The Great Cook Out

On Saturday 31 July, we held our never-thought-it-would-materialize-but-finally-did Great Cook Out.

I’ve heard from many of my friends studying overseas that holding potluck dinners or getting together to cook once in a while is quite common. However, how many of us back here in Singapore would ever propose a get-together with friends where we whip up some dishes, prepare together, cook together, eat together and wash up together? It would be uniquely different from all other get-togethers where we gather at some posh café to sip Short black pretentiously or at some kopitiam to lim1 Kopi and keow1 ka1 and holler either like Ah Bengs and Ah Lians or gossipy uncles and aunties reminiscing about the past.

Don’t get me wrong. I love such chill out sessions. Be it at a posh café or our friendly neighbourhood kopitiam. However, a get-together cook out session in the homely setting truly brings out the domestic side of all of us that we never knew existed. The feeling is pleasantly different. It was memorable.

After rattling so much, I’ve decided again that photos would neatly sum up the day’s happenings. Once again, I shameless ripped photos off Tammy’s and Teok’s.

Trekking to house number 32.


Trekking happily under the slight drizzle.


Our groceries...


Awaiting the death sentence... by lethal injection.


Injecting XO into the crabs. Animal activists will cringe. I, however, thought that was one of the greatest way to die. Caleb defended his cruelty by declaring that I would love to be in the shoes of those crabs.


Guys donning the apron. Reversal of gender roles...


We all had our tasks to do... ...

Tammy grating Chin Chow...


Caleb chopping garlic...


Weiquan dismembering crabs...


Me frying prawns...


Teoks poking at the chickens...


Julie supervising Teoks poking at the chickens. Although Julie was in charge of many dishes, no one actually captured her in the act of doing her tasks. So I put this down.


Caleb's zhao pai dish:
XO Crabs! Overwhelming with XO but nonetheless YUMMY!


My zhao pai dish:
Butter Garlic Prawns! Caleb insulted the name of my dish when he requested for non-buttered prawns, cringing at the aroma of butter while the prawns frolicked in it. Tammy and Julie's mum loved them! Thank you auntie and Tammy for your support!! =)


Teoks' zhao pai dish:
Ha4 Qiong2 Gai1. It tastes like salted fish. I love salted fish and so I love his chicken.


Julie's zhao pai dish:
Sambal Stingray! It bears an uncanny resemblance to lasagne. Very very delicious. She did the chawanmushii too. No photos taken of it though.


Tammy’s zhao pai dish:
Honey Glazed Chicken. Just like those honey glazed poultry you get during the festive seasons. No photos of it though.

Weiquan’s zhao pai dish:
Potato Salad. No photos of it too. Actually he just boiled the potato and Julie did the rest.. Haha. Ok, we give him credit for helping out in all our preparations.

And then later, we tried killing off one another so we could have more food.


The Incomplete Menu... ...


Still Incomplete... ... More dishes to come!!


Food Spread!! Yong Dao Hu Soup... XO crabs... Butter garlic prawns... Sambal stingray... Curry puffs... Xiao Bai Cai with oyster sauce... Fried chicken (Ha4 Qiong2 Gai1)... Chawanmushii... Honey glazed chicken... Potato salad, Chin Chow drink.


Unfinished food... ... which became our dinner and supper later.


Crabby Art by Tammy


After the sumptuous lunch, we played Pictionary. It is like Win, Lose or Draw. Really hilarious when you have people who can't draw and can't guess. And an observation made while playing the game: You do not need to be a good "drawer" or a good guesser, you just need to have people who are able to draw fast and guess fast in your team and you are on your way to winning.


What's the BIG idea?


Julie's wonderful of drawing of a resort.


Caleb was trying to draw a cordless phone. While all the girls have already figured the answer out within 15seconds, Teoks finally screamed the right answer out at the eleventh hour.. or should I say, the 59th second?


WQ doesn't know that the two pointed "horns" which elephants have are called tusks. He kept on exclaiming: "HORN HORN HORN!" I could not find another way of drawing tusks so for the next 50 seconds I outlined the tusks over and over again.


And the girls won (red cube)!! Look at how far behind the boys in black were. Of course, after that game, Tammy realised that we had been playing the wrong way and so for the next game, we played it the right way.


After all the wacky drawing and after Tammy took home her Pictionary, we were deciding between Tai Tee, Bridge and Scrabble. We decided to act intellectual and opted for Scrabble. Our game was inching towards the northeast direction at the beginning.


Teoks emerged champion, only because he shamelessly used up precious space by constructing short, useless and non-expandable words when the rest of us had better words for those spaces he hogged. I came in with the least points all thanks to him!


Parting shot