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Welcome Party for Hoa's family-Lao/Thai food-6/14/2014
Hoa's sisters and brother in law are visiting us from Paris for two weeks so to make them feel welcome to California I am throwing a party for them.
We are expecting about 30 people tonight so my day will be full with prepping and cooking to feed a crowd. Fortunately, Hoa's sisters are expert in Lao's food and they offer to give me a hand. We spend the whole day cooking, chatting, and catching up on the latest about our kids, and relatives. The day just went by so fast when you are having fun...
The set up
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Around 4:00Pm, I am started to set up the buffet table and get ready for the party.
All flowers are from our garden.
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Bringing out an extra table and chairs to accommodate our guests.
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Plates, silverware, napkins, candle holders, and large serving plates are brought out. |
Menu is printed out and on display for our guests. |
Anh Georges (Hoa's brother in law) and Mai (Hoa's sister) enjoying the nice California weather in our backyard.
In the kitchen...
Chi Be (hoa's older sister) helping me in the kitchen. She is a great cook and she is also very efficient in the kitchen.
It was great and so much fun to cook with her.
Freshly fried crispy rice for Nem Tha Dua.
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Cang (Hoa's middle sister) is also a great cook. Here she is mixing Nem Tha Dua. |
Close look at Nem Tha Dua Click on LINK to see preparation |
On the counter a variety of vegetables are already sliced and cut in advance to be used later in different dishes.
Shredded papaya, carrot, and sliced tomatoes in a large bucket. Cang will put it together when it is time to serve.
Maily, Ha, and my Aunt came early so they are hanging around the kitchen to give us a hand...
Grilling in the backyard...
While we are in the kitchen preparing the food I asked Anh Georges to start grilling chicken sate.
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I kept checking to see it the chicken sate were ready but to my surprise after at least 15 to 20 minutes the meat is still not cooked. Hoa checked the grill and we found out that our grill ran out of gas... Hoa had to replace it pronto. After than the chicken sate were cooked in no time.
Tuan, Trung keeping Anh Georges company...
Setting up the food
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Ha helping me bring out the food... |
Uncle Larry caught me by surprise here... |
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A work in progress... as the the food are brought out.
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Mai, Ha, and Kim landing a hand at setting up the food on the buffet table.
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I made labels for the food so here Kim and Ha are trying to match each label to the correct dish.
Next...The food
