Singaporean Gaston was at home!!! ;)

Quick Note: Gaston is one of the best and most famous chefs in Peru. He and his wife are chefs and have a restaurant name after them: "Astrid & Gaston" :)

Now, time for the story. On Sunday, Mal & I agreed to have a Singaporean dinner at home. He loves to cook and wanted to share something from his country with my parents and me. But we wouldn't be the only guests. Jered (another TB) was also in town and he would join us too. You know, the more, the merrier :)

Around 5:30pm Mal arrived to my house. After checking the fridge we went to the supermarket to buy what he needed. We got chicken, veggies, fruits, Inca Kola and a bottle of wine. Before getting ready to cook, I gave Mal a small present. Nothing big, but meaningful. I know one of his passions is to cook and I wanted to give him something he can always have with him while he's having fun. So an apron was a good idea. Now, that we both were wearing our aprons, we became Astrid & Gaston.

Gaston (aka Malvin) would be in charge of the main dish and Astrid (aka Yadi) would be in charge of the dessert. Well, dessert was easy, just salad fruit with passion fruit. So I was ready quickly and started to help Mal. We also had an assistant - Olga - who helped us chopping some veggies. Mal was cooking "Chiken Rice". The whole time he was asking me what my parents and I liked the most, so he'd prepare it. So sweet! Wow! this guy didn't lie when he said he likes to cook. He really enjoys it. I like to cook too and I think he feels same way as me, cooking allows you to share part of you with the people you love. He was really concentrated and I noticed he was singing a couple of times ;)
He was so happy! :)

We were just cooking when my dad came. He had forgotten about the dinner, but the minute he opened the door and felt the smell of the spices coming from the kitchen, he remembered it. He showed up and Mal said hi to him. Initially we tought about serving dinner at 8, but it would be too early and we still had work to do. Well, Mal was taking good care of the kitchen. So I moved to the dining room and started to set the table. Last time we had the "Empanadas & Pisco" at home, the table looked really nice. Mom wasn't in town and when she saw the pics she asked me why I didn't do that just for us, haha. So this time I'd set the table very nice too ;)

My dad picked up mom and they both arrived around 8:20pm, 10min later Jered arrived to. Ok, everybody was here, so  it's time to start the dinner. The table looked great! We had the rice and the chicken very well presented and cut. I suggested not to serve it, so everyone could get as much as he/she wanted. Also the spices and sauce were there. Each of us got a glass for the wine and another for the soda - Inca Kola of course! We served bowls with chicken stock and veggies. 2 bowls had chicken feet and they went to mom and Jered, haha. It was our first time having Singaporean food, well for everyone except Mal, haha. Mal was telling us about the similarities about this dish and the other Asian versions.

The food was very tasty. We all found it so delicious. Thank you, Mal!!! Mal is an architect, so are my parents. So they had a lot in common. Jered is not an architect, but has been in many places and likes it too. So at some point we were all talking about buildings and architecture, haha. I was in the middle helping with the translation. We also spoke about Middle East and different topics, haha. Ok, it was time for dessert. The fruit was perfect. We needed something fresh and nothing heavy, just light. We took some pics - so sorry we didn't do it when we were with our dishes full :(

We kept on chatting and sharing experiences and ideas. It was almost 11pm when mom and dad went to bed. Mal, Jered & I went to the HQ to check what was going on with Lance. Jered didn't get any mail from him, so he might be flying back to Lima. I checked the airport's website and the flight was delayed until 3am! So he didn't have to leave and go back to the hostel, haha. We stayed there just chatting and talking about the latin culture. Jered was also giving me some tips for DC. It was almost 1am, when the guys left. Hopefully we'd meet tomorrow before they fly to Chile and I fly to the States. Now, it was time for me to go to bed and start thinking about packing, haha