Our American Party

We had a potluck dinner here last night. It was the second meet up of a bunch of local bloggers. It was very imformal and was the follow up to the pub meeting we had several months ago. When I talked about it (as an impending event) to someone this week, she said, “Oh yeah. They do that in America, don’t they?”

I said, “Do you really not do that here?”

She said, “No…no, not really. Well…we do, but we call it an American party.”

I don’t really like the potluck dinner being labeled as an “American” party. Is it the only kind of party Americans have? Is it called that because Americans are so cheap that when they have a party they ask their guest to bring food? It reminds me of this stuff they have here that’s called “Filet Amerikaan”. It’s basically beef tartar: an idea which has never appealed to me. My kids at school eat it. It’s been spread on crackers and passed around parties that I’ve been at. It’s one of those things that lots of people except eat (and I will eat almost anything). The idea of raw beef with spices is sort of repugnant to me, but what I really hate about it is that it’s called Filet Amerikaan. Seriously? What the H-E-double toothpicks does that have to do with America? I mean French fries I get, but filet Amerikaan? Really!

Anyway, everyone showed up about 18:30. (And some people were only on time if their clocks were set to Romanian local time). We had a nice selection of food. Because we had a number (the number was four) of vegetarians (including one vegan), I’d sent out a message with the invitation that they should keep in mind that not everyone is a meat eater. The selection (in the tradition of a true pot luck) was as quite varied, as you can see by the following:

Anita brought fish, Bahian style (white fish in a coconut sauce, shrimps and sprinkled fresh cilantro) plus creme brullee for dessert. She also brought Stella, an Argentinian friend of Italian and Armenian heritage. Stella was a guest and was not on the menu.

John brought David and two quiches, one with bacon, one without (ain’t he nice for thinking of those vegetarians?) I had the left overs for lunch today.

Steph and Pat brought a vegetarian mushroom stew and then a crazy root vegetable that Pat grows in his garden that is like jicama, but different. (Have you tried jicama? You must try jicama.) He left me with one. It’s crisp and fresh. What’s that thing called? It’s quite exotic.

Amanda brought her husband, Dave, and a chickpea and green pea concoction that has a little bit of curry and that we’re going to finish off tonight for dinner with the rest of what I made. And for desert we’ll have the extra creme brullees that Anita left. Thanks, Anita.

I made beef bourguignon. Having made sure the vegetarians were taken care of, I thought I’d provide some animal protien to those with a taste for meat (and because it’s a Julia Child recipe, lots and lots of butter). Fred made a trifle, which is one of his go-to dishes. It’s always a hit. Strawberry yoghurt infused with white chocolate with fresh strawberries and cake at the bottom. Lekker!

Pamela was going to bring vegetarian rice and chicken wings, but she had a little problem getting here and, unfortunately, was not able to attend our little party.

I’d mentioned to Amanda that we could possibly play Celebrity, and, as if on cue, she said, “So Andy, what’s that game you mentioned?” Since it’s the funnest game in the history of the world, I like to expose as many people to it as possible. Click on the word Celebrity above and it’ll take you to the Wikipedia entry, which is a good description of how it’s played. We played three rounds. The second was with two words and the third with only gestures. If that didn’t make any sense, it’s because you didn’t read the Wikipedia entry.

The list of people invited to the party was certainly not an exhaustive list of local bloggers. Any knitting bloggers were excluded because they were at a knitting event, which I was informed of right after I’d set the date for the party. And there are other people, like AmsterZanne, who I didn’t think of because…I just forgot. (I was working from an old list.) It was a fun evening. I’m always amazed at how easy it is for people to mix and talk. It’s a nice group of people.

Everyone left just after midnight, just missing the public transportation, which most people used. Why in the world does public transportation in a city like this stop running at midnight? I really do need to run for city council.

Thanks to everyone who came last night. It was lots of fun.

Oh. And for anyone taking notes, it snowed again yesterday.