MUSHROOM CAKE & BELLY DANCER

Thursday was Party Girl’s birthday. Here’s wishing her a great year today and many greater years ahead. May love, health, wealth and peace follow her wherever she goes.

It was a great party despite the awkward composition of the crowd. Her hometown buddies; me and Jane, my friend – CK, Eric’s (Party Girl’s husband) business associates, partners and employees, Party Girl’s customers (she once owned a pet shop business), her cousins, relatives, a Korean hair dresser and her daughter, her ex employee; Trish and Nancy, her belly dancer instructor.

Everyone came without knowing it was Party Girl’s birthday, except Trish, Jane and I. This is the thing about Party Girl. She is very generous and loves to throw parties to make sure everyone leaves with a full belly and good memories. Everyone came with bottles of wine, not knowing the occasion. We ended up with half a dozen of red and white wine.

Party Girl ordered catering from Gem Restaurant, specializing in Indian Cuisine, one of Eric’s favorite Indian restaurant. The food was simply superb and authentic. Everyone decided to screw their diet and pigged out. (This.. unfortunately applied to yours truly also). Oh man.. I will never forget the taste of Tikka Masala and onion porka. Simply fabulous. Gem Restaurant is open everyday and is situated in Damansara Utama from 11 am to 11 pm.

When you go to any of Party Girl’s parties, be prepared for the extraordinary.

We didn’t expect that Indian food would be served, and were even more surprised by a sterling performance by a belly dancer. Party Girl is learning belly dancing now in Bangsar under the wings of the famous and lovely Nancy. Nancy is from Turkey and calls Malaysia home for the past 13 years. The crowd was a shy lot. I wished we would just let our hair down and partied away. Unfortunately, most of the people who came were all prim and proper business partners of Eric’s. I guess we would get everyone drunk to get them on the dance floor, if we were not working the next day. I think Party Girl should have got everyone to dress like Indians or belly dancers to come to this party.

Since everyone was so stiff and did not want to show their wild side in this party – under scrutiny of a Managing Director (Eric), Nancy decided to change into her casual clothing and joined the crowd to pig out at the food, just like any other Malaysians.

Nancy said, this is the Malaysian culture in hosting parties. Guests would just come for the food, wishing the host best wishes and leave immediately after that. The party scenes in Turkey are totally different. Dancing is their culture and it is in their blood. As soon as they finished eating, everyone, the young and old alike, would dance the night away till energy practically drained out and everyone drop like flies.

After the dance, the singing session would start. The singing would go on and on till the host bid the guests good night. In Turkey, they literally need to throw out the guests. Nancy welcomed us to her parties in the future to prove the point., which we delightedly accepted.

The party was planned to the slightest details that even the birthday cake is extraordinary. Like jakuns, we were all gushing and fussing over this nice cake from Coffee Bean – at the same time, fret over the fact that mushrooms, being symbolic in Chinese as a taboo for any auspicious occasion – tan tong koo – meaning losing a job. However, being an ang moh sai (Hokkien: Westernized), Party Girl didn’t really bother.

After blowing the candles on the mushroom cake and exchange of well wishes, most of the guests made their way home, while Jane, CK, Trish, Party Girl’s cousin and I helped to clear up the function room. We chatted the night away in the comfort of her home about arowanas, dogs, life of the rich and famous, and disgusted over how pranksters pulled a fast one on Bernama.

Notice:

We were saddened by the fact that the late Datin Sri Endon had succumbed to her cancer and passed on. We hope that God would grant our good PM strength and may he find solace in the great work that he has done and going to do for the country.

Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat ke atas roh Allahyarham Datin Sri Endon Mahmood.