I went in the opposite direction in cooking–the name came last. It started with me starring at a disorganized pantry, wondering what to make one night, and I spotted, with no particular coherence, a can of artichoke bottoms, a can of Mexican fire-roasted chilis, and a can of crushed pineapple. I’d been thinking about making a salsa, and the chilis and pineapple seemed an interesting contrast. Some onions and other ingredients later, I had a sweet/hot salsa that I served in grilled artichoke bottom cups. I’ve made that a few times, including for some BBQ competition team friends (then reigning world champions, I might add), who, when I couldn’t find artichoke bottoms in Butler, Alabama (imagine that), decided to garnish their pork chops with it.

Enter the contest, and the pork concept resurfaced as marinated and roasted pork tenderloin medallions, served over rice and garnished with the salsa–which had been further doctored to include shredded coconut for additional crunch and sweetness. The Caribbean name came from that final ingredient.

So, let’s cross our sauce-stained fingers for the finalist announcements on MOnday. I suspect I’ll be cheering you on through to the championship.

But one quick comment: Not to make this an Oriental Wok sauce commercial, but I, too, was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the sauces. The primary sauce in my dish was the restaurant’s Volcano sauce, which rivals a Thai sweet chili sauce I frequently use. And as for the General Wong’s Spicy Sauce on sushi–the sauce is very much akin to the sauce used on barbecued eel nigiri sushi–perhaps my favorite sushi of all.