Office End-of-Year Makan (X’mas Pud, Part II)

Remember the Bread and butter pud, two posts ago?

Well, this is its story, or of the actual event in which it starred. That would be our office’s end-of-year do, with a seasonal feel to it somewhat. Can’t tell you exactly where I work but here’s a clue:

Two magnificent erections at the entrance to the workplace.

Here’s the deal-  everyone who’s still around at this time of the year brings something, a drink, a dish, whatever, just a little bit.

We’d eventually end up with a lunch buffet spread to enjoy with a few friends from other departments.  These are  what we managed to collect in the end.

Old-school Nasi Bungkus 50 Sen with Pusu, Egg and Chicken

Korean noodle salad

There were also Bee Hoon Goreng, courtesy of the Boss, and Egg and Tuna Sandwich made by our Lady of the Office, Hjh Noor. But sweets were the order of the day it seemed.

The pud in high resolution

Santa on guard duty in the sweets corner

Egg tarts surrounded by rice and yam pudding and pulut panggang

Basmousa- Arabic semolina sweet

Sweet tapai

Kati Lapam

French crepe

Tangerines

And of course there was a lot of  tuneless and nonsensical yelps, grunts and screams in the guise of singing and merry-making too… a release of pent-up stress… let’s call it therapy, maybe.

You are the dancing queen... ~ Ming belting it out on the Magic Microphone

Well done, Ming! Or may be this was Teo's score..?

Don’t know who’s more excited at the party, him…

or his elves…

That’s the office -  we celebrate Raya, Divali, Xmas, Chinese New Year, Birthdays… heck, we even celebrate a pen dropping on the floor… any excuse really…

Kullu ‘aamin wa antum bikhair. Selamat Menyambut Awal Muharram 1403 Hijriah. You know what’s gonna happen tomorrow then…

* The pictures wouldn’t go portrait today. Napa kah ia. Kebilu diri kali!

Definitely NO LICENSE to grill… *sigh*

I’m at the beach house now… so reporting almost real-time from the fringes of the South China Sea about an incident that happened just 10 min ago. It’s just gone 11.15pm.

We’re here for an impromptu barbeque brainfarted at 10.30pm, and 15 minutes later we were on the beach with sausages, maggi mee, chicken wings etc…

Someone got the fire going alright, grill wire in place, and slapped the wings and sausages on- all set to go!  No signs of disaster in the horizon as the pic below shows.

… until…

Oh the panic~!!  There was blood and shrills everywhere…!! Total pandemonium! It may appear that Rose (front, left) was rather impressively breathing fire not unlike a circus performer; except she wasn’t-  rather she was trying to the blow the fire out and save our now shrivelled non-believing chicken wings from hellfire! She managed to do that, just… but I could’ve sworn she shat in her pants at that very moment…!!  Charming.

But what’s a barbie without that chicken-turned-carbon drama, huh?

And they wondered why they weren’t on the Food Channel… hmmpph…

Christmas pud!

Here’s one I made earlier… well, about 2 hrs ago at 12.30 am!!

I had this mad urge to have Bread & Butter Pudding for breakfast tomorrow and as I looked in the larder and saw the required ingeredients all within sight, the said madness materialized itself into a whole tray of beautiful (if i may say so myself) pud!  But hold your horses, my sudden midnight transformation into “Jamie Oliver” also resulted in a decent tub of runny custard to go with the pudding.  If Jamie can do it, I can do it! hehe  Must be all those Christmassy food ads on Astro that’ve induced this “culinary lunacy”, if that even.

Buttery bready beauty!

Seasonal garnish, pour qois non?

creamy custardy goodnessy

smooth enough, methinks!

These pics are a bit blurred coz I used my mobile phone camera. Not great, i know, but i couldn’t be bothered to look for my proper camera.  I’ll add better pics tomorrow. Sleepy now~ can’t wait for breakfast!! Woohoo!!! As the sagacious Homer Simpson always says… Rrgggghhhh…!!! for now, I’ll just enjoy it in my dreams… ZZzzzZZZzzzz…

I saw a purple hippo… and ate it…

In the words of Minako Sensei, “HAAA-ROOOOOO….!!”

I’ve been… er… absent, obviously. Other things got in the way, like trips overseas, my late night teh tarek sessions, sleep… oh and the occasional work.

But Her Majesty The Maurina (the world-renowned Contributing Editor of The Miele Guide, no less), fresh from her attempted invasion of ASEAN and Japan (as well as Gui Yang, China~ but nuff said), sent me on this tremendous guilt trip to start again- well, I had been meaning to anyway.

SO~  I ran into this purple coloured hippo- knocked it on it’s head- ploop!! – and I munched away…! Didn’t know hippos were so crunchy and sweet! We should have more hippos!  If you remember, some time ago I ate an elephant too!

But of course, only hippos made by a very creative and not-kitchen-shy NIKKI could taste that delicious!

It was the last(?) day of the Raya Month that we were over at her place, where she hosted a very delightful and beautiful high-tea party specially for us.  The food weren’t typically raya-type, but that’s what made it special. In fact, you’d expect them on the Empire buffet table round abouts this time of the year.  It’s food you’d half-expect Santa (or a burglar) to stuff his face with as he tiptoes across the room with presents for you, or for himself, as it were.  So although the tea party was during Raya (October), posting the pics up now feels rather fitting for the Christmassy scent in the air!

Boy I’m long-winded tonite!

But- Nikki’s treats were superb! I was foaming at the mouth and shaking uncontrollably just looking at them you’d think I’d been bitten by Mike’s mental dog next door on my way in!!   Just  look at these pics.

Salmon sandwich etc

Home-made pizza

the cheese plate, breadsticks, scones

lemon curd, fresh cream, marmalade for the scones

And now for dessert…

Parisian Macaroons

Parisian Macaroons, encore! Hohoho!

Luxurious selection of tea and coffee

cupcakes for tea

Kek batik

Ambassade, le rocher, si'l vous plait..?

strawberry topped choc mouse? moose? mousse? how'ju spell it?

the cosy corner

The cosy corner was perfect to sit in and enjoy your tea and the dessert. Let’s make one thing clear, Nikki MADE ALL of the food except the chocs~ but she could’ve if she’d wanted to… and me? I ATE ALL the food bar none! *ahem*

A bit of a nyamuk, I was first to leave that day as I trotted off to yet another late raya openhouse. But I left well-chuffed and well-fed, and I must admit, VERY well-impressed.  Congratulations Nikki (& Shahrin, I’m pretty sure you helped open that can of butter or something…) and Thank You both for having me.  I left your place with the hippo in tow, but it didn’t survive the journey to my cousin’s openhouse,  just a few hundred meters away (and I thought I was kanyang… *burp*).  But here’s an eternal reminder of our tasty aubergine-tinted friend before its unceremonious meeting with the intestines of it’s maker’s guest, yours truly. God bless its purple soul..

The Purple Hippo in question.

In the mean time, Christmas is coming! Merry Christmas everyone!! Enjoy the holidays! I’ll be celebrating with family & relatives  in Seria, Brunei-style… ah yess… nothing like a hot sweaty Christmas lunch by the fake snow-covered and melamine-infested Christmas tree, from Gui Yang perhaps- but all’s good when you’re with family!