Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was not very eventful (no travelling)...yet it was a great one. I did some shopping online...had dinner with a few colleagues and their families...and also had some friends over my place for dinner.

For the thanksgiving dinner at my home, there were 12 people in total. It has been a while since the last time I cooked for so many people. I was very excited. I was torn between Western and Malaysian food, so I ended up having a mixture of both. It took me a while to research online and decide on what to include in the menu. Also, I was not sure if I should roast a turkey since it requires a lot of time and I don't really like turkey. Finally, I decided to roast a chicken as a substitute of the turkey. Together with the main dish, I eventually came up with my complete set of menu as below (click on the dish name for the recipe):

Starters

Thai-style Mango Salad

Chicken Satay

Entrees and Sides

Grilled Asparagus

Roast Chicken

Roast Potatoes (baked together with the chicken)

Jambalaya

Dessert

Kek Batik

That was the first time that I try cooking the dishes above. I am very happy that everything turned out well. A whole day of work was worth it because I enjoy cooking and eating a lot.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for coming and hope you guys had a great time too :)

-

ps. Thanks for the feedbacks. I'll keep them in mind. Hopefully the next time, we'll have more satay and more games available :P

Welcoming the Ox

Happy Chinese New Year!

Since I am doing reduced course load this term, other than cleaning up the house (da shao chu), I had some extra time for cooking and experimenting. Here are some stuff that I did before CNY.

paper cutting

I fried the keropok that He Wei gave

and again, my pineapple tart didn't turn out to be what I expected :(

a pamelo from asian market

my first time pealing the pamelo

This year, we decided to have a Chinese New Year Eve dinner.

group pic

I decided to make 3 dishes:

Yee Sang (ignore the keropok at the back)

Roasted pork

Red wain chicken

and SY was very happy because she finally got her 10 course dinner.

from the front and turning clockwise--roasted pork, spring rolls, red wain chicken, vegetables, prawn and omelet wrap and lastly yee sang at the middle (photo taken by Xeon)

a closer look at the spring roll that SY made

Other dishes that were not in the photo: steamed yam with pork (kau yoke), pig's stomach soup, hot and sour fish, red bean soup and bubur cha cha.

We got a chance to catch up with each other while savoring the delicious food. It has been a while since all of us get together and chat. The food was awesome. my favorite was the fish...gotta ask for the recipe.

Next, it was mahjong time!

The year of the Ox definitely came with some good news and according to the horoscope sent by SY, people who were born in the year of the Tiger will have "tao hua yun" this year too...haha :P

Above the Arctic Circle II -dinner at Gällivare

The food in Northern Sweden was kinda different than those from the south. They use a lot of fish, reindeer and berries. I shared a five course dinner with Sean in a restaurant at Camp Ripan, Kiruna.

bread in a very nice pouch

1st dish: Salmon-cured with salt

2nd dish: Lamb and Snow Ptarmigan (a kind of bird)

Melon Shredded Ice that was given while we were waiting for our next dish.

3rd dish: Fried fish and carrot puree

4th dish: Reindeer with lingonberries

5th dish (dessert): Blueberry cheese cake and lingonberry cake

The food was great despite the long interval in between dishes. I really appreciate the way the restaurant prepare small dishes so that I could get a taste of everything. It was a great dinning experience.

I saw this table on my way out...a pretty creative way to make a table

We also saw an igloo near the restaurant...too bad I did not get a clear picture of it.