Eve of CNY

Today, had steamboat for lunch at my mum-in-law's place with the whole family. The highlight was the salmon head which is not a common steamboat dish but it was absolutely delicious and sweet.

At night, went to my mum's place for reunion dinner. Thankfully, she didnt prepare steamboat, if not, I would have eaten steamboat 3 times in a row. What she did, for the first time, is "Pen Cai" (A Basin of Goodies). It is not a traditional CNY dish but the story behind this dish is meaningful for the new year, I feel- the spirit of sharing,generosity and cohesiveness.

This dish was invented when Mongol troops invaded Song China. To feed the fleeing Emperor who escaped to Guangdong, the locals collected all their best food available. After cooking it, they put it in wooden washing basins as there wasn’t a bowl big enough for the army, coiling the term ‘pen cai’ (vegetables in a basin).

There are no hard and fast rules as to what ingredients go in as it can be anything under the sun, ranging from yam or tapioca to ginseng, abalone, beancurd etc. Most common ingredients that people would put is duck, chicken, ham, dried scallops, mushrooms, dried oyster etc.

The main difficulty to this dish is not cooking (since you simply throw everything in and stew) but is in presenting it as every ingredient has to be layered and stacked up properly.



Chicken and duck meat are usually placed on the top, implying that birds return to the nests. Though those who know would reach for the bottom where the gravy trickles over the ingredients.





My mum also prepared egg noodles which was cooked to the right texture. Eating the noodles with the pen cai gravy was heavenly.

We also had Lo Hei,



"Kombak" pau (braised pork belly with bun)




Both Janine and Caleb had a whopping great time playing with the Lo Hei.



We also had a birthday celebration for CT and Janine. Janine's birthday is 2 days after CT.

Guess it is not a good idea to celebrate together as Janine would be the star instead. Haha..Even the cake says it all!



To allow CT to have his own cake, my mum took out a cake which her friend baked for her and started decorating it for CT so that he would have a candle to blow. It was pathetically hilarious.



And Janine had her go at cutting the cake..here's the result.



What an enjoyable celebration! Thanks mum for preparing.

CT's farewell dinner

Today, went my mum's place for dinner. She asked CT what he would miss most if he goes US...and so, here's a list of food which I told my mum as I know CT will love such dishes.

1) Bean Sprouts with Tau Kwa and salted fish
2) Fried Egg with Onions
3) Curry Chicken

As you can see from the list, you will realise what a simple and easily satisfied guy CT is. And that is what I like about him. Not extravagant and a sentimental guy who just enjoys good old traditional food. Haha..

So here's the spread of food we had as mum also cooked her specialty ginger duck dish and cooked a salted vegetable duck soup! Yummy!



And for dessert, mum cooked papaya, white fungus soup.


I felt so much love from my mum from this dinner. The love that she has for CT and I really feel so blessed. Thanks mum for all your effort and love put in to give CT a memorable farewell dinner before he leaves for US tomorrow.

To East Coast Park

Yesterday, I went to Giant for my weekly supermarketing and at the same time, to help buy 2 lobsters for my mother. Giant was having a promotion on lobster going for only $12.80 each, instead of the usual $20-$30. So since my mum said she wanted to cook Seafood paella on Monday when we go back for dinner, she told me to help her buy.

When I went, there wasnt any. So I asked the guy behind the fish counter and he said I had to order. So today, I went back Giant to collect my lobster as they called me asking me to go down and collect. After collecting the lobsters, I went to my mum's place to pass the lobsters to her and also spent some time there.

At about 5 plus pm, we left my mum's place and drove to East Coast Park lagoon food centre for dinner. I used to go there very often for dinner when I was a kid and I really enjoyed those good old times. But anyway, I always go there for the same old food- duck rice, beef kway teow (soup really good!), satay and to end off with a curry puff.



While we were eating, it started to drizzle. Vicky happened to make friends with the family sitting next to us because they have a filipino maid as well. Vicky told me that she heard the woman singing Christian song to her son. So, Vicky asked their maid if they were Christians and she said yes. So when I came back from ordering food, Vicky told me that they are Christians. So we greeted each other.

The funny thing was that when it started to drizzle and all of us sat close to each other because the rain was coming in, Caleb started to cry...Guess because it was quite humid and he just got cranky. But guess what? The Christian lady started carrying her son towards Caleb and she started singing Kids Praise songs to amuse Caleb and what do you know? Caleb was silent and listening.

When she finished singing her song, Caleb started crying again and then the lady started singing another song. It was very funny but yet, I feel so much love from a Christian family whom we just met during dinner. She sang and sang to keep Caleb from crying while my family was eating our dinner. I just felt as if we were close friends for her to do such a thing.

We also started chit chatting about the church we attend and all..

Though I didnt get to walk in East Coast Park with Caleb because of the rain, the trip down was still worth it as I got to meet this lady and her family.