Euna's First Birthday

Setting up a lowkey first birthday for my daughter wasn't as easy as I expected. True, there were a lot of restaurants in the Parramatta area and we could have hosted her party in any of those but my biggest concern was the budget. For something "low key", I wasn't prepared to fork over AUD 30.00 per person. In my head, I kept comparing how far that amount will go in the Philippine setting and how limited that amount is in AU.

So we settled for Euna's birthday to be held at the apartment. I figured no service charge and Euna could play all she wants and we wouldn't have to worry since the place was carpeted. Just invite several people over and order food enough for 20 people. But finding a restaurant which was willing to do this and deliver proved to be a bit of a challenge in the Parramatta area. I went to a turkish and lebanese restaurant and I'd have to say that I found the customer service wanting. It could be because I wasn't really sure about what I wanted. But bottomline - and I must say I've seen this not just in the food industry - they couldn't be bothered (perhaps assuming I had a limited budget - and they were right!).


I even found these plastics expensive! You'll find these in the Picnic section at Woolwoorths. I had to bring these home with me because I couldn't bear to leave them behind!

Eliminating Italian, Lebanese, Turkish, and Australian restaurants from the list, we were left with one choice - go Asian. And with Asian, you can never go wrong with Chinese (Chinese food is comfort food!). Thankfully, Fine Food King, a no-frills chinese restaurant on Church Street, which was several blocks from the apartment, catered and delivered! We've had several takeaways from this restaurant before and have always been happy with their dishes. The owner/manager (forgot his name though) was very easy to deal with and as typical Chinese go, I was still able to negotiate the price of the dishes!


We ordered some crispy crablets, peking duck (outsourced but really tasty to the bones!), noodles with vegetables (which was unfortunately a miss), soup, and fried rice.


My aunt also brought with her puto, shrimp, steamed fish, and oriental noodle salad. My aunt can cook (Thanks Auntie Vicky)!

All in all, her birthday party was a success: the guests enjoyed the tasty albeit simple food and Euna was able to play with 2 other kids her age (thank you Nigo and Loleen!), at least one of her godparents (thanks Ninong Bert!) made it, and her grandparents specially flew to AU to be with her on her first birthday, which was all we could really hope for.



In the midst of the party, the phone rang. It was the owner/manager of Fine Food King asking about the party and how the food was. Despite the miss with the veg noodles, I really couldn't complain, and so I said the food was great and thanked him. That's customer service!

Oh, and the cake was a black forest cake from Seasweet.


Fine Food King
284 Church Street,
Parramatta, NSW
MOB:0412 783 268
Tel:9635 7766