In line with the new year, M and I finally had our overdue housewarming party last Saturday and it was a resounding success! Phew... and that's a sigh of great relief from the perfectionist side of yours truly because in truth, I had my doubts.....
It's always amazing how good food and more importantly - good company, can make even the most minimalist ( in other words....lacking a lot of stuff) of parties turn out great! I think we're both amazed and also glad that it turned out alright despite the obvious problem of not having any furnitures for people to sit on or eat from...(I know! isnt it a little ironic that we call it a housewarming when our place is still a work in progress for the most part?). The truth is, both of us love to host these dinner- parties- with - friends events; since I've been with M, we've hosted maybe three or four parties for friends. M is a just social bee and loves having people around, while I simply enjoy cooking for people (err... just call me Monica...). So when the opportunity arose one sushi night at a friend's place, we thought "ahh what the hell, let's just throw one - we'll deal with the 'we have no furniture problem later' ".
The big problem - we don't have a dining table or chairs, actually we hardly have anything to show for a housewarming party. But we have a little courtyard out in the front and a recently finished coffee table. Lay a throw on the floor and tell everyone to bring their own cushions - et voila, problem solved. It was to be an evening of sushi (again!) and finger food, with everyone sprawled on the floor. How very bohemian. I like to call it ZEN though. By the by, that's what M and I have decided on how to decorate our cosy little semi-d house- minimalist style. No furniture needed.hehehehehe....so we can put all our money into purchasing a huge TV...
As was said earlier, we had a big sushi feast night. And a little Malaysian/oriental fare on the side - chicken,ostrich and vege satay with spicy satay sauce ( I realize this gravy has become a real favourite among my "newish" friends...I'm very glad. As a Malaysian, I may not be very positive and patriotic over our the malaysian car, or the many "idiotic"biggest tallest, most expensive, guiness record projects and developments ( i.e throwing a car on the antartic/artic, the eye of Malaysia ( yeah..very original) - but I am proud of our food. But I digress... suffice to say, the kebabs and satay sauce saved the evening as I heard someone was virtually ready to stage a revolt due to starvation...
The party started way late - on the invite we stated 7:00pm, but we only really started eating around 10:00pm, because of the damned sushi. If I thought that a sushi themed party would be quick quick - I was wrong!!!! As Dubya ( George Bush ) likes to say - I "misunderestimated" the preparation and time needed to actually make the sushi. Lesson learned # 1: If you think it takes 3 hours to prepare, it takes double that in real time....
M really turned the place into an amazing, cosy setting for our guests. We had just gone on a totally "gila" (
malay. adj. crazy, mad) shopping spree - at this tiny Asian shop of all places. We bought this Chinese paper lantern and he hung it out on the avo tree outside our house with fairlylights weaving around the branches that evening , and there were little candles strewn about the floor as well. He has such vision when it comes to decor - that M.
No party is complete without dessert and we had a very un-asian dessert - a decadent Belgian Chocolate Mousse which I improvised on with the amazing Romany creams biscuit. This is the quickest, but totally decadent dessert recipe I have found so far - that works perfect the first time - a sure winner ( unless you are allergic to eggs!). We also had some seasonal fruit salad that went really well with the mousse.
It was all in all a truly fantastic soiree - everyone had a really chilled but amazing time and it's something we both look forward to having again in future. I would show some pics had we taken any, but no one wants to be taking pics when everyone's simply enjoying themselves..
