Tales from a New Year

How's the CNY hols, everyone asks.

The answer - plenty of food!

(Ok that's not really an answer to that question)

The Day Before - Steamboat Nazi
I didn't have to work on Saturday so I hung out at home and helped my mum make dessert - she wanted to bring red bean pancakes to my aunt's dinner, but we didn't have red bean so substituted it with lotus paste. After the plug to the electric grill shorted the electricity supply several times (the wiring in the kitchen's kinda screwed), I had to cook them with a frying pan instead, resulting in half-moons of lotus paste pancake instead.

Dinner had to be kicked off early, as my cousin was off to Chiang Mai that night.

The yusheng was from Harbour City restaurant. It's always amusing to lo hei at home. The relatives try to recall (or innovate) the sayings that come with the various toppings and ingredients for the dish - the only one everyone is absolutely sure of is the fish.

Everytime we lo hei, I always remember what CNY was like as a kid - with our Farrer Court group of 4 families, the kids - all 8 of us - would be seated at one table, with the 'adults' at the other. Quite a fair bit of the yusheng would land on the lazy susan, cos most of us couldn't stand eating the stuff. Only the crackers would disappear, and sometimes the fish as well. These days, I eat it all.

Steamboat is the traditional reunion dinner meal in my family, and this was the first year it was held at my aunt's house. And this is the first time where I've had a regimented steamboat - where items go in course by course. The first course - mushrooms, cabbage, leeks, fishballs and chicken.

The second course - seafood

The third course - slices of sukiyaki pork

The fourth course - abalone and Pacific clams

The fifth course - vegetables

The sixth course - udon and tofu

And finally, dessert.

One meal down.

Day One - Chef Chan cooks up a storm in NTU

The feasting began with nian gao (sticky rice cake) for breakfast - coated in egg and panfried, creating a slightly crispy exterior with a sweet soft sticky interior. (according to this article, it's a southern Chinese thing, which I didn't know)

We return again to the same aunt's house in sixth ave to pay respects to my grandparents. We were spending the day with my dad's side of the family, so were persuaded to have some of my grandma's chicken curry (strangely to be eaten with roti prata) before leaving. But I can never handle her stomach soup, which my mum had to have a bowl of.

Next stop: My uncle's house in Katong where yusheng, claypot rice, steamed fish, ngoh hiang, vegetables, roast duck awaited.

Snacks and drinks and homemade pineapple tarts at an aunt's house in Bishan, then over to our house for more nibbles - but not too much - before dinner in Jurong West. Well, NTU actually. My uncle's a hall advisor and they live on campus so he cooked up a storm, as always, in their cosy house.

It was about 12 courses, I believe, including a stewed duck with chestnuts, lamb stew, ee fu noodles, tofu, a roll made of wintermelon and chinese ham, cabbage rolls with minced pork and mushrooms, prawns, broccoli with mushrooms, chicken, pai guat with black bean sauce, and some more I've forgotten.

Dessert was chin chow and/or chocolates with a glass of mead.

You can imagine how soundly I slept that night.

Day Two - Meet the family
It already seems like many days have passed, and many meals have been eaten, but we're still not in the clear.

Lunch again is at the aunt's house in sixth avenue, where she was holding a lunch party for a cousin who's been living in Canada, and who's getting married on Saturday. So we get to meet the husbandtobe, and introduce him to the rigors of Singaporean life, such as explaining the use of 'lah' and what an ah beng is (this topic's discussion actually went on for about 1/2 an hour) and teaching him how to eat kuah chee. He didn't look too mortified when we left, so there is still hope for him. Lunch, btw, was Mediterranean - paella, grilled vegetables and salad. My uncle, as usual, had several bottles of wine open, and constantly topped up people's glasses. Protests don't work.

Day Three - ?
The only thing I know for sure is that I have to be at work at 4pm.
Otherwise I'm hoping for a simple lunch and a simple dinner.

So the eating will continue on Saturday, with high tea at the Goodwood Park wedding, which promises to be like no other wedding I've been to - no wedding dinner, a band at the reception, a bride who actually owns her own gown and I hear there's going to be laksa. And on Sunday, another lunch awaits - this time at a restaurant, most probably Kia Hiang, which a family friend owns.