CNY Feast

Gong Xi Fa Cai. We welcomed the Horse with a lavish reunion dinner.

SP the chief chef spent the whole day preparing the various dishes.

It was a sumptuous meal for 7 people.

 

This was the 八寶雞 (Eight Treasure Chicken). It was a kampong chicken (菜園雞) stuffed with various ingredients. Normally this chicken dish would have eight ingredients in the stuffing. SP said he used ten. The ingredients (from memory) included chestnut (栗子), lotus seed (蓮子), diced mushroom, diced carrot, yuk chuk (玉竹- a Chinese herb), diced siew yuk (燒肉 - roast pork), wolf berries (枸杞) , red dates (紅棗) and two more (I forgot).

These large prawns were from Kuala Selangor. Super fresh. It was pan fried with garlic.

The yearly crab rolls.

This seafood dish comprised abalone, sea cucumber (海参), fresh scallops, mushroom and broccoli.

The green was chou sum (菜心).

This was a large plate of (桂花蛋). It was scrambled eggs Chinese style with conpoy, carrot, bean sprouts and spring onion. It was eaten wrapped in fresh salad.

The obligatory siew yuk (燒肉).

The traditional vegetarian dish.

Lam yee (南乳 - fermented red beans) spare pork ribs.

Yam seng was with champagne and plenty of red wine.

With his dishes well appreciated and his two sons back from Australia, I guess he was a very happy man.

Ole to the chef!

Birthday Roast Lamb

To commemorate Crystal's attainment of suffrage, we decided to host a small makan-makan at our home. We got a canopy erected at our porch and some tables and chairs. One thing led to another. What we had intended to be a small gathering eventually turned out to be a full blown party.

It was her party and her night. We had our family members and close relatives over, and a group of her friends. The parents did not get to invite any of their friends.

The theme of the night was roast lamb. The last time I had this delicious animal was in SP's place. That was more than 2 years ago. So I was really looking forward to the treat.

Mrs Wong and her husband run a catering business, specialising only on one dish - roast lamb. She came to our place at about 2.00pm to set up her roasting equipment. The lamb was from New Zealand. It appeared to be marinated and was skewered whole over a simmering charcoal fire.

The roasting took about 4 hours. It was a slow deliberate process. Mrs Wong was there to periodically turn it over. Eventually it was this beautiful golden brown, mouth-watering roast of a lamb.

What a beautiful sight. Who can resist a roast like this?

After the guests had arrived, Mrs Wong started to carve the animal. The first bites were heavenly. It was hot, juicy and succulent. The meat was tender and aromatic. It is not easy to describe the taste of freshly roast lamb. Total culinary delight.

We had other dishes to supplement the meat. They were mostly home made. SP brought this pot of spaghetti.

LV fried this meehoon.

And LL made these drum stick roasts.

Crystal made this lovely potato salad herself. "Why do I need to cook on my own birthday?" she complained.

More salad and rocket to accompany the meat.

Vegetable dips.

We also ordered some kuehs from Nyonya Colors. They delivered - COD. The kuehs were nicely packed. They were delicious.

These spring rolls and samosa were also from Nyonya Colors. But they were not so nice.

I believe the guests enjoyed the food - especially the lamb. At the end of the evening, thank God, we did not have to deal with too much left-overs.

And of course, cakes for the birthday girl. This was the first time I see a cake with a portrait on the icing.

Happy Birthday Wan.

Eddy's Cooking in Melbourne

We have just returned from Melbourne. We were there to help Crystal settle down in her Monash campus in Gippsland. The hospitality we received in Melbourne was awesome. Alan most graciously let us use his car - a Honda Accord Euro - great vehicle. Eddy and Bee were wonderful hosts. We had comfortable lodgings and marvelous meals and a wonderful time.

Eddy is a great cook. He enjoys doing it. He often cooks for his workmates. In the course of our week's stay, we relished many of his dishes. This posting is a tribute to his skills and hospitality.

On the second evening of our visit, he whipped up a storm of a meal. He had a few friends over and we had a whale of a time - not just the food but the very good company.

His master piece that evening was without doubt the sambal petai prawn. Yes, we had petai in Melbourne. The sambal was genuine and the petai were big and fresh. So were the prawns. Fabulous!

And the mussels. They were big and fresh and cooked in a very nice spicy sauce. Yummy.

The curry fish head was prepared by Joyce. The fish was very fresh.

This was the teriyaki chicken. 

And some deep fried mackerel to complete the meal. 

One morning we took it easy and slept in. When we got up in the late morning and Eddy was ready to cook us breakfast ala Penang. It was char koay teow. The koay teow was individually fried; with prawns, taugeh, egg and even chives. It was pity they do not have 'see hum' (鲜蚶 cockles) in Melbourne. It would had made his CKT perfect and complete. 

On another day, we were waiting for another friend Nee to go out for brunch. Eddy came back from morning marketing. "Why eat out?" he said. "I will cook Hainanese chicken rice." With a short time, our brunch was like this...
A plate of pan cham kai ((白斬雞)

Tau yew bak (豆油肉 soy sauce pork) with some eggs.

And curry squid.

I forgot to take a close up of the rice. It was indeed Hainanese style - fluffy, aromatic and delicious. It was complete with the traditional garlic chili sauce and chicken soup. 

In Melbourne, it was home away from home. Thank you Eddy and Bee.

CNY Feasts

The feasts started with the Reunion at SP's place. It was a very traditional meal. SP, wife Mei and son KG had spent a couple of days preparing it. Both KJ and KG were back from down-under this CNY. So it was great food and a greater reunion.

The pak cham kai (白切雞) is a must for any festivity. It was a delicious free range ayam kampung (菜园鸡).

The seafood pot (海鲜煲) probably costed an arm or leg. It had all the expensive ingredients in it - abalone, sea cucumber (海參), fish maw and mushrooms. But for the reunion, nothing is too expensive.

This is a dish of large prawns stirred fried with asparagus in a semi-spicy sauce.

 

The ever popular crab rolls. Available only once a year.

This was kwai fa conpoy (桂花乾瑤柱). It was dried scallops (conpoy 乾瑤柱) stirred fried in eggs and some vegetables. Normally it is prepared with shark fins, but conpoy was used instead. It was eaten wrapped in salad leaves.

The pork ribs may looked a little over done because it was left it the oven for a short while after grilling. But it was delicious. The meat was very tender and the semi-spicy sauce permeated deep into the meat.

This was Hongkong choy sum (菜心) topped with conpoy (乾瑤柱).

Soup was lotus root.

After a short rest from the heavy meal, we dove into the desserts; which was home-made far sang wu (花生糊 - peanut paste) .....

Chinese pancake. It looked a little different because SP opted to pan fry rather than deep fry it.

And a lovely grape flan that Crystal made specially for our reunion.

Next day, it was a simple family traditional breakfast and lunch. It was fried daikon cake (蘿蔔糕) which was very nice dipped in a home-made chili sauce.

The traditional CNY vegetarian dish.

 

And some delicious crispy fried pork ribs.

Then we were off on a torturous 7 hours drive to Sungei Petani. The traffic on the North South Highway was unbelievable. There were 3 massive jams along the way. What used to be a 4-hour drive turned up nearly twice as long.

On the second day of CNY, it was steamboat at the in-laws. The meal was a very festive affair. There were 30 people, young and old, spanning 3 generations. There were 2 tables and 2 steamboats - with enough food for a small army. The mood was high-spirited and convivial. Some were eating on their feet. Some shuttled between tables. Everybody enjoyed themselves.

Food-wise, I let these pictures do the talking....

The feasts continue....