Christmas Eve dinner

Nok and Ping had decided to have dinner together on Christmas eve. It would be a nice time to stay home and catch up with each other as we haven't talked much since.....yeah..it's been so long Ping can't really remember when was the last time. Initially, Ping had wanted to make 'kuih ee' but then after planning all the experiments, Ping didn't feel like going through the elaborate procedure of preparing the 'ee'. Ping ended up making a simple seafood pizza. As usual, whenever Ping has to deal with the oven, Ping get burns. Yup, got a small patch of exposed skin near on Ping's left hand. But this time, it barely hurt as Ping took dad's advice and applied sesame oil! Stinks (even though it smells good when using it to cook) but it helps!

Most of the meal was prepared by Nokkie and Ramon. Ping only came home at 7pm so couldn't help out much. For appetizer, we had leek soup. He grind them up with some milk and onion. It is probably something like the one Ping's family had during Ahmah's birthday at Deluxcious although Ping didn't get to be there for that one. Funny thing, leek belongs to the onion family but Ping actually likes the soup. Ramon served it cold but Ping prefers it warm with some French toast.

Another cold appetizer is a Thai dish that took Nok the entire day to prepare. It is tapioca balls filled with pork, 'chai por' (what do we call this in English? What exactly is it anyway? Hehehe...only know how to chiak), cashew nut and some cilantro. This is Ping's favorite dish for the night! Could barely stop putting it into the mouth.

We had quite a unique combination of main dishes. The one Ping liked most was the lamb lasagna prepared by Ramon. Unlike most lasagna, this one has no cheese in it. He made them using buttermilk instead. Besides the lasagna and seafood pizza, we also had roasted duck! That was the surprising one. Ping totally didn't expect Nokkie to get a whole duck. We used to buy the roasted one from an Asian market at Ohio when Ben was still at Ohio.
Besides the three of us, Ping also invited Fan and Nok invited Manesh over. It was a nice dinner as we chat about the different languages we speak and how the same pronuncation can mean different works in different language. Lastly, how can it be a Christmas eve dinner if we don't have the wine? That was left up to Ramon since he's the only one among us who knows something about wine.