Amazing food, real talents, lovely company – from blogs I admire deep down my heart.
Aug 08, 2010, it was, on a gorgeous sunny Sunday afternoon. Eleven bloggers made it to the potluck at Edith’s – with some family members, too. After close to a month of planning, I’m glad things worked out. It was worth all the efforts and time put forth to make the event a reality! The assemblage was comprised of:
Aimei, of My Baking Cottage, who brought lavender and plain shortbread, as well as pork floss-seaweed Swiss roll; (Oops, I forgot to take a small bag of the cookies home! Sorry!)
Edith, of pReCiouS MoMentS, who was the host of the event and provided the crowd with beverages, including air bandung;
Grace F., of Kitchen Corner, who provided us with blueberry bakewell tartlets, as well as mini burgers that included home-made burger buns as well as beef-and-pork patties;
Jane, of Passionate About Baking, who provided us with olive oil-spiced nut mix, as well as almond cream-with-white fungus dessert;
Josephine, of Sugar & Everything Nice, who shared with us her chicken curry that was to serve with bread;
Yan Ee, of Sweeter Side of Life, who brought along whole-wheat cookies, as well as egg sandwiches made of whole-wheat bread;
You Fei, of lovingbaking, who joined us later due to her tight schedule, which was perfectly understandable; (Hey pal, no worries!)
Zhuoyuan (a.k.a. Bakertan), of Baking Library, who brought assorted truffles (of matcha-white chocolate combo, dark chocolate with rum and raisins, as well as pure dark chocolate ganache);
Me, I brought durian tarts and sablés Korova. I’d actually blogged about them earlier. (Click on the links for recipes.) In my humble opinion, I thought they are pretty good. I usually don’t repeat more than twice with a recipe. I’ve made durian tarts twice so far since February this year; I’ve made sablés Korova more than six times. With that said, they are really good! So, I decided to bring these two bakes to the potluck. (They also survive long hours of traveling, too.) If you’re interested in trying them out, be my guest!
|Dodol-like durian filling for durian tarts, all from scratch|
|Pierre Hermé's sablés Korova|
The potluck lasted for close to 6 hours! I just wasn’t expecting the meet-up to run that long! I suppose without Edith and her family’s generosity in opening up her place to accommodate us all, I doubt it could last that long. It was really kind of her and her family to do so, to shelter us away from the scorching heat or possible complaints from restaurant owners for occupying their properties that long.
Now, I’m not going to talk about what went on at the potluck. If you’re keen on learning more about what we did, hop over to my fellow bloggers’ sites, as shown above, for a glimpse of what happened – and to understand the meaning of the event from their perspectives.
This Sunday’s bloggers’ meet-up wasn’t my first. To be accurate, it was my fourth. My first major one took place right at the end of Lunar New Year this year, which was initiated by blogger pal Quinn. That was a gathering among Malaysians scattered across the globe – except Bee Bee, who hails from Singapore. *LOL* After that, I got the opportunities to hang out more frequently with another two blogger friends Swee San and Tracie. Wendy came along at my third bloggers’ meet-up. It was so nice to be able to chill out with her and her daughter Lyanne from noon till close to 10 at night! Wow, I can be VERY
The following Monday, I also got to meet up with Esther, of Foodies’ Kitchen, who is another fellow Malaysian in Singapore. She was among the first to drop comments on my blog when it was still “lonesome.” *LOL* She’s been very encouraging all along. I’ve learned tremendously from her when it comes to cooking. Thank you so much! Thanks a million for the company, the gifts, and for letting me try Singaporean-style shrimp (or Hokkien) noodles (新加坡蝦麵或福建麵). We don’t have that in Kuala Lumpur!
One may ask, “What gave Pei-Lin the courage to go ask around for such a meet-up among strangers?” My answers are simple: inspiration from other fellow bloggers who had done the same, the curiosity within, my interests in trying out each other’s culinary creations, as well as the eagerness to see the people I’ve been interacting with upclose and personal.
All the while, people around me who don’t blog at all or as frantically as I do perceive me as a naïve and crazy girl who’s lost touch with the real world because I interact online more, especially after work hours. They simply don’t understand how it feels like to be a blogger! I told my best friends whom I’ve known since 13, that I’d be traveling for 5 hours, from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, to meet up with strangers whom I’d not seen before but have been interacting for sometime through blogging. They simply answered, “哦,妳小心點吧!” (In Chinese: “Oh, you better be careful!”) My family was skeptical too, initially. However, what surprised me was the moment I reached home, my family was curious about the meet-up and was eager to see the photos. Somehow, I’d successfully had them persuaded. I was surprised when they didn’t say, “Oh, you came home in one piece!” *LOL*
After blogging for more than a year, I’m glad to say that blogging has brought me surprises in positive ways. In reality, I can be very quiet when a conversation lacks the chemistry needed to keep the ball rolling. When you’ve hit the green talking button within me, like I said, I can yadda nonstop. By now, are you guys convinced that I have bipolar personality? I can be terse – and cold too. One can never know. Haha!
My lesson learned: have faith and confidence in any endeavors pursued. As a pragmatist and an atheist, I also believe actions speak louder than words. Of course then, everyone’s efforts matter. On the other hand, from a psychological standpoint, faith still plays a great part in pushing us further in any pursuits in life. (No, there's nothing religious to do with what I'm trying to convey. Like I said, I'm an atheist.)
Without faith and confidence, I doubt I’d have the energy and motivation to keep pushing myself further over the last month as I mapped things out for the event, especially after work. It was exhaustive I got to admit, especially amid the many other things in life. That was why I was MIA for close to 2 weeks from blogging. Without that mysterious force called faith, I wouldn’t be able to trust the then-strangers. “I have faith in my blogger friends, I trust them,” I often say to myself. I hope they feel the same, too. I’m touched by the warm and overwhelming response they’ve been giving me.
What struck me emotionally a lot was being able to FINALLY meet up with You Fei in person after talking to her online for the last 2 years or so. Before I started blogging, she’d be a diligent listener of mine about my kitchen experiments, and vice versa. (Thank you, buddy! I was so thrilled to see you! Could you sense that, too?)
I’d like to pay my respect and give due credits to:
Quinn and Swee San, for initiating the first few bloggers’ meet-ups that I went for – it was you who inspired me into making such (crazy and ambitious) decision;
Edith and her family, once again, for opening up your lovely home to us all for the potluck, and for having faith and trusting us even though you hadn’t met most of us before;
Shirley, who guided me through as I organized last Sunday’s meet-up – thank you so much for taking me around to shop in town, for the company, the silicone mini bundt molds and "bunny bag," as well as your Teochew taro paste dessert (芋泥);
Sonia, of Nasi Lemak Lover, who switched on the light bulb in me by giving me an idea on what to bring for our friends in Singapore – the darker and more herbal Klang bak kut teh (巴生肉骨茶) is a good choice; (I was struggling to figure out a nice gift for everyone there because Malaysia and Singapore share so much in common when it comes to culture, food and so forth. For those of you who aren’t from these two countries, check out our histories and you’ll know why.)
And all my blogger friends who made the-once-a dream of having a large food bloggers’ potluck come true! I initiated this, but without you guys, it wouldn’t happen! It was teamwork! Thank you so much! The potluck turned out to be awesome! I’ll miss you all dearly even when I’m 5 hours up north from you guys!
Before I end my long-windedness, I pledge that all you bloggers to have faith in whatever you pursue – and keep doing what you’re doing because you never know whose lives you’ll be changing the next moment – just like what you guys have had on me.