An Oriental Banquet

Do you remember the instant win promotion  on Blue Dragon Oriental Foods a few months ago? I was amazed when, early on in the promotion, I popped in the code from my pack and instead of the expected "Sorry, you haven't won....." message the screen burst into the word "CONGRATULATIONS!" - I really never expect to win anything in instant win promotions.

The prize was a choice of an Oriental Cookery Masterclass with chef Jeremy Pang or to have Jeremy Pang come to your home and cook an Oriental Banquet for 8.

Now I'm pretty good at Oriental Cooking,  in  fact I've taught evening classes and given demonstrations, so I didn't need a Masterclass, so we chose the Banquet. As all the family love Asian food of all kinds, we decided to make it a family occasion, which meant waiting until late October as it was the first time we could all get together at the same time.

The menu was:

Chicken Satay

Summer Vegetable Rolls

Spare Ribs

Beef with Black Bean Sauce

Sweet and Sour Pork

Singapore Noodles

Vegetable fried Rice

Jeremy arrived about an hour and a half before we ate, his car packed with crates and boxes. Everything was pre-prepped, ready for him to assemble and cook it before serving it to us. His advance planning meant that I didn't have to clear masses of kitchen space for him, which was a relief! He served each dish to us as it was ready, in classic Chinese style.

Every dish was delicious and there wasn't a scrap left. The next time we all sit down to eat together will be a very different meal - Christmas dinner!

We found out that Jeremy's father came from Fan Ling in Hong Kong, the same village we lived in almost 35 years ago, so we knew and remembered many of the same places. How about that for a coincidence?