Vietnamese pork

Make a marinade of vegetable oil, soy sauce, shallots, garlic, salt, pepper, turmeric and sugar. Add a little Chinese five spice powder too if you have it. Keep tasting until the marinade tastes good to you, then marinate the loin in it for a couple hours.

Roast until it's to the doneness you want, then rest and slice for the party.

Serve with rice and a salad of julienned carrot, jicama or daikon, minced red onion or shallots, chopped cilantro and crushed roasted peanuts with a sweet limey dressing. Big leaves of lettuce too if you want your guests to make their own salad rolls with the pork and sides.

Also don't forget the platter of fresh herbs (holy basil, sawtooth, cilantro, pandanus if you can find it), lime wedges and thin sliced green chilis.