More Awesome Congee

It's a luxury to get everyone together and chill out for an evening. The hours always fly by. Sure, we see one another separately at all times, but I think somehow we try to do it thrice a year like this, especially when the dear hosts are absolutely lovely. We've been merrily crashing J and L's living space. :P This gathering was set way early, like two months ago. It wasn't actually meant to celebrate the man's birthday, but it was opportune. Oof! The sweeties bought him a chocolate-banana cake. BEST.

We did the usual potluck thing- Impossible cheddar burgers from Three Buns, a rack of smoked pork ribs from Decker Barbecue, Chinese siew yoke and roast duck, and J tapau-ed that famous dessert of ah balling peanut soup from Bedok. The name tickles me to no end. It's just glutinous rice balls with different filling in sweet soup. Lots of drinks- damn good home-brewed kombucha, gin and tonic (plus sour plum?!!), and wine.

There were carbs, of course, courtesy of the hosts. One giant pot of congee. L lugged out the old-school giant pot to make porridge for us. I was quite awed by the pot. You do need a stove with fire to produce this quality of porridge in this quantity. I will never say no to L's congee. I dunno how important the chicken is, but I'm in love with the texture and consistency of her pot of chok, which held century eggs and bits of salted egg.

There were shredded chicken meat at the side, as well as cuttlefish, salted eggs, plenty of onions and shallots. I inhaled three bowls of congee. And because this was a bigger pot used, there were leftovers. N and I shamelessly took home two giant boxes of congee; mine was sufficient to feed two for two meals. Oof! The man loved the congee too, and declared these sort of birthday gifts the best type- gifts of time and company. Well, I felt like it was also my birthday since I ate so much. 😂😍