Happy Belated CNY!

I just love Chewie in her new outfit which I brought back all the way from Guangzhou! If not for limited luggage space, I would've bought more stuff for her! But s'ok lah, I'm sure all she wants is to have me home. Don't you just love dogs, they demand so little and give us so much! <3

First day of CNY, Ruth's dog Tuesday also came to visit!!! The doggies get along so well..

Strange thing about Chinese New Year - the first and second days are always the hottest! ALL I can remember about visiting relatives is feeling icky and sweaty all day long and this year was no different!

Here's a rare family shot with BOTH doggies :)


On the 2nd day of CNY, I organised the almost-traditional choir gathering at my place with the usual suspects.

Before choir friends arrived, Mag took a quick picture of me and the pack of cards that we found while geocaching because the stripes on the cards matched with my dress almost perfectly!



I had almost a FULL HOUSE this year except for CK (*sob*). Can't really consider the children as kids anymore because they have all grown up and take up much more space! Believe it or not, Wei Jee (who made a rare appearance this year) is taller than most of us now!

Sorry CK, this is the only picture I can find of the pumpkin cake! By the way, most of these pictures were taken by Mag and Beng.


The ladies huddle up in preparation for the great Yu Sheng toss up!


Doesn't Andy's daughter remind you of BOO from Monsters Inc.???? She's sooo cute!


We had a special Guest of Honour this year - Nelson - whom we had not seen for probably 15+ years! He looks great but is still as cheeky as ever!





Thanks to Steph's insistence, we managed to squeeze everyone into my tiny living room for a group photo! Not a mean feat I might add!

Here's Mag standing on the chair for the shot!


You can see Mag's final product in her blog but here's a picture taken by Beng.


After dinner, some of us played Polish as usual! I think after the last few years' lessons, most of us were quite wary of 'polishing' when the pot grew and grew! You could almost hear the hearts pounding and the spouses yanking the reins from behind!

I have added some bubbles that will probably be quite funny to those who were playing! Congrats to the winners (Shin and the Shings I think! Should I change my name to something that begins with "shin"? ha..) and to the non-winners - I forgot to present Brian Wong's and Patricia Mok's autographed photos to the one who lost the most as a consolation prize! haha...


THIRD day of CNY, I decided to see what the fuss with Pen Cai was about and ordered a set from Man Fu Yuen restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel. The set costs about $238 and consists of the pot of expensive goodies, a plate of salmon yu sheng and glutinous rice.



Poster outside the restaurant advertising their "Treasures of the Sea Pot set".


Here's what the real thing looks like. There's a huge meaty pork trotter underneath, roast duck and stewed goose web on top of a layer of white radish and chinese cabbage.


I still don't get what the fuss is about! Ok.. there's all that good stuff inside but they all taste the same (same sauce). Where's the thrill? My family couldn't finish the pot and had it for lunch AND dinner the next day (tastes better actually)!

Need lots of punishment at the gym after all this feasting! Haha..

Little Chinatown

GONG XI FA CAI! Chinese New Year is around the corner again and everyone is busy shopping for CNY goodies and decoration for this important festival!

We took a little walk around the Bencoolen/Rochor/Bugis area known as "Si Bei Lor" or Forth Street. This place is always buzzing with activities during this period! There's an interesting mix of local and touristy fare. It's not as big as Chinatown but it's equally colourful.

and.. GREAT bargains to be had!!


Click photo to see what the arrow is pointing at :




It's auspicious to deck the house up in RED dingly danglies!!!




The coming year is the Year of the Rat and look at all the cute decorations!


Does Disney know about this??


WHOA!!! This us my kind of store!! You're never too big or too small!!


SMILE like a tourist, Mag!! :)


Rainbow connection - interesting alley somewhere at the back of Bugis..




Big buns everywhere!




Watch it now... You better enjoy with your eyes and not with your mouth!

Chinese New Year Buzz

Watch the hustle and bustle at Takashimaya!!!! Crowds of people shopping for Chinese New Year goodies... although I think the best bargains are to be found near Bugis! But shhh.... don't tell them :P

(this is an animated gif that may take a while to load...)

My dad's Pumpkin Kway recipe

This is one 'kway' (cake) that we must have every Chinese New Year. It goes so well with the sticky sweet kway that is also served during this important festive season for the Chinese. The texture of this kway is like yam cake but it is auspicious for Chinese New Year because pumpkin is orange and looks like gold. The Chinese name for pumpkin also has the word gold in it, even more auspicious.

Occasionally, Dina will make this delicious cake because we just love it so much! Last weekend, we gave some to Mag and her mom liked it so much she requested for the recipe! So here it is but here's a warning first - like most Chinese cooking, many things are agak-agak or estimated, so you must use your best judgement. The portions here will yield one big pumpkin cake and you will need a big round baking tin with rather high sides.

INGREDIENTS
1 nice and plump pumpkin (see photo for approximate size)
6 dried shitake mushrooms (soaked in cold water until soft and then sliced thinly)
sliced shallots


1 packet of ERAWAN BRAND Finest Rice Floor (600g)


Pork - sliced and seasoned with light soya sauce and pepper. DO NOT ADD THE CORN FLOUR until the very last minute, just before you fry the meat.

Dried prawns (hei-bee) - soaked in cold water

PREPARATION

1. Cut the pumpkin into palm size and carefully remove the seeds completely.


2. Holding it by the skin, shred the flesh of the pumpkin into a big bowl - careful not to cut your fingers.


Prepare the steamer at this time - fill up the steamer with water and bring it to boil.

3. PORK - Sprinkle a little corn flour into the sliced pork and mix. Heat a little oil and fry shallots until fragrant, and add meat, then add soaked hei-bee. When cooked, remove into bowl.


4. Mushrooms - Heat a little oil and fry shallots until fragrant. Add in mushroom and fry until cooked. Remove into bowl.

Each step is to fry and remove each ingredient separately. In the foreground, fried pork and hei-bee (dried prawns) and fried mushrooms.


5. Heat a little oil and fry shallots until fragrant. Add in the shredded pumpkin and keep turning until cooked. It will turn soft, mushy and creamy.

6. Pour the entire packet of flour into a big mixing bowl. Slowly fold in the soft and cooked pumpkin.


7. When it is evenly and completely mixed, add in the meat and mushrooms. Mix until everything is evenly mixed.


8. The final mixture is a light orange coloured concoction which you then pour carefully into the baking tin. Smoothen the top of the cake.


9. Place the cake in a steamer and steam for 1 hour and 20 mins. During this time, DO NOT OPEN the cover!


10. After steaming, remove and let it cool completely. This would take a while.

11. After it is completely cooled, insert a knife between the tin and cake to separate the sides of the cake from the baking tin. Holding the top of the cake with one palm, slowly tip it over, and tap to remove. Slice and store in air-tight containers. Keep refridgerated until served.

12. To serve, fry until crispy on the outside.

Enjoy!

心想事成！恭喜发财！

For our non-Chinese speaking friends, that means "Hope you receive whatever you wish for; Happiness and Prosperity!"

It is sort of an 'exsingers' tradition to gather during the Chinese New Year period. We must be getting lazy as we age because while we used to visit 4 to 5 households many years ago, it slowly became just the 1 house this year. And I'm glad it was mine! My dad loves to have people around and to have lots of noise and gaiety around the house during Chinese New Year! And at this time, friends from overseas are usually also around, so the gathering is really a reunion of sorts.

Here are some shots I took. Mag and Beng took more pictures - can't wait to see them! I think there are some incriminating shots of me in their cameras! Gasp!! Haha...





This year instead of serving different dishes, my dad's "brilliant" idea was to do a poh piah party instead. He said it's easier as it is just one dish. One dish! Easier!?! Ha!! Ha!!



I think we overdid it - there's a whole bucketful of cabbages left over!

What a great way to start off the Pig year!! LOL...
and see u'all next year!!!

:-)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is the FIRST DAY of Chinese New Year!!

Let me wish one and all a new year filled with abundance - of wealth, of health, of luck and of food!! It's the year of the Pig afterall!!! Oink oink!



Every year, I create a CNY greeting for all my friends by making Chewie pose for me. Well, for this year's creation - I made Chewie sit & "stay", surrounded by new year goodies. One of the boxes fell and gave her a shock of her life! And it was pretty hard to make her come back to her position again... Poor thing, I'm always forcing her to do stuff :P hee hee...

And CNY is also the time for pineapple tarts. I don't quite trust the ones on sale. Besides, the price is always quite exorbitant. So I always make my own...

This year, we had lots of preparation to do, so it's only one batch with 3 pineapples.

Here's the recipe in case anyone wants to try it.

Pastry Ingredients 1 cup plain floor 1 cup self raising floor 150g butter (SCS is best) 1 egg (beaten) 2 tbsp (or more) Cold water (must be COLD!!) a little salt

Pineapple Jam Ingredients 2 cups grated pineapple 1½ cups granulated sugar 4 cloves

Put the pineapple jam ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a slow fire. Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the jam is thick. (This is the most troublesome part as you need to keep stirring and stirring so that the pineapple does not stick to the saucepan.) Stop before it becomes too dark. Remove from heat and allow to cool. I usually allow it to cool overnight and refridgerate it.



The dough is best done in a cool room with cool fingers.

Sift the floor and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter lightly with fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre of the mixture. Pour in the beaten egg and cold water. Bind the ingredients together gently. Do not knead too much. Be sure to use fingertips.

Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry board and roll out the pastry thinly. Cut pastry with a pineapple cutter.



Place pineapple in the centre and decorate with leftover pastry. Brush the top of each tart with beaten egg.



Preheat the oven to 160°C and bake for about 20 mins. Cool on a wire rack and store in air-tight container.



Our messy table...



And you can see Chewie posing above with the final product!