Thursday, May 24, 2007

I stole this from my other blog...

Yeah I know, I know, but after writing such a lengthy entry for one blog, I just get tired to have to write a completely new one for another blog, but it's got a meaning to it - "Lub Your Girlfliends"


The greatest thing about having a female crew is the hodgepodge of talent and creativity that each girl puts in and the party that naturally happens afterwards. While each girl is different, what she contributes to the group. Think about it everytime you get dressed to got out - dont you always look better when your friends are there to lend a pair of earrings, do your eye makeup or just plain ol' put their foot down about your level of sluttiness? Well this past Tuesday, a group of us got together and decided to have a ladies night/barbecue/cocktail dinner party. Being the food snob that I am, I requested that everyone bring something original if not homemade. Here are the results:


Raspberry and strawberry infused mojitos, made by Has and Kate.


They even smashed the mint with a real pestle (albeit a Laotian one). Dont get it twisted, Has and Kate are expert bartenders, perhaps thats their secret to tearin up the dance floors with drinks in hand. Me, I am not that advanced - if I have more than 4 drinks, I get paranoid about whether or not I am too slizzered to dance on beat, and then I get paranoid about being that drunk Asian girl who cant dance on beat, so then I just sit in a slump. You would too if you had an entire race of (that constitutes 70% of the worlds population) riding on whether or not you could do what my mom calls "pop rock and jlop it". Now what was I talking about? Oh right, food.


Tina made bulgogi chicken wings. Bulgogi is Korean and tastes similar to Japanese teriyaki. But Tina is Vietnamese, and her Myspace name is Beandip which is often associated with Mexican cusine. I'm confused again.


Oh yeah, she also makes a killer cucumber-tomato salad with dressing from lemons and herbs in our fridge. I call it "Everything-in-the-bottom-bin Salad".


Sok made a salad too, a Thai beef salad called Yum Salad. This is what it looked like before the beef was put on but trust me that shit was straight up was yum, salad.


This here is an Oreo cake baked by our dear friend Sok again, whom we've affectionately re-named "Betty Sokker". You can see here she got more skills in confectionary concoctions than your grandmom and Martha Stewart on a sugar rush.


Ok I take that back. Maybe Sok is better than Martha Stewart for obvious reasons, but my friend Asmaa's grandmom is the shit! This little lady whipped up some authentic Morrocan dishes. Just look at the the couscous, it came in this clay tagine complete with a dome cover piece, if you saw it you woulda never thought to eat it because it was so freakin pretty. That there was more Morrocan stuff (I cant remember the names of them right now) but I got so hungry I forgot to take pictures of them. Afterwards we all bumrushed Asmaa about how couscous is really made and to stop being greedy with her Grandma and give us some Morrocan cooking lessons. We're still waiting on an answer.


Here's my contribution: mac and 4 cheeses. Normally I make it with 5 cheese but I had to pay some bills so I could only afford 4. I know you're thinking how anyone could not put in 5 more bucks for a block of Cracker Barrel, but they dont sell the special melty Fontina at Pathmark, sorry. I felt bad for lack of cheesiness flavor so I threw in some lobster and truffle oil. Did I tell you I was food snob?


I also made some corn with chili lime butter and queso fresco. I dont know the originality of this dish, I only had it at a Cuban restaurant but I've seen it on the menu at Mexican places. I also heard that the real deal Mexican street thug way is instead of butter they use mayo. I think when I get really old, and I am no longer able to take care of myself and become "Asian-shamed" with making my children/grandchildren look after me, or even worse they become so Americanized that they may wanna put me in a nursing home, I will commit suicide by heart attack through cholesterol overload - with both mayo and butter on my corn. At least I'll be happy when I go.


Some other notable foods that were not photgraphed fantatically but well appreciated in our pants size, you might see here on the table: Olivia's dumplings with soy-vinegar-sesame sauce (love love love the sauce), Kate's grilled chicken spinach salad (it was so special that Kate decided to tell me all about how she made it over the phone while getting lost in West Philly), Niki's overstuffed spring rolls (you should have seen how fat she rolled them, they were bursting at the skins), and my Laotian lemongrass pork sausages. Unfortunately Has and Asmaa couldnt have any because they dont eat pork. One day though, I will hope to find a woman who makes these sausages and ask her if it was possible to make them with turkey or lamb. Or even more ambitious, make them myself.

Its moments like these that make me appreciate my friendships, and how much fun it is to be around each other even if one of them almost made us cancel everything or shows up mad late and is too engrossed in gossip she forgets the other dish she was supposed to make (you know you are and we love you just the same). It makes worth grating cheese until 2 am (with a fresh airbursh manicure, no doubt) or getting grandmom up early to cook for a whole afternoon all worth it. And even if I spend my last overdrafted dollars on fancy cheese, I know I can count on one of my girls to borrow the negative difference and realize that in fact I live a very rich life.


Hopefully your Memorial Day is as delicious and fun, enjoy your day off and appreciate your friends all the same.

Lady C