What we had for dinner:
Nasi Lemak
Sambal Ikan Bilis
Malaccan Beef Stew
Nyonya Fried Chicken with dip
Kangkung Belacan
Sayur Tumis
Sweet & Sour Pork
Boiled eggs, crunchy ikan bilis and sliced cucumber for nasi lemak
Strawberry Mascarpone "Toetje"
Coffee with Kahlua and Whip Cream
Bons Bons
I started preparing on Friday afternoon. Went to the market to buy chicken, to the butcher's to buy the best stewing beef (more fat so it will be more tender especially since stewing is not something I'm good at!) , to the toko (Asian grocery store) to buy vegetables and other ingredients and so on. Because I didn't want to be rushed just before the dinner, I decided to prepare the Malaccan Beef Stew one day in advance.
I also prepared the marinade for the fried chicken and for the kangkung belacan in advance as it's pretty time consuming!
Sambal Ikan Bilis
I made the sambal ikan bilis about 6 hours before the dinner while the Dutchman was in the city. He came home and was horrified by the smell (belacan ahahahaha) so I fried the kangkung as well and microwaved it later, in case our guests are too afraid to enter.
Kangkung Belacan
No photos of everything else because I was so busy. I will never fry chicken in a pan ever again. There's oil splattered on the ceiling and I have 2 burn spots on my arm :(
I made sweet and sour pork just in case and boy, was I right. One guest only ate rice (plain) and a boiled egg as he doesn't like spices in general so I offered him some sweet and sour pork which I thought was a completely fool-proof dish but... he doesn't like tomatoes! Haha Oh well.
Dutchman made the dessert and I prettified it.
I would probably never do it again. Entertaining is just too much work (totally different when it's just friends because you can just serve whatever when it's just people from school!). I spent 100 euro just on ingredients and about 20 hours preparing everything. Then, there's the cleaning we both had to do and the Dutchman bought matching cutlery and dishes as well as flowers and things... All said and done, the effort wasnt quite worth it. I think they'd have been happier if I'd just made some Chinese stir-fry. They finished everything and were really nice but it was just a case of not being familiar with what was served so they couldn't quite tell the difference:D
No photos of everything else because I was so busy. I will never fry chicken in a pan ever again. There's oil splattered on the ceiling and I have 2 burn spots on my arm :(
I made sweet and sour pork just in case and boy, was I right. One guest only ate rice (plain) and a boiled egg as he doesn't like spices in general so I offered him some sweet and sour pork which I thought was a completely fool-proof dish but... he doesn't like tomatoes! Haha Oh well.
Dutchman made the dessert and I prettified it.
I would probably never do it again. Entertaining is just too much work (totally different when it's just friends because you can just serve whatever when it's just people from school!). I spent 100 euro just on ingredients and about 20 hours preparing everything. Then, there's the cleaning we both had to do and the Dutchman bought matching cutlery and dishes as well as flowers and things... All said and done, the effort wasnt quite worth it. I think they'd have been happier if I'd just made some Chinese stir-fry. They finished everything and were really nice but it was just a case of not being familiar with what was served so they couldn't quite tell the difference:D
2 comments:
Oh man. I can so relate. I made tandoori chicken once. Not an easy feat being in Italy where finding an Asian shop is akin to finding a needle in a haystack!
Anyway, I marinated the chicken in all the spices (not spicy at all), yogurt and what not overnight, grilled it, made raita to go with it, and the whole works lah.
The guests didnt enjoy it though they were nice to finish everthing :( They just cannot identify with it la I guess.
And funnily enough, they loved my easy peasy 1-2-3 Deviled Eggs >___<
I'm not entertaining again either :P Or if I do, its just gonna be easy finger food.
It's the same with me sometimes. Some of hubby's friends can't identify with the spicy dishes while some just makan jeh la.
A lot of them don't really appreciate the spice. Sometimes I find their definition of "spicy" to be strange coz once I cooked Indian curry and it wasn't spicy at all - just had a lot of ginger and practically NO chilli - and they kept drinking water and tearing.
My German stepFIL thinks that ginger is "spicy". O.O When he makes ginger tea, it tastes like water. Geh.
And recently, my MIL said that too much chilli is not good for their stomachs coz it hurts when they go to the toilet and etc, etc. O'well, can't win them all...
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