My Welcoming home

Just when I thought its gonna be a very tone down day for me after returning to Dallas, my Home away from Home, I was invited to a Steamboat dinner at Encik Pao and Hwa Chuan home in the evening. Ha ha, just when one holiday trip for me have ended, here comes another exciting evening of food and booze. It was such a coincidence that it sound like a welcoming home dinner for me. Settled all my dirty laundry, clear a bit of travel garbage I have stuff in my backpack, clean my laptop and a short afternoon nap... Woke up at 6pm and met up with Dave and Leng Chuan for our trip to Encik Pao's apartment.

Big crowd at our destination! It looks like a big family reunion dinner to me. We got a great company that night from our Big Boss, RT man, AirFrame man and small represntative from RC. Good thing we brought enough liqour for the night to cater for the wonderful crowd we have.

12 bottles of Bacardi Breeze, a bottle of Jack Daniel Whiskey and some Coca Cola as mixer cost just US$42. And thats cheap considering that a bottle Jack Daniel Whiskey can easily cost 100 bucks in Singapore. Realise there is more alcohol at the apartment! OMG....with this among, tonight comfirm 不醉不归。

Alcholic drink is just a side dish compare to the impressive array of food we have for steam boat!Fish, prawn, sotong, chicken, pork, balls, veges, abalone to be cooked in a pot of Hot and sour soup and plain soup for the less adventurous diner. Usually I only have steamboat dinner of Chinese New Year reunion so I was not a strict follower of the "Steam Boat" rule. "Not to mix cook food with fresh food" and "If you mix, wait for the uncooked stuff to be cooked first before eating. This is to prevent contamination of cooked food from raw food. I learnt it the hard way when I thrown some raw prawns into the steam boat when all the food in it was already well done.

The dinner gave me a feeling of warm and togetherness with all my great colleague. We usually only meet in the workplace and all the talks was about work work and more work. Food is always sure way to built bonding and team spirits other than all the head honcho encouragement at work. Unlike a regular dinner of cooked food, for Steamboat Everyone have to stick around the table for a long period of time to wait for the food to be cooked and the waiting period is the talk cock period for all of us. Ultimately, its the company of friends that count rather than the food. Just look at those pictures below, the big crowd around the dinner table.

Dinner ended with a few rounds of drinking and games of Russian Roulette to gamble on who is gonna drink the shot glass worth of raw Jack Daniel Whiskey, unmixed. Special feature on the shot glass is a number range on each of it. If the ball fall on the number within the range you got, you have to drink. Probability means everyone got a shot of liqour and boy was it really really strong. Did not realise it was actually 40% alchohol untill I downed my 4th cup and together a bottle of Bacardi Breeze earlier on. Man....I was half-knocked out before I knew what the hell I was drinking.

Our dear Boss, Maj Wong althought high on Alchohol, never fail to control his man. They say when you are high on alcohol, you will be your natural self. He ensured there is drivers (those who did not drink) to send all the half knocked and full-knocked out guys home. Thats LEADERSHIP...the control of situation. For me? I am very very very quiet after drinking... but if there is Karaoke, I will sing a song for the great company I have that night.

Reached home earlier thanks to Dave and slept like a pig....with a headache.... Drink lots and lots of water before bedtime to prevent a hangover the next day.







SMO on a Watermelon and Dave smiling....













Eric and Eng Wee busy preparing the soup and so is Hwa Chuan, dashing back and forth in the background.












From left to right, Encik Bao, Gary, Radio Girl Pei Pei and Leng Chuan. What is Radio girl chattering about???












A feast fit for the king













No one is gonna sit tonight. More space in the stomach to glup down all the food.












Hot pots of steam boat with a big warm crowd. Does the mirror make the crowd even bigger?














An over passionate diner causing the overflow. 'Yang Tze River flooding the Nile River".











Contestant for the Russian Roulette Drinking session.














DRINK UP!!!!













Little glass, Strong stuff.












Riccardo, red like a roast pig and half knocked out.