Neighbours...everybody needs good neighbours

If I think back to the street I lived on whilst growing up, I wouldn't be able to tell you the names of the people who lived next door. There was always Mary and Morris, who lived a few doors down, famous because of their kind nature and backyard caravan frequented nightly by all the neighbourhood cats, but that's about it. What makes this equally strange is the fact that my mum and dad owned a bakery and shop, visited probably daily by most of those neighbours. Neil would always talk of how his mum and dad would chat to their neighbours on the street, something I always thought then was a bit soap opera-ish. How odd that I had to come and live in a city rather than a small town to now do the same.

Condo and town house living puts you closer to your neighbours than regular housing, all dwelling together under one roof so to speak, (unless your condo houses over 1000 people which some of them do). I now live in a townhouse complex, all our balconies and front doors facing into the courtyard garden and there are only 13 of us here, so we've all gotten pretty friendly. We held our first party in July, booze funded by the massive $250 bottle return fund we had amassed and food provided by each household. We were surprised to find that we are a complex of foodies with many gourmet treats brought forth.

We gathered in the courtyard from six onwards, all converging from our respective roof decks and balconies after barbecuing our wares. From then on it was perfect. Colourful little paper lanterns hung from the trees and a large table was erected in the centre. Coolers lay around full of all the alcohol and drinks we had requested and one neighbour, Jason, had a little sound system through which we played music. At ten o'clock everyone ran upstairs to Marilyn and Phaedra's roof deck to watch the first night of the firework show, (UK - James Bond theme) and then back down to continue chatting, boozing and eating until the early hours.

Surprise cake from Marilyn (above)

Our wonderful neighbours: clockwise from left: Kin, Christine, Denise, (with Lilac), Kip, Marilyn, Isabella, Michelle and myself. (There are more of us, including some men)

Corn on the cob

Roasted veg salad (recipe here)

Green salad with mango and Parmesan

Balinese pork (recipe here)

Halibut and shrimp tacos (similar recipe here) with mango salsa

Prunes wrapped in prosciutto

Beef and chicken sate kebabs with chipotle lime dip and creamy ranch

Amchar pickles for roast pork 

1/2 carrot, very thinly sliced length ways

2 shallots, very finely sliced

1/4 cucumber, very finely sliced length ways

handful of beansprouts

1 tbsp sugar

1 cup vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

Heat the vinegar and sugar together in a pan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Taste and adjust with more sugar or a drop more vinegar if necessary to achieve a well balanced sweet / tart taste. Add the salt and let cool. Place all the vegetables in a jar and pour over the sugar vinegar mixture. Let sit for about 1/2 hour and use immediately. Good with any richly flavoured meat dish.

We recently had a block party for several of the adjacent streets and although it was again a foodie affair, it was nowhere as near as wonderful as our own private little party. We plan on another in November, this time visiting each others houses for a wandering tasting and drinks.