A drink, without a nosh?

Jackie always loved parties, but only if there was delicious food. So in addition to her mega-holiday dinners, she needed little excuse to throw one.

“I loved parties so much there was even a period when I was dead broke and wanted to throw a do. So I got my friends to all chip in for the food, I cooked and we had ourselves a do. I always threw parties that I wish I’d been invited to.”

Her biggest at-home bash ever was to celebrate the combination of Valentine’s Day, the presidents’ birthdays and Chinese New Year, of course.

“What else are you going to celebrate in February? I cooked and shopped for days, no holds barred. The rule was there were no rules, no limitations, no expense spared. Thoroughly self indulgent. I made foods from all over Asia - Japanese, Thai, Cantonese, Burmese, and Vietnamese. If I had one shrimp dish, I had five. If had one pork dish, I had five. I remember having two industrial - sized garbage bags filled with prawn crackers. Absolutely no restraint. I cooked everything I wanted.”

The quantity of food she wound up cooking was ludicrous in comparison to the number of people she’d invited.

I had an absolute ball, but I was totally out of my mind. I’d invited 70 people and cooked for 200. I had sooooo much food. I had to store it on the fire escape ‘cause it wouldn’t fit in the fridge. Then, I totally forgot to serve it. But no one even noticed. When I finally greeted my dumbfounded guests, I was delirious with fatigue. My mother looked at the food and looked at me and said, ‘What have you done?.’ I looked at the spread and I was speechless. My friends LOVED IT!!! We ate ourselves silly!!!”