Madam Kwan's @ Mid Valley Megamall

Last weekend, after a failed trip to Kanna Curry House (it was closed for Thaipusam), we ended up at Madam Kwan's. It's been quite a while since I have eaten there and my first time at their Mid Valley Megamall outlet. Madam Kwan originally started out as Sakura Restaurant along Jalan Imbi which was famous for their Nasi Lemak and Curry or Assam Fish Head. I have fond memories of eating there for special family treats as I loved their nasi lemak.

A few years back, they rebranded and opened new outlets under the name of Madam Kwan's which offered old favourites from the Sakura menu plus new ones like the ever famous Nasi Bojari. What stood out with these restaurants were their interior designs as they were all done up in ultra modern contemporary and clean lines design. Suddenly, it was hip and happening again to eat Nasi Lemak. Their first outlet in Bangsar did roaring business among the expatriates and everyone hangs out there. What I love about all their outlets is their speedy gonzales service. Once you order, food is delivered to you pronto. Not only is their kitchen well run, the service within their restaurant is also fantastic as the waitress will be topping up your ice water all the time.

KS had his usual Char Kuay Teow(RM13.30++) which came so fast as it was the first dish to arrive. Didn't manage to ask him whether it was nice but he polished it quite quickly. I did manage to get the low down on the myth regarding BMWs which are reputed to "bring more women" to their drivers. Sadly, he busted the myth as he claims he has not managed to strike lucky with his latest acquisition.

G had the chicken and mushroom rice (RM13.90++) which looks great. He was on hand to deliver wedding invitations so we now have a road trip to savour Ipoh delights early March.

Splashie Boy had the chicken mushroom with noodles (RM12.60++) which he liked. Essentially the same as the rice, it comes with flaked chicken and chinese mushrooms.

I always have either Nasi Bojari or Nasi Lemak here. The Nasi Bojari(RM19++) is huge as it comes with a fried chicken maryland, assam prawns and in my case, curry chicken. Usually it comes with beef rendang but I prefer it with chicken curry which I always replace. I love their assam prawns as they're crunchy and full of flavours. The chicken is nicely fried and juicy while thei curry chicken is nice and creamy with the coconut milk.

Before you leave, don't forget to take their calling card which is in the shape of Madam Kwan's image holding her famous dish. To read more about Madam Kwan and to see her real image, click here for the Goodbites article.

Madam Kwan's Restaurant
F-052, First Floor
Mid Valley Megamall
Mid Valley City

Lingkaran Syed Putra

59200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 - 2297 2297

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Nasi Bojari

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) 36

Meow everyone,

Hope everything is A-ok with all of you. I thought this week I'll show you pictures of these two naughty kitties at the other house. One of the kittens came back to us as no one wanted the poor fella. He seems to be okay with it and has turned out to be a companion for the ginger kitten we call Gingy or G for short.



Their daily occupation is to chase each other round and round the garden a few times. Since the garden is pretty big, they can occupy the whole day doing just that.



After chasing each other, they'll definitely clash with each other and you'll see fur and paws flying around. The best part is despite all the play fighting, they do love each other as Mum has caught them cleaning each other's heads during quiet moments.



Oh, another thing I wish to gripe about - I am so annoyed with the people who live around me! They just disturbed my peaceful night with noisy, big banging fireworks that went on for a while which I totally don't appreciate. Ain't it bad enough I have to endure those noisy clang clang sound of the lion dances? I'm glad Chinese New Year will be over soon as I honestly hate these loud fireworks and lion dances.

Do check Auntie Clare at eat stuff this weekend. She has a special guest, Ruby who looks a bit like my mummy who has a neat trick with her paws. See you all next week.

Lotsa love, hugs and meow kisses

Boo the cat

Tagged with: WCB 36 + Weekend Cat Blogging

SHF # 16 - Recipe for Love

For this month's Sugar High Friday, Taste Everything Once challenged us to look for those tempting sweet morsels that will melt a man's heart in anticipation of Valentine's Day.

Aphrodisiacs always remind me of the scene from the movie which is based on the book, Like Water for Chocolate where the heroine makes the Quail with Rose Petals that invoked so many emotions after eating it that her sister runs naked into the arms of the bandit. I so wanted to re-create that dish but sadly it's more of a savoury dish rather than a sweet one. Eventually after toying with elaborate ideas involving rose petals, raspberries and etc, I settled for the old favourite, chocolate. I know, it's super boring but then my boyfriend is extremely conservative and unadventurous when it comes to food. Seriously, this is a guy who turns up his nose to foie gras which I wanted to get for a special dinner. He does love his chocolate hence it's an extremely safe bet to make him anything with it.

I decided to try out a new collection of recipes I have from Malaysia's restaurants that have been compiled in a guide called FMBK - From Malaysia's Best Kitchens. What attracted me to this recipe was the chocolate cake has no dry ingredients inside it except one teaspoon of caster sugar. Amazing and how I wish I saw it earlier for last month's Sugar High Friday which called for low sugar desserts.

The cake is basically a very rich torte that oozes chocolate in every bite you take. Simply divine especially with fantastic creamy ice cream that will tantalise your tastebuds and start the romance vibes tingling. I have cut my cake to tiny heart size portions which you can slowly pop into your loved one's mouth to savour with the cold ice cream. My original plan was to accompany it with heart shaped frozen ice cream but the weather is just too hot to take pictures of the ice cream as they kept melting right in front of me. Instead I have placed it on top of red hot saga seeds that look like tiny hearts. These seeds are collected from trees around town. They're extremely popular in Singapore as a symbol of love. Hope you enjoy it and I'll update you later if Splashie Boy fell in love with the cake just like I did. It's been a great effort resisting it before he tries it as it's so yummy.

Dark Bitter Chocolate Cake
(from Fisherman's Cove in Starhill Gallery)

120 grams best quality dark chocolate
60 grams softened butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon lightly whipped cream
1 teaspoon caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter an 18cm cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Using an electric beater, beat the whole eggs and sugar until pale and quadrupled in size. Fold in lightly whipped cream. Gently fold a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and then fold the egg mixture into the remaining chocolate until well combined. Pour into prepared cake tin and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until cake begins to shrink slightly from the sides of the tin. Allow to rest for 1-2 minutes before running a knife around the edge and turning on to the rack to cool.

Note: the cake rises and will sink back. If you use an 18cm cake tin, the cake will be about one inch thick only. Use a heart shape cutter to get the heart shaped chocolate cakes. To make frozen heart shaped ice cream, place them into heart shaped rubber trays from Ikea and freeze. Unmold and serve with your heart shaped chocolate cakes and savour them.

Updated: The round-up is on Taste Everything Once's blog - check those wonderful entries.

Tagged with: SHF # 16 + Chocolate

Tian Shan Restaurant @ Berjaya Times Square

Recently we ended up at Berjaya Times Square during the long holidays as I needed to spend my cash vouchers at Borders. Wandering around, we stumbled on this restaurant that serves Xinjiang cuisine from China that is on the same level of the cinema.

Based on a map they have at the restaurant, Xinjiang is on the Northwestern side of China and on the Silk Road trail. This place serves Chinese Muslim food and is halal but surprisingly, you only see Chinese patrons here. We did two trips to try out their food which reminds me of the same items that are served at Esquire Kitchen.

This place serves dumplings which we were eager to try out. Their xiao long baos are made from either chicken or beef meat. We liked their chicken xiao long baos which were nice and tender. They're tinier portions versus the ones they serve at Dragon-i and Crystal Jade and come in a single portion of ten pieces for RM1 each. Although they don't contain much soup in them, they were yummy and the dumpling skin was tender.

Tian Shun also serves dumplings: fried and boiled versions. The fried ones are known as potstickers or wor tie in Chinese. Similar to gyoza, these are fried in a pan until one side becomes brown and crisp. I liked these dumplings which were made from chicken meat and vegetables. Each portion comes with ten pieces for RM1 each and they are pretty big dumplings.

I was eager to try out their jiaozi, the boiled dumplings as they remind me of my relatives in Hong Kong. My uncle who migrated to China long ago married my auntie who was from Harbin in Northern China. She's an excellent jiaozi maker and whenever we visit them in Hong Kong which they stay now, she will make them specially for us. They're special treats which she only makes when special guests come or during Chinese New Year. Sadly the jiaozi in Tian Shan don't come close to her version probably because they're big and filled with too much chicken meat in them. I prefer the ones we had at Dong Bei instead. They're also RM10 for a plate of ten jiaozi.

We ordered noodles to accompany the dumplings, first we had the Zha Jiang Mian (RM9.90+)which is noodles topped with minced chicken, shredded cucumber and carrots that you toss together. Although it's a Northern China dish, most chinese restaurants serve this.

We also had the suey choy (a kind of preserved vegetable) and shredded chicken soup noodles (RM11.90+), another popular dish you can get at Chinese restaurants.



It is served with a fried chicken chop that was nice and crispy. The noodles seem to be extremely popular with the patrons of the restaurant as we saw a few tables having noodles during lunchtime.

In this region, lamb and beef dishes are extremely popular. We ordered their roast lamb chop which is a specialty of this restaurant (RM40+ - four pieces). Each one of us had a piece each and this was superb. The lamb meat was tender and crispy on the outside. Spices were sprinkled on top of it that looked like ground cumin, paprika and chilli powder. I read a review they had pasted on their restaurant that the lamb is steamed first to tenderise the meat and then fried to give it the crisp crunch.

We also had their Claypot Beef Flank (RM20+) which came bubbling hot. Excellent with rice, the beef flanks melt in your mouth.

Another dish that is extremely popular in Esquire Kitchen, the stir fried eggplant with chicken (RM15+). This was also very nicely fried as you don't taste the oil in the eggplant.



They also serve Xinjiang Rice(RM12+) which is a rice dish that has is cooked with either chicken or beef. It's topped with raisins and diced vegetables that remind me of the nasi briyani we get here. In Xinjiang, it is either known as pulao or polo rice that can be found at the roadside stalls and is eaten with your hands.

Do try this place the next time you shop or watch a movie at Berjaya Times Square as the food is pretty unusual. We plan to come back again to try out their other lamb dishes as we love their roasted lamb chops.

Tian Shan Restaurant
Lot 03-92, Third Floor
Berjaya Times Square
No.1, Jalan Imbi

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 - 2144 9829

(Same level as the Cinema, behind Nippon Tei Japanese restaurant. The restaurant is halal.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Xinjiang + Berjaya Times Square

Chinese New Year Goodies

Chinese New Year is not over yet hence I decided to feature the goodies we have at home for the festive season. We usually make small batches of cookies for our personal consumption i.e. pineapple balls and peanut cookies. Moreover tradition states that once you make Chinese New Year cookies each year, you must continue the tradition every year or else bad luck will befall on the family. The rest of the items were bought from the store or from other homemakers who sell them during Chinese New Year.

These beauties are whimsically known as love letters or in Malay, Kueh Kapit. A lot of work goes into making these as you need to slowly bake them over a charcoal fire in metal moulds. Once they are done, you need to remove them slowly from the moulds and fold them quickly before they harden. Che-Cheh made them this year so hop over there to see how they are made.

This year, we were lucky to get tins of Hornet's Nest and these ones are super nice. Light and crispy with just a tinge of honey sweetness. I can't stop eating these as they are super addictive. There are lots of different names for this crispy delight - Achi Muruku, Honeycomb Cookies and etc. which you can find everywhere. I never knew there were savoury ones which Foodcrazee featured how to make on his blog.

Another must have for Chinese New Year - kuih bangkits which is made from tapioca flour and coconut milk. They usually come in different shapes but I like the animal ones best. Little Corner of Mine has a step by step pictorial on how to make them at home.

Chinese New Year will not be the same with our Pineapple Balls. Simply yummy which you pop into the mouth for the melting goodness. They're essential for Chinese New Year as the pineapple means, "wong lai" i.e. success and prosperity.

I love these Almond Biscuits from Macau. Usually during Chinese New Year, there will be an influx of goodies brought in from Hong Kong and China, this one is a must have in my family. The biscuit is made from green pea powder and chopped almonds. I like this particular brand as they come in individual packets that make it easier to keep. Dimsum Dolly has pictures of them making the biscuits in Macau.

Something new this year, these walnuts that come in packets from China for only RM5. They are so yummy that one packet is never enough that even Splashie Boy got hooked on them. They are slightly cracked so it's easier to open them. We suspect, they have been dipped in salt water as they don't taste like the walnuts you buy which have been peeled already.

My aunt will always do the frying in the family and she will fry up batches of prawn crackers before she flies off to Melbourne for all of us.

This is another specialty of hers, arrowhead crisps. The arrowheads are sliced thinly and then deep fried in hot oil. Colours of Life has a detailed description on how to make them which look great.

Hope you enjoy the goodies run down and thanks so much to all the bloggers who have diligently taken pictures of the process of making them.

Tagged with: Chinese New Year

Santai Kitchen @ Tesco Mutiara Damansara

Recently Tesco Mutiara Damansara has gone to a facelift with new restaurants opening there such as King Pie (the South African franchise pie makers), Old Town Kopitiam and a bigger Santai Kitchen which originally started out as a stall within the food court. It's a branch of the Santai in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail which I had blogged about last year. The last time we ate at Santai, we ordered dishes but in this particular outlet, one dish meals are extremely popular as they're simple and fast.



So far, we have had two meals there as we usually grab a quick meal before we do our grocery shopping at Tescos. There are many varieties of fried rice here but I tried something I have not had before called Nasi Goreng Kerabu(RM5.00). This version is spicy with bean sprouts, chopped long beans, diced cucumber, chicken cubes and thai chilli sauce. Very nice fried rice and I enjoyed the spicy notes in it.

Splashie Boy had the Nasi Daging Masak Merah(RM6.00) which is just plain rice served with a fried beef dish in tomato sauce. It's one of his favourites as we ordered this before in the main Santai restaurant too as they do it really well here.

On our first visit there, I had Mee Bandung(RM5.00) which is yellow mee served in a spicy chilli prawn based soup. The soup is made from a chilli paste of grinded dried prawns, chillies, garlic and shallots. It's then fried in oil until it's fragrant then coconut milk is added into it. Then it's up to you what you wish to add into your Mee Bandung but usually it has a fried egg topping it with spinach in the soup.

Splashie Boy had the Cantonese Fried Kuay Teow(RM5.00) which is rice noodles fried that comes with a thickened stock base. It has pieces of chicken, kailan and an egg to thicken the soup base. Although it's a bit pale looking (the Chinese usually add soya sauce to the fried noodles to make it browner), it tasted great.

They also serve a pretty decent Ice Kacang(RM3.50) here with rose syrup and lots of ingredients like red bean paste, glass jelly cubes, cendol bits, palm seeds and peanuts. Sorry there's no picture of it as it came out a bit blurry. During peak times, this place is always packed with people but they serve the food really fast so you don't really need to wait too long. If you want the same dishes but a nicer environment, try their outlet in Taman Tun Dr Ismail. They also sell cakes like tiny cream puffs, chocolate cakes, brownies at the outlet which you can order.

Santai Kitchen
Lot 210, Ground Floor
Tesco Mutiara Damansara

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Mee Bandung

Lorong Seratus Tahun Curry Mee @ SS2, Petaling Jaya

I'm always on the look out for new food and a friend of mine recommended this place to me which she said was nice. It's a branch of the famous stall in Penang. Although it's been in SS2 for quite a while, I've not visited it before. Recently, it went through a mini facelift too and looks brighter and neater now.

Their curry mee (RM4.50) is done in a different style compared to the ones you usually get outside as the soup base is more watery. It's healthier as they use less coconut milk. Unlike the Ipoh styled curry mee/laksas, this variety has no chicken meat but they add tofu puffs and cuttlefish. You can add cockles and blood pudding cut up in cubes as additional items. Blood pudding is very much an acquired taste and you seem to get it only in Penang dishes like the curry mee and kuay teow th'ng.

On the recommendation of the lady who took my order, she asked me to try their otak-otak (RM3.00). Great choice as it was excellent stuff - softly steamed, with tiny prawns and fish plus the smell of herbs. Other side orders they have is their lor bak which I heard is pretty good too.

I also had this tong sui cum drink they had which was full of red dates, dried longan, papaya slices and white fungus (RM3.80). Very nice and refreshing.

I'll give this place another try as I heard my friend mention that they make their kuay teow th'ng (kuay teow soup) with duck meat just like in Penang. They also serve prawn mee, nasi lemak and assam laksa.

Lorong Seratus Tahun Curry Mee Restaurant

No. 56, Jalan SS2/66,

Petaling Jaya,

Selangor

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Curry Mee

Weekend Cat Blogging (WCB) 35

Meow to everyone,

Since I was so mean to my big sister, Ally Cat last week, I want to make amends. I got Mum to put up her picture this weekend. Ain't she a cutie? She's actually not my real sister as Mum found her abandoned in Petaling Jaya when she was a wee little kitten. Mum took her in and that was the start of a beautiful relationship. She used to stay with Grandpa and Grandma but then Mum brought her home as a companion for my big brother. Unfortunately they don't love each other as they chase each other around the house a lot. Even though I'm a meanie to her sometimes, she still loves me as she always licks my head when I sit near her.

Kiri is back at home and he is camwhoring with his turtleneck jumper on the sofa - he looks too sexy for words! Check him out plus my kitty friends at eat stuff.

Lotsa love, meow kisses and hugs

Boo the cat

Tagged with: Weekend Cat Blogging + WCB35

Tang House of Fishball @ Petaling Jaya

Almost everyday, on the way home, I will drive past Seapark. I spied this place from the traffic light which is near the famous Sunrise Duck rice as their side sign stood out among all the other older businesses along the same row of the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Curious about it, I decided to try it after checking out if others were eating at this place too. Everytime I drove past it, there was a pretty decent crowd eating in the restaurant hence I figured the food must have passed the Sea Park standard.



The place is super clean and full of marble tables and chairs. They serve all things to do with fish paste: fishballs, fishcake, fish noodles and yong tau foo stuffed with fish paste. There is a big sign proclaiming their freshness and their fish paste has no preservatives. It's great that they are doing this as more and more people are getting health conscious.

I ordered a standard order of kuay teow noodles (RM4.50) that came with fish paste and slices of fishcake. You can also order a variety of different mees: yellow mee, mee hoon, glass noodles. There is even noodles made from fish paste which is pretty rare in places going for RM5. I liked the kuay teow noodles as it was very smooth. The soup they served was also devoid of oil and tasted "ching" (Cantonese for clear and healthy).

You can select your order of yong tau foo from the counter and they have tau foo, bittergourd, lady fingers (okra), brinjal, chilli and etc which are priced at RM0.80 each. There is also the fried yong tau foo variety with fried wantan and bean curd. If you notice from my photo, they use a different variety of bittergourd which is not bright green like the usual ones you get from the market. This variety is less bitter.



I love fishcake (RM4.00) hence I ordered one and it was nice and springy. Tastes a bit like what my aunt makes for us to eat at home. Overall, I liked the food as it's very healthy tasting. However be warned, it may not be for you if you like oily food, lots of MSG and strong flavours as the food here is devoid of all that. This place also sells their fish paste products which you can take home to cook your meals with.

Tang House of Fishball
No. 12, Jalan 21/19
Sea Park
46300 Petaling Jaya

Tel No: 03 - 7876 5461

(Same row as the Kentucky Fried Chicken and opposite the old Ruby Cinema)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Fish ball

February Calendar

It's the month of lurve so get cracking on yummy food to tempt and indulge your sweetheart with.

• 10 February, 2006 (Friday)
  SHF # 16 - Recipe for Love
  Hosted by Taste Everything Once
  
  
• 14 February, 2006 (Tuesday)
  Valentine's Day
  
  
• 16 February, 2006 (Thursday)
  Blog Party # 7 - Red & Hot!
  Hosted by Dispensing Happiness
  
  
• 26 February, 2006 (Sunday)
  IMBB # 23 - Vive La France
  Hosted by Cucina Testa Rossa

Sarawak Laksa

I decided to experiment in the kitchen during the long festive holidays and came up with my own version of Sarawak Laksa that is based on a Flavours magazine recipe. It's pretty simple to make as long as you assemble your ingredients before you serve the laksa.

The paste was bought quite a while back when we visited Sarawak: Paradise in Borneo along Jalan Bukit Bintang. Somehow my laksa lacked the ooomph! compared to the ones we eat outside so I suspect it's the laksa paste I used. There are different manufacturers of the paste and I don't think this is one of the famous brands the Sarawakians use hence the taste is different from mine. Will definitely have to source the paste from somewhere else. The paste is said to be made from sambal belacan, tamarind, garlic and lemon grass. Any Sarawakians out there who can help me with a solution on why my laksa just doesn't taste the same? Would love to also hear from anyone too on where I can buy laksa paste in Kuala Lumpur.

Sarawak Laksa (5 servings from Flavours)

350 grams laksa paste
2 litres chicken stock
250 to 300 ml thick coconut milk

400 grams thick vermicelli noodles

Toppings

50 grams beansprouts, blanched
100 grams chicken breast fillet, cooked and shredded

5 large prawns, cooked and shelled

Garnish

2 eggs, made into omelette strips

2 stalks coriander, chopped (I used spring onions since I had no coriander)

3 calamansi limes, halved

For the gravy, boil the laksa paste in the chicken stock for 15 minutes. Strain into a pot. Add the coconut milk and stir until well mixed. Season to taste with salt and sugar. Soak the dried vermicelli to soften and blanch with hot water. Place noodles in a bowl and add the toppings in the order listed. Ladle hot laksa gravy over. Garnish withe the shredded omelette, coriander, lime halves and sambal (recipe below).

Sambal

30 grams garlic

50 grams shallots

100 grams onion

50 grams dried chillies, soaked in hot water
30 grams dried shrimps, soaked and drained
6-8 tablespoons oil
50 grams chilli paste such as chilli boh
30 grams/1 tablespoon tamarind paste mixed with 3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sugar to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt to taste

To prepare the sambal, place garlic, shallots, onions, dried chillies and dried shrimps in an electric blender and process to a fine paste. Heat the cooking oil and fry the blended ingredients until brown and aromatic. Add the chilli paste, tamarind juice and season to taste with sugar and salt. Cook for 25 minutes over a slow fire.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Sarawak Laksa

Chinese New Year Celebrations

I thought I'll share with all of you what we usually do for Chinese New Year. Nothing special as nowadays my family don't stay in town during the celebrations since everyone hightails to Singapore instead.



For as long as I remember, my mother will cook a Lor Hon Chai dish in the early morning which we will eat breakfast with rice. Sadly this tradition is now abandoned since she usually spends her New Year in Singapore but this year, I decided I will continue the tradition by cooking my own version. Similar to the one I made a few months back, this Lor Hon Chai has my favourite stuff inside it: dried lily bulbs, wood ear fungus, Chinese dried mushrooms, canned enokitake mushrooms, gingko nuts, red dates, glass noodles, fatt choy vegetables (also known as prosperity vegetables), tofu puffs, beancurd sheets, nam yee beancurd (preserved bean curd) and Chinese long cabbage. It wasn't as fantastic as my mother's but pretty good I thought.



Top Left: Hokkien Noodles, Top Right: Boxing Chicken
Bottom Left: Sweet and Sour Fish, Bottom Right: Mock Char Siew

The first day of Chinese New Year is always reserved for visiting family members. When I was a kid, I remember visiting all my aunties and uncles (there were a lot of them) as my father was one of the youngest. Nowadays, rather than driving around to each other's house, we usually gather at one relative's house to eat, drink and meet up. This year, my cousin was hosting at his house and we had lots to eat. Besides the selection above, there was chicken curry to be eaten with nasi impit (or compressed rice), fried mee hoon, achar and etc.

My cousin's wife made this really nice tong sui from red apples and winter melon. You can't really see it but it had a rose pink tinge to it from the red apples. Very nice and refreshing especially in the hot weather we always experience during Chinese New Year.



My auntie is the expert in making agar-agar - she makes them in different shapes plus colours. See how pretty the layers are in this coconut agar-agar.



To cool off during the hot day, how about a pint of beer on tap? Everyone was trying this out to see who could get the beer with the least foam on top.

So what do you do after all the feasting is done? Gambling with cards of course! During Chinese New Year everyone gambles, maybe because they believe they will be super lucky during this season. Some even claim if you deck yourself with red underwear, you will extremely prosperous. Besides card games, families also sit down to play mahjong.

Another Chinese New Year essential is the lion dance and you get visiting troupes that will visit your house or office to help you celebrate the New Year. The Chinese believe the lion will bring luck and ward off any evil. Usually the lion is accompanied by a comical monk who helps direct him to do his tasks especially when the lion is playful.

The lion will be accompanied by music from the gong, clanging cymbals and the Chinese drum known as Tagu. This troupe is full of youngsters including this little girl who is helping out with the music.

During the dance, the lion performs many tasks. If you lay our mandarin oranges and pomelos for him, he will help peel them for you which can be presented to you for good luck. The lion was slightly tipsy after it drank a can of beer so he was rolling around the floor.

What is important to the lion is this hanging lettuce with a big ang pow packet tied next to it which is known as Choy Cheng which means vegetable. The ang pow known as Lay See is always tied with the vegetable on a high pole. The lion dancers will pounce on the Choy Cheng to remove the angpow (bad luck to drop it) and then tear the lettuce to toss it all over the place as it symbolises prosperity being spread around. Once he is done, it's time for the lion to go home which he does with a happy dance since he has been paid. Different dance troupes have variations to their routines so do try and catch them during the fifteen days of the Chinese New Year.

Tagged with: Chinese New Year