It's already winter season in Q8 now and under normal circumstances, it's exactly around this time of year where everyone would start digging out their picnic's stuffs, tikar, pancing and tent, me included. So yeah we had a small 1st picnic session recently. My husband came home from work one morning and informed me that we're going for a picnic after Asar. Since my fridge was practically empty, we went to souq (market) first to get some stuff. My husband took charge of marinating the lamb and I handled the rest which is chicken and prawn.

We went straight to the beach after Asar. The weather was windy, sunny and chilly with sky ever so blue.

:: Dates tree for a change, instead of coconut tree. Although coconut tree is more significant with beach, this is better than nothing ::

Anyway, based on last last year experience, it is always better to make prior plans and agreement in terms of foods distribution, else there will be a lotsss of left over. So as agreed earlier, my family will took charge of "stuffs to grill" while Kak Za will bring something else and griller.

:: Marinated Lamb by Hubby. Recipe taken from Saveur magazine, June Edition, Ipad version ::

:: I decided to go for Ayam Percik this time instead of normal ayam bakar. I think I made quite a right and wise choice because it's turned out to be a hit that day :). Alhamdullilah ::

:: 4 containers ready to go. Now let's go picnic shall we? ::

:: We were there first and in between spreading out our picnic mat and unload our stuffs, we stumbled into Nana + Kamarul's family. Just so happened, they were taking their boys out to the beach too, so we asked them to join us. The more definitely the merrier ! We had more than enough food for us all. Heck we even have extras for bunch of persona non grata aka stray cats. Oh boy there are so many of "them", at some point, they outnumbered us ::

:: Appetizers : Super delicious mee goreng by Kak Za and water melon. People said , looks can be deceiving. Just by looking at the pale pink watermelon, one would think it won't taste good at first glimpse. Trust me , it's by far the sweetest, juiciest and crunchiest watermelon I've ever tasted. Yummeh ! ::

:: And the grilling begun ................ ::

:: Me & Nana. It's freaking cold that day, say about 13 degree C while we arrived and kept dropping upon dusk. I had t-shirt inside, a sweat shirt and a coat, with a sock on but still can't stop shaking. It will be such a hassle to wear a boot for a picnic like this since we'll be going on and off and about, but I kinda regretted it now ::

:: Master griller, Haji Pokcik Li enjoyed cuppa hot tea while grilling ::

:: Papa making sure Alis was well covered up. She wasn't well that day, results of 3 consecutive jabs the day before ::

:: Ayam bakar siapppp... Ohh the burnt part may looked un-appealing but it is indeed the best part of all ::

:: Yummmmmsss ::

:: My third helping. It is that yummy ! ::

:: When the temperature dropped, the kids were ushered to play inside tent and do they complaint? Nopeeeee.. They lovin' it ::

:: Owhh I forgot to mentioned that we also have Otromen that day to protect us from scary monster. Man I felt safe already. Presentinggggg, Otromen Ali from Mangaf :) ::

:: Final and definitely the yummiest batch. Why? Because the charcoal had turned into bara by this time so the meat was cooked nicely and evenly deep into it's bone, crispy on the outside yet juicy in the inside. And also, my ayam percik of this batch has been swimming in the gravy for more than 3-4 hours by now, given enough time for the meat to absorb all the gravy's sweetness. Save the best for last! It's pitch black out there and this is where iPhone torchlight came in handy :) ::

:: Me and Kak Za's photo to end the day ::