Can’t believe that it’s new year already! My gooodness! I’ve barely made proper and enough preparation for this CNY. In fact I decorated the whole house on Saturday and went marketing for reunion dinner on Saturday night! What a last minute person I am! Haha!

Speaking about reunion dinner, this year I cooked lesser dishes due to the fact that we’ve booked a pot of poon choy from Dragon-i. It’s not like I’m lazy or what – I’ve actually googled all 8 dishes’ recipes and totally looking forward to cook them! But then we’ve bought the voucher and the voucher valid up to 22nd January, by 2pm! Oh well, will be saving those recipes for next year reunion dinner then!

Yesterday we went up to granny’s place to pay respect to our ancestors. Right after the prayer we had to rush to Queensbays to get the poon choy. By the time we reached home, it was already 3pm and immediately we started the last minute house cleaning. Hung all the last minute decos, bathed Miilo and blew dry him, and mopped the floor, then off to the kitchen to work on the prawns and cutting the vegetables.

Seriously can go mad! I went into the kitchen late, and all ingredients were needed to be washed, cleaned, deveined – therefore with only 1.5 hours to dinner, I felt the pressure in delivering our dinner on time! @_@ Luckily Satkuru came earlier and helped me with cutting, stirring, frying. Phew!

By 8pm, the poon choy was taken out of the fridge and heated. Because it was in frozen state, it took some time for the broth to melt. I took the opportunity to bath and wash my hair. For the past years, I’ve always showered after dinner because we will eat immediately after cooking. So glad that this year I can have dinner in clean and fresh state.

So these are our reunion dinner! All these accompanied by a bottle of raspberry flavoured Zinfandel, yums!

This pot feeds 10 pax, believe me! We couldn’t finish this and had to eat this the next day. Super lavish and satisfying!

Nestum prawn! Totally loveeee the smell coming out from the pan when I deep fried the prawns. So fragrant!

Abalone and sea cucumber with broccoli and mushroom. Everyone’s favourite dish. The secret lies in the sauce. Wahaha!

Happyyyyyy Chinese New Year! May the year of dragon brings lots of wealth, prosperity and great health to all!

Huaaaaaaaaaaaaaat ah!

… and I forgot my DSLR. Resorted to take photos using my iPhone only. -.-”

It was so crowded there especially at the entrance since there was only one way in and out. The other entrance was blocked by the temporary stage, hence the terrible human traffic. I felt so uncomfortable when someone’s sweaty, sticky skin rubbed against mine. Luckily the jam was temporary only.

On the stage, local singers entertained all with countless of Chinese New Year songs. I took a glance to see who was singing at that moment (but I don’t know him! ops..) and walked faster to catch up with my parents.

Around the temple were stalls which mostly showcased the Chinese art and culture or things that related to Chinese culture.

I personally like the block shop and wanted to do one for myself, but then there were people queuing around the stall and I didn’t feel like waiting, so I left.

At the side of the temple erected a temporary Chinese paper wall, where people wrote auspicious word on the wall using gold ink.

I wanted to write one, but coincidentally the guy who stationed there was preparing the right mixture of golden ink (as it was too watery) and it took him quite some time to get the right mixture. -.-”

So I left.

As we walked towards the back of the temple, the Chinese exhibition changed to the pasar malam alike.

I like the rabbit coinbox. So adorable! But then mum already bought the adorable tortoise coinbox from this stall last year, so she said cannot!

From the temple, we walked back to the empty space behind that was ‘turned’ into night market. I don’t know if the night market is there prior to Chinese New Year festival or it’s a weekly thing, but it was fun to walk around the night market. It was at the night market that I fell in love with this cute pair of toddler pants.

I didn’t get this of cz, there’s no point of me getting one. So I left! Haha!

The night market disappointed me, as it was rather small. We went back to the temple compound and walked to the other side of the temple where fluffy, cute bunnies greeted us.

The bunnies were paraded to all for sale, and the kids couldn’t stop patting the bunnies’ little heads and stroking their soft bodies.

A little further down, we stopped by a tea stall for a bowl of pu’er tea.

Few walks to my left, I saw rows of handmade tanglung hung on this yellow steel frame. I think the tanglungs were being ‘contested’ as I could see number stuck on there.

I turned right and realised there were a lot of people in the pavilion. Wondering what’s there, I walked in… just to find that there were these paperfold art that I used to do when I was in lower secondary form!

Boy were I joyful upon seeing these, and I took quite a number of photos there. Haha!

We thought that we could exit the temple after walking straight down, but we were so wrong. The other entrance was blocked to give way for the temporary stage, so we had to embrace the human traffic again to get out of the temple. T_T

I wish there were more ‘Chinese’ heritage/art/element/culture paraded at the celebration. The celebration was alright, but there’s certainly room for improvement.

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2011/03/pre-cny-celebration/feed/ 0 http://phingelicious.com/2011/02/reunion-dinner-2011/ http://phingelicious.com/2011/02/reunion-dinner-2011/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:58:14 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=3085 The yearly tradition started as early at 9 in the morning this year!

Purposely cut all the needed ingredients so that I wouldn’t have to start cooking that early. Little did I know when I took nap at 2.30pm due to terrible headache, mum woke up me an hour later asking me to start cooking!

Of course, I snoozed the ‘alarm’ until 4pm, lol!

I thought I would have enough time to kaotim everything myself, but I’m so wrong again. Again, help was needed in the kitchen. Mum, sis and even dad crowded the kitchen, helped stirring, frying and washing the plates.

By 7.30pm, dinner was served.

Baked scallop and bacon with honey mustard sauce; Garlic beer prawn; Thai style steamed fish.

Omelette wrapped minced meat; Stir fry lotus root, peas and assorted mushrooms; Almond Chicken Strips.

Braised Abalone With Mushrooms and Garden Greens; Watermelon cube soya jelly.

Ahh~ I was so full after dinner… but now, don’t know why I’m hungry d. T_____T

Happy Lunar New Year!

Want a bowl?

We decided to have a walk at the SHOP IN d’PARK after the super full buffet dinner. When we reached there, we saw few cute looking tanglung with a long white paper hanging below it. A closer look revealed few Chinese words on that paper.

Apparently there was competition going on. The participants were to look for these tanglung and answered the questions on the paper. It seemed like the questions are those literature related and difficult since my mum, bro and sis didn’t know the answers. Lol!

So, we feasted out eyes on the goods instead. Many nice dresses, bags and accessories attracted my eyes but I was very tight on budget this month, therefore didn’t dare to go near them. LOL.

My sister had gotten herself a dress by the way. Damn cheap. Under RM30! XD

As we walked towards the end of the lane, I heard a lady singing mandarin song but didn’t pay much interest to her voice. Only when we reached the end, we realised there was a singing competition going on as a lady in fancy dress stood on the big stage, serenading to the audience below.

There was also tanglung (lantern) competition going on. This competition which emphasized on using recyclable items as the lantern’s material, showcased creativity, artistic and skills as some lantern blew us away!

Since I brought my DSLR along, I asked my bro to snap all the tanglung exhibited there. Bro was initially reluctant, but eventually enjoyed taking them since he felt, you know “cool”. Lol!

While my bro capturing around, my sis and I went about admiring the lanterns.

Like this owl tanglung below – I can’t imagine how they did the owl – totally screams Harry Potter!!! (I mean Harry’s owl, lol!)

Mum and dad were fascinated by the skill of this tanglung maker. He/she managed to curve and mould 100+ aluminum can to a trishaw model. What an intriguing work!

Sis and I on the other hand were screaming with joy when we saw these cute piglets tanglung! Made out of oil plastic cans, the piglets’ couple is so adorable and the most photographed with.

At the corner of the tent, there’s a tanglung of traditional Chinese basket bearing mooncakes replica. Totally love the flower ribbon tied above; very detailed weaves on the basket; the overgrown flowers on top – all are in-line with the Mid-autumn theme. However, it made me think what materials did the maker used for this? Plastic drink straws? Plastic bags? Plastic wares?

There is a 1Malaysia tanglung where 3 main races in Malaysia stood side by side in hands in the middle, making a continuously turn. Love them, the statues.

This swan tanglung caught my eye. The beautifully made swan which stood in the square gazebo would turn 360 degrees in not too fast speed. One thing I don’t like about that tanglung is the amount of grass weed placed around the gazebo, making it hard to see the face of the swan. Probably the maker tried to make the swan mysterious. Lol!

They even made a wau themed tanglung!

Other than that, there are the usual dragons adorning tanglungs.

The mother of all tanglung exhibited would be this tanglung.

I don’t know why they made this so big. How la to walk with this type of tanglung? I don’t really remember much about the detail of this big tanglung.

Once we finished checking out the tanglung, we walked out and stood right in front of the table just outside the tent. We were talking and admiring the tanglung from afar and discussing which tanglung is the best and worth winning when my eyes suddenly spotted this!

I nudged my sis and asked her to look at where I was looking at. Both of us squinted our eyes and moved towards the table. Then we laughed.

Mum was wondering what were we laughing about and asked me what the matter was. We pointed to the statues on the table. She looked and laughed too.

I don’t understand why they displaced these there. It doesn’t look like a tanglung to me, and I don’t know what purposes it served to be there. Maybe it’s there to make people happy when they look at it. Don’t you agree?

It was very lively at Autocity, lots people thronged the area even though it was Sunday! Then only I realised that everyone was off on Monday due to the Raya replacement and the kids were still on holiday.

That was 2 weeks ago. Today is the fifteenth day of the eighth moon where we celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival by eating mooncakes, drinking tea and enjoying the bright moonlight. Gonna slowly savour those moon cakes and sip hot tea that’s good for soul. Nomnomnom.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Maaf zahir & batin.

At about 11pm, we descended from Kek Lok Si and made our way to Chew Jetty. We passed by the Komtar Walk.

By the time we reached Chew Jetty, that place was already crowded and we couldn’t find proper place to park our car! Since everyone did illegal parking and the polizisten were nowhere to be seen, so yeah. Hehe.

We then walked to the main area since we parked quite far away and along the way we could hear firecrackers loudly and big thick smokes came over to blanket us.

We stopped for a while to let the firecracker explode and when it stopped, we scurried over to the other side after realising that the firecracker didn’t finish exploding yet! It was super duper long!

Finally we reached the main area. It was super duper packed with human beings! I didn’t know that Penang could host that much of people! Haha.

We tried squeezing our way to the temple in Chew Jetty; but halfway walking, we were asked to stop moving to give way to the lion dancers who were coming out from the temple.

Slowly we made our way in and we reached the main temple. Initially we wanted to pray, but seeing the amount of people standing there made us walked straight to the Chew Jetty.

It was so packed that one could easily feel the body heat and the sweaty skin of the strangers around you. But once got into the Chew Jetty, we no longer have to brush shoulder with strangers. It was a breezy walk then.

Along the way, I spotted a very cute looking doggy – who barked at strangers but stop when I was snapping its photo.

There’s another temple at the end of Chew Jetty – but this temple wasn’t that crowded. Didn’t know why. Hmm.

We then walked into this homestay kampung unit; and the place looks nice and comfy. I myself felt like sleeping in one of the rooms there.

Then we walked out of the Chew Jetty to see the Ti Kong Seh celebration. While walking out, we noticed this very very long firecrackers going around and coming out of the temple at the entrance of Chew Jetty. Very the ganas.

Worried that they might ignite the firecracker anytime soon, we quickly walk to considerably safe place.

I was absolutely shocked to see the amount of offerings on the very the long table at the back of the alters. The amount of lotus candles, fruits, kuihs, cakes, liquors, offerings papers, flowers, and many more!

Even though the economy was just about to start recovering from bad crisis, but the Penangites are very generous in offerings to please the Jade Emperor. Probably by doing so, the Jade Emperor would be happy and grant tonnes of wealth to the devotees. Money not enough mah. Haha.

My tummy began to feel hungry after looking at all those delicious offerings. But they were still praying at that time and didn’t even start burning the papers yet. Huuhuu.

At the end of the table was where the devotees kneed and prayed. I guess most of the brought their own joss sticks to pray – instead of buying from a booth as I didn’t see any booth selling joss sticks there.

I spotted lots DSLR users lo. All took opportunities to snap great pics there. Me on the other hand, keen to process the picture into the ‘stylo mylo’ picture. Lol.

The very very long firecracker finally exploded and the place looked hazy because of that.

Feeling tired and with nothing else to see there, we started walking back to our car. I walked past the alter and found 3 big bottles of Chivas among the many offerings on the table.

We left for home at about 1 something in the morning. The entire island was super hazy because of the fireworks and firecrackers from various part of the island. Ti Kong Seh (Jade Emperor’s Birthday) is the highly celebrated festival in Penang. Even more grander than the Chinese New Year itself.

DO you manage to fool anyone or gotten fooled by someone else?

Well, I got mine when I was listening to Fly.Fm Rush Hour yesterday afternoon – I think that was the biggest prank ever pulled as Jules suddenly announced out that she’s leaving the radio for good! Even tho I don’t know her personally nor what, I was super duper down and was THIS ( less than an inch) close to tears knowing that I couldn’t get to listen to my favourite duo on the way back from office starting from tomorrow.

I told Sat on how sad I was, and even tweeted on how sad I was on hearing this news. I know this sounds stupid but it was a  fact that I was sad okay!

The next thing I know is a tweet from FlyFm95.8 saying that it’s just a prank!

Oh well, at least it was a happy prank. Lol.

Earlier today, I got tricked into believing Song got a job at my company. But just when I replied, “eh?” and about to ask if he’s joking, he already replied “April Fool!”. Now I’m unsure I got fooled or not. Haha.

But I got my revenge back. Muahaha!

Before I continued with my story, I want to share a happy news : I already claimed my iPhone from the Digi centre. Paid RM2,144 for the phone with 6 months deal. Digi gave lots freebies – screen protector, yellow casing, CDs etc. Woohoo!

Last Friday, Yin, Choo, Qi, Sheng, Angelong and I surprised our beloved HR at her house. This plan was masterminded by Angelong; where the plan was to crash her house with food and cake and balloons at 7 pm.

However, because I took the wrong turning and ended at God-knows-where-am-I, I reached at 7.10 pm with unblown balloons where the rest already went up and started singing Birthday song to her as she was starting to wake up from her late evening nap.

Luckily I reached in time to sing the last part of the Birthday song and witnessed her very-beautiful-moment.

Then she went to freshen up while we prepared the food and blew balloons.

Little did I know the balloons was actually a bad idea as the whole family is afraid that the balloons would burst!

So, we just blew 6 balloons I think and put them all in her room! Haha!

Qi showed me something devilish that I couldn’t stop laughing upon seeing it. I’m not going to show it here though I did take a picture of it BUT you can easily spot it in the pictures below. Keke.

Yin, Choo and Angelong bought yummylicious Ayamas chickens and 2 set of Dominos pizza for the party. We placed them all on a very cute table.

Ailing then came out, took her throne seat and pose for the camera! With the balloons behind her of couse! Wouldn’t waste our efforts in blowing those balloons mah. Haha.

Then it was time for her to cut the cake. Her parents then went out paktoring, leaving the whole house to us. And since no authorities at home, we forced her to do something which she sportingly, gladly entertained us with that. Haha.

After eating, Angelong took out her Monopoly Deal cards which got us totally hooked on it! Haha. Played few rounds until it was time to go home.

We had endless laughters, screams, curses, food, cake, balloons, and Monopoly Deals that night. I think all of us should do this often – not birthday part, but the get togethert!

Btw, I didn’t get the iPhone deal… Waiting for the rumoured iPhoneHD this summer.April Fool to those who believed that earlier! Bleks.

So all of us were summoned to granny’s on 8th day of CNY.

That day was the eve of Hokkien New Year (Thni Kong Seh) celebration. Due to maternal granny’s first year of passing, we didn’t give prayer and offerings at home.

When we reached, we realised that my aunts were busy making ang ku kueh. I never seen the process before, quickly took out my camera and shoot! Keke.

I can’t recall what flour they used, probably some glutinous rice floor (I maybe wrong, never bother to check about it.. LOL), add red colouring, and water, little bit of oil, mixed them together. As for the filling, aunt used sweet potatoes; boiled, peeled and smashed. The skin (red dough) is flattened first, before wrapping the filling. Then it is placed into the wooden mould like the picture above.

Give it a little knock to get the shaped dough out and the end result would look like this.

My aunts made the process looked so easy; which I can’t say if it is as I didn’t participate. Would love to get my hand dirty on doing this, but I think I rather stand aside and watch – avoid screwing things up. Haha.

Next, the shaped dough is steamed for about 10 minutes? You see, when I didn’t involve in making the kueh, I don’t know the exact detail. Haha!

Yet somehow the shape looks not so attractive to me after being steamed. They look so puffed up, and the shape isn’t distinctive anymore. I prefer the uncooked kueh. Haha!

After the angkukueh were all steamed, it was time for lousang.

There is nothing much to shout about the yeesang. Typical method of lousang-ing, lou it as high as possible until it was all over the table. Haha.

This year I was abit late in listing down the recipes and going around looking for the ingredients. Didn’t know what stuff I got so busy with until almost neglected the most important Chinese culture. Lol.

I almost told my mum to just buy the ingredients for steamboat because I got ‘lazy’ just by thinking bout it! The agony of coming out with 8 entrée!

But then the tradition must go one – since it started by me. *sendiri cari pasal la* So, when the day came, I started chopping up the ingredients at 3.30pm as mum requested to eat earlier at 7pm.

Mum would drop by the kitchen, asking if I need her help. But thinking that I have plenty of time left, I told her that I’ll be fine on my own.

Little did I know, time really FLEW!

By 5.30pm, only 2 courses were done and I had to yell for my sister to help me in frying few things as I was busy preparing for the major dishes!

Bacon wrapped scallop

Sat came at 6pm – cause I told him too. And I thought of asking him to help up. But he dressed up so nicely and calling him to the dirty kitchen would mess him up.

So just me and my sister. She went on deep frying 2 dishes, and stir-fry the vege on my behalf while I frantically ran in and out the wet kitchen getting more and more ingredients, the correct plate; did wrapping, decorate dishes and food tasting.

Stir-fry mixed vege with love apple

Guinness stout spareribs

Firecracker prawn

By 7pm, the fish was put into wok for steaming and the plates were laid on the table, together with glass cups, chopsticks and spoons. Followed by the dishes soon after that.

Restaurant style steamed white pomfret

The dinner started half an hour later as I got carried away with the timing. However the highlight of the dinner was still in the oven by the time we started eating. LOL!

After 15 minutes into eating, I took out the chicken from the oven. This dish supposed to be double-steamed, but because mum gave away the steamer to her friends last time which I didn’t know about that (–”), we have to ‘bake’ the chicken.

Lotus wrapped 8 Treasure Baked Chicken

Thank god it turned out well despite the black burning of the lotus. *Phew

If you noticed there are only 6 photos available. That’s because I forgot to take picture of the dessert – which doesn’t really matter since it was half fail. Half fail because the tastewise was good, but lookwise it didn’t! Probably putting ice cream on top of the supposedly cake would make it nice! Haha!

As for another one, it supposed to be fruit salad – which I didn’t make because everyone couldn’t eat anymore at the end of the meal. We only took dessert 2 hours after dinner as we were too full!

Having been the ‘major chef’ on the CNY eve since 2006 continuously is seriously an honourific task. From choosing the right recipes (in order not to clash with superstition beliefs) to cooking the dish out and decorating them requires an enormous work and energy and time! But it’s all worthwhile. Afterall reunion dinner only occurs once a year, so no complains!

Maybe next year I should reduce to 5 entrée and 1 dessert. 6 (pronounced as lak in Hokkien) sounds like LUCK tho the Cantonese’s ‘fatt‘ (8) which means PROSPER! sounds even nicer! Haha

Well, we’ll see about that next year…