The second monthly cook-out // May

I'm an introvert by nature so I consider myself incredibly lucky to have a baby fistful of friends who I can probably spend the next few decades alongside.

After the craziness of our first monthly cook-out, we very efficiently put down a date for the second monthly cook-out. Though we didn't have a theme, this week's dishes were veered towards Asian persuasion.

Yang made a rather delicious roasted cauliflower and chickpea salad.

I got to admit I was feel extremely tired that morning and all I wanted was to get over the food preparation bit. I do believe that how you feel will affect how the food tastes, so I wasn't surprise when this unagi tofu starter wasn't on par with the rest of the dishes. Uh sorry.

Initially I wanted to save these crab rolls for Russell's first birthday but I thought, What the heck, who knows what other bright idea I might have then. 

It was a wing-it recipe; for every 500g of crab meat, the ratio of kewpie mayonnaise to Dijon mustard to goma dressing is roughly 5:1:3 and season with some black pepper and salt to your liking. 

Kewpie and goma dressing are stalwarts in my pantry, or rather fridge, and they should be yours too!  

Marcus and zee contributed braised pork leg bee hoon, based on Marcus's grandma's recipe. With a terse relationship with my own grandmother and an even more tense relationship with her food kitchen experiments, I've always thought that grandmothers who whip up delicious homemade dishes was a fable concocted by Italians and cookbook authors. Glad to be proven wrong. 

The best accompaniment to fried bee hoon is arguably curry; the combination is serious bingey, food-coma-up-and-coming comfort food. I wish I had a better picture of this sedap deliciousness that was prepared by Andrew.

Chocolates from Norway that were surprisingly good!

These Jara Petit cheesecups were from Zhu. Good thing they were the size of a baby's fist after all that savory food. 

It is heart-warming to know we are united in our love for Haagen Daaz. Macadamia Nut Brittle happens to be my favourite flavour from Haagen Daaz and I'm not saying this to excuse myself from polishing off the pint. Nobody else stood a chance. Nutha chance, I tell you. 

Coffee is among my top three too, perhaps behind Caramel Biscuit and Cream (PS: Just found out the "biscuit" found within Caramel Biscuit and Cream is Belgian cookie Lotus so this might just change the order of things around here.)

And yes, we have marked down a date for our next cook-out. Whoop!