Executive chef Mr Trevor Stevens demonstrates how he cooks rotisserie chicken at Traders hotel on May 12.

IT was a lovely afternoon with a few black clouds in the sky – a nice break from the unbearable sunshine just a week earlier. But the sound of thunder was threatening us, lazy people, who didn’t bring umbrellas.

We headed to Traders hotel in a hurry. Last week Traders introduced its first take away roast chicken and lamb.

We passed by the crowds outside the hotel and rushed into Traders’ Gourmet Corner, where the smell of roasted chicken over-powered the room. All of the sudden, we became hungry.

The smell came from an oven in a corner of the room. It is called a Rotisserie oven and was designed in the United States, where open barbecues are popular.

But what makes it different from other ovens?

At a press conference on May 12, executive chef Mr Trevor Stevens explained that this kind of oven is designed to cook the product by turning it inside the oven.

“It turns the product [the chicken or lamb] to make sure the cooking has even browning all the way around it. At the same time, it will let the fat on the product drip down.

“As the fats on the meat melt down after one or two hours; it becomes healthier than the food roasted in conventional ovens,” he said.

The roasting time can be between one hour and two, depending on the size of the food.

The chef said they used only Myanmar chicken but lambs are imported from New Zealand.

“I prefer Myanmar chicken for two reasons. First, it is easy to get them and the second is they are not treated with chemicals,” he said.

The expanding menu is impressive. It has a variety of types of chicken: traditional roast chicken, herbed or spicy chicken, sweet and spicy chicken and wood smoked chicken. One chicken costs US$10.

For lamb, you can choose lamb leg with bones or boneless or rack of lamb.

They also have herbed, spicy, wood smoked or the Western-style Dioli lamb.
Lamb is a bit more expensive – one kilogram costs $28.

The chef said marination of the chicken and lamb is important, and they have a variety of options. However, customers need to alert the chef at least 12 hours ahead.

Last week the chef served us traditional European style meat. The chicken and lamb were marinated with oregano, thyme, salt, pepper and white wine for hours and roasted for 90 minutes.

As a piece of roast chicken sat on my plate, the smell agitated me to taste it immediately.

I did.

Hmm, it was so nice – juicy, tender and soft to the bone. Especially for those of us who like cartilage. The brown skin was as good as it looked beautiful.

However, as it was European style, the taste seemed to need some stronger spices to meet Myanmar liking.

Then pieces of lamb were served. I had never eaten lamb before and was so curious of how it would taste.

It was a tougher version of beef.

My friend said he preferred the lamb to chicken, saying that it is fleshy and tasty.

“But you need to have strong and healthy teeth to chew it,” he said.

When we finally finished and left the Gourmet Corner, we felt so heavy that we needed to drag our legs to reach outside.

If you too are intrigued, you can order the roast chicken or lamb any time at the Gourmet Corner, but keep in mind that it should be 12 hours in advance to get the best taste. Call Ms Soe Soe at 242 827.