When it comes to house parties, you’ll find two camps—avid planners who’ll pull out all the stops for a lavish five-course meal complete with fancy glassware and the ones who’ll rather leave some (or all) of the trouble to the experts.
If you’re the latter, The Dandy Collection’s newly launched house party packages are a godsend. The hospitality group, which helms Middle Eastern venue Fat Prince, Mediterranean restaurant Summerlong, and now-defunct modern izakaya Neon Pigeon, now offers two home dining experiences priced at S$98 per guest for a minimum of five guests.
As passionate as I am about cooking, I loved the idea of having a house party delivered to me in a box—decor, food, and ambience. Our evening started in a modern yet cozy apartment at Hmlet Lumiere condominum, just minutes away from Singapore’s Tanjong Pagar MRT station. Three boxes filled with goodies were laid out before us, two with our dinner, and the other containing table decor.
Thankfully, there were a couple of instruction cards showing my guests and I how to assemble our house party. While someone fumbled with the bluetooth speaker to set the mood with Dandy’s well-curated playlist, two of us started setting up the table with frankincense oil burners, candelabrum decorations and plates. Meanwhile, the rest of the guests dived into the boxes of food and were thrilled to find a Middle Eastern feast from Fat Prince.
The mezzo and starters were easy enough to assemble, requiring simple plating and nothing more. Soon, conversations and negroni cocktails were flowing, while we snacked on cashew hummus, pita chips, and piquant shishito peppers. The Adana beef tartare, served with smoked house paste and chilli lavosh were a hot favourite, and paired nicely with the pita.
Requiring some elbow grease but still manageable for non-cooks, the mains and sides needed mininal prep work like mixing, heating and plating. After a couple of minutes in the oven, the seared asparagus and brussel sprouts fattoush were ready. The star of the night was the Ottoman pork with Turkish coffee, which stole the show with its fork-tender meat and rich flavours.
By the time dessert—a moreish chocolate cardamom cake—came around, we were satisfied, full, but ready for more drinks. Thankfully, there was no cleaning up left to do. All we had to do was leave the dirty dishes in the boxes provided as we continued our night of revelry.
More information here.
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