Play our little secret ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Niece in kindergarten

While packing my cupboard, chanced upon this piece of paper. Had a good laugh.  Was wondering was this written by my niece or nephew.  I guess it was most likely done by my niece because.. look at all the little hearts.... ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥  I have also kept many of her drawings as she loves art and craft. 

I think this was written years ago when she would come over to my place after school each day, and spend the afternoons and evenings here.  I don't remember doing up a "To Do" list myself even when I was a kid, so I find this so amusingly cute. My niece just received very good PSLE results and would be going to secondary school next year.  I wish my little curly hair girl do not grow up so fast, at least not so soon. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Home-cooked goodness

I always miss home-cooked food when I am away or when I have been eating out for a while.  I always have certain cravings of some of my mom's dishes. And I am so used to our brown rice we have at home.

Curry Chicken

Braised Dark Sauce Chicken Wings

Olive Rice with Fried Prawns, Fried Fish & Veggies

The boy's 10 !!!

It was my nephew's 10th birthday last week. We had a simple gathering at home as well as a little celebration for him. I hope he likes the 3 Naruto comic books I got for him as well as a little pouch bag.  

Not long ago, I passed him a clear file folder so that he can be encouraged to draw Naruto figures with pencil.  So far he has done a wonderful job and has drawn almost 40 pictures and filed them in the file.  He conscientiously brings over to my place if he knows I am home, just to show me.  I think he is improving in all his drawings and has done a wonderful job. May my nephew attain excellent results in his studies and may he grow up to be a brilliant, loving, and kind man.

Lhamo the Labrador

This big cutie is almost everyone's favourite in Gaden Shartse Dro-Phen Ling. While so many people walk in and out of the centre, Lhamo is a tame Labrador who is never fierce. Anyone who is not scared of her can touch and pet her.  I have never seen her being fierce or grouchy (except when she detects intruders with ill intentions which is rare and far between). She is just a very relaxed and lucky dog who can be cheeky at times.

Lhamo "giving birth"... haha!

Lhamo and her toy babies.

Lhamo acts as a dead dog.

Lhamo says, "this is my chair".

Lhamo swimming in the pond.

Lhamo the manja girl.

Lhamo with the "what you looking at?" look.

 Lhamo and her guilty look.

Lhamo is surrounded by monks, prayers and blessings everyday. I'm very sure she will be reborn as a human in her next life. May she have a long and healthy life, precious Labby! 

Our Chap Goh Mei dinner!

Chap Goh Mei means "the lunar 15th CNY dinner" in Hokkien. The Chinese New Year lasts 15 days, and Chap Goh Mei is the last day of the CNY. For some Chinese families, they mark the end of the 15 days of CNY with a dinner celebration. So does my family.

This was the evening of Chap Goh Mei's setting sun before dinner. I thought it was rather unusual and weird yet beautiful, that was why I snapped this photo.

This was our Chap Goh Mei dinner! Usually we would have dinner with my extended family of grandma, cousins, aunts and uncles. However this year, we decided we should just have our own dinner as everyone was too busy to get together. I cooked dinner.

Sis bought a small Yu Sheng again so that we could Lo Hei for the final round for this year. The sashimi slices that came with the Yu Sheng were pathetic.....

.... so we decided to "加料", add something more.... a can of abalone!

Topping the abalone and crisps and everything else,the Yu Sheng became quite sizable.

My Prosperity Dish - which included... Facai (the tiny black strips) which sounds like "to prosper" is a must, Fish Maw, Leek (sounds like "counting money"), Carrots, Pork, Chinese Mushrooms. First, braised the fish maw and facai for 20 minutes until they were soft, before adding the pork, mushrooms, carrots, and finally the leek. Yum yum!!

My Luxury Dish - XO Sesame Oil Chicken.  The Chicken pieces were marinated beforehand, then stir fry ginger slices with sesame oil before adding chicken. Stir frying them for a while before adding dark and light soya sauce, little oyster sauce, and water. Simmer for about 20 minutes and add a dash of XO Cognac. Smelled so good!

My Fulfilling Dish - Lotus Root Soup. It is a common soup in my household.  Ingredients used were pork ribs, dried scallops, lotus root, dried longan, red dates, wolfberries, peanuts or red beans.

My Auspicious Dish - Tiger Prawns in Tomato Sauce.  Tiger prawns are one of my favourite but we seldom cook them at home unless it is a special occasion. I had wanted to simply steam them with garlic but my mom wanted them in tomato sauce. So I stir-fry loads of chopped garlic till fragrant, and fry the huge prawns till they were 3/4 cooked before taking them out. Then I fry chopped onions before adding my mix of tomato sauce, vinegar, pasta sauce, chilli sauce, sugar, which made a great gravy, and then added the prawns in again and simmer till they were cooked.

See my generous use of chopped garlic and great tasty gravy?

Yummilicious!

We had the Lo Hei before our dinner. May we prosper and achieve everything we wish for this year! May my grandma and parents be healthy and free from any illnesses and pain. May my sis and BIL prosper in the business and career. May my niece and nephew attain great results for the PSLE and top class respectively this year.

Delish Yu Sheng with the generous abalone strips. Thus this was my simple Chap Goh Mei dinner, end of CNY celebrations.

You know the CNY is over when you see the pussy willows being dumped outside like this. Note: I am NOT the culprit!!!

From my 三菜一汤 kitchen

One soup and 3 dishes, that's our dinner at home a couple of weeks ago.

Stir-fry Cabbage with Fish Slices and Carrots

Sitr-Fry Kailan with Chinese Mushrooms

Steamed Egg with Chopped Onions and Tiny Ikan

Ginseng Chicken Soup

Mouth-watering CNY dishes in my household!

Today is the 7th day of Chinese New Year. The 7th day is called 人日 - Human Day. It is considered everyone's birthday! 祝大家生日快乐!!!

In this post, I showcase some of the mouth-watering dishes we usually prepare during the CNY. The feasting begins!

Yu Sheng

Most people celebrate 人日 by having Yu Sheng to Lou Hei ! Yusheng is deemed auspicious because of its homonymic quality - yu means "fish" but enunciated appropriately, it also means "abundance", while sheng literally means "raw" but enunciated appropriately, it means "life". Thus Yusheng implies "abundance of wealth and long life". In Cantonese, it is known as lo sheng with lo also meaning "tossing up good fortune". The tossing action is called lo hei, which means to "rise" (hei), again a reference to a thriving business and thus its popularity with businessmen during the New Year.

Steamboat with 20+ items

We had steamboat for Reunion Dinner this year.  I prepared more than 20 types of items for our steamboat this year. The longer you let the steamboat boil and cook with different items, the longer and sweeter the soup it becomes. That's the special thing about having  steamboat.

Steamed New Year Fish

These are "new year fish" which my aunt bought for us early in the morning of Li Chun. What is so special about this fish is that it is only available during the CNY period because it is the only time they do NOT taste fishy.  It is best eaten when simply steamed with ginger strips. People love the "baw" or the "egg" you can find inside and it is best eaten dipped with chinchalok chilli. 

Braised Hoo Kee (Fried Beancurd Sticks)

This is one vegetarian dish my mom usually cook on the first day of CNY, for those who were on vegetarian diet. It is one of my favourite dish.  It is  a dish of fried beancurd sticks which was braised in soya sauce with chinese mushroom.  Goes very well with white rice or porridge.

Braised Lou Soon (Bamboo Shoots)

I love love love this dish alot, and I get to eat this only during the CNY! It is Braised Bamboo Shoots with chinese mushroom, another vegetarian dish. You have to braise the bamboo shoots for a long time and it will soften and taste a little crunchy.  It is even nicer when dipped with chilli lime sauce. These bamboo shoots are of better quality compared to our local version.

Nonya Ngoh Hiang (Meat Rolls)

Ngoh Hiang is the Singaporean version of five-spice pork rolls wrapped with beancurd skin. My mom usually make these every year. I love it because it is much better than the ones you get outside, as my mom is generous with ingredients. The ingredients used were  minced pork, fish meat, shelled prawns, carrots, water chestnuts, chives, onions, eggs, flour, pepper, salt, sesame oil and ngo hiang special spice. The most tedious was probably peeling those water chestnuts and carrots and chopping them into teeny weeny pieces... I feel water chestnuts are very important as it makes the meat rolls more crunchy.

Here are some shots of how our Ngoh Hiang was made. The wrapped rolls were first steamed and then let to cool before keeping them in the freezer. We then fry the rolls as and when we want to eat and garnish them with cucumber or zucchini, plus our homemade spicy sour chilli sauce, it is heaven.

Leek with Pork Belly

This is another traditional CNY dish, although we can prepare this any time of the year - Leek with Pork Belly.  Leek in dialect and mandarin sounds like "sng" and "suan" respectively, which in turn sounds like "count". Hence it symbolises having plenty of money to count in the new year.

Roast Duck

In my family, we like Roast Duck compared to chicken. So on special occasions, we like to purchase nice Roast Duck as one of the dishes. This one is from Toh Kee, in People's Park, Chinatown. Not many places make good crispy roast duck as Toh Kee.

Fish Maw Soup

My aunt cooked this soup with lots of ingredients - fish maw, pork intestines, pork, fish balls, cabbage, pork ribs, tofu, sea cucumber, scallops etc... I think people are more willing to splurge on and be generous with the ingredients especially during CNY because it meant "abundance". The soup was delicious.

"Bitter Veggies" with Pork Belly

This dish is a very nice dish. I named these veggies "Bitter Veggies" because they taste slightly bitter than other veggies. However if you braised them long enough, the dish is very nice and wholesome with the permeated taste of both veggies and pork belly and carrots. You can add chinese mushrooms too.

XO Sesame Liver with Chinese Leek

This one is one of my favourite dish too - XO Sesame Liver with leek.  I love to use a little XO Cognac when I cook pork/liver and chicken. Cooked with sesame oil, soya sauce and a touch of XO Cognac, this dish tastes heavenly!   

Veggies with Prawns

During CNY, we usually have lots of prawns, big and small prawns. If we have tiger prawns, we usually steam them with lots garlic. If we have small prawns, we stir fry them with any veggies, hence a very crunchy and refreshing dish. 

It is again about abundance, especially food. During the CNY, we ensure we have different types of dishes of meat, fish, veggies, prawns, fish maw and all auspicious dishes which symbolise good luck and prosperity. 

CNY reunion steamboat dinner & lo hei

It is the CNY Eve today, and most families will be having their reunion dinner tonight. In my family, we usually have our reunion dinner on the eve of the CNY Eve, as all of us are busy on the eve itself.

We invited my Grandma and 2 dearest aunts to join us this year at our home. We started with Lo Hei. BIL got ready the Yu Sheng with auspicious chinese idioms when he laid each Lo Hei ingredient.

Time to lo hei! The takeaway tub which we packed from the restaurant looked small but it was actually quite a lot in portion. Look at the mess we made! 

My portion of Yu Sheng, generous helpings. We each had at least 2 helpings.

A nice shot before the steamboat reunion dinner. I was the photographer.

 

I must highlight my mom's Ngo Hiang which she made every year. This year I did not have time to help her as I was too busy (guilty). It was so yummy with our homemade spicy chilli.

Here was just part of the entire items for steamboat! There were almost 20 types of different items!

We made delicious soup stock beforehand, boiled from pork ribs, scallops, intestines and abalone soup. And during the steamboat, we load prawns, pork, liver, fish balls, chicken balls, prawn sticks, lobster balls, sotong, fish slices, sausages, veggies, and even an egg and noodles into the soup.

Another family shot. My grandma was telling us during dinner that she bumped into someone from her old neighbourhood almost 20 years ago, but she just could not remember the lady. I am a little sad, as grandma is losing part of her memory gradually.

After dinner, the whole family went to the supermarket to stock up some more stuff.  Here we were fooling around with the surveillance mirror. Haha!!  

Watch out for my next post on CNY and my house.

So, what are you having for your reunion dinner tonight?