More than makanmates

The Company is more than just makanmates – at least on 17 August 2008.

Eating is not our only forte.

There was onion-chopping, pineapple-dicing, soup-stirring, lotus-flower smashing, laksa-leave plucking, lemon-grass cutting, cucumber de-seeding, garlic peeling, prawn-paste blending, dry-chilli cutting, kampong-fish deboning and peeling and lots and lots of blending and stirring.

June has bravely invited The Company over her house for a Penang Laksa Party cum Photo-Sharing Session cum Olympics Badminton Match, despite of the limited cooking expertise and kitchen knowledge, which could possible cause catastrophic disaster in her home.

Some of the girls proved their worth this time round, that they can do more than just eating, while some, whose names shall remain unknown, for the sake of better karma, are better off doing the sums for our group outings.

The self-volunteered “maids” were scheduled to knock on June’s door at 10.15am, and the chefs to make their grand entry about 10.30am. Maids were designated or self-appointed for those who happened to live within the radius of Mdm June’s locality. Those from the other far, far end of Singapore were spared from the maid duties, even those with wheels.

Chef Lynn beat the clock and turned up at 930 am, 1 hour ahead from the original time, with her “kampong fish”, yellow ginger, blue ginger, laksa leave, onions and garlic, all ready to cook up a storm in June’s usually tranquil kitchen.
Maid Dot did not turn up on time. At 10.45am, an appeal message fromJune came, “ Can you all please fly to my house now?” I’ve missed a stop and turned up 10 minutes before 11am. But I was not the the last to arrive, in fact, I was the first “maid” to report at Mdm June’s house.

I entered the kitchen and June was seated right next to the stove on a stool, peeling the onions and garlic, with a plastic bag tied to the cabinet in front of her. She looked up and the expression on her face bears a striking resemblance to the Puss-in-boots Cat in the movie, Shrek – with the “poor-thing”face silently shouting HELP.

Chef Lynn was tickled pink. It’s not funny when you have to peel garlic for one entire hour and it was like back in school days when you get punishment from your teacher and copying pages and pages of words. June deserves a pat on the back for not playing truant and obediently sitting there till her scapegoat maid Dot came along. June soon escaped back to her room to “settle” her photographs for the presentation.

And I took over the peeling of the garlic, while watching in anticipation for the next replacement maid to arrive.

“Good neighbour” Jess was even later. She appeared at about 11.30am, with three left-over donuts to share. But she did her due diligence to cut the cucumber and de-seed the fresh chillies, while Chef Lynn was busy preparing her secret-recipe soup and I trying to figure out the best way to de-bone the fish.

By noon, Maid Mae and Chef Hoon Hong have arrived. Maid Mae was banished to slice the cucumbers and the pineapple, while the Maid Agent Raj, stood by to finger-point and give instructions on how best to do the job. Mae would have failed her QC test if she is applying for a job in Singapore, but The Company is ever-forgiving. Despite her unsure moves and decapitated cucumber slices, the gang still accepted the end-product, with a little bit of doubt. Maid Agent Raj also gave a hands-on demonstration on how to cut the cucumber,in the hope that his Grade-D maid would move a little near the borderline grade.

At around one, The Makan Company streamed in, Yen Sze, Choon Siong, Cheng, Uncle Raj and Taitai June to attack the Penang laksa. Siewfang also zipped in from work, on the pretext of “very important things to attend”, to savour and enjoy the makanfeast before her National Day rally event in the late afternoon.

Two pots of gravy, two different chefs. But the group mission remains focused – to savour the homemade Penang laksa back in homeground. Different permutations and combinations of the soup were tried– some took the “combinasi”, while others opted for two separate bowls,straight in a row.

This time round, there was no mad rush like in Penang. We were in the comforts of Mdm June’s home and there was no urgency. Everyone just took their own sweet time to savour the soup and enjoy the two versions of the Penang laksa. Hoon Hong’s recipe originated from her Malaysian friend, while Lynn’s friend who lives in Penang taught her how to prepare this somewhat complicated dish.

No Pepsi-Cola Challenge was executed. The verdict – Both are nice, Hoon Hong’s version is powerful and spicer and thicker while Lynn’s was more generous with the soup and less-brutal on the taste-buds.

Swee Ong gave The Company an eye feast with his beautiful shots of his travels in Cambodia and Lake Toba, while the Choon Siong showed the gorgeous images of Mount Bromo and the silly jumping stunts they all did in the name of fun during their recent East Java trip. Mae also flaunted the Princess Mae ferry in Philippines and the slightly wrinkled Chez. Divemaster cum boyfriend-to-be who made her heart flutter in the romantic island of Philippines and her other romantic sidekicks.

In between the slide shows and stories-sharing sessions, The Company kept their mouths busy with curious questions about the places, prices and also took turns to go into the kitchen for extra helping of the home-made Penang laksa, prawn crackers, potato chips and logan-loaded cheng ting, courtesy of Mdm June’s Dad. Yen Sze and June also shared their precious photo albums of Vietnam, Japan and others.

By 7pm, the two pots of Penang laksa soup has been merged into one by stand-by apprentice Cheng, who also made the dip for the cut fruits, with the leftover prawn paste and ingredients. Taitai June was smart. The often-acclaimed but never-seen Vietnamese flower salad did not appear, but was replaced with freshly cut watermelon, melons and mangoes. And dinner was more Penang laksa plus three packs from the coffeeshop in the next block- fried rice, Hong Kong noodles and bee-hoon.

Nothing beats sitting together with great company, cheering and jeering the table tennis players, the Singapore team who was contending for the Gold medal for table tennis. Guru Raj’s prophecy was right. The formula- Win-Lose-Lose-Lose did come true and Singapore didn’t manage to clinch the gold medal. But the match was exciting nonetheless.

The 17 August Laksa Party turned out to be a communal Sunday, different from our usual Sunday treks, interestingly somewhat of the kampong spirit. There’s no sweating from exercising but still loads of fun and laughter as usual. And I’ve learnt something new, the fishflakes in the Penang laska is not what I thought it was - tunaflakes from cans, but from fresh kampong fish nicely peeled and thrown into the soup. And you need to smash and pour in an extra can of sardines into the Penang laksa soup base to make the soup more fragrant and thicker.

Special thanks to June for the special invitation and for tolerating the storm we created in her kitchen, offering her ah-ma’s pots and pans, paper cups, plates, drinks and everything else.

And a round of applause to our two super-hardworking Made-in-Malaysia chefs, Lynn and Hoon Hong for waking up so early on a Sunday morning to get the freshes t ingredients for the home-made Penang laska. It only proves one thing – the Singaporean gals have a long way to catch up.

Our friendship have inched closer and I’m sure there will be more activities, makan sessions and trips brewing, in the months and years to come, more aromatic and lasting than the flavors of the laksa.

Dot thy maid has done my slavery chores in the kitchen and reporting.

Thanks folks for the great company.