Chapter 116 You are all the caterers I need
Chapter 116: You Are All the Caterers I Need
Chinatown
Alex finally got a break from all her nieces and nephews. Her aunties weren't unreasonable after all.
Their nannies arrived early in the morning. Apparently there had been some mixup with the tickets and their flights had to be rescheduled.
Although they missed the wedding, they still made it in time to take care of their wards since the Chens had decided they would be staying in Florida for two weeks so they could spend some time with the newly weds and their mum.
Chen and Rosalie had decided to postpone their honeymoon plans because of the family's visit and didn't feel bad about it.
Nana Chen had her sons and daughters help prepare a feast.
Seeing the spread, one would think that she was hosting the actual wedding reception.
They decided to use the formal dining room since the number of guests had increased.
Chen had suggested hiring a catering service to handle dinner but Nana had used a wooden spoon to chase him out of her kitchen.
In her words, “they were all the caterers they needed”.
Alex had convinced Golden to go early and help with the dinner preparations.
She knew that the most fun wasn't in the dinner itself but in the preparation.
They left Varney and Fab to come later while they left immediately after breakfast.
The minute they stepped into the house, they heard Nana scolding Chen about the catering and chasing him with a wooden spoon.
They looked at each other and smiled before going into the kitchen.
They met Rosa sitting and munching on chicken feet.
“Morning Rosa. Why is Nana chasing your husband with a wooden spoon?” Alex asked as she hugged Rosa and stole one of her feet.
“Hey that's my chicken feet, ask Nana for yours.” Rosa said in protest when she realized Alex had distracted her with a hug to steal her chicken feet.
“Nope! You have to share yours. You get pregnant woman's privilege. Nana would ask me to wait till I'm pregnant.” Alex said munching on her feet.
“So back to my original question, why is Nana chasing your husband all over the place?”
“Your father suggested that Mum gets a caterer to handle dinner.” Aunt Lily said, coming out from the pantry.
“Does he have a death wish or something?” Alex asked wide eyed. “With so many women in the house and he still suggested Nana hirers a caterer?”
Turning back to Rosa she said, “your husband has guts. And now I'm sure he has signed everyone up for the cooking, including the men.
It reminds me of the time Nana was going to host you for dinner..” Alex went on to tell the story of the turkey on the run.
Everyone laughed at the story and soon the cooking began.
Nana Chen put the men to work. She asked them to catch the turkey, butcher it and make a barbecue out of it.
Chen's brothers smacked him on the head and told him he was the cause of their predicament.
They would have been sitting on the foyer while the ladies cooked, but because he couldn't keep his mouth shut, they were forced to catch not 1 but 2 turkeys and 3 chickens.
As if he hadn't done enough, Chen complained that the protein was too much and asked Nana if she was planning on feeding the whole of Chinatown.
His brothers and brothers-in-law quickly tackled him, covered his mouth and dragged him out of the kitchen before he put them in more trouble.
All they had to do was catch the damn turkeys and chickens and barbecue a portion.
But with the rate Chen was going, he was going to make Nana increase their job.
“Hey be careful with him brother Lou, please don't manhandle him too much. I still need him to be able to massage my feet later.” Rosalie said as the men dragged Chen out of the kitchen.
“No problem sis, we would go easy on the hands. We would leave him in shape to give you a full body massage later.” Lou called from the yard.
Soon the cooking went up in full swing. Alex and Golden assisted with washing and chopping the vegetables.
It was fun watching 5 grown men chasing turkeys in the backyard.
Golden felt that the man that reared the turkey in the market normally fed them something that made them go nuts.
Two men fell at different times trying to catch one turkey. And Chen mistakenly let one of the chickens they had caught loose.
Nana Chen watched the spectacular from her reclining chair in the backyard and she shook her head at her sons making a fool of themselves.
They couldn't catch an ordinary turkey. Yet they were men who controlled millions of dollars.
The ladies on the other hand had a swell time cooking. At some point, they went out into the backyard to cheer the men on.
After about 6 hours in the kitchen, dinner was finally ready. Chen wasn't wrong when he said Nana was cooking for the whole Chinatown.
Dish after dish kept on coming out of the kitchen and soon the dining table was full.
They went to freshen up and soon their dinner guests started to arrive.
The first set of guests to arrive were Rosa's grandma and younger sister. They were flying back to Texas the following day so they decided to dine with Rosa's new family before going back.
Next were Varney and Fab. And as usual, Fab brought wine. Because there were going to be more people at dinner, he brought two cases of wines which contained 10 bottles of very fine wine.
The last to arrive was Xander, and like Fab, he brought a bottle of wine.
Dinner soon started and the atmosphere was harmonious.
“Nana these food are really sumptuous. Did you by any means hire caterers to make them?” Fab asked as he munched on a piece of well seasoned turkey.
“Yeah right! She did hire caterers. You are looking at them right here” Uncle Luo said.
“My mother hardly ever hirers caterers to cook her meals. She would rather use us. Sometimes I wonder if she purposely had 11 children so she could always use us for labour.” Aunty Lily said.
Xander almost choked on his drink. “Nana has 11 children?” He asked shocked. He looked at Nana Chen's trim stature and couldn't imagine she had given birth to 11 children.
“Yeah. She has a set of triplets, two sets of twins, and four singletons. Out of the 11, 6 are ladies, and 5 are men. And they are all married.
That gives her back 11 sons and daughters-in-laws. Now tell me why she would ever have to hire a caterer?” Alex said.