While in Singapore attending my cousin’s extravagant wedding I was facebooked by my friend Barbara Mill’s, wine expert & gorgeous gal to possibly host a Scotty Hard Suppers fundraiser night. Scott Harding a Vancouver-born, NY-based musician and sound engineer was paralyzed in a car accident. Friends, musicians, restaurants, chefs and diners have been uniting since to help Scotty out with his gargantuan US health care bill. This micro-philanthropy ball is still rolling. Check scottyhardtrust.org for past events.

Barb had heard that we, Margaret Gallagher of CBC Radio 2 and I, had in the past organised and cooked at a Southeast Asian foodie night we called Komodohouse (which was the name of our idealistic future restaurant). Hey we like a party and we love to cook! Summer backyard party it is!

So, we, along with Chris Mooney who heads scottyhardsuppers.com, discussed the details of how we would create an Southeast Asian food and jazz fundraiser and called on our pal Brooklyn based saxophonist / composer / arranger Michael Blake who is a long time  friend of Scott Harding to perform. You rock, I mean you’re awesome Michael!

Plans, volunteers and menu all in place everything was in order except the weather! Now all we had to do was scrunch our eyes and wish hard that the sunshine would stick but, no joy or luck, the rains were coming and they came hard.

Guest persevered and gathered under the donated tents (thanks to Cam Andrews & Dragon Boat folks). Cosy under shelter, wine in hand donated by Andrew Peller’s Bill Sanford and Barbara Mill’s of That’s Life Gourmet, all braved the typical(winter) Vancouver weather, met each other and chatted furiously. Actually the downpour added to the ambiance in a very Asian monsoon way and nobody complained. How could they at this fundraiser. With cheers all round, and thanks acknowledged by host Vancouver Courier’s “Man about Town” Fred Lee, everyone set into the food.

Margaret and I whipped up a menu of:
Appetizers: pork saté, grilled pineapple and prawns skewers. Mains: spicy beef rendang curry, gado gado – vegetable and tofu with spicy peanut sauce, otak-otak – fish mousse in banana-leaf and grilled, sautéed green beans and nasi kuning (yellow rice) with Southeast Asian salsas and condiments. Dessert: bitter chocolate ginger cake with ginger whipped cream (so delish!).

With dinner done guests eagerly filed into the living room ready to get warmed up with more wine, dessert and phenomenal live jazz. I loved ‘feeling’ the music. When you’re in close quarters with the instruments its a whole other experience. The night was a bit of a blur to me and ended with volunteers having a nightcap, winding down, chit-chatting and confabulating.

One day I will meet Scott Harding and clink a cheers to his determination and inspiration.