The weekend we met the King Cat of The Mountain

As we approach the second half of the year, it is time to take stock of what we have done over the past six months... Well, er not really. Not on this blog at least and I am not going to get all Lama-Chopra on you.  

The arrival of July simply means birthdays, birthdays and more birthdays! The number of July babies I know - including Russell and *cough* myself - is pretty astounding. To kick off the celebratory month, we prepared an early birthday meal for Russell at my in-laws' place for our extended relatives. 

Inspired by THIS recipe on Closet Cooking, I made a taco salad that turns in a fudgly but delicious mess when you mix it. Serious good stuff. I was definitely carrying the "taco belly" (just learnt this term from Oh Joy!) after many re-fills of this salad. 

Oh, I added an egg salad too as I had been unable to get it out of my mind after watching Ina Garten make it on Barefoot Contessa. The randomness that goes through my head is unexplainable at times. HERE is the recipe - it is a keeper. 

My mother-in-law made her signature potato salad, which I regret not taking a better picture of. 

For carbs, I also made a clam and shrimp aglio olio loosely based on THIS recipe by Noob Cook. I saw "loosely" obviously because I used shrimp and clams, and juice of a whole lemon to awaken things up. 

The other Man of the evening was this beast - a 3.6kg hunk of beef brisket that had spent 8.5 hours in KW's Weber grill. After a less than desirable run during our Christmas party last year, the Man of the roost finally felt vindicated. 

We got a Mao Shan Wang cheesecake, named King Cat of The Mountain from Cat & the Fiddle. I was initially hesitant that it would be too heavy blah blah but it was surprisingly light and mousse-y. Highly recommended if you are into durian (I am not and I still enjoyed it). Obviously, I was too cheap to pay for their DIY decorations and got my own instead. #CheapoMum 

Purely by coincidence, KW's aunt got four boxes of Mao Shan Wang durian. Trust me, until you have met my in-laws, you have never seen an entire family this dedicated to durian. 

I guess my little Man fits right into the family =)