On Mayday, we had the second part of our Balderdash gathering at my house. This time, Amanda and Ben were able to make it as well. I have no idea how we're going to carry it off, but the plan is, perhaps, to go round to everybody's house until we've come full circle.
When I told my parents I was having friends over, I thought it was going to be a low key, chilled out affair. What I hadn't anticipated was that because my mother had plans to hold a gathering of her own friends that Saturday, she decided that this was going to be the most dramatic full dress rehearsal ever.
Suddenly, there was Noritake china flying out of drawers (we are never allowed to use the Noritake) and she came home toting a wooden block and proclaiming that she was going to make a cheeseboard because Edie had had one. She even put out both red and white wine glasses out and started decanting things left, right and centre. After the initial shock, I got into it although I drew the line at decorating with buckets of fresh flowers.
Suddenly, there was Noritake china flying out of drawers (we are never allowed to use the Noritake) and she came home toting a wooden block and proclaiming that she was going to make a cheeseboard because Edie had had one. She even put out both red and white wine glasses out and started decanting things left, right and centre. After the initial shock, I got into it although I drew the line at decorating with buckets of fresh flowers.
Regardless, it was a blast.
Retno made her special chicken shami kebabs and other Pakistani dishes. My mom made a thai green curry and we picked a couple of tze char dishes up from the coffeeshop down the road. The food we eat at home is usually a deeply odd amalgam of East and West at the same table - curries and stir-fries or spicy dishes with clear Chinese soups. It has driven me nuts since I was a child, but no one seemed to mind.
Here is the famous cheeseboard with Shirin's hand over it:
And here it is without.
It's dead easy to make one of these and if your friends like cheese, it will be a huge hit. Just get a big wooden chopping board from any fancy grocery store and arrange blocks of cheese, random crackers and some fig pate on it. I got the fig pate at my local Fairprice Finest, in the gourmet cheese section, and Arnott's does a really good selection of Cheeseboard Crackers. Because the figs are sweet, I like the cheeses to be slightly more salty or piquant. For this board, we went with an aged cheddar and a slightly creamier jalapeno.
And of course, we settled down to play. Many amazeballs options, but I think the star of the show this time round was Edie's definition of the word Twaddel (actually a unit of measurement) which read "The vibration made by a bat flying into a church bell". I laughed until I literally cried.
(I think it is clear from these pictures who enjoys being in front of the camera. AhemAsia'sNextTopModelAhem.)
We finished off with a beautiful, light strawberry shortcake from Rive Gauche, courtesy of the runway queen (I will be sitting on the couch at work and she will bound up and say, "Come on! Let's catwalk!" and then we stand up and strut round the room pretending to be in a Prada show, a Victoria's Secret show, and a Betsy Johnson show respectively till someone comes in through the main door, stares at us agape and we collapse onto the couch again, as if it was just her imagination.).
The only person who wasn't there was Crystal, but I don't suppose she missed much. While we were debating the various possibilities of chiroptera clanging about in belfries, she was touring South America in style. She took many beautiful pictures, and brought me a new best friend. Look!
your mum is so funny luh. and the food was amazing thank you so much for having us.
ReplyDelete(the decanter thing was hilarious. she was trying to pump us with 4 different types of alcohol)
hahah you're most welcome and i'll tell my mother you said that!
Deletewe still have at least six bottles, so you know, you're welcome any time :P