The party was hosted by Yasemin and Dustin. We knew Yasemin through Fabien. Yasemin used to live in Los Altos. Her previous house mates were quite fun. The crazy kind fun. Her house was a party generator. We have been there some times.
This summer, Yasemin told us she might go to Los Angeles for education. Both Yasemin and Dustin were students in Foothill college. They were trying to apply USC and UCSC. They got the admissions from UCSC at that time. But the USC decision was pending. We did not know if they would move to Los Angeles. No one knew.
Then, around a month, we got the news that they decided to enroll UCSC. After a month, we got an invitation from Yasemin. A house warming party. Why not? As mentioned in the lost key post, the day was quite eventful. After this tiring and worrisome event, we were happy to relax ourselves. We four people went to Yasemin and Dustin's house: Herve, Fabien, and us.
The house is cute. It has its own yard. With Santa Cruz air, the house looks laid-back. We started to entertain ourselves by Chess. It was an accidental decision. It was a team vs. an individual game. The team was led by me. My team had Fabien, Dustin, and Totof. The individual was Herve.
Herve was quite experienced. At the second move, he almost checkmated me. The beauty of our team was that each individual contributed but not contradicted. Each individual in my team would not have a chance to win Herve. But, as a team, we were strong and smart. We reacted fast and defended tactically. We converted the attack-defense situation. We survived from some severe Herve attacks. We wonderfully positioned chess and got some fantastic moves. As a team, we won.
After the chess, other guests arrived. We had 8 people. The first course was a Turkish appetizer with some cheese. Wonderful. We chatted and knew the other two guests were exchange students. One from Spain and the other from France. Of course, French would not miss this wonderful chance to speak French. So, French conversations were here and there. The Spanish guest was on my side. We protested. So, the conversation went back to the English mode.
The main dish was a Turkish dish. Apparently Dustin had Yasemin's mom's cooking. So he knew the original version. Personally, I liked the dish. Quite tasty. Yasemin complained that the meat was too dry (she convinced us the meat was supposed to be very dry. wink, wink) The meat was on top of arrays of tomatoes and potatoes. The juice was great.
The main dish was followed by Dustin's mom's Brown Belly. Brown Belly is a kind of Apple pie. Dustin's family live in Fremont hill. The family has many apple trees. So, when the season is right, the house will be stocked with piles of apples. Fabien and Totof had a Brown Belly before and they praised it a lot. I was curious about it. The pie turned out good.
After the dessert, Dustin showed his skills of making fire and S'mores. S'more is an American thing especially for camping. S'more is the abbreviation of some more according to Dustin. S'mores start from mash mellow. You grill mash mellow. The mash mellow then becomes brown outside and melted inside. You take two graham cookies and put the grilled mash mellow inside. Under the mash mellow or above, you put a slice of chocolate. Then, you have S'mores. Interesting.
The entire party was always with cocktail or wine. I did not try any so I could not comment any. But, the rest was very fun.
