My Birthday Story 2014 part 1

September is my favourite month of the year as it is the official start of spring in Australia, my birthday and school holidays are in September. My birthday is on the 27^th September but I decided to have two celebrations this year. I had a party with my friends last Saturday where I invited them to make paella, chicken and corn soup, lemonade and fried chicken.

I love cooking with people as it’s such a bonding experience. People can feel more comfortable communicating when they have something to do. I invited friends who I knew would enjoy cooking and only enough guests that I knew that could comfortably fit in my kitchen. I had five guests in total, my friends that I had known since high school and my friend that I had met at uni. Most of my outings that I had with my friends centre around food so they were fine with cooking their own lunch with me. I also asked them to bring a cake or dessert instead of a present so that they wouldn’t have to worry about getting something expensive.

The main thing I wanted to cook during my birthday party was paella. Paella is a Spanish fried rice dish which typically has seafood, chicken and seafood in it. I had never had paella before but wanted to try it because it looks so delicious. I like how it is a communal dish with generous bits of seafood, meat and rice. It’s all the kinds of things I like to eat rolled into one.

When the guests arrived, the first thing we made was lemonade. I have a lime tree in my backyard so we really made limonade. I invited my best friend’s niece and nephew for my party as well and they were happy to reach through the undergrowth and get the big, juicy limes. It was just as well that we picked the limes as the tree was beginning to flower so eventually there would be no limes.  I got the children to make the lemonade while my friends and I made the paella and other dishes.

We decided to make two pans of paella due to some of my friends not being able to eat chorizo (a type of pork sausage) that is an essential ingredient in paella. So we had one paella with chorizo and one without. We also decided to leave the seafood on the side so people could eat as much or as little of that as they liked. I think the food turned out good but I can’t compare to anything since it was the first time I had it.

 The only hitch was that I should have labeled the party favors. I gave everyone a plastic tumbler filled with some candy which guests could empty out to put their lemonade in. The trouble was that people had a hard time remembering which one was their tumbler as they moved around the kitchen.  

All my friends had brought desserts. The desserts were all cakes. I got two sets of brownies, lemon cake and a coffee cake. I had to freeze the leftovers so that it wouldn't go to waste.  We also played a party game where I drew a name out of a hat and whoever I called out could choose out a selection of prizes. The next person called out could choose a prize as well which could be something that someone already selected. Everyone really enjoyed the game and there was much laughter as people would refuse to handover things and hide their items. It’s a game you can’t play with little children as they hate getting stuff taken away from them.

It was a sweet laid-back kind of day.

My real birthday will be on this week. I still haven’t decided what I want to do with my family. I want to take them out to eat, so far I’m thinking of seafood, or maybe barbecue chicken or Chinese banquet. 

Yummy Shabu Shabu

Last Sunday, I went out for Shabu Shabu with an old highschool buddy of mine. We’ve always made the effort to maintain contact but we go for months at a time without interacting with each other as we’re both busy with our own lives.  

Shabu Shabu is a Japanese dining experience where you boil thin slices of meat and vegetables in a broth. There’s a pot of hot boiling water and you place the meat in it until it’s cooked and then take it out and eat it. It’s called Shabu Shabu as that’s the sound of food being swished around in the water. Other Asian cultures cook food that way as well so there’s different names for it, like hot pot or steamboat.   It’s a nice communal dining experience.

I had never been to Shabu Shabu before so I was curious to see if I would like it. I like communal dining experiences where you cook the food together. If you’re stuck for conversation, you can always talk about the food or just concentrate on the food. I guess it wouldn’t be so fun if either of you aren’t very confident in cooking though. You’ll be always asking, “Do you think it’s cooked?” and then you’d overcook the food and make it tough or burn it.

I don’t remember the name of the restaurant but it said Shabu Shabu on it as well. It was in a place in Underwood, Brisbane where all the outlets and warehouses are located. It’s in a small but extremely clean shopping centre, the foyer had gleaming white tiles. I think it must be word of mouth keeping the business alive because it’s in a non-descript building.

The restaurant can easily cater to a wedding reception as it’s quite large. There were all these oversized marble tables and benches everywhere with individual hotplates for diners. The place was pretty empty but my friend said that Sunday is not a busy time for them, Friday and Saturday nights are the times where we’d be lucky to get a table.

The waiter was pretty friendly and attentive. I ordered seafood combination which consisted of prawns, fish fillets, clams, scallops and squids and my friend ordered wagyu beef.  We both chose miso soup to cook our food in. Our food came out quickly as it was raw, along with complimentary plates of vegetables and various soup meatballs.  We each had our own hotplate so we boiled whatever we liked to eat. When we finished eating, the bill came down to eighty three dollars which we split between us. I would say Shabu Shabu is very affordable if you split it between friends.  We both liked our meals although we both agreed that the beef tasted better than the seafood, so next time we’ll try chicken and have more beef. We also thought about changing our broth to curry.

Afterwards, we went to Sunnybank which is a place known for its Asian restaurants. We decided to have a dessert that my friend really liked which was custard in syrup, she added some kind of black bean to hers and I chose to have seasonal fruits.  I did like the dessert, especially with the fresh cut fruit.

Do you like sharing food with others? Or do you prefer to eat your own food?