Friday, July 18, 2008

When The Hosting Bar is Raised Too High

Whenever fellow gym member, Lionheart, announces that he is going to host a home cooked dinner, we all know that this is bad news, calorifically. His dinners, more like banquets, keeps one in serious anticipation for weeks, knowing the feast that is to come, and keeps one in guilt for weeks after, for having indulged in too much. But as such festivities occur as regularly as Easter and Christmas, one must take the fullest advantage and indulge all you can.

The minute you enter his home, you feel happy, and content, like a child who's been out in the field all day only to return home to the aroma of mother's cooking. Alright, that may seem a sexist, unfair to mothers (esp those who don't cook) remark, but you get the drift. The smells wafting through engulf the nostrils the way a mist engulfs a shrouded mountain....filling every orifice and tingling all the senses. (I'm highly drugged on antibiotics, antihistamines and paracetamol as I write this, so excuse the waffling).

He was busy slaving over his Foo Chow Red Wine Chicken. Look at the glorious crimson of this dish.

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It being a gym crowd dinner, the cursory healthy dish of vegetables, crackers and dips were served as a starter. One of the dips was made by Mrs Lionheart, and comprised cheese spread, yoghurt, pineapple. Absolutely divine, and nothing healthy.


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Lionheart was bemoaning the absence of oxtail in Village Grocer and the greater Bangsar area, as oxtail was one of the dishes requested by one of the guests. However, he substituted it with baby beef back ribs. With meat falling off the bone, it was absolutely scrumptious.

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The garnishings below, freshly fried shallots, and mince pork, further down, was a synopsis of the piece de resistance of the night.

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The blue bowl and the white quails eggs may reek of someone's signature, ie, mine, and yes, it was because despite the massive array of food, Lion realised being the true Lion that he was, it was an entirely carnivoric meal, so decided he needed help with a salad.

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Okay, the picture below sucks, ....its hard to take pictures of meat, for some reason. I really do need classes. Anyway, the dish below is lamb. And very delicious lamb it was too, so don't judge it by the picture.

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Move over, all the charsiu greats like meng kee or what have you. This is the char siu to beat, but however, since it's home made, money cannot buy. Succulent pieces of three layered pork, caramelised in his secret sauces, singed a little and then baked, ooooh, divine. Melt in the mouth, the equivalent of swiss chocolate for pigs.

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Much as I am not a fan of hers, when Lion made Kylie Kwong's steamed cod fish with ....soya sauce la, must be, her favourite ingredient, it was excellent. And that is saying a lot, because I am not even a cod fan, nor kylie, so kylie cod would be like forcing posion down my throat.

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And finally, the dish that I waited a year to resample, Hakka Mee...but heck, by that time I had food coming out of every orifice above the chin, and below the belt, so I only managed to finish one small plate. Sigh.

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And for dessert, I brought my brandy truffle cake, and upside down pear and ginger pudding.

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The brandy truffle was served with home made brandy chocolate ice cream, made by the Lionness. It was a combination made in heaven.

As usual, a fantastic dinner, which left the rest of us wondering, "how the heck are WE ever going to meet this kind of high standard in hosting".






26 comments:

daphne said...

Kudos to the creativity and hard work. What a wide range of food featuring different techniques and cuisines.

I would not have thought of using quail eggs in a salad.. and the dip looks healthy.

and the upside down pear cake looks divine!

Ciki said...

the dip looked the least fattening of the lot! and quails eggs salad - yum.. quails egg anything is still one of my faves:D mmmmm, it's hard to pick a favourite dish - though you feel the photos of the meat look less than perfect, any red-blooded,born and bred non-muslim msian would die for that meat spread. Weren't the flavours overwhelming towards the end? like you have charsiew+lamb+miced pork (if not for the Hakka mee), it looks like a worthy contender for the Atkin's Diet;)
nice upside down pear.. can try ah? hehe

Rarebeet said...

I may have stopped blogging momentarily but please keep me on the invite list to your bountiful banquets! Sob! Plead! gasp...

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

eh no ned classes..invite those with DSLRs over for ur banquets and they will giv u a few pointers b4 u serve the alcohol..

with normal digicams..dslr love lots of light..and no zooming with ur 50mm!

Anonymous said...

Swiss chocolate for pigs? Oh count this lil piggy in for some! I hope you managed to get Lionheart's secret recipe for your own dinner parties in the future?

*hint, hint*

;)

The Caked Crusader said...

I still can't decide which dish I want to stick my fork into first!!!
I love hearing about people preparing feasts and it being enjoyed! Good for you!

New Kid on the Blog said...

i thought i just had my dinner... and with these pictures... my stomach feels empty again?! grrrr.....

Dee said...

Ooh, ribs! I've turned into a bit of a carnivore recently, I really should lay off but I'm weak :( I'm also going to be obsessing about the brandy truffle cake all night; just what I need!

p/s
Thought your char siew pix was quite nice actually :)

Breadpitt said...

omg, char siew.................... so juicy, im hungry now!

Anonymous said...

The upside down pear cake looks tempting...yum!
Did u use fresh or canned pear?

HairyBerry said...

it does feel like an orgy of the chinese clans to me. well, there's foo chew, hakka, canto and kylie kwong.

i wonder what's in the glorious crimson besides red wine...this ayam masak merah lookalike has got to be one of the tastiest looking dishes i've seen in awhile lah...

Precious Pea said...

WOW!! Am so impressed with the char siu! No need to taste. Just one look can tell how good it was. Lucky you!

fatboybakes said...

ooh, daphne, a friend of mine taught me to use quail's eggs and i havent looked back since. it single handedly renders the entire salad, from healthy, to a cholesterol minefield.

ciki dear, well, we must get you onto our social lists mustn't we, then you can come sample for yourself. high five, i oso love quails eggs. bummer though that 1 miserable quails egg is = 10 chicken eggs in terms of cholesterol.

paps, i didnt host this one la...but opcors, u shall remain on the A list.

nipples, i'm almost developing a facial twitch from screwing up my face to look into the hole.

kennymah, hahah, "swiss chocolate for pigs" is badly phrased. what i meant was, it melts in the mouth like swiss choc melts in the mouth...so that pork is to pigworld what swiss chocs are to choc world.

fatboybakes said...

caked crusader, (haha, everytime i see your nickname, i envisage this masked superhero with a fork and knife)...yeah, i love people preparing feasts too.

new kid, luckily we live in KL, where hunger pangs cant be rectified any hour of the day hor.

dee, brandy truffle with brandy ICE CREAM....yummmmmmmmmm if i may say so myself.

breadpitt, how's the young patissier's journey coming along?

ihazelynz, canned pears. alas, they're ironically more consistent. and no need to spend ages poaching.

hairy berry, yalar, i wish i could replicate half of the dishes for you guys. but i cant, so dont hold your breath.

pea, you expert in chinese meats oridi ma...i am sure you also can do wonderful charsiu.

Anonymous said...

But darling, you waffle even without the antibiotics, antihistamines and paracetamol.

Ya lar, the salad looks like yours. Same blue bowl somemore. You guys go shopping together too? So sweet.

fatboybakes said...

it is my bowl, that's why! duhhh.

Anonymous said...

My bad.*smirk*

LianneK said...

what a coincidence that star were featuring this Foo Chow Red Wine Chicken thingy, and a recipe of it in Amy Beh's column.. it sure does make me salivate lahhhhh ... how?

YOUR FAULT!

Henry Yeo said...

actually considering your house, how about a dinner safari?

aperitif and finger food at the front, salad and starters upstairs in the dining, down the stairs to the poolside for barbecue, adjourn to the living room for dessert.

fatboybakes said...

henry yeo, who's house you talking about? wah, lianne, he talking about your house ah?

lianne, i cant really say i'm a big fan of red wine chicken, though lionheart's is an exception. so i cant empathise with your agony.

lemongrass, indeed you are, indeed you are.

LianneK said...

aiyo .. my house tak boleh lahhh, too small and mum/dad all there ;-p but new home in germany can, wanna come? i will serve you the biggeesssst sausage kekekekeke

Henry Yeo said...

your house, FBB, duh!

Anonymous said...

Hi FBB

Care to share the recipe for the pear cake.

Noticed you made this cake many times but did not share the recipe.

thanks

Warm regards

fatboybakes said...

hi ellen, apologies, since i'm selling the cake commercially, i didnt put it up. however, you can buy su chan's book and follow the recipe there. mine's slightly different, but i'm sure hers is as good. hope you understand.

Anonymous said...

Hi FBB

haha....sorry!

Thought you also share some of the recipes which you sell.

Thanks

Warm regards

Anonymous said...

Hi stumbled 'pon your blog while looking for a steam cod recipe.. Kylie Cod is so funny hahaha! Njoyed reading your writings too..err is this a Singaporean blog? But u mentioned V-Grocer so its Msian rite..OK, I am still looking for the cody recipe, sigh.. :)