2011 Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner Menu

 This is Ong's family 2011 CNY low sung dishes at a glance.

Clockwise: Salmon Yee Sung, Red Chillies yong tau fu..red colour signifying a 'ong' new year. Steamed chicken and chillies prawn..all dishes have been sized down to fit in the table.

Clockwise: Fermented beancurd fried chicken which is the grandchildren's all-time-favaourite, mixed vegetable, "Hoi Sin pou" (Stewed seafood in a pot)- every year my mom in law has been complaining that we can't finish the soup. So this year she has added all the exotic seafood into this soup and needless to say it was finished till the last drop..in fact the base is the normal chicken soup of past years. So obviously it's the quality and not the quantity that counts! Another plate of green vege is never too much for CNY dinner since everything is meat, meat, and meat..

Clockwise: Ginger duck, Sea cumber with pork's trotter, a typical dish of the Hokkiens.  Hokkien noodle, special request from grandchildren as well. Fried yong taufu in beancurd skins.

Tossing the yee sung..very messy..but it's like a must-have for every chinese new year.

2010 Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner Menu

Every Chinese New Year her children seemed able to predict my mom in law's menu for the reunion dinner. Sorry to say that the predicament we had for CNY reunion dinner is always impressed on her to size-down the menu but she has never failed to understand this. We nobly reminded her of the world famine -save food, have just enough and no leftover (ahem!!)

Well...for this year and like many many past years, we told her not to cook so much and cut down the portion on main courses. Yet and again she never failed to fill-up the table.  "Must cook more for new year, it signifies abundance of food," she exclaimed. Interesting enough every CNY reunion, the dinner would not be complete without few of her signature dishes, the "what -she-claimed-must-have" for Hokkien people's new year. The favourite four are stewed pig's trotter with sea cucumber and fish maw, steamed fish and prawns and fried nam-yee chicken. Fish means abundance and prawns means laughter aplenty. Chicken means the grandchildren will have home-made KFC for reunion dinner and believe it or not that dish is the most sought after by the grandchildren. Besides, how can the reunion be more exciting without having the low sang..That really was one of my most favourite dish!

Preparing Lanterns Illuminating All-Night-Long

As with previous years, I always go back to my hometown to celebrate this Festival with my family. Lantern festival or popularly known as the mid-autumn/mooncake festival is one of the greatest celebration amongst the Chinese community in Malaysia. Don't ask me what's lantern got to do with this festival. As far as I can remember a Chinese friend of mine mentioned that the people in their country only "play" lantern during the 15th day of the first lunar month*Chap Goh Meh* and not during the mid autumn festival. Anyway, this is what make this multi-racial country unique as I saw some of our non-Chinese neighbourhood kids also joined the cheer by playing lanterns.
I reckon it is easier to instill a culture or tradition amongst the new aged generations by associating festivals with food or things that they like. Undoubtedly, this is one of my favourite festival..hehehe..just the thought of all my favourite mooncakes will make me drool!!

Since young, we enjoyed lighting up lanterns and hang them up on branches of the trees in our garden. Ever since Ikea came to operate their biz in Malaysia, we had this great tip which we would recommend for anyone who enjoy lighting up lanterns as much as we do. There was both joy and pain in the process of lighting the lantern up. While there are LED lanterns in the market today, we still prefer the small colourful paper lanterns with the warm candle light. Once upon a time we kids were very frustrated when our little paper lanterns got burnt or when the candle easily burned out. All night long we will be very busy watching the lights and to get the candle replaced when the light went off. This was really no fun. When we were not careful enough, the whole lantern get burned. Thank God.. this is no longer an issue now that we have discovered the cheap unscented aromatherapy candles from Ikea which are great replacement for the traditional candle sticks. Below is the tip of preparing a lantern which the light is long-lasting up to 6 hours:-

My cousin's homemade jelly mooncakes

Yam paste mooncake from Dim Sum shop at Nilai

Dates From Saudi

My hubby introduced us to these fresh dates when he worked in South Africa previously. According to him, in the Middle East and South African countries, dates are sold in different stages of ripeness. The unripe dates in the Arabic name is called "kimri". My hubby likes best the ripeness shown in the pictures below, it is known as "khalal", meaning crunchy. Khalal, the best one is cultivated in Saudi the unripe fruits do not give a bitter after taste. It is sweet and crunchy.

In a approximately a week, these dates will ripen to become "rutab", ie ripe and soft. You will notice at the top left corner of the pic, one of the dates has ripen to become"rutab", this ripeness is my favourite as it is neither too sweet or bitter. Most of the dates sold in supermarket and Ramadan market today are "tamar" which means ripe and dried. The flesh is very soft, sweet and sticky.

As with Chinese we have mandarin oranges as festive fruits, Muslims have he dates as their festive fruits. It is common practice for the Muslims to break the fast by consuming these fruits. The fruits are packed with good nutrients and fruits sugar therefore it is believed that it will replenish the lost energy when ones are fasting.

Chinese New Year Ten Courses Reunion Dinner Menu

Reunion dinner is the most important dinner for the Chinese during the CNY. Traditionally, this is held during the eve of CNY when all the members of the family get home together to have their dinner.

Some families prefer to dine out for this occassion but this is really not a good idea as you would be "slaughtered" with cut-throat prices, on top of a long waiting Q. We had a bad experience few years ago to have a reunion dinner at a popular Chinese restaurant and were made waited from 6.30 till 9pm for the first course to be served. It was almost 11pm when we finished our last course. The food was damn lousy obviously a result of preparation in a haste. Ever since then, my mom-in-law(mil) sworn to cook the reunion dinner herself at home for future new years. Excellent! Think about it, if she doesn't mind the effort, I'd rather pay her more angpow money than paying to the restaurant (hehehe..)

Every year, the history repeat itself. We children have to pursuade my mil not to cook too many dishes but each and every year she has never failed to ignore our advice. Ended up we have plenty of left-over food. But then the Chinese always believe it is okay to have leftovers than not as this symbolises abundance of food for the remaining year. Below are the 10 courses menu for our 2009 reunion dinner. It is not an extravagant banquet, no abalone or lobsters but I think it is considered a deluxe meal as compared to other unfortunate families. At least we still have a wholesome get-together by all our family members.

Yee Sang- a must-have 1st course in our reunion dinner menu as all of us love to "lou sang". This tradition is only pracitised in Malaysia. Yee Sang is an auspicious dish. We simply need to toss over the assorted salads in multi-colours and crispy crackers with toasted peanut, sesame and sweet-sour plum sauce dressing. It symbolises ushering in a year of good health, good luck wealth and longetivity. "Yee" means abundance and "Sang" means vitality.













The sashimi lovers has bought extra salmon slices and jelly fish to value add on the yee sang. For me, I prefer the vegetarian style.













Pork trotters with sea cucumber. This is a typical dish from the Hokkien clan. Another must-have in our family's CNY menu.













Fish symbolises abundance. It is also a dish not to be missed for every Chinese family.













Fish maw in sweet and sour pineapple sauce. My mil has experimented on us this new dish. The result is not very good as it gets rather watery. But the sweet and sour taste make it rather appetising. I like it though..













Stuffed shitake mushrooms with oyster and fish paste. This is also an auspicious CNY dish. Oyster sounds like "Good Market". All of us hope that the market will ever be bullish.













Fried prawn in batter. It is easier to serve prawns in this manner for kids although the adults prefers the chilly prawns more.













Lo Hon Cai - This is an all-vegetable dish. Assorted vegetables fried with home-made "meen kan" (glutten puff). Lotus roots is a must as it sounds like "the year is good"













Fried chicken wings marinated in "nam yee"(fermented beancurd paste)- a dish ordered by the grandchildrens.













"Wu-tow cow yoke" This is braised pork belly with yam. My mil's specialty. She has pre-cooked this dish a few weeks ago as it is a time consuming dish. But the taste enhances when it is kept frozen for slightly longer period in the fridge.













Bamboo shoots in roasted pork belly. My favourite dish. Normally we eat only the bamboo shoots as the roasted pork is only used to enhance the taste.













A showcase of our reunion dinner menu at 7.00pm (after lou-sang)













When everyone held back their chopsticks at 8.30pm to toast for the moo-moo year, we still have 2/3 leftover. Moo-uuah!

In The Mood For Chinese New Year

Although I am a semi-senior adult now, I am still looking forward to Chinese New Year. I dunno why. Perhaps the whole meaning of Chinese New Year is the 'thrill of waiting". This festival seems to be the most joyful holidays kids wait for it whole year long. New year signifies a brand new beginning. During my childhood days, I have to wait till Chinese New Year to put on new clothes. And that was also the only time I got to see my late grand-uncle who came back to stay with us for few weeks once in a year. I love this grand uncle very much as he has never failed to bring back lots of goodies for us each time he came home. I especially missed our daily trips to coffee shops having dim sum and tea for breakfast every morning. Perhaps all children of our days have very simple mindset. We love new years simply because during this time of the year, we get to reunion with people we love, we get to indulge in those "forbidden things on normal days" such as icy drinks, cookies and candies. We get to play cards with small bets-"the forbidden game on normal days". We get to eat, sleep and be jollied. I really cherish all the fond memories of childhood new year. Though things are not the same anymore as I am an adult now, I am always making an effort to preserve that sort of child-like new year mood. Year by year, I am still in search for the mood for Chinese New Year, like a child did.
Due to the economic slump, the festive feel was a little sombre this year. Anyway, I have endeavoured to get into the warm mood for new year by getting all sorts CNY-related items to usher in the New Year.
A day before eve of CNY, I took a trip down to Petaling Street's flower market. It has been customary for us to get some fresh flowers to decorate the house. During my childhood days, my mom usually bought assorted species of chrysanthemums and I will put these flowers into a vase and placed it on the dining table. After grown up only I realised chrysanthemums are actually meant solely for mourning and prayers. No wonder you don't see lovers giving chrysanthemums to their valentines. I wonder why my mom never have "pantang" on all these taboo. Perhaps that was the cheapest and most lasting flowers which our family could afford. Anyway, my mom's easy-going personality makes her more adorable in the eyes of her daughter.
I have gotten some "Pussy willow" which is a typical Chinese New Year plant. As we must have the auspicious red colour to usher in the New Year, I bought another stalk of this "annonymous" plant with red seeds which cost RM28 per stalk. As I like it simple, so I decided not to hang the plants with any dangling ornaments, I don't want to make it look like a Christmas Tree. The multi-colour pussy willow and red seed plant made a very nice combination.
It wasn't new year without candies, lo kam (mandarin oranges) and ba-kua(dried meat/dragon meat). I filled up the big candy bowls with lots of sweets. Obviously Elgin and my nephews were extremely happy since they would be the benefactors. Better than Christmas it seemed.

I prefer the mini sized tangerines to the mandarin oranges. They are sweet-soury juicy and seedless. But I daren't eat a lot as it is very "damped" causing lots of wind in stomach and bad for one with gastric problems. Anyway, I have kept lots of skin for my friend to make garbage enzyme.
This is my favourite brand for BBQ dried meat. The logo is an aeroplane. The founder is from Singapore. The shop is located at Petaling Street. It has the right chewiness, sweetness minus the oily smell. I prefer the meat in slices than the minced type. I found this shop more hygenic as compared to other "chap-pa-lang" brands which the BBQ was done at the open air of a polluted city. I saw a long Q under hot sun outside Kiew Brothers. I always think that one who is a real ba-kua connoisseer will not go for Kiew Brothers as the meat is so very sweet and oily. The oil smell in particularly pissed me off. When I was young, we only get to eat ba-kua once in a year during CNY only. My parents will hide them on the top-shelf and open it during CNY or else they would be finished by us three little vultures. Unlike those days, this item is now available throughout the year and we always have several packets as gifts from friends and relatives. But the eagerness to savour this BBQ meat is no longer present due to the abundance-ness. Sigh...

It would not be called CNY without cookies and candies. Hampers and gifts are also common. I always think that this is a clear indicator of the economic condition. When times are good, hampers are aplenty. When the times are bad, hamper sizes shrunk and the liquor on the top will normally be substituted with Ribena or Sparkling Juice. Consider yourself lucky if you still received hampers in this doom & glooms period.