Pre-Mooncake Festival

Date: 2 October 2009, Friday
Venue: Yong's house
Occasion: Gathering of friends at Yong's for Mooncake Festival celebration

BBQ has always been something that most people will look forward to attending. The lovely aroma of barbecued chicken wings & sausages, the sound of laughter ringing through the BBQ area, & not to forget the yummilicious taste of self-barbecued food *drools*

From time to time, a group of us friends (most of us are colleagues, while some of us are ex-colleagues already) will gather for a meal, just to catch up on each others' lives. The last gathering we had was also a BBQ gathering at Kryslynn's house, several months ago. This time around, we used the Mooncake Festival as an excuse to gather, but ended up with yet another BBQ plan :P The downside of having a BBQ is the cleaning part. Apart from that, a BBQ is all good :)

Here's PerutBesi's recommended list of food items for a BBQ party:

Top in the list:

• Chicken Wings
• Sausages
• Chops: Beef, Lamb, Pork
• Seafood: Prawns, squid, fish, & even crabs!
• Oyster mushrooms!!
• Fresh fruits: Watermelon, honeydew melon
• Salad
• Fried noodles/rice/cooked food while waiting for the fire to start (back-ups are always good!!)
  
• Drinks of any sort - best to have something cooling :)
  

Optional:

• Garlic bread
• Pineapples
• Marshmallows
• Otak-otak
• Satay
• *Anything that I've left out which could be barbecued*

Sauces/Spreads/Essential add-ons:

• Butter
• Honey
• BBQ sauce
• Thousand Island
• Mayonnaise
• Tomato ketchup/sauce
• Chili sauce
• Black pepper sauce
• Mint sauce (if you have lamb chops)
• Mustard

Some of the food items we had:

Chicken Sausages

Cocktails

Chicken Satay from Kajang
Alex & Rao went all the way to Kajang during lunch hour to get these!! *woots*

Chicken Wings
Yong lightly marinated the wings with salt, pepper, & some sesame seed oil. It's best to marinate the chicken wings overnight for a tastier experience... you could marinate the wings with BBQ sauce/coca-cola/oyster sauce/any other marination recipe!

Pork Slices/Chops
This is Toby's mum's specialty. The pork slices were sliced thinly & marinated with her secret ingredients overnight. It tastes really good once cooked! :D

Grey Oyster Mushrooms
This item rarely makes an appearance during barbecues, but everyone loved it when they took their first bite onto the BBQ-ed mushrooms glazed with honey & butter...try it!

Foil-wrapped Potatoes
Get the small or medium sized potatoes as these will cook faster than the larger ones. Yums :P

Home-Cooked Yam Abacus (in Cantonese: "Shim Pun Zhi")
Yong's mum makes good yam abacus, a traditional Hakka dish. If I'm not mistaken, the yam is firstly skinned & cut into small pieces, where it is then placed into the steamer. Once it is soft, the yam will be mashed & mixed with tapioca flour, oil, & salt. Each 'abacus seed' is then hand-rolled. After that, the yam abacus will be cooked in a boiling pot of water, just like how the "tong yuen" (Chinese rice balls served during Winter Solstice) is cooked. These abacus are best served stir-fried with sliced mushrooms, chopped garlic, chopped dried shrimps, & some spring onions. You can actually purchase ready-made yam abacus from the market (I know that I could get from the SS2, Petaling Jaya market)... or attempt this yourself...here's a sample recipe that I found from the internet. I love this dish!! :D

Let the BBQ party begin!

Kiew & Jessie attempting for an alternative way for quickening the process of lighting the charcoals.

Here's a way to keep your hands clean!

The electric fan is always a better choice than to painstakingly fan the fire manually

Time to cook!

*Sizzle sizzle*

Alex lighting up some lanterns - it's Mooncake/Lantern Festival eve ma...

Round 1, Round 2, there's still more food....! Don't stop...

After looking at some of the photos taken at the party, are you game for a time of BBQ anytime soon? ;)


- Ruth