Journey mercies

One of the things that had helped me get to know people and adjust quickly and easily into my church here is the hospitality lunch that people do every Sunday after service. I remember the church in Newcastle was doing that as well, or tried doing it, but never heard or seen much people doing it. I'm glad that folks here in IPC do this really well as I've been so blessed by the them, being served good food and a warm, small and intimate environment to get to know different members of the church family better.

It got to a point though, after a few months, when no one was inviting me for lunch anymore :(

That was the sign that I was too much part of the church family to be included in hospitality meals and everyone paid more attention to even newer members. And I was soon roped in to provide meals instead.

Today was such a time, where I provided lunch for a group of people.

Earlier during the week I was bouncing off ideas with Eevon about what food I should prepare and she crossed off some ideas as suicide. I tend to get too ambitious for my own good.

So I finally resorted to making some safe dishes - fried beehoon! Safe too, since most of my guests would not have had it before, or at least not specifically Malaysian fried beehoon so I could fob it off as original Malaysian recipe.

Whenever I cook, I get extremely nervous. I'm always anxious about whether my dishes are going to come out terrible tasting and no one would like it and when I take too long a time and I get anxious of whether my guests have walked out on me, starving too much to wait anymore.

I made fried eggs, fried beehoon, boiled kai lan and a fried beef dish. The fried beef dish was the last one I made, and I was running late, and decided to forget following the recipe that I had and improvised on the spot!

Also, by which time, I had somehow managed to pick up more than expected guests. From original number of 9 people, it ballooned up to 13 people. I hate to turn away anybody and to let anyone feel left out and would invite the whole church if I could. But I was also concerned whether I had enough food for that amount! I literally prayed to God to help make sure there was enough food. If Jesus could feed 5,000 people, I'm sure 13 people wouldn't be too much a feat.

Out of the guests, I was glad that Naomi and Hannah L and their parents agreed to join for lunch too. They have blessed me with so much meals and support that I really wanted to have them share a Malaysian (more or less) meal. Having them around makes such a difference for me.

Surprise, surprise, there was just enough food and even 3rd helpings for a few people. And everyone claimed it was an excellent meal I made. I told Sarah that English people are so polite, they would never say it was a horrible meal. But what made me really happy was when Brazillian Carlo, who is a famed cook in church, insisted it was an excellent meal. That was it! My achievement of the year!

He particularly enjoyed my fried beef too! Which I was so pleased about, because when I was improvising on it, I felt that something was missing in the taste and couldn't figure out what. I was pacing around the kitchen nervously as I was trying to figure out what was the missing ingredient and for some reason something told me it was vinegar and I whacked a fair amount of it into the pan and hey! It did the trick!

Phew... what a journey it has been though. For someone who started out from knowing just making egg dishes and instant noodles, to a full and satisfying meal.

I also made green tea tiramisu which I absolutely loved. Will be making that soon sometime!