Malaysian Dinner.

Well, the highlight for the week/weekend would have to be my Malaysian dinner. Actually, I did go to the musical/play “Spelling Bee” which was pretty funny and cutesy in many ways. There weren’t too many people in attendance since it was a Thursday evening, and I will say that it was a good production. It got a really good review in the papers the day before so it would have been interesting see how many people did make if there that evening after reading the reviews in the papers. I’m glad I went. All the classical and broadways plays are winding down for the season and a number of organizations have already published next season’s performances. As a season subscriber, I get first dibs for next season and it promises to be a very good season. The every popular, “Wicked” will be coming with much fan fare and I believe a lot of people will be extremely excited about it.

Back to the highlight of the weekend. The Malaysian Dinner took place on Saturday and I made sure I cooked the rice on Friday right after I got back to the apartment from work so it would harden. It’s one of the secrets to fried rice! I got all the stuff in different grocery bags and packed them all in my car together with the spices. Thank goodness for me, the weather on Saturday was cool. In fact, it even snowed a little in the morning. That pretty much meant everything could stay in my car with me not needing to put them in the refrigerator at the facility. It was kind of difficult to contain my excitement while I was at the facility because at the back of my mind, I knew I was going to be preparing a meal for ten people who have never had a Malaysian meal before.

Dinner was to be served at 7PM and I told the people that I’ll be there at 4PM to get some prep work done and familiarize myself with the kitchen. The house was a classic West Des Moines suburban home and it was a nice sized kitchen and I got to spread my stuff out. I had no idea that the person who bid and won the dinner, Mary Frances was half Italian – her mother came from Italy when she was 21 years old. Anyone who knows anything about Italians is that they mother is the matriarch and they almost always are amazing cooks. I definitely had my work cut out for me. I got the soup going first while I cut up and chopped the rest of the stuff. The beef followed, then it was the chicken before the fish, vegetable and finally fried rice. I ended up getting three packets of Chinese herbs from the Asian grocery store and that was the base for my chicken soup. The beef dish was the classic beef curry with coconut milk. I decided on making my ginger chicken with rice wine instead of chicken curry. For the fish, I mixed the Asam Pedas and Kuah Kari Ikan together and it gave it a nice taste. The only thing I added was tomatoes. Instead of going all fancy and choosing an exotic fish, I went with a tried and true fish that most Americans have grown accustomed to – tilapia. I cooked baby bak choy as the vegetable dish.

As everything was cooking it really did not seem like a lot of food until everything was plated in different serving plates and bowls. It was then that it dawned on me that there was quite a lot of food. Once the friend rice was cooked, I knew there was going to be more than enough food for everyone. I was invited to sit at the table after I was done cooking but I graciously turned down the offer. While they were eating, I busied myself washing and cleaning up all the different pots and pans I used to cook. Overall, the meal was extremely well received and everyone ate everything. The reason why I knew this is because there was very little leftover for every dish. I believe people loved the fish and beef the most. Someone commented that the beef curry tasted so different than the Thai or Indian curry that most people are used to. They liked the sweet and tangy flavor of the fish. I knew I did well when Mary Frances’s mother gave me the thumbs up and personally complimented me with a job well done. She really liked the bak choy and said she’s seen it at the Farmer’s market numerous times and tried asking the vendors how to prepare it and they had difficulty explaining it to her. In fact she asked me how I prepared it and when I told her how I did it, she was shocked by the simplicity of it all. I did tell her that I used oyster sauce and garlic and the combination could have been what she really liked. Anyhow, she definitely had a smile on her face when she ate the vegetables. Once the leftovers were brought into the kitchen, I got to taste all the dishes. I felt the beef was just a tad too tough for me and the chicken slightly dry. I’m not a fan of chicken breast meat so I don’t do a good job cooking it, but it could have been better. The fish and the vegetable was flavorful and I would not have done anything different. The rice turned out fine although I had friend it a little too long. I do tend to be critical of myself and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That’s how one learns. Overall, I personally the dinner went fine although it could have been a little better. The way I look at it, as long as the people I prepared the meal for thought it was fine, I was OK. For dessert, I explained to them that we’re just not big into desserts and for the most part desserts tend to be fresh fruits. The best I could do when it came to fruits was to go to the grocery store and buy a can each of longan, lychee and rambutan stuffed with pineapple. I put the cans in the fridge the night before so when it was served, it was cold. I mentioned to the group that eating those fruits brought back memories from childhood because I remember eating those fruits from a can when I was young. They were tickled silly.

I probably left the house at around 9:30PM and by the time I got home, I was pretty darn tired. I was amazed how tired I was just from cooking and called it a night at 10:45PM which is so unlike me especially for a weekend. I’m just glad everything turned out A OK and that the people were happy with their meal. It does not surprise me that there was some stress in preparing the meal for people I’m not familiar with compared to friends and family. The fact that I pulled it off was commendable in and of itself. One Malaysian dinner down, another Malaysian dinner to go and I’ve still not heard back from them what Saturday evening works. The person who bought the second meal is someone I’m very familiar with. Heck, I even house sat for them before and they are a hoot. That dinner would be less stressful and I definitely know my way around their kitchen.

That was my weekend.