Juji and Mark’s birthday lunch – the savoury
On Sunday we went to my folks’ for lunch to celebrate my brother and younger sister’s birthdays (27th and 20th respectively). Laksa was on the menu, as was lots and lots and LOTS of chicken. My brother Mark is also known affectionately as “Chicken Boy” because of his love of eating chicken – the abundance of chicken was provided especially for him. That of course, suited me just fine, as I also love chicken. Juji’s birthday menu request was related to the dessert/birthday cake, but I’ll get to that in the next post.
In addition to my parents and siblings and siblings’ partners, we also had one uncle, three aunts, a cousin and the cousin’s son in attendance, which totaled 16 people. This called for a seriously large mound of noodles, as laksa was on the menu:
This was Mark’s favourite: peri peri chicken. Mum seasoned chicken pieces in peri peri seasoning (hence the name, duh) and cooked it in the turbo broiler. It was slightly spicy and tender and yes, finger-licking good. Mark and I positioned ourselves right in front of the plate of peri peri chicken, and shared a dish for our sucked chicken bones. We’re chinese, of course we suck our chicken bones!
Here’s the chicken for the laksa, expertly chopped up chinese-style by my Auntie Susie. She really enjoyed chopping up that chicken (I know because she said so)! We had two dishes of it. I’d now like to share with you a conversation we had about the chicken.
Mark: I love chicken, but I’ve never really liked the skin when it’s done this way.
Mum (knowingly): Ahhh, when you get to my age, I’m sure you will like it. It’s an acquired taste.
Juji: It’s also better when you’re old because it’s softer and much easier to swallow.
Mark/Juji/Me: Mwahahahahahahaaaa!
Mum: Aiyaaa! Just listen to my cheeky children!
We also had roast duck, which was very tasty (roast duck always makes me think of the Seinfeld episode when Elaine has been fasting for 3 days and starts going crazy with hunger. Anyone remember her saying this? “And there it was, mountains of duck. And not fatty duck either, but juicy, tender, breasts of duck…”)
There was a big pot of laksa broth to go with the big mound of noodles. And in the laksa broth were little yummy pillows of spongey fried tofu.
There was a dish of yee peng (fish cake), which I love. Jac isn’t keen on yee peng because she can’t stand its rubbery texture. But that’s exactly why I like it!
Here are a couple of table shots.
The bowl shot:
Mum also made a shepherd’s pie in case anyone wasn’t keen on laksa. But I think everyone had both laksa and pie!
As we ate our lunch, Mark and his wife Ange talked about all the renovating they’ve been doing around their house. Ange mentioned that she’s planning to do the tiling next. Here’s how that discussion went:
Me: So you’re going to be a tiler?
Ange: Yep, I’m going to be a tiler.
Mark, to me: You know, like Bonnie Tyler.
Me: Hahahahahaaaaaa! Did you hear that, Jac?
Jac: No, what?
Me: Mark said Ange is going to be a tiler, like Bonnie Tyler.
Mark, to Jac and me: Yeah yeah, you know, Total Eclipse of the House.
Jac, Ange, Me: Hahahahahaaaaaa.
We’re sooooo corny. And if you don’t know eighties music that probably made no sense to you.
Next, I’ll tell you about the sweet stuff.