International Club meeting highlights

The International Club enjoyed a dinner at the home of Diane and Fred van Naerssen.

Rupa Mathur

The Robson Ranch International Group had its get-together on March 12, 2015 at Diane and Fred van Naerssen’s home. Our newly elected president Fred and his wife Diane had prepared a sumptuous Indonesian meal for us called Indonesian Rijsttafel (rice table). The meal consisted of blanched vegetables with peanut sauce, Indonesian fried rice, bok choy in ginger sauce, beef in coconut sauce, pork in sweet soy sauce, fried coconut chicken, eggs in spicy relish, shrimp wafers, fried onions, cucumber salad, fried plantain and banana, chicken sate, green beans in spicy coconut sauce, with homemade chili relish. The members brought appetizers and desserts. No one went home hungry that night.

I have not seen such a variety of dishes at any gathering that I have been to. I am of Indian origin and in India hospitality is based on the principle Atithi Devo Bhava, meaning “the guest is God.” When we invite guests to dinner our menu consists of at least four assortments of main dishes, along with Indian bread, rice and at least two appetizers and dessert. However, Fred and Diane exceeded even the Indian hospitality.

We held a short business meeting to start with and then socialized and ate the superb meal that our hosts had prepared for us.

We hold our meetings generally on the third Thursday of the month, and on special occasions we change the day. Our next meeting will be held on April 19, 2015. A notice regarding the meetings is generally sent out by the president of the International Club. For more information regarding the club, you may contact president Fred van Naerssen at [email protected] or vice president Rupa Mathur at [email protected].