My ISM GROUP (2) - Church Lunch

Over the weekend, Carlton Happy Hour (my ISM group's name) and Emmaus were rostered to cook church lunch in Cross Culture Church of Christ, the church that we come under.

what is Church Lunch?

Church Lunch, as the name suggests, is lunch served in church (duh..). Each week, a different home group/ISM group takes turn to cook and serve lunch after both morning services for an affordable price of Aus $4 (adult) and Aus $2 (kids). Its really a steal.

Anyway, since it was our turn to cook lunch, our group decided to serve Claypot Chicken Rice and Tau Ge (bean sprouts) without the claypot (in rice pot). It was the easiest thing to prepare for 150 pax (we thought).

None of us had any experience for cooking for large groups of people. My only experience was being a kitchen help at the age of 8 (?). And that was when I helped my mom cook for the Boys Brigade Camp. What did I know about estimation and what nots? So anyway, it still had to be done and under the great direction of Grace Yap and responsibilty of Poh Sun, 30 kg of Chicken, 25 kg of Rice, 3 large packets of dried Chinese mushroom and 4kg worth of Bean Sprouts were bought and used to feed ~150 people.

It took us from 9am - 3pm on Saturday to complete this task and boy were we all tired at the end of the day. It was 6 solid hours of the following:

1. cleaning chicken
2. removing chicken skin

3. Marinating chicken with sauces

4. Washing rice

5. cooking rice

6. Stirring to ensure all was cooked

7. Scrapping of leftover rice in pot

8. Washing of rice pot

9. Starting next batch of cooking

[pictures below: 1) Flo and the 2 Grace 2) Our Chicken + Mushrooms waiting to be cooked]

The cooking and preparation part WAS fairly simple, straightforward and easy. The hardest most tiring part of it all was the WASHING OF THE RICE POT!!!!!

[the difference: a clean pot vs the pot to be scrubbed]

Since the rice cooker did not have a non-stick pot, we had to soak the rice pot in hot water for awhile so soften the burnt rice. However, we didnt have the luxury of leaving it overnight since we needed it to cook the next batch. Hence, we took turns to laboriously scrap off the remnants of rice from the pot. It was really a work of love and sweat.

[Yuying scrubbing the pot]

Finally, at 3pm, all was completed and we were able to go for a well-deserved break before going back to church for ISM welcome night. Phew.

Thank God, all went well, and we managed to sell EVERYTHING! All the beansprouts, all the trays and trays of Chicken Rice. Phew and we made quite a profit for the church.. YAY!

And... more importantly, we really had a good time working side by side one another, bonding with one another through sweat and love as we cooked and got to know one another better as well. Thanks guy for the experience. It was tiring but i must say i wouldnt change it for anything. =)

[Our FINAL PRODUCT!]