have to be the dress code next time! 
Hi Anna-Thankyou-I really recommend it. It’s lots of fun!
Hi Vita-It was a blast!
I’ve linked to Ellie’s recipe!
Hi Ellie-Agreed on both counts!
Hi Erin-Thanks so much! Haha yes that is true. I think I’d do better on desserts only!
Hi Johanna-Thankyou! Haha well we avoided putting them in the plates
Hi Caro-Thanks so much! Yes putting a theme on it would be interesting. It was really good!
Hi Wikifashion-Thankyou so much!
The berry cream dish was incredible.
Hi Zina-Thanks so much! Hehe I’ve linked to it
Hi brussellsprout -Definitely harder than one would think! I have a new appreciation for the MC taste test!
Hi Katherine-Certainly was lots of fun!
Hi Betty-Thankyou so much! Yes they were amazing hosts! I had so much fun!
Hi Liss- Haha CSI Food edition! Haha sure!
It was your original idea!
Hi Steph-It really gives a dinner party a cool spin
No you wouldn’t, you’d so so well! 
Hi Cakelaw-Thankyou! Oh yes that is a secret family recipe. I think we all wanted it!
Hi Divina-Yes 3 of our tasters are Philippino
You definitely should, it’s so much fun! 
Hi Jacq-Thankyou so much! Definitely do and let us know how it goes!
Hi Liv-Thanks! We had a ball
Ahh really-then your sense of smell would be fantastic! 
Hi Penny-Of course! I hope you have lots of fun
Hi Ali-Haha yes something like that!
Hi ali-Yup it is pretty much just like that!
Hi Brianna-Aww thankyou so much! And of course!
Hi Conor-Fantastic, I hope you have lots of fun
hehe that is good, I think that might scar you for life! 
Hi Karen-Thankyou! Yes it was lots of fun though. You’d do well I should think!
Hi Chefspiration-Thankyou-you definitely should!
Hi April Marie-Hehe well the recipe is linked there so you should give it a try. It’s delicious!
Hi Sophie-We did!
Thanks, it was all great!
Hi Nora-Yup it was a blast. Ooh yes those berries were amazing!
Hi Lizzy-Thanks! It was so much fun. Good stuff and yes taste and sight were both very useful (and I even used smell for the butter too!)
The tiramisu was fantastic!
Hi Kavey-Thankyou so much!
Hi Jess-Thanks so much! Yes it’s not boring at all, and there are no awkward moments!
Hi Arwen-Yes the pureed stuff was hard!
Hi Matilda-Haha yes we have our own special brand of crazy
Ahh yes I suppose so but I think the green tea has some caffeine so perhaps it’s still a pick me up? 
Hi shaz-Thankyou!
Hehe I forgot some obvious ones too! 
Hi Heavenly Housewife-Thankyou so much!
Hi Lianne-It was a lot of fun indeed
Hi Barbara-hehe I really do!
Who knows, maybe your family might be into it? 
Hi faith-Thankyou so much!
I bet yours will be lots of fun and I’d love to read all about it! :S
Hi Trissa-Haha yes! I don’t think anyone has enough cutlery for us!
Hi Brittany-Yes if you make it sort of official it lets guests let loose with the tasting!
Hi grace-Thanks so much, aww you are too sweet
Thankyou!
Hi Blond Duck-I can imagine you doing a Texan style one!
Hi Nina-Sadly no, I did ask but as it’s Trissa’s mum’s business she doesn’t really want to give away her secret recipe. Shame but it’s understandable. It’s so good!
Hi SydneyGal-Some have put their recipes up! Sure is!
Hi Helj-Thankyou, it was so much fun!
I’d love to but Trissa’s mum can’t give out the recipe as it’s her business. Such a shame but I understand! 
Thankyou so much!
Hi Belle-It was really hard to do some I have to admit! Aww thankyou, yes it is rather Agatha isn’t it!
Ooh love it, Cluedo, the food edition!
Hi Maria-Thanks so much! Haha ok
Hi Leona-Thankyou! Yes I think everyone likes a bit of a challenge!
Hi Su-yin-Thankyou so much!
Hi Angela-You so should! It would be fantastic!
Ther wasn’t really a winning dish I don’t think though? There was a winner though and that was Ellie 
Hi Y-Thankyou so much!
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