Life in Japan - Brunch with the ladies

About 3 weeks ago I invited a bunch of ladies (wives of my husband's colleagues) to a lunch at my place. It was during that week that my closest friend in Japan left to move to another part of the country, and my personal yoga teacher (a friend whom I have lunch with occasionally) left to move to another country. This is the down side of an expat's life. You find yourself in a situation where people come in and out of your life all the time. To perk my mood up, I decided to throw a lunch party at my place.

These ladies' partners work with my husband on the same project and it is not the first time we see one another. I had a similar gathering at my place last spring which I did a chinese food theme - stirfry vegetables, sweet and sour pork, curry, fried rice etc. So this time I wanted to have a western style brunch. 11 ladies turned up and we had a great time catching up. Well, I think they had a great time since we were supposed to end the session at 1pm but they didn't leave until 2ish. And the food was all gone.

My ikebana arrangement.

My table floral arrangement. I LOVE flowers.

My menu for the day - beef pot pies, rockmelon wrapped with parma ham, cheese platter, beetroot salad with red wine vinegar dressing, prawn and avocado salad with seafood sauce, parmesan chicken fingers, cream cheese brownies and fruit platter.

Nice? I'm only choosing one recipe from the above menu to share today but if there's anyone who is keen to have the rest, feel free to leave me a comment or drop me an email.

Parmesan Chicken Fingers

Ingredients:
1 cup dried breadcrumbs
zest of half a lemon
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper to taste
2 or 3 chicken breast fillets (cut into finger size strips)
1 egg, beaten lightly
oil for deep frying

Combine breadcrumbs, zest, parmesan, salt and pepper in a plastic bag to mix.
Dip chicken in beaten egg and place in the plastic bag.
Seal the bag and shake to coat the chicken pieces evenly.
Deep fry the chicken pieces in hot oil until cooked.

Very straightforward and easy but taste really good. Doesn't take long to cook and it's a great party food.