New Year's Feast

For once I spent New Year's at home. The reason being that one of my cousins is studying hospitality. Instead of going to restaurants or hotels, we wanted him to serve us for a change. Here's how it turned out.

The Setting

Four tables were set up for twenty people. I reckon they were set up nicely, except for the fact that they seemed too Christmasy for a New Year's dinner! Everything was red and green, you can see the Christmas tree on the background and little Santa on the table... Christmas was in the air a little too much for this occassion...

Two of the tables were set outdoor. Can you see all those little candles? I'm proud to say I contributed quite a lot in decorating the backyard. It was the prettiest bit of the house =D though I may be biased.

The Food

It was a five course meal. For appetizer we first had fruit salad, followed by chicken clear soup. The fruit salad was light and refreshing, nicely preparing your appetite for the food to come. Some people said it had too little sauce, most said it wasn't cool enough. I agree with the latter, it would be nicer if it was cooler. The chicken clear soup I thought could do with more pepper, but my parents disagree, saying it was perfect and was up to the standard you see at hotels (certainly a compliment to my cousin who made it). Unfortunately, I don't have good picture of the appetizers.

The first main course was beef galantine - a must have for New Year's feast according to mum. It was perfect. Simply delightful! Everyone enjoyed it and it was certainly my favourite. The meat was tender and juicy, the gravy tasty, the vegetables on the side crunchy without being undercooked. It was simply delicious. A little too much veggies in proportion to the meat, perhaps, but I believe they just want to make it healthier for us =)

The second main course was traditional spaghetti bolognese. Not so traditional, however, in the flavour and ingredient. This one had button mushroom in addition to the meat and spring onion. The flavour was really strong - I could taste the sour and the sweet distinctly, the sauce was thick with meat. Above the standard of the average bolognese you find on Lygon, and definitely above that of Ormond's! Hehe..

And finally...

We had pudding for dessert. It came with chocolate sauce not shown here. Sweet but not too sweet. I liked it and it was a favourite with most people. Mum, however, thought it was average (she seemed to have opinions quite unique to herself). But don't listen to her this time, it was good.



Other than those five dishes, there was also an assortment of cakes, brownies, drinks, nuts and fried prawns, enough to make you feel so full you can hardly move. Maybe that's why I felt so sleepy by 11pm I was planning to miss the fireworks at 12. The noise did wake me up in the end.


The People

The waiter of the night, who did an amazing job considering how picky everyone was. We wouldn't accept the drink unless he offered it with his right foot forwards. My cousin and I, at least.


This is the chef of the night, who cooked most of the food including that wonderful wonderful galantine. I was hoping to have some of the leftover, but I don't know where they all went.