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Friday, January 30, 2009

Chinese New Year - Pai Nien

On the 2nd of New Year, we'll head back to KL for a day trip to visit some friends to pai nien and visit my father.


Our first stop was at Kajang, Steve's house. Sadly I did not take any pictures of their huge and beautiful house. Why ? Because I was busy pigging myself out with the lunch spread, chee pau kai, seafood curry, yong tau foo, fried noodle and also cookies. We always look forward their cookies, they have the best and softest pineapple tarts, peanut cookies, coffee macaroons and almond cookies.


We then headed home to check on our house and water the plants.


3rd stop was at CK and Margaret's house, also big and beautiful.



While hubby chatted with CK, Amber kept herself entertained at the water feature decking.





Then, we visited my father at Ampang. The neighbours engaged a lion dance troup and Amber was sooo happy and excited :














firecrackers... Amber's first experience..



These lo-kams are precious, given by the 'lions', not to be eaten, she said.
Then, we headed to Stanley's house at Bukit Jalil. Again, no pictures coz I was busy running after Amber around the house. There were many kids around and I met a relative of Stanley's from Hong Kong - Mr Chow who's a foodie lover and told me the secret of a good mushroom stew. I have not tried but here's it to share :
- buy quality mushrooms, around RM100 per kati ones.. no need Japanese mushroom, China ones are good enough
- soak for 3 hours, give it a good scrub and discard the water
- soak again for 1 day before cooking, keep the water for braising
- fry sliced ginger till fragrant
- fry the mushrooms and pour in the water used to soak mushrooms,
- add couple of rock sugar
- braise for 3 hours, add in salt, a little soya and oyster sauce if necessary (only add in oyster sauce when mushroom is almost done cooking, do not add in the beginning. According to Mr Chow, oyster sauce and soya sauce, when cooked for long, will change it's flavour)
Must try the recipe this weekend..

We left Bukit Jalil at 10.30pm and Amber threw up in the car. Her tummy was bloated from the cookies, 100+ and chocolates and yet I insisted she takes her milk. So , 100+ and milk = puke !!
She was smelling of puke but fell asleep during the journey back.
3rd day of New Year - MIL's sisters came visiting, another big gathering. I stayed home while hubs met up with his schoolmates. Staying home means gorging on bak kuas and cookies and soft drinks. hahahaha...... We had dinner nearby and another lou-sang for us (my 4th for the year)


After dinner, we packed and got ready to head back to KL. Arrived home around 11.30pm, tired and missing Chinese New Year festivities in Tampin
On the 4th day, we went to my cousin (from both side of parents, aunty is my father's sister and uncle is my mom's brother). I always look forward to her soh-meen. This time the soup is made up of chicken soup boiled with pork belly, dried oysters, fried fu-chuk, taufu strips and mushrooms. Yumz...

Another feast for us, before calling it a day.....