A "Tzi Mui" Reunion Dinner

Initially the title of this post was called "A Girlie Reunion Dinner" but did you know that "girlie" is deemed as "often offensive" and derogatory in the dictionary? Thats a bit of trivia for you. Its the eve of Chinese New Year. Traffic has been a nightmare the past few days. The ATMs are out of cash. On the plus side, I'm going to really enjoy the peace and quiet. Its only a few days in the year when KL comes to a standstill and I can actually listen to the leaves ( from the few trees that there are left) rustling in the wind. Last night, I was invited along to a reunion dinner for the girls hosted by perfection personified, the lovely Beatrice. I was so excited and had my toes and fingers crossed that she would make my favourite chocolate cupcake from Vanilla Box.

I should have guessed that "casual" to these gals is not quite how I interpret it. There I was in my crumpled white shirt, khakis and flip-flops in a room full of women with immaculate hair, flirty dresses with plunging necklines and perfectly applied make-up. Talk about thorn among the roses! Anyway, the moment we walked into the house, we were greeted by the scent of jasmine and roast pork. Its a good combination! The dining table was prettily decorated with red, black and gold. We started with yue sang from the Taman Tun markets with slivers of butter fish and just a sprinkling of finely chopped kaffir lime leaves.

For our main course, a roast loin of pork stuffed liberally with garlic and basted in chicken broth in the oven. It was amazing that the only hint of garlic in the meat is the spiciness. Otherwise, I would not have known there was enough garlic in there to ward off a whole colony of vampires. I'm not fond of this particular cut of meat in a roast as it tends to be coarse and dry if you overcook it even a tiny little bit. There is hardly any fat in it. Got to have some fat in yer meat. I reckon I would make a delicious roast. Mmmm. Anyway, to accompany the pork, caramelised sweet potatoes, potatoes and asparagus. Pork always goes well with something sweet and this was no exception. It was thoroughly delicious and satisfying! I could've had more but I was holding out for dessert! Alas, no cupcakes! So sad but we had durian cheesecake and chocolate durian cake from Bijan, cherries and Beatrice's melt-in-the-mouth almond cookies and pineapple tarts. It was definitely a different type of evening for me since my friends and I usually have such a relaxed (lepak aja) approach to entertaining. If these gals are representative of what to expect when you're 40, I look forward to it! Thank you for a lovely evening and the present (we all got one. A small Chinese brocade jewelley box with a Chinese New Year blessing inside! So thoughtful!).

I just want to wish all of you a very happy & prosperous new year. May there be peace, understanding and harmony in the world. GONG HEY FATT CHOY!!!

I leave you with a picture of Beatrice's gorgeous cat as he contemplates what it means to be a cat in the year of the rat.