Visitors and Visiting
Door: Yaisa
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Yaisa
30 September 2007 | Maleisië, Kuala Lumpur
Dear all,
Only two weeks have past since the last time I wrote to you, but so much has happened that I can easily fill a whole blog again...
Actually I would like to go back in time to the beginning of September, because what I didn't tell you about yet, is the first Singaporean BBQ we gave. I thought it was a great party, I was shaking (and drinking) cocktails all night and thoroughly enjoyed watching all the food being eaten... Here are some tips for those who are considering giving a BBQ with lots of Singaporean guests:
- get less booze than you would for Dutchies, Aussies or British. Singaporeans somehow drink much less...
- stock up on the food though! Buy thrice as much as you would for a Dutch party, because boy... those Singaporeans can eat!!!
- certainly don't get any cheap sausages and pre-packed hamburgers, all your guests will have left by the time you've grilled your first pieces of fake meat. Get satays (and not those with 3 lumps of dry chicken and peanutbutter on top, but the real deal!), otah (mackerel paste grilled in banana leaves), juicy lambchops, spicy chicken wings, sweet potatoes, salmon, green mango salad, rojak... And again, get lots and lots and lots of it!
- and when in Singapore, always count on vegetarians, so don't forget the vegetables. Very important indeed....
- when the food is finished, the party is over and everybody leaves... so make sure you have fruit to serve after everybody has stuffed themselves with the warm food and then, when everybody is really full, serve some dim sum to top it off...
Now, no... I didn't do all that, but these were the lessons I learned... so the next BBQ, I'll make sure I don't have 24 bottles of wine and 40 cans of beer left over and rather spend more money on... food!
Anyway, the fun part was that it was a nice mix of Dutch guests and local guests. The Dutchies stayed until late of course, and Frank, our neighbour thought it was 3 am when he left, while it was only 1 am. My guess is he had had enough to drink anyway... ;-) And it was Fennie and Aline's first night staying with us, so they sort of jumped into a Singapore style party with their jetlagged head first. Timmo showed them around town on Sunday and on Monday, they had the bad luck of getting acquainted with the Singaporean rainy season... But they managed to enjoy the city after all, and after 3 nights with us, they went on to explore Thailand.
But we had more visitors this months! Rob and Marianne, who now live in Ho Chi Minh City for a few months, enjoying their 8 months no-i-am-not-jealous-at-all sabbatical, came by for a few days and it was fantastic hearing all their adventures about how they travelled from Amsterdam to HCMC in 10 weeks by train, bus and motorbike! So cool! The first night we had drinks and bitterballen at Harry's. And of course, we took them to our favourite restaurant at the East Coast Seafood Centre and merrily devoured Jimmy the blackpepper crab and his chilli brother and Johnny the Hong Kong style steamed fish. Hmmm...
The day that Rob and Marianne left, Wim, Nicola and Jake arrived from Australia, for a quick stop over before heading back to Holland. It's really so great that all these friends come over and spend time with us! Jake is extremely cute and completely obsessed with sunglasses. And, he eats like a Singaporean! Fast and a lot! We went to a lovely traditional tea house with them (actually discovered by Rob and Marianne the day before) and Wim and I went out for cocktails on Clarke Quay, one of the happening places in Singapore... We also took them to the Seafood Centre and I firmly believe we had Johnny's brother and Jimmy's last brother too... ;-) Again... mjummie....
One day after they left, Timmo got a chance to do as he pleased for a few days, as I took off for Malaysia for some meetings in Kuala Lumpur and a conference in Penang. Lots of presentations, presentations and presentations, but I thought you'd rather see the pictures of the informal activities... If you ever go to Penang, make sure you eat try some Penang Laksa... It's spicy but you'll love it!
Timmo in the meantime worked, worked, worked, slept, didn't eat properly coz I wasn't there to cook... eeuh, get his food for him and he cycled to work through the worst rainfalls he has experienced so far... Really, why he does that to himself... ;-)
Next on the agenda is a trip to HCMC to return the visit to Rob & Marianne and hopefully some more trips to Hong Kong... Always much excitement to be had out there!
Hope to see you here soon, or elsewhere on this world...
Lots of love,
Yaisa
Pictures:
BBQ party: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12858&l=7bbb5&id=523210814
Rob & Marianne: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15175&l=d89b4&id=523210814
Wim, Nicola & Jake: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15182&l=069d0&id=523210814
Business Trip in KL and Penang: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15783&l=22e51&id=523210814
Only two weeks have past since the last time I wrote to you, but so much has happened that I can easily fill a whole blog again...
Actually I would like to go back in time to the beginning of September, because what I didn't tell you about yet, is the first Singaporean BBQ we gave. I thought it was a great party, I was shaking (and drinking) cocktails all night and thoroughly enjoyed watching all the food being eaten... Here are some tips for those who are considering giving a BBQ with lots of Singaporean guests:
- get less booze than you would for Dutchies, Aussies or British. Singaporeans somehow drink much less...
- stock up on the food though! Buy thrice as much as you would for a Dutch party, because boy... those Singaporeans can eat!!!
- certainly don't get any cheap sausages and pre-packed hamburgers, all your guests will have left by the time you've grilled your first pieces of fake meat. Get satays (and not those with 3 lumps of dry chicken and peanutbutter on top, but the real deal!), otah (mackerel paste grilled in banana leaves), juicy lambchops, spicy chicken wings, sweet potatoes, salmon, green mango salad, rojak... And again, get lots and lots and lots of it!
- and when in Singapore, always count on vegetarians, so don't forget the vegetables. Very important indeed....
- when the food is finished, the party is over and everybody leaves... so make sure you have fruit to serve after everybody has stuffed themselves with the warm food and then, when everybody is really full, serve some dim sum to top it off...
Now, no... I didn't do all that, but these were the lessons I learned... so the next BBQ, I'll make sure I don't have 24 bottles of wine and 40 cans of beer left over and rather spend more money on... food!
Anyway, the fun part was that it was a nice mix of Dutch guests and local guests. The Dutchies stayed until late of course, and Frank, our neighbour thought it was 3 am when he left, while it was only 1 am. My guess is he had had enough to drink anyway... ;-) And it was Fennie and Aline's first night staying with us, so they sort of jumped into a Singapore style party with their jetlagged head first. Timmo showed them around town on Sunday and on Monday, they had the bad luck of getting acquainted with the Singaporean rainy season... But they managed to enjoy the city after all, and after 3 nights with us, they went on to explore Thailand.
But we had more visitors this months! Rob and Marianne, who now live in Ho Chi Minh City for a few months, enjoying their 8 months no-i-am-not-jealous-at-all sabbatical, came by for a few days and it was fantastic hearing all their adventures about how they travelled from Amsterdam to HCMC in 10 weeks by train, bus and motorbike! So cool! The first night we had drinks and bitterballen at Harry's. And of course, we took them to our favourite restaurant at the East Coast Seafood Centre and merrily devoured Jimmy the blackpepper crab and his chilli brother and Johnny the Hong Kong style steamed fish. Hmmm...
The day that Rob and Marianne left, Wim, Nicola and Jake arrived from Australia, for a quick stop over before heading back to Holland. It's really so great that all these friends come over and spend time with us! Jake is extremely cute and completely obsessed with sunglasses. And, he eats like a Singaporean! Fast and a lot! We went to a lovely traditional tea house with them (actually discovered by Rob and Marianne the day before) and Wim and I went out for cocktails on Clarke Quay, one of the happening places in Singapore... We also took them to the Seafood Centre and I firmly believe we had Johnny's brother and Jimmy's last brother too... ;-) Again... mjummie....
One day after they left, Timmo got a chance to do as he pleased for a few days, as I took off for Malaysia for some meetings in Kuala Lumpur and a conference in Penang. Lots of presentations, presentations and presentations, but I thought you'd rather see the pictures of the informal activities... If you ever go to Penang, make sure you eat try some Penang Laksa... It's spicy but you'll love it!
Timmo in the meantime worked, worked, worked, slept, didn't eat properly coz I wasn't there to cook... eeuh, get his food for him and he cycled to work through the worst rainfalls he has experienced so far... Really, why he does that to himself... ;-)
Next on the agenda is a trip to HCMC to return the visit to Rob & Marianne and hopefully some more trips to Hong Kong... Always much excitement to be had out there!
Hope to see you here soon, or elsewhere on this world...
Lots of love,
Yaisa
Pictures:
BBQ party: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12858&l=7bbb5&id=523210814
Rob & Marianne: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15175&l=d89b4&id=523210814
Wim, Nicola & Jake: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15182&l=069d0&id=523210814
Business Trip in KL and Penang: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15783&l=22e51&id=523210814
-
30 September 2007 - 19:03
Mir:
Volgend tripje HCMC fantastisch!! Zou graag terug gaan! Doe Rob de groeten als je daar bent!
Helemaal blij dat ik jullie eind van het jaar in Singapore ga zien!
XM -
01 Oktober 2007 - 14:39
Alex & Vinnie:
Ben al zo benieuwd om al dat en uiteraard jullie "live" te gaan zien over een week of 6 :-) -
01 Oktober 2007 - 16:09
Rob:
Dank voor de groeten Mir(jam Jansen???)
Yaisa, het wordt nog moeilijk om Jimmy en Johnny te verslaan hier in Saigon, maar we gaan het proberen! -
02 Oktober 2007 - 05:48
Paul En Plien:
Wooow klinkt wel heel erg goed zo'n BBQ. Wanneer is de volgende :-)
Wij zitten nu in Goa maar komen weer naar oosten volgende maand!
groeten,
P2 -
09 Oktober 2007 - 13:33
Mama:
nog geen tijd gehad om te lezen maar doe ik z.s.m. want het zal wel weer super interessant zijn geweest, kussie -
09 Oktober 2007 - 22:39
Nog Eens Mama:
oeff, al dat eten, jaja, crise de foie apres crise de foie! tja met groene thee kun je het wegdrinken, dus bewaar die wijn maar voor ons!
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