We hosted a Christmas dinner at ours two Saturdays ago, which is looking to be a yearly affair now. Last year we hosted a bigger party for about 12-15 people where people mingled about and we served Singaporean dishes. This year we decided on a smaller and more cosy number, making it possible for a sit down roast dinner. Just about. Cos we only had 8 chairs and we had 8 of us in total. Whew!
We planned our menu in advance and K gets excited.. or we call it
gan cheong, whichever you decide on ;) He was very keen to plan the food and the people to invite and so we locked down the date with our guests more than a month in advance.
Kiasu much? ;)
I'm not complaining because it was very much a joint effort between us and I loved the teamwork. We decided for him to do his signature salad, and be in charge of the roast beef (beef seems to be his forte), and I will do a separate starter, and friends were happy to bring wine, juices, and Lolly kindly brought a really nice
Bûche de Noël from my fav Paul Patisserie. All set then, we are good to go!
 |
| Whilst K was busy in the kitchen, I was busy setting up the table (and music!) |
 |
| We had Christmas crackers too, something very British |
As usual, I love decorating our place to look as festive as can be. We are still a bit lazy to get a Christmas tree and so I got a mini tree, which looks pretty good on the dining table. Like last year I've decorated our mantlepiece with candles and a Christmas vine peppered with golden pinecones. Indeed this is such a wonderful season of the year with the cold weather and Christmas carols filling the air - shops, radio, TV, everywhere really. Speaking about weather, today is Winter Solstice, meaning the shortest day of the year, and yet it is the warmest winter day in 100 years! A toasty 16deg for December - unbelievable! In fact I've stopped wearing my winter jacket and have reverted to my autumn trench.
 |
| Table decor with our mini Christmas tree |
 |
| Mantlepiece |
Friends started arriving about 7pm and we had Christmas carols playing in the background (thanks to Spotify) and we popped open a bottle of champagne to kick off the dinner.
Here is the dinner menu which we came up with. Feels like we are back in a Come Dine with Me competition!
Starters
Kian's signature salad
Bel's salmon blinis
Warm mediterranean bread drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Main
Roast beef, served with roasted parsnips, carrots and sweet potatoes
with accompanying gravy
Desserts
Buche de Noel
Warm fig tart
 |
| Bel's salmon blinis |
 |
| 3kg worth of roast beef, took us 80min in the oven |
 |
| Church mates cum ex neighbours |
 |
| So all of us pulled the Christmas crackers - POP - each had a paper crown which we could wear, and there is a small toy and a piece of paper with a silly Christmas joke which you usually read out to your dinner companions |
 |
| The girls |
 |
| Chef Ong butchering the roast beef |
 |
| Friends getting to know one another |
 |
| Looking forward to dig in! |
 |
| RX and the guys |
 |
| B&K :) |
 |
| Looks pretty good? Thank you Chef Ong! |
 |
| Not forgetting our dessert - looks good and tastes good |
The food was well received. We were both shocked when we finished up almost 3kg of beef between us! Chef Ong accidentally burnt the fig tart in the oven (too busy entertaining he said) and so we lost a dessert. Which was fine by us because most of us couldn't really fit anything else in our stomachs, plus having this delectable cake above was so good to end the meal with.
After we cleared the table, half the group, i.e. the guys adjourned to sit in front of the TV (typical!) and watched a scary movie. K was indifferent and so joined a few of us girls to play some games. We played some card games and I bought this cute game last week thinking we could play after dinner. So each wears a "party hat" which has a slot for a card with the name of someone famous. Then your partner needs to describe that person/ character and you try to guess. Easy? Not really haha
 |
| Some of the names that came in the pack |
 |
This was so funny. K captioned this as "all I heard was blah blah BLAH"
And there I was going "come on! quick guess!" |
 |
Bel: I give up!
Kian: chey… |
Really fun to host a dinner party such as this, we think we will keep this annual tradition going. Although it has to be said that it is always during such dinner parties that we really wish we have a dishwasher!
Comments