Impressing the locals

Friday night brought about our dinner party for the office staff and Seiw Mei's friend, Brian (before he departed back to the UK).

After some intense discussions to agree a menu suited to accompany the long awaited Tiramisu (see earlier blog entry), we decided that something more local would be good to offset this very rich, European dessert. So we opted for a Thai style chicken rice dish. (Here, although you never see ready prepared meals in supermarkets, there are a handful of cook-in sauces and we've found one Thai brand which is particularly delicious and we thought might go unnoticed).

As for the rice to accompany it, due to a shortage of saucepans, and following several sets of verbal instructions from our landlady, we decided to experiment with the rice cooker. Let me explain: When we first viewed this apartment, there was a very large, round, electric kitchen gadget taking up most of the work surface (that which was not already occupied up by the oversized microwave). Our landlady said it was a rice cooker and naturally, I commented that I'd never used one. She looked astonished and asked if we'd never eaten rice! I explained that we've always cooked it in a saucepan, thereby confirming her belief that we're slightly odd in the UK.

Here, people usually eat their rice plain - steamed, but David often flavours his with stock, spices and sometimes lime juice. This time, he made his lime rice. When dinner was served, they all really seemed to enjoy it and ate loads. David's rice received particular compliments and requests for the recipe - David is so proud of himself, actually making rice for Singaporeans, who eat it almost every day of their lives for breakfast , lunch or dinner (or even all three), and impressing them with it! He likened it to selling ice to the Eskimos!

Finally, they all ate the dessert too, and some people even had seconds, so I'm happy too.