First of all... Forgive me, God, for I have sinned. I've been really bad.

Yesterday, my good friend Nikhil invited me over for lunch at his house. The Indian New Year was on the previous Tuesday so his mom cooked a traditional vegetarian feast for us. I've always been a fan of Indian food so the lunch really was a treat. I've had vegetarian Indian food before and it's always been delicious.

We started off with a little bit of rice with poppadom and melted ghee. Then, we had the 6 main dishes; pumpkin, golden cucumber, mixed veg, green bananas, ripe mango, cabbage and coconut and sambar (curry) with rice. I also tasted some of the spicy mango pickle and lime pickle but I preferred the mango because it was nice and hot. My friend's mom later spooned out some curd or yoghurt to eat with the rice to help digestion and cool down the stomach from all the spices in the food. I've had banana leaf rice at restaurants before and the yoghurt was often necessary after all the hot curry and rasam (steaming spicy broth). Finally, we had payasam for dessert; warm, sweet and flavoured with cashew nuts. It's like a soup or like Malay bubur chacha or bubur kacang. It was all very delicious and we were so full. So I thought, "I could be a vegetarian if I wanted to."

Apparently not.

Returning from my friend's place, I immediately had to switch gears because that very morning, my parents hatched a plan for a full-out barbecue that evening. So next, we stopped by at the supermarket to buy the salad, stuff for my potato salad, drinks, chicken... The lamb chops, beef ribs, steak, and jumbo sausages were already waiting at home.

An important thing to mention is that having a barbecue is a much-loved tradition in my family. Most of our family gatherings are centered around a hearty barbecue. As for me, my love for barbecue lamb probably came from the traces of Arab blood in my veins from my late mother's side of the family. But on my father's side, my great-great-grandfather and great-grandfather (if I'm not mistaken) were butchers once so that could explain why the whole family is into barbecues.

So, it's pretty much custom to see my father sweat it out with a few of my uncles in front of the grill. For some reason also, our barbecues have a knack of coinciding with a rainy day but rain or shine, we do it anyway. We've had a whole body of lamb barbecued (twice; the first during rain so we had to put an umbrella over the lamb, haha) and we have a huge, custom-made oil-drum set for such purposes. Another favourite at our barbecues is my potato salad. Not to brag, but there never are leftovers. :)

And the food is always a lot. Last night was a feast. It was the first time we did beef ribs (delicious) and my grandma brought my favourite jelly, her special kuih bibir and loads of oranges (which would be a lifesaver afterwards). We also bought a Pavlova cake, which is a bowl-shaped meringue filled with cream and fresh fruit. Any wonder why I ate so much. After I finished my second lamb chop, I could feel my blood pressure spike. Thank God for my grandma and her oranges.

Just when I thought I had sinned enough, I woke just before noon (I was really knocked out) to find that my father was already up and cooking our brunch. And guess what it was? Nasi lemak. And since it was homemade, you could bet that the rice was really lemak.

My doctor would be having nightmares if she knew what I was up to. But then again, I would quote my father's favourite saying during such occasions, "Once in a while..."

Hee hee!

Yum yum...