Guangzhou: Quasi dinner party chez moi

Tonight, I hosted my first dinner/birthday event at my house, ever! It was my friend Kanisorn’s birthday, so somehow we came to an agreement by designating my home as the place to congregate. I didn’t mind, except that I had to spend so much time scrubbing down the kitchen these past few days! Actually it was supposed to be more like a potluck but I ended up cooking most of the dishes. Not that I complained, of course, since I would naturally hop at any opportunity to cook anyways.

Our Asian smörgåsbord on a very Chinese lazy susan table

I was really excited beforehand, thinking of and writing out everything that I’d like to cook. I really like cooking for other people, even more than I like eating…I guess like any cook, I cherish the moments when someone compliments a dish that I’d made. But I think that tonight, I overstretched a bit and tried to do too many things, leading to some rather unspectacular results. I imagined the shrimp with salted yolk pumpkin sauce, for instance, much more stellar than it actually turned out. And the braised pork stew wasn’t too interesting either. Oh wells, learn from my mistakes I guess.

Here are the dishes that I made:

Prawns with salted egg yolk pumpkin sauce; the sauce had too much pumpkin inside, hiding the chalky yolk flavour. The pumpkin slices, sadly, I didn't roast them long enough! =(

3 Cups Chicken! This turned out really well; nice and crispy chicken with a sweet, smoky flavour.

Baked scallion rolls. These turned out really well as a typical Chinese bread; soft and buttery and slightly sweet.

I don’t have individual photos, but I also made a pork stew (which, as mentioned, wasn’t that popular and lacked a little something), bacon + cream cheese + apple canapes following this recipe (turned out all right, nothing super interesting), and just plain grilled shrimp (which I didn’t find special at all but everyone else seem to enjoy). But then again, with dinner gatherings like these it’s always more than just the food; it’s really the company that makes the night. After dinner I dragged everyone into playing taboo and I think we all had great laughs and an awesome time!

And lastly, here are some of the dishes that my friends made!

A roasted chicken dish that my friend Rena brought!

Stir-fried greens that Rena and Wing made; turned out pretty well!

Thanks everyone, for a wonderful evening!

OH! And on a completely differently note, I’ve decided on a name change for the blog. Instead of the previous mouthful of a name, I’m going to go with something shorter, Tastebuds. And it’s less embarrassing.