I love having friends over!
Last night we had a successful BBQ party.
It started off being Chris' department gathering, but as the weeks passed it slowly snowballed and 10 people finally ended up being 35! Apart from his work mates, Joan, Adrian, Suyin, our neighbours Fanny and Russell, Po Meng and Bernice turned up as well! It was great!
The food took some planning, but I admit, I enjoy the process. Keeps me busy, busy! On the menu: steak, chicken wings ( which we marinated 3 days prior ), gourmet sausages, saba fish, corn on the cob, garlic bread and mushroom pockets. Oh, and fresh satay courtesy of Eva. Fanny was also kind enough to bring along salad and 2 Hong Kong desserts. Buying the food took some co-ordination and timing, but we did it! Quantity was just sufficient too, with only small amounts of leftovers.
The guests were gracious too! So many bottles of wine! We opened 2 bottles (only!) and were left with 6 really nice ones. A few Bordeaux ones, some Aussie wines. But all clearly good wines. We provided some beer and spirits, which were the right drinks! I chose a mixture of Hoegarden, Tsingtao, Chang and Heineken which were all drunk. Makes me HAPPY!
BUT ! the piece de resistance was the CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN! We had so much trouble finding the pre-packaged chocolate melts for the fountain, so after going to Tangs AND Carrefour and WASTING time looking for the silly things, I decided to go couveture. We went to the BIY shop and bought 55% Valhorna chocolate and some cream, then melted the chocolate over a water bath( the RIGHT way ). Of course I didn't realize that the cream had to be heated too and I mixed it in COLD. And then the chocolate got THICKER AND THICKER! Argh! So I added milk and still it wasn't right. AFTER I poured it into the fountain, THEN Chris tells me the cream has to be HEATED. Oh well. Fortunately he fixed it. I think by melting some cream then adding it to the fountain? It was a HIT with everyone! I went to the market a few days ago to buy strawberries, pineapple, watermelon and grapes for the fountain too.
It was great that the guests were quite handy and a few of them took charge of the cooking. The food turned out great! We had some trouble with the pit though.. the BBQ beads that Chris bought apparently didn't create enough heat? Strange. So we brought our modified induction cooker down to finish off some of the steak and sausages.
I think everything wrapped up close to 10. Again a few guests were kind enough to stay back and help with the tidying up. I am grateful to them.
Hm... when should we have the next one??
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