B’day Party Lil Diva Mell @ Chowking, JBR

this is probably the first time that we got an invitation for a kid’s birthday party held at a venue other than a fast-food restaurant (excluding those held at home). no juicy fried chicken or happy meal toys. we had delicious noodles and savoury dishes!

it’s little miss sharifah melissa’s 1st birthday, held at a chinese restaurant called ‘chowking’ in JBR (jumeirah beach residences) the walk. it’s right between chilli’s and tim hortons.

i just found out that chowking is actually the biggest chinese fast food chain in the philippines. i really didn’t know chowking is from the philippines; no wonder they serve desserts from the country!

 

my boys with chubby wubby cutie pie birthday girl sharifah melissa or mell (or like what her mommy likes to refer her as ‘little diva’!) kahfi really REALLY likes her, but she’s always angry at kahfi! hihi marah-marah sayang ye? memang diva la mell ni!

 

me with lovely hostess aida. thanks aida for including us in this merriment of celebrating mell’s first birthday! we had fun makan-makan-makan and playing silly game! haha. and birthday girl is a darling!

 

birthday girl mell with her daddy. aww.

 

cute cake! sigh. will i ever get a chance to host a birthday party with pink cupcakes and pretty cinderella carriage cake? and not ones with ben10 on them? *wink wink*

 

‘buko pandan’ – a salad from the philippines

 

here i tried this interesting dish that LOOKS like some sort of jelly drink or cocktail, but actually it’s referred to as a SALAD instead! this green dish is called ‘buko pandan salad’. it’s a popular filipino dessert; and it’s made using young coconut (which is ‘buko’) and screwpine leaves (pandan leaves) with condensed milk and jelly too.

the ‘salad’ is served cold, with lots of jelly and coconut. i LOVE both jelly and coconut BUT i find the milk too sweet and too berlemak to my liking. i would prefer it to be less sweet, with blended ice maybe?

 

 

i love to google interesting food i found or tried here in dubai, so naturally i googled ‘buko pandan’ and found out that it’s a filipino dish. that’s what got me wondering why does chowking serve filipino dessert – and that’s when i finally discovered that chowing is from the philippines. interesting facts!

oh, must it be green? when i googled, they’re all green. yeap.

 

* * *

 

 

chowking really can throw a party – tak sangka yo! there are even games for the guests, starting from a silly race between the guys-team and the ladies-team.

the game – to carry an orange using only your cheek and your neck, then passing it to the person next to you. must do this faster than the other team. if the orange fell, start from the first person! winner? the guys! *clap clap*

 

 

next is the hubby-wife challenge, which was just like charade – you pick a word from a box, act it out, and your partner must guess the word. the words are all connected to babies – ‘feeding bottle’, ‘baby’s blanket’ and such. easy pizzy lemon squeezie! fun!

 

kiddos waiting for uncle syed to prepare the balloons

 

i have a feeling that this game was impromptu but it was the funnest, and also most annoying!!! haha. the host syed pluck out all the balloons from the decor, placed it on the floor and the kids get to stomp on the balloons till it pops! agh!

the kids eagerly waited for uncle syed to put all the balloons on the floor, before going wild stepping, stomping and even jumping on the balloons to pop as many as they can. towards the end, a few even took forks to pop the balloons, mercilessly!

all i could do was press my palms against my ears. i hate this kind of game that involves loud balloon-popping!!!

 

khaleef met his classmate arissa

 

and i met an ol gal pal too, from my olden days in melbourne. nice hanging out with you akmal!

 

* * *

 

thanks again to syed and aida for making us part of the celebration of your little diva. she’s so cute! next time buat la kat rumah pulak ye, bole serve kitorang laksa kuale! hihi *wink wink*