The celebrities had been approached by FLAVOURS magazine to feature FOOD FROM OUR MOTHERS, (not your usual colostrum and breastmilk ice cream kinda thing....food as in COOKED FOOD), and we were the privileged few to get a sampling of the foods these celebrities grew up with.
Well, you always know a great party from the post mortem photographs. When everyone seems to be laughing, and basking in the genuine warmth of friendship and fellowship, when people dare to strip their masks and be themselves, and letting the shutterbugs capture their every expression without fear or favour, when people leave, and come back for more, ( I myself came twice, and was tempted to come a third time, were it not for the rain and late hour)...So yeah, this was such a party.
Anyway, as the Flavours photographer, Nicholas, proceeded to do his job, together with Goddess of Food Blogging, Boolicious of Masak Masak, we laughed, cackled, made inappropriate remarks, ....while some of the more beautiful ones amongst us were approached to be hand models, eating models, and what other models have you. Orcs such as myself are politely told to look away....
The model table of the non-orcs...
Watching the master chef fry chicken for inchi kabin kinda reminded me of my grandmother, (not him la), because of the selamba-ness and dexterity in which he executed the entire thing. To me, deep frying is about as scary as bungee jumping....I always admire people who can nonchalantly drop entire chunks of chicken into a hot wok without squawking....
Inchi Kabin with a divinely tangy sauce infused with kaffir lime juice and zest.....As this was the first dish to be served, it was polished with the speed of lions consuming a dead zebra on the Kalahari...
You know how it is when you eat with food bloggers right, you have to wait your turn, drool at the food and wait patiently till all the foodarazzi have finished with their photography...well, since this was a feature for FLAVOURS, you can imagine, the food is under scrutiny like a catwalk model, with backdrops in place, etc etc, while we gaze longingly, almost lustfully, at the mouth watering Mother Dishes.... some more we skipped breakfast!
This satay chicken (that's what its called, though its not satay per se), is ABSOLUTELY divine, and is my favourite. It was screaming to be eaten with rice, and mmmmm, so flavourful, and so complex and palate tingling. Kudos to the mother who made this.
Then there was the Devil Curry, which sadly for Splashie Boy, was not halal, and it had lovely sticks of porkie frankfurters, mixed with chicken ...almost like a curry. You know la, these fancy eurasian/peranakan dishes. Mere mortals like me dont have the culinacabulary (culinary vocabulary) to aptly and adequately describe them.
Shepherd's Pie with a tinge of spiciness. A great staple food, a perennial favourite.
Check out the cross section of the shepherd's pie against the scarlet backdrop. Any guesses what that backdrop is? One free scone for whoever can guess.
The famous FooChow Red Wine Chicken, with mee sua imported all the way from Kg Koh, Sitiawan. The meat was fall of the bone, and the soup, perfect. I am neither a fan of this dish, nor mee sua, but I found this one VERY palatable. Food DOES taste better when you're with great company!
Mee tomato, made by Ann, the other business partner in JHP. Also yummy, and full of goodies. By this time though, we were kinda like bursting at the seams on all that food!
Such a dazzling kaleidescope of colors for a dish of vegetables. Makes me feel as though its Christmas all over again.
Otak otak. Hmm, master chefs unsure if it was threadfin or grouper, but either way, it tasted great. The individually wrapped ones are for photography, while the large serving in the tray was for the scavengers.
And finally desserts. There were four pieces of kueh kaya, that delectable nyonya (I think) thingie. but since there were 4 of them, and like 20 of us, we only got a small morsel to sample.
Basically chinese donuts are deep fried choux pastry... embellished with chicken lard....tossed in castor sugar....not loving them is like not loving a newborn puppy....
And to kill us all, VODKA JELLY!!!!!!!! OOOOOOOOOOOOH, absolutely divine. There went my vows of temperance, as I sank my teeth into these bits of gelatinized alcohol..... it somehow doesn't seem as evil when its in jelly form.
Finally, a tribute to the master chef..... who never ceases to AMAZE me with his countless and priceless facial expressions...
THANKS SO MUCH, NIGEL, ALLAN AND ANN FOR A FABULOUS SPREAD, and a lovely way to spend Sunday (I still wished it were SATURDAY) afternoon......
Hugs.
