Parties - US style, Malaysian style

I never really realized that there were those types of parties that you get invited to where you don't go to just eat and hang out with friends or acquaintances you know. When I first arrived in LA, hubby and I were invited to a neighbour's house for a 60th birthday party. Orang mat salleh tua, I know - but they also heard about the asian lady that hubby married and they wanted to meet me. Anyway, we went, we mingled, ate very little food and then proceeded to a malay couple's house for a visit as they lived 5 doors away. The first thing the malay couple asked when we told them that we were at a party was "Makan apa?" quickly thinking about the abundance of food that are normally served in malaysian gatherings. Hubby said that it was a mat salleh party so all that was served was chips, pop and alcohol. The malay couple seemed extremely confused. What's a party without food right? But if that's the norm over here, why change it?

Now hubby and I have different styles of parties when we have people over. If the guests are going to be asian - indians, pakistanis, cambodians, indonesians and the like, we cook a lot of food. To us, parties and gatherings are about eating loads of food and having fun. These parties take a lot of preparation. If it's not a pot luck, the preparation and cooking can begin days in advance. And there's the thing about making sure that you have more than enough food. It's better to have more than enough compared to having too little. That way you can pack some to give your guests to take home. Too little is an embarrassment. A mat salleh style party (if it isn't a formal sit down dinner party) takes very little preparation. Just buy some pizza, soda, chips and salsa and everybody's happy. Don't have to spend so much time getting stuff prepared and cooked. No slaving away in front of the stove to ensure that the dishes prepared are slow cooked and tastes superb.

All this talk about food is making me hungry. hehe... I think I shall go have my breakfast now. :)