CNY Reunions and such

My friends commented I have a very 'happening' and 'busy' CNY. Busy it is, and yes, it's happening too. No excessive drinking, binging or gambling - pua kiaw BUT... we try to catch up with family, relatives and friends as much as possible. Nothing could be more important than family ties and friendship rekindled in this festive season over a glass of wine or two. Most of us let's busy-ness dictate our daily routines and CNY is the time to take a deep breath and put our holds down, for a glass of wine.. or two :)

The in laws, nieces and nephews came over on Saturday night for another reunion. We can hardly count the number of times in a year that we actually get together so a gathering at our place makes it a reunion. Although the nieces were late, they made it nonetheless. One niece had to attend a wedding dinner and another niece runs a mobile phone shop and Saturday is a busy day. By the time they wrap up the business for the day and rush over to our home, it's almost midnight. Again, better than never and sincerity counts. We welcome them with open arms. I cooked da usual jazz - hokkien noodle, waxed meat rice, curry chicken and guai ling koa for all.

 

The kids only started playing fireworks at 1am !!

 

 The bottles we uncorked :

We are blessed with  a long break this CNY and the time is well spent with what matters most - our family members and dear friends :)

A Lazy Day

Today's a public holiday and a perfect opportunity to sleep in. We've been busy since Christmas up to the New Year, with a list of to-dos everyday, except today. The hubs and the little one slept till past 10am, very rare.
I was up at 8am after taking some Panadol cold and flus. Somehow drowsy medicine - pseudophedrine has adverse reaction on me. It's a component that knocks many off. I'll feel drowsy, yes, but I'll be up the after 5 hours and have difficulty getting back to bed. Toss and turned till 8am and got my lazy butt up, surfed the net, FB-ed and moved my butt down to do the laundry. Since being a mom, I've never overslept past 8am. My body's alarm clock will wake me up automatically

We visited the BIL and his family in Cheras, had lunch and was back home by 5pm. The hubs and little fart went to bed again and slept for another good 2-3 hours ! That's very unusual for Amber to sleep that long. I did the ironing and etc till almost dinner time.

It's now past midnight and she's bright as a lark, hyper as a puppy. Sei for !

Happy Valentines

It's just another day for us. No candlelight romantic celebrations. Unlike pre-Amber years, when I look forward to flowers+card+meal, then it was just card+meal, then card.. and then non-event..  :D

Not that I'm complaining but being with him 24/7, what is there to celebrate ? Clinging champagne glass, just the 2 of us ? Well probably be checking on our watch, worrying about leaving Amber at the childminders till too late.

A solid marriage needs no Valentine's Day for reinforcement of our affection for each other. It's the littlest things he does which matters more, like getting vitamins for me every morning, preparing the girl for school, tucking Amber and me to bed before he sleeps and more....

Anyways, we'll spend the evening with our close friends, Thomas & Joanne with home cooked dinner and prob. beer and a movie. Kids included :)

Happy Valentines to all and I'm off to the kitchen now.. Hoi Wok !

Day 4

 On Day4, we had breakfast with Annie and the boys at a mamak at Bangsar. Hubs liked the roti and dhal so much and has been requesting to go there again since.

 

After breakfast, we went to 3rd Aunt's house at Jinjang for lunch.

Amber loves dogs and she played with Chiro. Amber kept tickling Chiro until Chiro had to hide under the chair and away from Amber. We had a good laugh.

 

One sad thing to note on Chiro. She had a playmate - Aibo- a black Chow Chow. Aibo is my aunt's beloved and sleeps on the floor in my aunts room. This year Aibo is missed. She passed away a few months back when the new Cambo maid accidentally closed the car door when Aibo climbed in. She left the locked in the car and out in the hot afternoon sun. Aibo passed out and the family was in tears when they found Aibo. The maid was sent back to the agent immediately and poor 4th Aunt, she could no longer trust maids.The house was a lot more quiet without Aibo's exciting bark.

Anyways, 4th aunt cooked a storm. She makes hakka char yoke exactly like how my grandma used to do.

 

We had visitors in the afternoon, ES and his family. We shared a bottle of Carruades de Lafite

 

In the evening, we went to hubs' cousin's open house at Damansara Lagenda. Cosy, great food and hospitality and we had another up, close and personal encounter with the lion dance troupe.

We left early and rushed to another gathering with my schoolmates at Ei Leen's house at Setia Alam. Although late, it's better than never. The kids had a blast, playing hide and seek at Ei Leen's new home while the parents indulged in cold beer, keropok and chitter chatter.

and that marks the end of an almost weeklong holiday. Monday was back to the grind,, waking up early to a long snarling traffic to work ....

What We've Been Up To This CNY, Day 1 - 3

Time flies and we already in Day 12 of the new lunar year.

We try to fulfill as many gatherings, reunions and open houses as possible as we believe this is the time and season to catch up with old friends, schoolmates and relatives.

We had our reunion dinner and with customary dishes and since we only cook some the dishes once a year, this is the time to indulge.

 

Steamed waxed meat with nga-ku, sweet and sour pork ribs, stewed duck, steamed kampung chicken, braised chi-ku, roast pork, mixed vege, braised sea cucumber and abalone soup. Lots of work to prepare the dishes and we are very lucky, the househelper is willing to work on the eve and cook us a storm.

After dinner, BIL will decorate the house with new lunar year banners and stick a rabbit poster on the main door.

One Day 1, we'll wake up for our customary brunch :

 

Hinghwa soh-meen with fishballs, maw and abalone slices.  This is a traditional dish that the inlaws will indulge in on new lunar year, mid autumn and winter solstice festival. We are only back for the new lunar year and therefore, this is a once in a year dish for us. Amber loves it and she had 5 fishballs and half a bowl of noodle. 

After brunch, we'll dress the kids up in traditional cheong sam. BIL #2 got the nieces identical chiffon cheong sam.

 

Nice ? I think they look cute :D

 

 

We'll pai-nien at eldest BIL's house before noon. Eldest SIL is goes vegetarian for half a day and we'll all binge on her wide selection of cookies. Eldest SIL  & BIL will go back to the inlaws to have their serving of customary Hinghwa soh-meen. Hubs sister and her family will arrive from KL and join them for 2nd round of soh-meen.

 

Later part of the afternoon, we will all leave for Malacca for a complete reunion dinner at New Lagoon, Melaka Raya. I call it 'reunion' as hubs sis and her family will join us and the whole Ong clan will have dinner together. For the past umpteenth years, we'll catch a new year movie after dinner. This has been a family tradition too but this year, we decided not to go join the long queue at cinemas. The family went home and hubs and I went to Jonker Street to meet Chew Lee and her family.

 Malaika and Amber was born on the same day. Interesting eh ? Malaika was so sweet and adorable, she was looking forward to meet Amber but Amber took some time to warm up to her.

 

 

Malaika could indulge in ice cream but Amber, who's allergic to dairy, indulged in ice cubes :D

On Day 2, activities slowed down. Hubs met up with his school mates, MIL went to her brothers, BIL#3 went to her in-laws and we too, packed for home after lunch. 

 

 

A smooth and safe jouney home, lucky us, no traffic jam unlike previous years, where Day 2 is packed with cars along the north south highway

I went back home to fathers and brought him to visit my aunt and had dinner together

On Day 3, we visited hubs friend, Mr Lau, who helped us plenty when we were renovating our new home. Hubs had been wanting to visit him and this year, we could spare some time (4 days off -- that's a luxury for us). Hubs and I was thinking of transforming our backyard to a wet laundry area and we consulted him for some advise.

Since we were already in Cheras, I visited my schoolmate Jo. She's in town this new year as her dad is ill.

 

We stayed on for another session of loh-sang and lunch. Chatted while the kids played. Her maid cooked an eggless noodle for Amber.

 

Amber and Sherry having lunch and played princess and sorts while we chatted.

The cool pre-CNY days was coming to an end and Day 3 was scorching hot. Amber couldn't wait to hop in to the fridge for a chilling blast and I caught her like this :

 

We visited another friend, ES and his family, then went home to my dad's for dinner and later in the evening, visited my Taman Tun aunty.

Hectic day ?

You bet.. but CNY is all about catching up with friends and the older folks

BFF

Her cousin sister is her best friend. She was looking forward so much to going back to the in laws for the CNY because she'll have her cousin sister for company for days. These 2 girls create a ruckus at home, running up and down, all about the house, around the living room, jumping on the trampoline, ransacking their BIL's room but they bring lots of joy to the family. Of course, there's fights and bickerings  too but kids are kids..they forgive and forget easily.

 

Partners in crime, they hijack BIL's iPhone.

 

Bff, they are..

 Sharing their favorite toys and gadgets..

and doing naughty things .. like drawing each other hands.

Her Yuen Wen cheh cheh is her best friend.. she been asking silly questions like why Yuen Wen cheh cheh has to live in Cheras and not near our home, why cheh cheh cannot go to same school as her or why she cannot stay in the same house as cheh cheh !

Balik Kampung

This CNY, we took a long break. With the addition of FT Day, we took almost a week off.. *luxury* for us, being in the kind of work we do, taking a day off is almost impossible.

We took off for hubs hometown on Monday night.

See the ngaku chips ? I got these from the Imbi market just before we left for RM10 a jar when Amber insisted she wants ngaku chips. Although deep fried.  I believe it's healther than potato chips, at least ngaku is additive and preservative free. We happily munched one jar during our journey back hometown.

The drive was smooth, mild traffic but once we hit Seremban, the wind was unusually strong, hubs had to go slow as he could feel the car 'floating'. A very strange phenomenon and he reminded me to take some pics :

 

The in laws ordered noodles for us and we tucked in to hot 'longkang mee' or 'loongjiang mien', a Tampin famous delicacy. Longkang sounds awful but I think it got it's moniker because the noodle stall was set up next to a longkang or drain in Tampin and it got very popular, so thereon, it's known as longkang mee.

 

A simple dry springy homemade wantan noodle with char siu.

Throughout the night, the wind was ferocious and we abandoned our supper plans to go mamak for teh tarik. We went to bed early and got up early the following day (FT Day) and went down to Malacca for jalan jalan cari makan.

First stop was chicken rice balls at Jalan Tun Sri Lanang. This place is a sellout. Chicken rice balls for breakfast ! No kidding. We were there at 9.30am and it was fully sold by 10.30am !!

 

4 portions of rice and half a chicken cost us RM19.. Cheap and good :)

Then we did a little shopping at Jonker St.. a windy and cooling morning.

 

Stopped for iced Lao Qian coffee at San Shu Gong

Sniffed some pineapple tarts. I refused to buy any as we have loads of cookies back home ..

Came across a shop selling spinning top. Mr Wong, teaches spinning in 5 minutes, he gave up on us after more than 15 minutes. He also has beautiful beaded shoes but alas, none fits Amber.

 

We bought a croaking frog from him instead. 

 

Then we bought some sparklers and pop-pops for the girls. One whole box  of pop-pops ! 

We had lunch at Geographer's Cafe. I think this is our 4th or 5th visit in less than 2 months just because this is the only decent spot at Jonker's Street where hubs can get a good cuppa coffee. They serve Lavazza coffee.

Drums of Pavilion

Have you checked out the CNY decors at Pavilion? This year's theme is drums. At the foyer, there's the Drums for good health, wealth and prosperity and shoppers are encouraged to beat the drums for good wishes.

 

What would you wish for ? I'd wish first and foremost....

Peace and Well Being - Chu Ru Ping Ann

Good Health - Shen Di Chien Kang

for my family and friends this Lunar Year and always :)

Looks Like A Duck !

We were at Ikea Cafe and had the CNY special, the roast chicken set. I think it was around RM13 or so, hubs and I love the roast chicken, despite the long queue :)

Amber commented aloud : LOOKS LIKE DUCK !!

 

The thigh and drumstick sure looks like head and neck of a duck ! LOL !

Egg Replacer

Ever since I found Orgran's egg replacer on the shelves, I can bake more cookies for Amber. 

The egg replacer is meant to replace egg white, egg yolk or whole egg in recipes. 

I've tried it on pineapple tarts and the dough did have the texture of the usual tarts I bake.

 

I'll use this purely for recipes where egg is essential for binding purposes. I don't think I'll steam an whole egg coz it's not aromatic at all.

Thanks to Orgran, I can bake a lot more food for Amber. 

Orgran egg replacers are available at most pharmacies and I purchase mine from Olives at Menara Multi Purpose for less than RM12.