One thing Malaysians know n do best is eating. n now that it's raya, the array of food can lead a chef to write an ode to the food. at my house, we simply adore the heavyweight food. gone was my hard earned 2kg loss. as i had written in my previous entry, we had nasi dagang. my tiramisu was filled with rich filling of cheese n milk. n having more than 20 canisters of cookies strategically placed at the coffee table at the living room didnt help.
on 3rd day of raya, when the siblings returned to the city, i thot of having an open house.i never had one, never invited any of my frens or students b4. but i was on a tight budget, as i have to save for the trip, so i racked my brain n wondered wat kind of dish that's unusual, delicious but economical? nasi beriyani is out. my mother's recipe requires more than 20 ingredients (no short cuts for me, it's the from-scratch recipe) n saffron is very expensive (1 teeny weeny case costs rm16). plus, it's time consuming. oh well... my sis suggested mee hoon. mee hoon? nah... too common. spaghetti bolognaise? nah...that's too common too...then i thot of my fav dish - pasta with bechamel sauce. aha! it's easy, time-saving, economical n very delicious. that's the main dish.then i made tomato salsa. for dessert, i made trifle n chocolate cake with white topping. all these in 3 hours. as jamie oliver would have said it, easy peasy...
my first guests were my literature students n a boy that i coached for debate. then my colleagues came. i also invited nash, my coursemate who has been flying everywhere presenting papers on literature (gawd, i envy him). since nash was there, i told my students to ask him wat they wanted to know abt e.e. cummings' poem (which is as dense as homi bhabha's concept of hybridity). then my form 3b students came - they finished up my pasta ("sedap la teacher...mintak recipe?") n played with fluffy the attention-seeking fat cat. after the guests left, i realised that i didnt have a proper meal... yay! that's like dieting for me. however, my happiness is shortlived. until today, the canisters of goodies r still on the coffee table, tempting me to eat them...
i'm trying to re-like exercising. *sigh* it's no easy task...
