A Low-Budget Christmas Feast (Critically Acclaimed by Me)

Last Saturday, I went to my parents’ house, and we put together a small homemade feast to celebrate Christmas.

Imagine this as a rolling credit scene in a movie…

Starring: my sister

Assistant: my mother

Producer: myself

Why? Because I didn’t actually participate in the cooking scenes and would hate to take credit where it wasn’t due. Still, I was the mastermind behind the planning (and all the aesthetic pictures my sister desperately wanted to be tagged in on my Instagram stories). So yes, I’m calling myself the producer. And the director. Perhaps also the screenwriter.

I would say the feast turned out amazing. With such a minimalist budget, I’m proud enough to claim it as our latest feast blockbuster. Everything tasted great, especially the main star of the show: the roasted chicken.

Seasonings used: butter, onion, garlic, salt, black pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, mushroom stock, Italian herbs, parsley, lemon, and carrots.

Don’t ask about the proportions, though. We’re Asian—we throw in spices not by weight, but by feeling. The only numerical guidance we followed was the 190°C rule: 20 minutes per side.

(Plus another 10 minutes just to be safe, because we didn’t want this celebration turning into a Salmonella party.)

Thankfully, the chicken turned out super flavorful, inside and out. Marinating it for around three hours definitely worked wonders.

As for the baby potatoes, my mom simply boiled them and then fried them with lots of butter and herbs.

Dayum.

Because I love pasta, my sister decided to show off her pasta-making skills in another scene. She made the dough from scratch, which she said was pretty easy. Since we ran out of high-protein flour, she used low-protein flour instead, resulting in pasta that was much softer than intended. Still, it looked tempting.

My mom then boiled the pasta in salted water, while my sister prepared the mushroom sauce. Once everything was ready, the pasta went straight into the wok.

Our feast, in its complete look:

Well, doesn’t it look like a blockbuster homemade feast? 

This producer/director/screenwriter certainly thinks so.

If you like this post, you might also enjoy Making Pork Siomay with a ‘Spice First, Measure Never’ Spirit and How We Make Pee Cam Kee at Home (No Ginger, Please).