Lantern Festival – the aftermath!

Almost too tired to keep typing, but I just *had* to give you guys an update!

The dinner went well! I had a great time telling the legends of how the Lantern Festival came about and sharing the delicious tang yuan with everyone.  What’s more?  Well… Ms Marmite loved our food and live demonstration SO much, that she invited mum and I to her underground farmer’s market!!!  This is the first one being held in the UK – how EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We’re *finally* going to introduce Northern Chinese cuisine to the whole of London!! (Ok, maybe not the *whole* of London, but it’s definitely a start!!)

Can we pull it off?  I honestly don’t know.

Do we know exactly what we are doing?  Err.. no.

Will people like our food?  It’s so different from what they’re probably used to, that I’m genuinely not sure.

But in for a penny, in for a pound. Right?

Anyway will try to get some sleep tonight despite all the excitement!

‘night night everyone!

Mama Lan

PS – Pictures in the gallery soon!

The day after.

The day after the opening night…

Went to sleep at 1am after half-heartedly cleaning up a little. Waking up to a kitchen full of dirty pots and pans, is *not* my idea of a relaxing Sunday.  I’m just thankful we managed to wash the dishes and glasses the night before.

Thoughts about the opening night:

• For our first time, I think it went well.   EVERYONE loved the food – even though they’d never had most of the things on the menu before! So that definitely makes me feel like it was worth it.



















• Panicked a little bit (just a little ) when a few guests arrived early. So from now on, we’re changing the dinner time to 7:30pm and will need to get prep done more in advance.
• Was a bit disappointed that 3 people canceled at the last minute. In order to avoid this from happening again, have decided to sell tickets prior to the event.

Mum enjoyed last night! I knew she would. She always enjoys having people round for dinner and feeding everyone. That’s a typical Chinese mum for you!

The boyfriend?  He’s ok – still allowing me to hold the next event.  That’s good enough for me!

And I? I’m *exhausted*!! And there’s SO much more cleaning up to do…

But it’s a satisfied kind of exhaustion…

Mama Lan is officially up and running – YAY!!!!!!!

Love,

Mama Lan