What do Indonesia, Texas, United Kingdom & South Africa have in common? They are all places that Elaine and her family have lived over the years - apparently Elaine has packed up and moved the family home 10 times! Now that is what I call a global traveller and an amazing woman!
Well today Elaine's husband Jeff & Elaine's daughter Leigh arranged a very special brunch with Singapore based friends to celebrate Elaine's birthday.
Jeff arranged 4 beautiful floral table arrangements & knick knacks to represent each of the locations while we designed a menu focusing on these places close to Elaine's heart.
Jeff also arranged a special surprise consisting of birthday messages from other friends from around the world complete with photos of each of the friends' faces mounted on sticks. Each message was read out by the guests present at the brunch - so touching!
So back to the food - for starters, we served an Indonesian inspired prawn satay with a homemade peanut sauce & a spicy jicama salad served on a banana leaf. (Sorry - no photo!)
Next up we swiftly jetted off to Texas for an ultimate breakfast burrito - a gluten free tortilla (brought back from Australia as Elaine is gluten intolerant) wrapped around grilled bacon, slices of portobello mushrooms & creamy scrambled eggs, served with homemade spicy baked beans, guacamole, cherry tomato salsa & some Route 11 potato chips - you can't get more American than that!
After a quick seat swap, followed by mango sorbet palate cleansers we jetted off to our final destination, the UK, for some dessert - Traditional Burnt Cream, otherwise known as Creme Brulee. I had planned a tropical twist but was not happy with my first attempt that incorporated coconut cream so instead went all out British with a Jamie Oliver recipe that incorporates some surprise raspberries hidden in the creamy custard.
Hwee Yin and I had two blow torches on full blast to prepare the individual dishes for our 14 guests - the smell in the kitchen of sugar burning to become the crackable toffee surface was divine - almost as good as the smell of grilling bacon! Despite losing the coconut twist, we couldn't help keeping our planned tropical decorations though - I love those little cocktail umbrellas!
Today's courses were complimented by Jeff's carefully chosen South African wines, and of course Brunch & Co's homemade iced lemon tea and freshly squeezed lemonade.
Well, we hope everybody was happily transported to destination Foodie Heaven today and that Elaine had a birthday celebration to remember! Happy Birthday Elaine!!
Louise & Mark xx
PS This time last year we launched our very first official Brunch & Co event - so much has happened since then and we have learnt so much from this experience. We are extremely thankful to all our friends, old & new, who have been so supportive & encouraging and have helped to make Brunch & Co such a success - we love you all!!
Louise - It was a wonderful day - food was great and all the guests had a very enjoyable time. Thanks so much for working so hard with Leigh and myself on such an eccentric menu and day.
ReplyDeleteAll the best - Jeff