Southern Ocean County Hunger Relief Dinner to cook up vivacious Cuban cuisine

The 18th annual Taste of Southern Ocean County Hunger Relief Dinner and Silent Auction, presented by the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Ocean Community Foundation, will celebrate the many flavors of the Cuban culture through its “Havanah Nights” theme on Wednesday, April 24. The event will take place at Sea Oaks Country Club in Little Egg Harbor and will be catered by some of the area’s finest gourmet chefs. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served at 5:30 p.m., followed by an eight-course sampling. This year’s menu will feature a slew of vivacious flavors from a wide range of Cuban delicacies.

Photo by Jack Reynolds
The 18th annual Hunger Relief Dinner to be held
at Sea Oaks Country Club in Little Egg Harbor will
cater to Cuba's many vivacious dishes.

“Cuban food is influenced by Spanish, African and Caribbean flavors,” said Ian Smith, culinary chairman and founder of the Hunger Relief Dinner. “There’s even a Chinese influence in there. So it’s really about very simple ingredients used with a lot of strong flavors. Cuba has different cuisines depending on the season and the location in the islands. Our menu’s going to reflect that. We’re covering a pretty broad range and a lot of flavor sensations,” he noted.

Taste samplings will include a wide array of delicious fare from a blackened mahi mahi fish taco with black bean hummus, citrus, jicama/radish slaw, cilantro aioli and corn elotes, to a grilled Cuban slider made with fried pickles, cumin garlic pulled pork, mango onion rum relish and mustard aioli. A combination of sweet and spicy flavors will be sure to delight even the pickiest of eaters, a choice many of the area’s residents do not have.

“We started this because we felt that, in our area, hunger was overlooked because of the proximity to affluence that we have,” said Smith. “People suffering from hunger issues were and still are invisible in our area. People tend to think of people who are subjected to hunger as walking around pushing a shopping cart, or sleeping in the street. But they’re actually neighbors and coworkers; we pass them in stores. We want to raise not only funds, but awareness,” he added.

Last year’s occasion raised $70,000, which was donated to seven of Southern Ocean County’s local food banks. This year’s event will help raise money for those same food pantries, as well as the relief center at King of Kings Community Church in Manahawkin, which Smith said really stepped up in helping the community after Superstorm Sandy.

“The irony is that the people who run the local food pantries were affected; some of those people were homeless for a while,” said Smith. “Chefs participating in this dinner were homeless for a while. Some of the restaurants were closed for months and months and months, and they’re participating in the dinner. So it’s sort of a full circle that we’ve come after the storm.

“When all is said and done, the problems that we had before the storm are here, and we have new issues because of the storm. The need is greater, it’s more difficult to raise the money, but that can’t stand in the way of what we’re doing,” he added.

Tickets for the event cost $125 each. To purchase vouchers, and for more information, visit the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce at 265 West Ninth St. in Ship Bottom, or call 609-494-7211.

— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.