Breakfast Aidilfitri

Breakfast Aidilfitri!

Last Sunday, we invited a couple of close neighbours, my BBGS gang and the Real Kids gang over to our humble home, for a small breakfast get together. Although technically last Sunday was the first day of Zulkaedah, we still called it Breakfast Aidilfitri to keep to the spirit of Eid.

Why breakfast you ask? Well, after the whole fiasco of having to fulfill seven simultaneous open house invites in a day; we decided to make it easy for our guests by inviting them for breakfast instead of the conventional lunch or tea. Furthermore, with the rainy season, we wanted to play it safe and stay away from the afternoons when it would usually pour cats and dogs.

We wanted to go with the whole hotel breakfast buffet kinda theme, so here was what we served that morning:

Chalkboard menu.

Since our guest list was so small, we decided to just confine the makan-makan around the vicinity of our house - no external tents, tables and such. Hence, we made our dry kitchen area into a buffet line. We served a fusion of Asian and Western food. For Asian, we had nasi lemak, roti canai and kuih melayu, while for Western we had buttermilk pancakes, chocolate chip waffles, sausages, potato wedges, cereal, assorted pastries and bread. 

However, pancakes and waffles are best served hot, therefore instead of making them for our guests, we made our guests prepare their own food! *giggles* During our last trip to Houston, we bought an electric griddle from Walmart (cos Aiden the anak melayu insisted on having nasi goreng for dinner and an electrical griddle was all we could use to cook in the hotel)... so I pre-made the pancake batter and frozen pancakes, and simply asked my guests to cook them on the electric griddle!

The buffet line.

Okay, so let's start with this corner. The nasi lemak corner! Below the dry kitchen table, I placed a nifty trolley that I bought from Ikea and used it to store plates, platters and bowls. Mimpi la kalau nak ade plate warmers ala hotel, kan? In hindsight, not sure whether the trolley was such a good idea because Ian kept pushing it all over the house, until we had to tie the trolley down and stick the wheels to the floor!

The nasi lemak corner and the chinaware trolley. Can you see the rope and sticky tape on the trolley? *grin*

We had ayam goreng rempah, sambal ikan bilis, sambal sotong and paru goreng - all served in Le Creuset cookware!

Fluffy nasi lemak served in daun pisang from our garden.

Ayam goreng rempah fried with daun kari from our own garden.

Next up, the corner by the TV. Loved Hubby's idea of placing a decorative lamp on the countertop. It certainly gave a certain glow to the roti canai! *chuckles* We bought fluffy roti canai from our favourite mamak, MMZ. MMZ has the best dhal ever! In the same corner, we also served assorted pastries, kuih melayu and homemade strawberry tarts. For the kids, we had cereal (Koko Krunch and Honey Stars), cocktail sausages and potato wedges.

The kids wiped their food clean! However, the roti canai went quite slow. Most of the adults preferred nasi lemak for breakfast.

We placed the electric griddle by my KitchenAid mixer. Love the mess-free batter dispenser, seen here with the pre-made pancake batter. Here's a dear neighbour with the batter dispenser in action.

Beautiful golden brown pancakes *drool*

Homemade strawberry tarts, homemade kek sarang semut, koci (came in four variants - biasa, pulut hitam, labu inti kelapa and labu inti kelapa durian), and assorted pastries (Pain au Chocolat and Peach Danish).

On the dining table, I served strawberry tarts and loaf bread with assorted mini fruit preserves.

The only countertop area by the water dispenser, without any food on it! You know why???

Because we also made our guests make their own coffee and tea! *giggles* We provided instant sachets of coffee, latte, hot chocolate and tea, and apple juice.

Oookayyyyy enough of food pictures and let's move on to the house. With the absence of tents, I knew I had to make sure I had enough seats for everyone. So we placed carpets everywhere so people could sit picnic-style!

Moved the daybed to the patio to create more space in the living hall. I also placed an additional carpet by the door.

Daybed and carpet at the patio. 

Moved the garden furniture into the garden. Here was where the men hung out sambil fogging halau nyamuk. *smacks forehead*

And of course, a bouncing castle for the kids!

Our first guest arrived promptly at 930am. More guests started trickling in at 10am, which was more like brunch instead of breakfast. Each gang started finding their own spots in the house, and soon the house was buzzing with people gossiping and kids playing. 

The beauty with having such a small guest list was that I could actually make meaningful conversations with my guests! In all my previous parties, as host, all I could manage was "Hi" and "Bye!" plus some occasional photos and sore feet. This crowd was so much more manageable and enjoyable too!

My SPK girls!

Gossiping without me!!!!!!! *hhmmpphh*

The BBGS childhood friends.

Biggest crowd of all - the kindy moms.

Our kids were nowhere to be seen in this photo cos they were so busy playing.

Here they are in Aiden's room.

Look at those sweaty heads, from all the running around!

The only girls from the kindy gang.

The kids with a formal pose.

And of course - the freestyle pose. Aww... I hope these kids remain friends even after graduation and moving on to different schools!