Jac’s and my contribution to the meal were two fruit platters. We cut the fruit up and arranged the platters on Sunday morning, just before we left for my folks’ place. As you can see, just to make the platters look a little more interesting, I used my vegetable cutter to make melon flowers – the orange flowers are rockmelon (also known as cantaloupe), the green are honeydew melon. On this first platter we had oranges, prunes, papaya, kiwi fruit, strawberries and honeydew melon in the centre. The garnish is a sprig of mint leaves from our garden.

On the second platter we placed pineapple, honeydew melon, papaya, strawberries, rockmelon and blood oranges, again, garnished with a little mint. Blood oranges are Jac’s favourite kind of orange. I took the photos of the fruit platters before we wrapped them up with ice packs ready for transportation.

At my folks’ place, there was a lot of food ready to be eaten! There was a big dish of ketupat to go with the satay (this bowl had been used for Mum’s yee mee the day before).

I didn’t have any of this chilli, but I thought it looked interesting, red in a red dish.

There was, of course, a dish of chopped raw onion…

…and cucumber too, for the satay.

And of course, a huge pot of satay “kuah” (satay sauce), made with peanuts and chilli.

My eldest sister cooked a big pot of dhal. It went really well with the satay – it was lovely and had the creamiest texture of any dhal I’ve ever eaten. I ate it both as a sauce with the satay and as a dish on its own, wolfing down big spoonfuls of it.

My dad got the satay cooking started, but it was my brother who did most of the cooking. My sisters and I all made sure he had plenty of food and drink while he worked to cook satay for the hungry hoards.

On the menu, chicken satay and kangaroo satay! The kangaroo was supplied by my cousin and her hubby, who live on a farm.

This is my arty farty satay shot. My plate didn’t stay neat and tidy like that for very long, let me tell you!

The kangaroo satay was tender and delicious, but the chicken was my favourite.

My brother also cooked up some lamb skewers* left over from Ruby’s birthday party the day before. In our family, the more meat the merrier!

When everyone had eaten their fill of satay, it was time to move onto the sweet items!

Auntie S brought two sponge cakes slathered in cream and durian. There were two layers of sponge per cake with durian in the cream between the sponge layers and durian in the cream that covered each cake.

This shortbread was made by my mum’s ex-boss’* wife. She was a little worried it was overdone but I actually prefer shortbread that’s a little firmer as it’s easier to eat and doesn’t disintegrate into crumbs the minute you bite into it. This shortbread was lovely and buttery and melted in the mouth.

Ange made this diabetic fruit cake especially for my dad.

I’ve featured this cake before (see this old post for the recipe).

I only had eyes for the durian cream sponge cakes though. All throughout lunch as I ate my satay, I could smell that distinct durian aroma in the air promising a delectable pleasure to come.

The sponge was light and soft, and the durian-infused cream (with real durian flesh!) was just heavenly. Even Jac, who is not terribly fond of durian, enjoyed the durian cream sponge cake. She didn’t have a piece of cake but kept digging into mine!

I was thrilled as I got to take a piece of cake home for later.

We also enjoyed the fruit very much. All in all, another pleasant day featuring delicious food and enthusiastic eating.