Friday 31 October 2003

Dinner party

We had Fifi and Magnum over for a dinner party last night (taking advantage of the parental units being away mwahahah) and wow, even if I do say so myself it was all so damn good - Tux and I put on a great evening.  Fantastic food, lots of booze and good conversation, rolling around screaming with laughter ... maybe a spliff or two was involved, I wouldn't swear to it <g>. 

The menu was as below and sheesh it was good.  The homemade curry and flavour pastes used really make such a difference - there's this freshness and intensity of flavour that you just don't get out of a supermarket jar.  I didn't bother with a starter - oh I had crisps and a dipping sauce, and I had planned to do dumplings or something - but it was all fine and very yummy and much appreciated.  Fifi and Magnum are the best sort of dinner party guests - from the chef's point of view anyway - because not only do they appreciate good food, they are vocal about.  That is, they comment on the flavours, the textures, how everything fits together.  To me, there is nothing worse than cooking for people who just eat to refuel, and you may as well be serving up thin gruel for all the interest they take.  So yeah, it was a really, truly great night.  Tuxedo and I cannot wait until the day we have our own place, can get our own (superior) cookware etc out of storage and do this kind of entertaining regularly, because we love it, and our guests love it ...

Fifi even offered to buy a jar of my red curry paste* - $15 to $20 she reckoned it was worth - so I'm thinking seriously about the business opportunities.  I mean, I'm realistic; I know there's masses of "gourmet" products and ingredients out there but none of them can swear to being fully homemade (and believe me, its pretty labour intensive), plus all natural and GLUTEN FREE.  So maybe ... its worth thinking about?  I mean, it'd be a cottage industry at best (probably the best way of doing it anyway) but there is a market.  Hmmmm ....

*As she's a beauty therapist and masseuse extraordinaire - as well as holding a B.Sc. - we finally argued it down to bartering; my curry pastes etc for her massages and hair removal.  Practical, yes, but yay!  It suits both of us very well indeed, especially since we're both er cash challenged?

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So that was last night.  Today was pretty slooooooooow, as you can imagine, and we'd left most of the washing up (not that there was a great deal, anyway, hurrah for woks and automatic rice cookers) for today so there was that, plus general pre-return-of-parental-units-cleanup to do.  Argh, for our own place.  We've pretty much decided that if we can stick it we'll stay here until May or so;  to begin with, it'll give us time to consolidate finances once Tux and I start earning, and also the PU's are going overseas in April/May and want us to house- and pet-sit, which we'd like to do for them as a return favour.  So yeah ... but a lot needs to be sorted out, if we're to stay that long; currently the situation is pretty fraught and tense, not good vibes for long-term cohabitation eh.

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