Dinner Party with the food bloggers

January 13, 2010 | 16 Comments

Now that December has gone by and January is officially here, I kind of missed her already! December is the festive month, everyone was in a holiday mood and it provided us with the reason to indulge and feast.

Usually I don’t really fancy going out on Christmas eve and New Year’s eve because the whole world seems to be out on the street, but this year I had an awesome Christmas dinner, and good company to count down as we ushered into the new year.

Oh yes, December has been a good month to me.

Okay I will suggest you run along to grab a bag of chips first, and make yourself comfortable, because the photos are going to make you very hungry. We had a small gathering back in the last week of the year, it was very nice of Ivan to invite Catherine, Cheryl, Leroy & me over for the dinner party.

Call it the Post-Christmas party, or a Pre-New-year celebration, whatever – it’s just an excuse for us to come together and feast!

As a kid, the only form of Salad dressing that I knew, was the thousand island salad sauce. I also figured out that it tasted exceptionally nice with anything, I still like it now, but I came to discover more sophisticated ones like the Dijon vinaigrette that Ivan used for the tomato salad.

Is there a word that is more delicious than delicious?

The braised oxtail stew in red wine jus was simply, uh, delicious. The meat was so tender that it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth splendidly. The baguette that I brought along, came in real handy, everyone was tearing it into bits and soaking everything inside the stew.

Oh my, the potatoes are as simple as it can get, but they are so tasty. As I was trying to save room for the steak, I only had three baby potatoes, but the others adored them, we blinked, and there’s no potatoes left.

I couldn’t believe my ears when Ivan said that he only used salt and pepper to season the meat, and he did that just before it went into the pan. The secret was a block of real, solid butter. I like the medium rare taste of the meat, I like the slightly charred texture, I like how the steak was even thicker than a thumb, and I like it because Ivan cooked it for us.

We were stuffed to the brim by now, but there was still Cheryl’s apple pie for desserts. and I had two helpings of it. We were also spoil for choices when it comes to the ice cream, there were vanilla beans, rum & raisin, and even stem ginger, but I was really excited by the tiny specks of real vanilla seeds. Sweetie, cool vanilla beans ice cream, with the warm crusty apple pie; this, was a slice of heaven.

* * *

Thank you Ivan for inviting all of us to the dinner party! Great food, wonderful company, good wine, sweet desserts, and lots of food stories to share. Oh man, I’m really spoil when it comes to food.

Comments

16 Responses to “Dinner Party with the food bloggers”

diva
January 13th, 2010 @ 12:16 am

brad, everything looks divine and perfection! looks like you lot had a good time feasting up and all! yes, sometimes all you need to season meat is just plain ol’ salt and pepper and really good fat! my secret to great roast potatoes is duck fat or turkey fat (used from the bird roasting in the oven) or if a little more indulgent, goose fat from the butchers. and of course, butter’s a real lifesaver! x
Life for Beginners
January 13th, 2010 @ 8:50 am

Oh, that looks like an awesome party! I can’t believe it’s almost the middle of January and I haven’t attended a single party yet… Well, I can still live vicariously through your beautiful and enigmatic blog posts…

Keep partyin’!
J2Kfm
January 13th, 2010 @ 10:09 am

Still in the mood for some partay … way after the mundane life kick-started her way into 2010 huh?
I’d binge on those potatoes if I were you.
myfoodsirens
January 13th, 2010 @ 4:16 pm

Omg the apple pie looks so good! I’m craving for one now haha. Darn, no stall sells apple pies in school (Mac is not under consideration)!
thisisyummy
January 13th, 2010 @ 11:16 pm

Oh my goodness! You’re sure right about the feeling hungry after the pictures part!! Starving right about now! Imagining the baguette in the oxtail soup, it must have been nth short of fabulous. The meat is huge! hah any meat-lover’s paradise. completed with a yummy apple pie, blessed with good food! hah, cheers!
thisisyummy
January 13th, 2010 @ 11:19 pm

oh yar like the new blog header btw. kpo cafe bar right?
poisonivy
January 13th, 2010 @ 11:41 pm

speaking of roasted potatoes, i checked out Epicurious 2 sundays ago and had the best roasted potatoes ever! so was everything else we had. 1 2nd whatever u said in ur review!
licia
January 14th, 2010 @ 3:25 pm

wah…those photos make me so hungry..
really look so temptation…
ladyironchef
January 14th, 2010 @ 8:56 pm

diva: Yeah we had a great time, duck or turkey fat? that sounds really sinful (& good) hehe. butter, what will we do without butter? : )

LFB: Where have u been my friend? must be all the-shifting-house been keeping you busy, party soon!

J2kfm: the potatoes are really good, but i was saving stomach for the steaks, which are also very good too! oh dear

myfoodsiren: I haven try apple pies that are so good for a while, they are awesome

thisisyummy: certainly, the baguette with oxtail stew was probably enough, but then there was the steak. from the picture it looks huge right? but trust me, it’s even bigger than what the picture looks.

poisonivy: glad you enjoy epicurious! i wanna go back there, and they had a new branch at railmall too

licia: Thank you for your kind words, have you go and grab some bites? : )
Sook
January 15th, 2010 @ 3:19 am

First time here and definitely love it! What beautiful photos! Adding your blog to my blogroll.
Simon
January 15th, 2010 @ 7:16 am

I love it when food bloggers get together over food. Don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed with and of the lunches/dinners that I’ve been apart of.
allie
January 15th, 2010 @ 3:35 pm

Haha. Me and my friends were also having a party on xmas eve. But the food were totally not comparable to yours! :p
How good I I can join your delicious party :p
ladyironchef
January 16th, 2010 @ 9:20 am

Sook: Thanks for dropping by, see you around often yeah? : )

Simon: hahaha i’m sure of that, especially when u guys have so many get-together! it’s always the company, not jus the food

allie: haha this wasn’t during xmas eve, i had another awesome impromptu party with another group of friends too!
Christine @ Fresh Local and Best
January 28th, 2010 @ 12:15 am

I simply love the soft corral color of the potatoes. I probably would have inhaled them too!
ladyironchef
January 28th, 2010 @ 9:55 am

hello christine, oh yeah inhale them is a good word! hehe
alkanphel
January 29th, 2010 @ 12:04 am

Wow now I feel like cooking a good steak as well! How were the potatoes cooked?