Chinese New Year 2009

As I tried to think of a clever title for this post, I realised that almost every permutation involving things bovine had been used in the mass sms-es, and just about every headline in the papers, when talking about the advent of the new lunar year. So, we shall stick to a plain, dull and simple title, but straight to the point.

I vaguely remember parts of this little ditty from kindy:

[forgot the opening lines]
Cow Tow first to papa, mama, then to uncles aunties too,
How I love the chinese new year,
Everyone loves too....

Not big on rhyming, these chinese songwriters.....




Like all the other events, I am amazed at the speed with which they reappear, in the blink of an eye, I seem to be handing out the familiar "hoi kong" angpows to my office people, and there's the massaging for playing cards, and the familiar yelling of "PIKCHER, PIKCHER"....Reunion dinners at my place are a fairly sedate affair, most of the older generation need to be in bed by 10.30 or so, and there are no cousins my age, to indulge in a spot of gambling. In the days of yore, when my grandmother was alive, at least the older generation would make an effort to play some mahjong and the younger set would at least try to play some blackjack while waiting.

Chinese New Year morning seems like any other morning.... the sun rises, (duhh), we get ready for the tea ceremony. I don't remember when this tea pouring tradition started, coz we certainly didn't do it when we were kids.

Every year, we string up the collective chinese new year cards we receive. Seems to be a lot less this year.....


Who said only Christmas Trees have decorations?


Strange flowers bloom apparently only on chinese new year.


Hmmm, Exodus 32:2 comes to mind.....


We usually have a vegetarian lunch at the in-laws place, with my all time favourite MUTTON CURRY. Yummy, I have instructed the wife to ensure we get to eat it more often. Afterall, its not like vegetarian mutton is seasonal....






The mandatory Lion Dance performance at the in-laws. For the longest time, Kid no 2 has been terrified of Lion Dance, and it wasn't until last year, when he was about to turn 7, that he faced his fears and conquered it.









The MIL has really green fingers. Look at her pomelo tree with red pussy willows at the back. Are they called pussy willow? I'm not sure. Or is it wussy pillow? But yeah, she has a veritable orchard and herb garden.



Kajang Satay,...... in its finest form.



Then there's the grand dinner on the night of the 1st day. No prizes for guessing where THIS chocolate fountain is from.



Apparently these pink flowers are Cherry Blossoms.... not a florally inclined person, I wouldn't know a Cherry Blossom from a Dying Strawberry, but I thought they were quite pretty....is this the famed Sakura that the Japanese rave about?



On the 2nd day, after hosting a small gambling session for my "1st generation friends" as they now call themselves, and managing to intoxicate myself on Johnny Walker Green label, I had to make my way for another in law dinner in Sg Chua, Kajang. A new restaurant called Xin Lin Tong or something laidat.





There's something beautiful about the whole concept of tossing salads communally.
Such a sense of camaraderie, and esprit de corps. Oh, and family, of course. I like my yee sang the traditional style, none of these new fandangled fusiony yee sang.... so this was good.



Hmmm, my stand on this is, try not to order it, but if its already there served, don't try to be too dogmatic about it. Very controversial stand that.





Various tapas.....


Luscious suckling pig....mmmm, lovely crispy skin. I still think the chinese suckling pig trumps them Western versions.

My favourite fish, Pomfret. Tai Tou Chong...the meat was firm, and sweet. Perfectly steamed.


Tasty prawns, dunno done what style, but thankfully not doused in butter or overly oily.


The lap mei fan...rice with waxed meats. A great filler.....


Mmm, I loved this fah lam with the prosperity vegetables and oyster. Tender slivers of belly pork, melting in your mouth and coagulating in your arteries. Very good.

I would like to try this restaurant again, as the food seemed pretty good. Anyway, its in Sg Chua...as you exit the SILK Highway into Kajang Town, its the first right turn after the highway, and you cant miss it. It is humongous.

And so the feasting continues..................... sigh. Minimal exercise too, for the last one week.

Life For Intermediates.....The Next Step After Beginners

The plan originally was to all simultaneously post on this day, the 23rd day of the 1st month of the solar year, in a writing style emulating him. The more I tried to copy his style, the blanker my mind became. Us mortals are destined to be the Antonio Salieris, juxtaposed against the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, cursed to a life of mediocrity. But unlike Antonio, one accepts this fact, and does not shake one's fist at the Almighty for unfairness.

But yeah, I digress. Fellow bloggers, Hairy Berry, A LilFatMonkey and AWOL have already beaten me to posting their tributes. I shall not even attempt to match their wit and gorgeous prose. However, it does come from the heart.

I was thrilled to receive an invite via Facebook, a few weeks back to be part of this wonderful event. Actually, the original plan was to attend the Macaroons class at The Cooking House, but Kenny Mah's 30th would trump any baking class any day of course. A bit too eagerly accepting the invite, like a zitty teenager who never gets any invitations to the school prom, I cancelled all other plans. The original venue, Palate Palette, was apparently going to be the venue for a junkyard sale, so not very appropriate, and Kenny frantically asked for recommendations, in a separate email thread that spawned a whole new slew of comments, from stalkers to support staff. You know its gonna be a good party, when even conversations of facebook with strangers, who are also invited, take on the tone of friends you've known for years.

I arrived at Dua Annexe, much like a "Rusa masuk kampung"... rather lost, and proceeded to Delicious Ingredients, the gourmet shop, thinking they and Delicious were one and the same, and asked the guy where Kenny Mah's table was.

He replies, "Datuk Kenny Mah"?
I say, "No, Encik only, as far as I know"

About half the guest were there, in a very well sunlit room. Very intimidating, for a shy person like me to be assailed by so many new faces. Luckily, AWOL and Hairy were there. However, everyone was VERY friendly, and conversations ranged from circumcision to boob size to cheese...all very unabashedly. Yeah, I like Kenny Mah's friends.




The Youthful Looking Lad of THIRTY.


The baby blue background of the collages are meant to complement the Delicious theme..... in case anyone was wondering.


Look at all the happy looking people in the pics. All basking in the warmth of the friendship that was overflowing.....



An English lesson here? Past tense, present tense, past participle and what have you?

And since this is ostensibly a food blog, I guess I should mention something about the food. The menu is the standard Delicious menu. What sets this particular venue apart is the location and ambience. Foodwise, ....

The mushroom soup, which was very mushroomy, and still had chunks of mushroom. Very good, I wouldn't mind having it again. The garlic bread was okay too.


AWOL's Thai Beef Salad. How very healthy. Looked good, but since she was ill, I didnt want to risk any contagious disease, and didn't ask to try.


Hairy Berry's Salmon Pasta.... read his review if you want to know how it tasted.


The spicy crab linguine doesn't look as spicy as the one in Bangsar Village. In fact, it looked rather pale. And apparently wasn't as spicy either.


My nasi kerabu....the curry chicken was good, the rice was plain white rice, unlike the nasi kerabus elsewhere which are infused with herbs etc. There was a helping of ulam type vegetables on the side, which I quite enjoyed, but would have gone better with some sambal belacan. Shannon, the naughty boy, didn't eat his vegetables, I noticed. Had we been more familiar, I would've gasaked his veggies la.


In Cod they trust. Apparently Alilfatmonkey enjoyed this tremendously.


Duck confit pasta...again, not as vibrantly colorful as the BV branch, though they were rather generous with the duck, whereas in BV, you only get microscopic slivers ....almost fibres with a hint of duck....but this one looked generous.



Fish & Chips. Love the way they served the chips, in the paper and all. There was a unanimous decision that fat fries are preferred over thin fries, unless they're fries from MacDonalds.

But yeah, it was a wonderful afternoon. I love the candour with which Kenny treats his friends, revealing everything from a woman's age to their cup size. On many occasions, conversations were worthy of sitcoms....

Anyway, since today is the real day, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNY MAH, thanks for the good reading, and thanks for the lovely invite.

New Zealand Ice Cream Bake Workshop, At The Cooking House

When Edyth of Cooking House told me about this upcoming workshop slightly after the My Nourishment Launch, I was delighted at the prospect of indulging in one of my favourite ice creams. Time went by, and there was no further news, until BABE IN THE CITY KL popped up on email, informing us of the workshop, and 1st come 1st serve for the first 5. Good thing I check my emails regularly, or visions of tubs of NZ ice cream with flapping wings, flying away from me, filled my fertile restless mind. It wasn't till about 24 hours later that the "results" of the lucky 5 were announced. Yay, I was onboard.

Arriving at 1.55pm, I thought I'd be early, but to my surprise, all but Babe had already arrived. Food bloggers, they seem to be quite punctual for food. The glitterati included Teckiee, the famous celebrity blogger, always surrounded by bevy of chicks, Simon Seow, WMW, Precious Pea, and later on, Serena & Dwayne, and when she finally appeared, Babe.

I think the event is by invitation only, and the place was filled with professional cameramen and paparazzi, and NZN staff. There were more flashbulbs going off than Angelina Jolie's arrival at the Oscars.






We were given party packs, which included, amongs other things, a stress ball bearing NZN name, which Teckiee very gently handled and showed us.




Actually, looking at the menu, I was thinking, hmmm, it doesnt take much to make it delicious...the ice cream is delicious enough as it is....without any help.


The picture above is symbolic, of what was to come. Ice cream sandwiched between cakes....


Chef T L Lee, who is also a lecturer in Taylors, was highly entertaining, and articulate.





We also had our own celebrity photographer in our midst, Dwayne Foong. Can't wait to see his pics. Thanks Dwayne for helping me clean my smudged lens...




Chef taught us something rather interesting. He said that a well washed hand is better than wearing gloves, coz plastic gloves make you sweat inside, and the sweat might actually drip out into the food. Hence it is better to make sure your hands are clean. Its not the only activity I can think of that feels better without any protection.


Pieces of butterscotch cookie dough, cut into even pieces, for rolling and baking


Teckiee's Response when Chef Lee told us to go to our respective workstations and replicate the sponge cake and butterscotch cookies that he had just demonstrated.


Look at the chick magnet, Simon Seow. Now that he has appeared with cooking utensils in his hand, do expect a surge in his already numerous pictures with the chicks.


Here I am rolling the butterscotch biscuits in the sweaty palm. They tasted gooodd...

Our sponge cake rose beautifully, BUT to our horror, apparently we (or I) had put salt instead of sugar so our cake tasted like a sea sponge from the Dead Sea. Fortunately, the purpose of the exercise was to make a sponge, which wasn't going to be used anyway. Sorry guys for the boo boo. We should've served it hor, and see if people are polite and go, "ooooh, lovely".....However, we were the first group to complete our culinary task, albeit with the salty sponge, and had we really wanted to, we even had enough time to make a new one, as some of the other groups were still struggling with their stuff.

Finally, after the group work, which was fun, it was back to watching the see foo in action. We have him circumcizing the sponge savioardi biscuits here, so that they have a flat edge that can stand up in the tin, surrounding the tiramisu cake.

Butterscotch cookies and Almond Japonaise (which were premade) were used as bases and middle sections for the mango heaven and butterscotch surprise.





What we have in the collage above is the transformation, much like a bride on her wedding day, of a plain cake, to a decorated cake, in heavy fake non dairy whipping cream, (much like a bride too), to render it beyond recognition from its original form. At this juncture, WMW very kindly suggested to me as she hissed that I learn the art of decoration, as she has always maintained my cakes are hardly fit to look at. Heh heh. But yeah, I could learn a thing or two....
However, I am honestly not fond of rosettes, and non dairy whipping cream as a medium....though I dont mind using chocolate curls and chocolate shavings.

After the cake had been decorated, the paparazzi descended upon it literally like a celebrity bride about to walk down the aisle. Teckiee was very full of tongue on that day, for some strange reason.



The butterscotch surprise was yummy. Not normally a fan of butterscotch per se, I actually found this rather delectable. Went well with the butterscotch cookie beneath, and actually, might have gone well with our salty sponge too.



The blackforest, which had an oreo base, and chocolate sponge in between layers of heavenly boysenberry ice cream, was also superb. I ate it sans the non dairy whipping cream, no point wasting those calories on something that is meant purely as decoration.



The tiramisu ice cream cake was also deeelicious. Oh, hangon, the layer of hokey pokey atop the layer of espresso was far too sweet, in my opinion. But the combination was superb. I would have done the proportions is reverse. ie, more espresso, less hokey pokey. The sponge fingers were purely decorative, another case of not wanting to waste unnecessary calories.



The mango delight was indeed delightful. Refreshing and a bit tart, it would really be a perfect way to end a heavy meal. We also drizzled some bits of pomelo, which was divine. Afterall, as can be seen in chinese restaurants, Mango & Pomelo combo seems to be the craze.

It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon, indulging in delicious ice cream, and having loads of fun with fellow food bloggers. Kudos to the Cooking House for putting together such a workshop.

Personally, I feel that NZN Ice cream is good enough to serve on its own, and would make a delightful dessert for any occasion, but yeah, it is a good idea to use it in cake too. However, be warned, it won't be cheap. I reckon the cost price for the blackforest of that size but be about RM80 or more. COST PRICE okay. But ohhhh soooo goood.