Digging in

A stressful day of peeling, grating and shredding has paid off! Last night's Singaporean-style CNY menu of yu sheng and popiah main dishes, supplemented by four trays of steamed (frozen) dim sum hasn't -as far as I know- resulted in any casualties.

The pressure was certainly on though: with two pregnant women (one of whom was heavily so, expecting twins in a month!) and a roomful of Ste's colleagues, this was a group which demanded some quality kitchenary output (after all, The Bank probably wouldn't appreciate a third of this department's staff going on sick leave because of post-lo hei runs ... and the thought of distressing the tiny tummies of three unborn children would have been far too much to bear). I had to go beyond my usual, half-past-six excuse for a hot meal (more often than not instant kim chee ramen).

Fortunately, apart from Chef, none of the others present had ever tasted authentic tossed fish salad or soft spring rolls, so expectations could be managed to a reasonable degree. It wasn't an utter crisis that key ingredients were either substituted (what is 'turnip' in German anyway?! We ended up using something that rather resembled a monster parsnip -figured these '-nip' veggies must be from the same family- and white radish for the fish salad was magically morphed into glass noodles), foregone (what the hell are 'kaffir lime leaves'?!) ... or just plain forgotten in the fridge (like the yucky SHRIMP which I had held my breath to chop). Everyone was a good sport and the cacophony of auspicious wishes during the tossing was a joyous mix of Swiss German, high German and English ... with the occasional whimsical trapping ("Swiss football team to win Euro2008!").

Ste, every bit the Tea House Towkay, served his favourite blends of Surabaya rooibus tea and green tea. He then put our China-Chinese tea set to good use (including the fragrance cups that were purchased at Vivocity in December) and talked everyone through the tea ceremony. If I closed my eyes, he could very well have been a waiter at Tea Chapter, extolling the delicate warm fragrance of some leaf or other. I felt so proud.

With tea came the sweets, the second and more presentable batches of homemade pineapple tarts and coconut cookies, and also pandan kueh lapis from Wonderful Patisserie on London Chinatown's Gerrard Street (where we'd procured the pandan cake for our wedding in Bern).

Just one more day to go till the end of the Lunar New Year season ... I think this is the longest that I've ever stretched it out, but it sure feels good. More noise, more laughter - chases the bad luck away ... shoo!