A Taste of Asia Pacific

I think it was my mom who had this awesome idea about getting everyone at church together and feeding them food from Asia Pacific. It happened to pair well with the fact that I love to feed people! Thanks to Jim and Connie Turek, I’d already had a taste of AP from being in their small group at the MTC. Plus, Connie showed me how to cook using odd things like fish sauce and curry paste, and Jim forced me to try Sambal Olek, which turned out to be incredible!

The whole goal was to introduce everyone to where we we’re going, complete with, sights, sounds, and smells. You always remember more if all of your senses are involved, right?! We spent weeks getting ready and then Friday night finally rolled around. Everyone pitched in and we began to cook up a storm! It was wild and spicy in the church kitchen that afternoon. These were my two chefs, Ruth and David:

We also had odd fruits and drinks to try including rambutan, mangosteen, jackfruit, coconut water, and mangosteen juice. My sister, Ruth, is very hesitant when trying new foods, so we made her in charge of telling people they had to try new things! She was quite good at saying, “Hey, come back here! I don’t think you tried any of these, did you?”

The night’s menu included a mild dish, a spicy dish, and one with a peanut sauce. If I could have coaxed some coals in single digit weather, we’d have been able to have sate, just like we would from a street vendor, but alas, it wasn’t going to happen! Black Rice Pudding (bubur ketan hitam) made its way on most people’s plates, but I think the purple color kinda threw them off.

I was so proud of everyone for trying new food. I was worried that we’d be left with crock pots full of food. There were some sincerely, fearful looks as they were standing in line. But when we put the leftovers food in to-go boxes, most of it disappeared!With a little bit of Sumatran coffee and some tea, everyone sat for an hour and got to see a little bit more about the big picture of church planting among the unreached and what that might look like in Asia Pacific. My favorite was the Q&A time where the kids got to ask all of their questions!