Mum-in-law's birthday falls on Boxing Day. For many years, I remember Mum will be cooking her birthday meals, in anticipation of the gathering of her 3-generation family. Because of the proximity to X'mas Day, the home-cooked buffet spread will always have festive dishes and her birthday cakes have been too many log cakes for too long. My in-laws are very frugal in nature. They believe in savings than spending, a rule that has served them well through these decades. But honestly, who cooks on their own birthday? Not me, for sure. Dad-in-law is a lucky man.
The Husband's family loves gathering together. It can be the birthday of any random family member or just a simple weekend mahjong session. I wasn't brought up to be so 'homely', so to say. This was really something new to me when I was living with my in-laws.
For Mum's last birthday, I decided that enough is enough. No birthday girl should be toiling in the kitchen on her big day. She usually cooks 9-10 different dishes for such buffets. Imagine the work! So the Husband, siblings-in-law and I decided to have a potluck party. We will don the apron strings, just for Mum!
Turned out not as easy as I thought. What we like to eat (and hence, can cook) and what the elders like to eat are 2 diffferent worlds altogether.
I wanted to do something different for Mum too. She is like the best mum-in-law in the world! Not that I have had more than 1 mother-in-law to arrive at that conclusion, but really, I think she's even more amazing than my own mother! At the very least, she doesn't have a ferocious temperament like my mother. (Pretty sure my mum doesn't know of my blog's existance. And my nieces, if you are reading this, you know better than to tell my mum.)
Was berating the Husband how as the eldest child, he has never taken the initiative to lead his siblings to do something special for his mother. No wonder some people say having a daughter is better than a son sometimes. 女兒比較會有父母的心。
I was so pleased with myself when I thought of renting a chocolate fondue fountain, as a surprise for Mum. It's something fascinating & entertaining for everyone! Dad-in-law likes chocolate and my geomancer has told us that this is a suitable food for them, according to the elements they lack in their birth charts. So yes, I'm a genius! =D
I spent a lot of time googling for such rental services and although there were 3 possible options, Liquid Chocolate turned out to be the most feasible.
I opted for the Basic Rental package, chose the 16" Chocolate Fountain (the smallest & ideal for small parties of 10-20), which includes 1kg of fountain milk chocolate, 400g of marshmallow and 40 satay stick. This came up to S$65 for a one-day rental. I admit, I found it a bit expensive. I mean, it's the same machine that is going around for a while, and S$65 + S$120 refundable deposit+self-collection at Amoy Street? I can buy some very nice cakes with that!
If I opt for the machine without the condiments, only a miserable sum would be deducted from the price. I knew Phoon Huat sells such fountain milk chocolate for fondue but time was not on our side then. Work at TFL was very hectic pre-X'mas. So aiyah, just pay lah!
Wasn't quite impressed when the Husband showed me the machine he collected. The lady boss of Liquid Chocolate ran through the machine set-up with the Husband and tested the machine during self-collection. Apart from fixing sling straps on bags, I'm lousy at setting up such stuff.
Potluck means packing & carrying lots and lots of food in various bag sizes (basically whatever bags that we can dig up) from home to party venue and making sure nothing get left behind at home. That also means a lot of yelling at home pre-departure. Haha!
The food provided by Liquid Chocolate. This was my first time seeing this brand of Fountain Dipping Candy by Chocolate Line. Given how often I stalk Cold Storage, I'm pretty sure this is not available at most supermarkets. The packaging looks really classy. One packet of this would have cost S$19 from Liquid Chocolate.
While unpacking the fountain from the box, we realised it was the same brand as the Fountain Dipping Candy. I've never heard of this brand before. But the box design looked European, I thought.
This is 1kg of chocolate that you are looking at. I was expecting the chocolate to be thicker and more nugget-looking. This was like chocolate chips. But I guess this facilitates melting. One uncle took a chip and said it was really good!
Although the glass bowl looked full to the brim, don't worry about chocolate overflowing when it melts, because there are gaps in between the chips and after melting, the bowl was only 3 quarters full.
Off into the microwave it went! This is the fastest & easiest way to melt the chocolate! Only 40 seconds needed!
Who buys what, who cooks what! The roles were delegated before the potluck, to prevent duplication and ensure variety. Here's cut fruits by Brother-in-law for the fondue! There were even bananas and watermelons!
But 人算不如天算. With everyone contributing something, even though the guests didn't have to, there were too many dishes on the table after al. =D
Happy was most happy to see so many of us gathered there! The previous family dog was a singing talent. Mickey will be barking in unison while we sing the Birthday song. Happy, however, hasn't show any signs of such talent yet.
Tadah! This special guest was so special that it got a table of its own! Doesn't it look so inviting & party-appropriate?
Auntie-in-law! She's a very humourous lady. Together with the uncles, they laid down all the rules for everyone, before we had a go at the fountain.
"Eh, eh, NO double dipping!! Hygenic hygenic!"
"Don't take so much chocolate! That's all we have for the night!"
"Dessert first! Come queue up! Queue up! Don't push har! DON'T push!"
The family were having so much fun with the fondue that they dipped some marshmallows to share with the neighbour's kids. At that time, we were running short of the chocolate, so Big Uncle said, "Aiyah, no need to dip the whole marshmallow, just some on the side will do! If the whole thing is covered with chocolate, they won't know what you are offering to them! At least partially dipped, they can see that it's a marshmallow!"
Hahahaha!
There were about 20 of us and 1kg of chocolate was supposed to be enough. But Chocolate Line's chocolate was heavenly! My goodness, of all the chocolate fondues I have had at Haagen Dazs, Meltz at Mandarin Oriental, The Line at Shangri-la, Cafe Brio at Grand Copthorne & others, NONE of them come close to the rich & intense chocolate taste as Chocolate Line!
I wasn't expecting that great a standard, thinking it will be just like any other fondue and on Liquid Chocolate's website, there was no mention on how great-tasting their chocolate is. I was so pleasantly surprised at how dark-chocolate tasting their milk chocolate is! Awesome!
I would have ordered 2 packs if I know how well-received the fountain and the chocolate will be by everyone in the family! 老少咸宜and wholesome fun!
My plate of chocolate fruits! I think I had at least 10-12 sticks that night! Yummy yummy yummy!!!!
Found this photo amusing, because towards the end of the night, the uncles made themselves comfortable sat around the fountain, made small talk. And you guess it, NON-STOP fruits dipping!
The machine could only be on for 2 hours to prevent overheating. So after 2 hours of fun for everyone, the uncles were scrapping whatever they could from the remnants. Talk about regardless of age!
Washing up of the fountain was troublesome, as
Come to think of it, why don't those candy bar services provide such chocolate fountains?
Mum-in-law birthday present from her daughter & son-in-law! They got it from Singapore Ebay for about S$600+. I had read about such stuff and didn't really know how useful such a cleaning machine was. Sister had been using this at her home for a while and she no longer sweeps the floor! I remember her telling me there's a wet version that does mopping! Cool!
This comes with 2 sensors that you can place at certain areas to prevent the robot from trepassing e.g. the altar. According to Sister, after a few cleaning rounds, the robot will remember the layout of the house and how to get about its cleaning in the most efficient way. A cleaning schedule can be set in the robot, say every morning 10am, the robot will do its round and when done, it returns to its charging station.
Amazing! Only thing is I find it a tad too noisy. But hey, clean house!
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Home-baked tiramisu by Brother and his girlfriend! It had Bailey's so I didn't get to try. The Husband said it was delicious and better than the orange birthday cake Sister had gotten. =P
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I hope to do something like this for my mother. She likes things grander and rowdier though. And provided we don't end up quarrelling. Oh well! Happy Thursday, folks!
Metta,
欣雨 Xinyu
