Sam’s Super Wonderful birthday Last night!

I posted the following yesterday for the party last night, but I thought some may be interested in what happened. Well it was such a great success for sure. Sam’s mates did not turn him down and all of them came. They are a real nice bunch of people, friendly, loving, and basically no trouble. I started cooking around 6 so the food would be hot and warm by the time they arrived. My dosa breads had to be cooked by hand one by hand and dosa making is one fiddly art even for an experienced chef and I was getting a little nervous that I would be a little late, but by magic, the tandoori chicken, salad, chutney, vegetable curry, tikka sauce all came together at the same time, thanks to Liam helping me energetically in frying up about 30 poppudums to perfection, and everyone else from the bar popping into the kitchen to help me out such as Ana, Rob, and Rob the 4th, not to forget Ani. I really treasure the invaluable support they all give.

Sam’s friends can drink! and not get drunk! haha. They loved the food, and the backyard, and I forgot how many times Sam thanked me. His girlfriend Steph is one really wonderful lady who is so full of joy, love and kindness like an angel. They all loved the food, ambience, and kept the bar busy as well as had their own music plugged in to our system. I am one happy person today thanks to Sam and now, I am looking forward to this weekend’s parties which I will post about later.

The following is the excerpt from yesterday.
”Tonight is going to be exciting! One of our recent customers, Sam is going to be having a private birthday meal here at Take5, bringing about 25 or more family and friends! I call him Sam pineapple to set him apart from the other Sams i know. Pineapple because I gave him a jar of my own home-made pineapple on the house recently and he really loved it with his girlfriend and mates. Sam’s a very special person. He is a real friendly, genuine guy who is very kind to us and is very jovial, someone that can be loved and trusted.

I literally woke up with the birthday dinner in my mind thinking of what I am going to cook them. I want it to be a surprise so hopefully Sam wont read this, but my plan is to marinade lots of big chicken pieces with many spices and gently roast them into an crispy soft reddish authentic tandoori in the evening. I will collect all the drippings to make that into a separate creamy tandoori sauce with coconut and extra thick double cream. This will go well with special ‘rava (semolina, urud and rice) dosa breads I know Sam hasn’t tasted before, and yellow turmeric pilau rice with onion seeds. During the day, my kwok will be simmering away with a fresh batch of fruit chutney I am making today. I will also make a lovely vegetable curry and salad to go with all of this and some pakoras as starters.

Its going to be a busy day and I will have to try avoiding stressing those around me because I can be bossy and bitchy when I have a million things to do so its all perfect by the time our guests arrive. Dinners involve a lot of work such as getting the bar ready with wine, having candles and flowewrs everywhere etc. Its all fun!

I have personal friends such as Ani(lovely girl who is an architectural student at U.W.E) coming to help me too and the newest member of staff called Rob the 4th who graduated with a first in Asian history from SOAS last year, and just got back from Indonesia after completing a 1 year scholarship in Indonesia learning Indonesian.

Sam’s gf, if you are reading this, sssh dont forget to bring along a birthday cake for him! ”

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