Lunch A La Française

I have been teaching my first batch of TESL degree students for three consecutive semesters. Last year, we had two times French-style breakfast together in the classroom. This time, they wished to have something grander, for this is their last semester with me. As they were still quite free at the beginning of the semester, they were keen to hold a lunch at one of their places. So, we fixed the date on the Tuesday after the Chinese New Year break, which was yesterday.

I left the preparations to them as usual. I was only planning to bring mandarins and cookies.

Monday afternoon, the class representative Syahida called me to ask if I could buy French loaves for the "petit déjeuner tomorrow". As I started my class with them at 8.30am and I had to reach the city campus early to get a parking space, I would not have time to stop at Tesco on my way to work. And since she had mentioned "petit déjeuner", I assumed that they had changed their mind to have breakfast. So, later in the evening when I received her message telling me they needed sponsorship for ice, ice-cream and French loaves and that they could go shopping together with me after my class at 12.30pm, I was very confused. When I sent my reply to ask for confirmation of the meal appointment time, Syahida was already asleep and did not read my message.

Everything was clarified when I met the students yesterday morning. Syahida had had a slip of the tongue. Our lunch was still on. She, Hani and Ridhwan would need a lift from me to do extra shopping and to go to Aafina and Maslinda's apartment where the lunch would be held. Hazween popped in with sleepy eyes just before I was about to dismiss the class. She had slept at 3am in order to get the main dish cooked. Actually, I expected something simple. But they told me, "Mademoiselle, with us, it's always gonna to be something great!" I had no doubt about the ability of these energetic young people with whom I always enjoy the interaction. And it is always entertaining to watch their role-play in the classroom. So, like what Ridhwan said,

"Let's go for the fun!"

The apartment was in Banda Hilir. When we reached there, it was almost two o'clock. The chef Hazween was still busy grating cheddar cheese on the salad.

Other dishes were ready. The sous-chefs and assistants just needed to cut the French loaves into small pieces and make the drink with syrup, water and ice cubes.

The menu was typed out in French. We were supposed to have hors d'oeuvre, two types of salad before the main dish and dessert.

Everything sounded quite French but... the table manners were totally a la malaisienne!

First of all, nobody was formally seated at the table. We were casually sitting on the floor.

Ariff looked a bit lonely without the company of his good buddies Farril and Syed who could not join us.

Secondly, the dishes were not served one after another. It was actually a buffet. We could take our own food as much as we desired at the same time instead of passing the dishes among one another.

The formalities? Who cared! Let's attack the table and bon appétit!

This was my first-round serving.

The cheese-mushroom omelet was a bit salty but went well with the coleslaw and the lettuce-orange salad. The lamb stew had been so perfectly cooked during two hours that the juicy meat just melted between the teeth. When I dipped a piece of bread spread with cream cheese into the hot and slightly spicy soup and then put into my mouth, the taste was heavenly!

I was not the only one to make several trips to the table. But my following servings were moderate. I merely added another quarter of omelet, some salad and bread to my plate to accompany the rest of my lamb stew. Even then, the intake still exceeded what I had planned for the diet after the Chinese New Year heavy meals.

Maslinda, who had gone out for awhile before the lunch was started, came back to the apartment which she and her two housemates were keeping clean and tidy. There was more than enough food left for her.

The lamb stew was really filling. But when jelly, vanilla ice-cream, cookies and mandarins were cheerfully saying "bonjour" to us,

nobody's stomach could resist the temptation.

Calories?

The word was temporarily missing in our French-English dictionaries.

I must thank God that my filing had been done at the dentist's the previous day so that the tooth was able to stand the heat and the cold again.

After the grand meal, all were too full to move the bodies from sitting comfortably in front of the television.

I had the whole afternoon to rest for the digestion before my MLM class at night. The students, poor things, their next class was at 4.30pm.

Only now I realized that they were smart enough to use disposable dishes.

And I totally agreed that Hazween's lack of sleep was worthy...

Merci beaucoup de ce grand repas, mes chers étudiants!