Oxmas dinner this year was slightly controversial when the details were released – because of the increase in expected turnout, we broke from tradition by choosing to cater at an external venue instead of cooking. In retrospect it was a good call – Wig and Pen was packed to the brim and then some (there were more people than chairs) and the food turned out pretty good too!

For the uninitiated, Oxmas is Oxford's way of celebrating Christmas: because term ends for the Christmas season, Christmas is celebrated a month before the actual event – 25 November. Oxmas dinner was held in the same week along with many other college and society Oxmas events.

Food was served buffet-style and it was a spread – sandwiches, chicken, profiteroles...longs queues naturally formed and devoured the food in due course. Some even went for second and thirds! After getting their food people sat together in the long tables (a la college halls, haha) and caught up with each other.

The comm directed our energies for cooking up a storm into putting up a good programme for everyone instead. We decked out in Christmas dress, decorated the function room and set up a rockin' sound system for the performances. About halfway into the night Du Xuan and Elaine kickstarted the performances with beautiful renditions of “Baby, It's Cold Outside” and “Last Christmas”. It was followed by Theophi who regaled us with his own poetic compositions, one about Singapore and one about a certain girl with whom he spent a night cooking and chatting (hehe). Next was Linus with the unbelievable rope trick which may have inspired a few would-be magicians. Becks and Sarah followed with “The Only Exception”. Yifan embarrassed himself by belting out Eason Chan's 圣诞节 having just learnt it the night before. Torsten was the showstopper, both literally and figuratively – his was the final act and he sang wonderfully. There was loud applause all round for our brave performers!

Then it was time to unveil the secret santas! Liki and Eewei, dressed as Santa and Rudolph respectively, enlisted the help of their elves (i.e. the rest of the comm) to deliver the gifts to everyone, who were pleasantly surprised. Following that the comm came out for a final performance to cap off the night, dancing to a cute Christmas jingle. It was so well received that we did an encore! (or it was mostly a chance for people to laugh at the comm haha)

The night was still young and the bar was still open, so many stayed back after the performances and dinner for drinks, to chat, take pictures, and dance to the groovy club music that had been turned on.

On the whole it was a good night. A learning point was maybe to do away with tables and just have chairs instead to allow people to mingle more freely. No matter what, it seems like Oxmas dinners in the future will be equally well-attended (: Thanks guys!

p.s.: In the spirit of Oxmas, we'd like to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (: here's to a great 2014!

For this year's Asian Food Festival, the Committee decided to attempt one of the most iconic Singaporean dishes around - chicken rice! We had in our minds fragrant grains of Thaihommali rice and juicy and tender chicken, accompanied by a kickass chilli sauce, and set out to find the perfect recipe i.e. Googling 'chicken rice recipe' and clicking on the first link in the search results.

We lived and breathed chicken, and tasted so much chicken (and rice) we're basically not gonna crave it for a good few months. Major major thanks to Becky the kitchen goddess and to all her housemates for putting up with a house that essentially smelled like chicken broth for two nights. And for trying to finish the chicken from the less successful first and second tries of our recipe! 

And we finally moved it all to the Catholic Chaplaincy! We quickly formed into an assembly line of Singaporean efficiency - Liki scooping the rice, Du Xuan dishing out the chicken, Yu-Jia garnishing each plate with parsley, cucumber and spring onions, Eewei adding the chilli sauce, Nick collecting the money and Yifan and Becky promoting/serving plates of chicken. 

Altogether we sold more than two hundred plates, which were enjoyed by Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans alike. The dizzying delicious plates of chicken rice had people coming back for more. Hahaha or at least we hope so.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR COMING! For OUMSSA members who came down, we hope we brought you a taste of home, even though it wasn't really priced like it. It's funny how food is such a part of our identity. Whenever you want chicken rice again, you can just ask us.... for the recipe. Happy garlic and ginger mincing!

Photo credits to Sara Sim, Yifan Zhang, Gan Yu-Jia, Isaac Lee