On Mar 12, 8:49*am, Kris > wrote:
>....
> I want to host a couple of dinner parties in the near future, and am
> wondering about themes, or merely cuisine types to cook by (I like
> themes, I'm just geeky like that). *In the past I've done Bistro,
> Italian, Russian, Swedish and regular French. ....

I've done many more Chinese dinner parties than any other type or
theme. I like that so much can be prepared in advance or prepped
thoroughly so only moments are needed to finish a dish. So you can
serve cold appetizers, hot appetizers, soup, a braised dish or two, a
stir fry or two, and fruit or dessert and still not be too busy to
visit with your guests. The specific menu may be determined by the
favorites of the diners but I've also done a couple of 'themes.' One
was trying to recreate things we had on a trip to mainland China;
another was "rescuing the tradition," where we took popular
Americanized dishes and tried to make them more like an original
Chinese version would be. Just for fun, not that popularity in
America is a bad thing. -aem