Captain serves up feast: campus restaurant offers five-course meal on a budget

Originally published in Wednesday, October 14, 2009 edition of The Coast Report
by Andy Nguyen, Views Editor

Photo courtesy of Google

Orange Coast College has a little secret that students may not know about: The Captain’s Table, Coast’s on-campus restaurant.

For $12 some lucky person can get a five-course meal prepared by students from Coast’s Culinary Arts department.

A friend and I were fortunate enough to get a table at the last minute during their Florida theme, which was heavily influenced by Cuban cuisine.

The best way for me to describe the food I had is better left to a line from “The Simpsons” — “It’s like there’s a party in my mouth and everyone’s invited.”

But to further breakdown my experience I have to start with the best part of the meal, dessert.

The dessert was a trio of small treats in the form of vanilla ice cream and orange sorbet, key lime pie and a banana cake topped with whipped cream.

The real standout was the key lime pie. It had a nice consistency similar to cheesecake and the flavor wasn’t too tart. The only downside was that there wasn’t enough of it to fully savor.

Another highlight of the meal was the hors d’œuvres that consisted of coconut shrimp, marinated hearts of palm and bollitos, fritters made out of black-eyed peas.

The coconut shrimp had a sweet, savory flavor that was augmented with a sweet citrus flavored sauce, while the marinated heart of palm had a subtle tanginess to it.

While those two were good, the bollitos had a grainy texture and its flavor really didn’t stand out compared to the shrimp and palm.

During the lunch service the table was given a bread basket with three different types of bread to choose from.

The fried plantains, banana chips, were lightly salted but were lacking in flavor and the Cuban bread essentially tasted like any other bread you get at a restaurant, nothing special here.

But my favorite had to be the corn pone Think of fried cornbread, which had a crunchy exterior and a spongy interior. It was a nice change from the otherwise bland breadbasket.

For the entrée we were given a choice of either a broiled grouper with a citrus-rum glaze and marinated star fruit or charbroiled chicken breast flavored with jerk spices that are made up of habanero chilies and allspice.

They were served with black beans, sautéed plantains and chayote squash. Both my friend and I decided to go with the chicken.

While I usually find chicken breast a bit dry, this was surprisingly moist, and the smidgen of barbecue sauce that accompanied it gave it a nice kick.

We were also given watermelon salad and verzada soup which contained collard greens, bits of sausage and ham hocks.

All in all my experience at the restaurant was great.

The Captain’s Table is next to the Student Center. It’s open for lunch service every Thursday at noon of this semester except for Nov. 26 and Dec. 17.

To make a reservation and for more information call (714) 432-5876 ext. 22.