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8/2/09, Sunday - On the second last day of Chinese New Year, I headed to my First Uncle's house for dinner. His wife whom I addressed Auntie Esther cooked up a storm for all us.
Here were the dishes:
Duck Curry. Auntie Esther told us that this dish is actually a Myanmar dish and her maid, who happens to be a Myanmar national, cooked this dish. Since I seldom eat duck, I only ate the potato.
Braised Pork Belly with Boiled Egg. As you know, I don't really take Pork Belly so I chose the boiled egg.
Prawns in Tomato Sauce.
Minced Pork with Mushrooms.
Stewed Chicken in Black Sauce and Prunes. Apparently, this was one of Auntie Esther's new creation where she infused sweet prunes into this dish. It didn't really tasted funny as a result of the combination between sweet and savoury. Instead, the chicken meat was really soft.
This was my plate. As I was hungry, I had a second serving of the above dishes minus the rice.
Yet again, the Chinese New Year is going to end soon. Although it seemed like there isn't any festive atmosphere this year, I do hope I could feel the atmosphere next year.
7/2/09, Saturday - Three days before the Chinese New Year comes to a close (read: sad), I had a Chinese new Year lunch (again!) with my maternal relatives at Zhou Kitchen at Square Two.
There were a few plates of Keropok (crackers) on the table and I believed the flavour was prawn. My cousin, Wen urged me to try dipping the Keropok with the given sweet chilli sauce was also on the table. I dipped it with apprehension of course, and surprisingly, it was really good.
Our first course was Seafood soup with chunks of fresh prawns swimming inside the brown broth. Something different from the usual Shark Fin's soup.
The second dish was Broccoli with Mushrooms and Abalone. Sadly, the abalone was a small one. Didn't get enough of it. Hah!
Then, the Steamed Fish course arrived in designated small bowls. One of my cousins actually loved the sauce of this dish.
The fourth course was the usual Crispy Chicken. It was nothing special about this dish.
While we were at this dish, some of us were discussing about wasabi which is called horseradish and it can be found in most of the Japanese food. My little nephew, Brandon is often tricked into eating this green wasabi thing because the colour resembles green tea. So anyway, as we polishing our chicken dish, the next dish happened to be Deep-fried Prawns with Wasabi Cream.
The flavour wasn't really strong enough to cause my nose to drip. Instead, it was quite mild.
The second last dish was the Glutinous Rice fried with Chinese Sausages. It seemed that I have been eating this dish throughout this Chinese New Year's period.
Finally, the dessert was a Lemon Sorbet with Jelly. The sorbet was soft and sweet. It reminds me of our local Ice Kacang.
After our heavy lunch, all of us headed to my fifth uncle's place for tea and a game of mahjong. Then for tomorrow, it would be my first uncle's place where he will host dinner for us. More food pictures!
1/02/09, Sunday - Day Seven of CNY signifies "Ren Ri" which means it is everyone's birthday. I kinda forgot what is the real meaning behind it but I guess everyone knew that day seven is everyone's birthday. My mum cooked seven kinds of vegetable for everyone in my family to eat before we had our dinner at Peach Garden Restaurant (yes, again).
This time, we had all the relatives (my dad's side) having this dinner with us. Yet again, we had our Fa Cai Yusheng. I didn't take this picture as I had taken it previously. But the rest of the dinner course was different from yesterday. Our soup was different as well. We had Braised Baby Superior Shark Fin's with Bamboo Pith in Golden Broth. I'm not sure how superior the shark fin was but the soup wasn't that fantastic.
Then we had the Crispy Chicken which I tried my best to attack my favourite chicken wing first before the rest of the people take it. Hah!
And the Sweet and Sour Garoupa which was being sliced up before I could take a good picture on that.
Speaking of taking food photos, I was trying my best to take all these pictures before everyone starts to dig in and most of relatives were nice enough to allow me to take the pictures firsthand.
This was the Stir-fried Prawn with Fresh Scallop, Celery and Walnut. I do love the crispy noodle which double acted as a basket. I just help munching on those.
By this time, most of us at the table were struggling with our next course that was Fried Glutinous Rice with Chinese Sausages.
Finally, our dessert arrived. We had something hot today than some chilled desserts. Double-boiled Red Dates Tea with Glutinous Rice Ball was what they called it. The soup was sweet and the rice ball was the sesame flavour - my favourite.
Unfortunately, people from the next table (the older generation) couldn't finish some and they passed it on to us when we were all struggling. So we tried our best to finish everything, with struggles of course.
30/1/09, Saturday - On this day, all my relatives from my mum's side came to our place for a visit. Thus, we have to clean the house and prepare some food for their arrival. My mum kindly cooked slices of 'nian gao' (means new year's sticky cake) with an egg batter. She would pan-fried it and soon, the cake would be soft and chewy. Yummy! Most of my relatives were often looking forward to eat slices of those with either tea or coffee.
For dinner, we headed down to Peach Garden Restaurant at Thomson Plaza. Before we entered into the restaurant, I happened to see Tay Ping Hui, a Mediacorp actor walking in opposite direction. Immediately, I nudged my mother who was looking elsewhere. Once I notified her, her head instantly turned to his walking direction. He is really tall. But he didn't smile at us or something. Maybe I'm too small for him to notice. Hah!
When we sat down on our designated table, two plates of oranges and sweet walnuts were placed on top of the table for us to munch on before the commencement of the dinner.
Once we gathered everyone on the table, our first dish finally arrived. Guess what, it was Fa Cai Yusheng again! (yes, again!) We mixed the Chinese Salad again. But what was interesting about this particular yusheng was that there were slices of crispy lotus.
Our second course arrived after the Yusheng. It was Double-boiled Shark's Bone Cartilage Soup with Shark's Fin and Tien Shin Cabbage. What a long title! Looking at the creamy soup, I reckoned it was a very nourishing soup since it was double-boiled.
The third course was Crispy Roast Duck. It was succulent and filled with fragrance. My cousin, Shuyang loved it.
This was my favourite dish - Deep-fried Fillet of Sea Perch with "Nonya" sauce. It was a really big piece of fish and the meat was moist and soft. The sweet and spicy sauce was fantastic. This was so much better than Fish and Chips.
The fifth course belonged to Braised Pig's Trotter with "Fa Cai". I only ate the meat and not the soft and rubbery fats. I gave it a pass.
Then came the Stewed Spinach Noodle with Live Prawn and Minced Meat Sauce. The noodle came in green colour but the noodle, which resembled our local, Mee Kia, tasted soft and less chewy.
Lastly, the desserts. We were given three kinds of dessert - one, their signature's and Nian GaoWater Chestnut Pudding. The nian gao tasted different from how my mum's cooked it and the pudding was really good. Wish I could have more.
The other dessert was Chilled Jelly Royale with Queball. However, I didn't take any pictures on that.
27/01/09, Tuesday - According to the Chinese New Year traditions, the second day was supposed be the day for married daughters to return home to visit their own families. My family used to visit my maternal grandmother many years on this day before my late grandmother passed away six years ago. So instead of visiting my grandmother's house, we visited my second uncle's (my mum's second brother) place. We went there early as the older generation were all gearing up for a game of mahjong. As the next day was a school day, I brought my work to do. Bah!
For dinner, my second auntie cooked up a storm. But before the dinner commences, we had our usual Fa Cai Yusheng (again!).
This time round, we had more people than the first day. We mixed the Yusheng as words of good fortune were coming from everyone's mouths. I never failed to enjoy mixing the Yusheng as this dish can be termed as the Chinese's version of salad. Now for the main dishes, there was mutton curry.
The lovely pan-fried pork chops. I remember when I was young, I would love to eat this kind of pork chops with my hands till there wasn't any meat left in the bone. 
Then, there was Sambal Chicken or Curry Chicken.
My auntie's latest creation or recipe, Mango Prawns. Initially, I thought it was pumpkin prawns.
The greens - Vegetables with Baby Abalone. Aren't they cute?
Lastly, the venomous and unhealthy Kong Ba (means, Fatty Pork Belly) which goes perfectly well with steaming buns. No, I didn't eat that of course.
This was my plate, filled with each of the above, except for the Kong Ba and Pan-fried pork chops. I have been eating less these days due to my health. But I guess eating in moderation is better.
Oone of the main highlights or rather the attention wasn't on the food, but it was on my two lovely and naughty niece, Chloe and her elder brother, Brandon. The latter has grown up so fast and began to look really handsome; whereas, Chloe is still as lovely as ever. With them around, there won't be any peace.
26/01/09, Monday - On the first day of Chinese New Year, my family had a good rest. We didn't do any cleaning and as my parents were traditional, we didn't do any housework at all on this day. So what we did was munching on the goodies such as pineapple tarts and love letters.
Speaking of pineapple tarts, this is the best pineapple tarts which I have ever tasted! Every year, I look forward to eat these pineapple tarts which are homemade by my auntie' friend. Apparently, I learnt from my auntie that she had to beg this friend of hers to make at least two bottles of these lovely pineapple tarts because making this particular goodie is a definite sheer hard work. Currently, the status quo of these pineapple tarts is finishing real fast. I think in two days time, it will be all gone!
On the other hand, my dad also bought a box of pineapple tarts from Bee Cheng Hiang. I'm not sure how much it costs. After tasting a few of those, my mum felt that these weren't that bad except for the fact that the pineapple filling is a little artificial.
After our morning breakfast, we went out for a walk in Botanic Garden. Well, it has been our family tradition for 5 years now that we go for a walk in a garden on the first day of Chinese New Year. Along the way, I managed to capture a picture of a swan swimming lazily on a big pond.
In the mid afternoon, my relatives from my paternal side came over to my place for a visit. We played mahjong, eat and drink merrily on this festive season where we are able to gather once in a year. So my second auntie who is very good in cooking came to help my mum with the cooking.
She whipped up this lovely vegetables with abalone.
Stir-fried leeks with tanghoon.
And lastly, she cooked this sweet and sour fish. Most of them ate up most of the fish before I can capture a good one on this.
This is one of my mum's speciality - Stewed Duck.
Before the dinner, all of us did a traditional thing - mixing of yusheng (raw fish salad). But instead of raw fish, we substituted it with abalone because some of us don't really like eating raw fish.
This was the beginning state of the Yusheng. It may unapetitising. But once it's mixed, it tasted really good.
This was how it looked like after we mixed it.
It was really fun to meet up with my cousins, uncles and aunties as we chatted, played and ate through the night in this once in a year festival.
25/01/09, Sunday - On the eve of the Big Day which was Chinese New Year (CNY), I found myself busying spring cleaning my entire house with my parents. Honestly, I don't really like spring cleaning because it just means giving out my entire strength and energy out for 12 hours non-stop. So true enough, I went on spring cleaning my house for about 12 hours till the clock strikes twelve which signified the start of a new day.
Anyway, for my reunion dinner with my parents, we had steamboat. It was nothing fanciful, just warmth and lovely food to go with the chicken broth. As you can see from this picture, there were some vegetables floating on the soup. It is called Tang-O. It tasted really well with steamboat actually.
My mum sliced up some fish, pork, prawns and abalone as the main dishes.
Then there were some simple straw mushrooms.
My favourite fishballs which my dad bought early in the morning. At the side of it was sea cucumber.
Lastly, my mum cut up some leeks as another alternative as vegetables.
Not forgetting, my parents did ordered a Roast Pork in a real pig form for this festival and man, I think it tastes like pork though I haven't tried it yet. Hah! It's amazing to see how the seller decorated the pig beautifully before sending it to us.
Since this is going to be a Chinese New Year Edition, the next few posts will be updated daily with the food I ate during this festive season. So look out for it!
Braised Pork Belly with Boiled Egg. As you know, I don't really take Pork Belly so I chose the boiled egg.
Prawns in Tomato Sauce.
Minced Pork with Mushrooms.
Stewed Chicken in Black Sauce and Prunes. Apparently, this was one of Auntie Esther's new creation where she infused sweet prunes into this dish. It didn't really tasted funny as a result of the combination between sweet and savoury. Instead, the chicken meat was really soft.
This was my plate. As I was hungry, I had a second serving of the above dishes minus the rice.
Yet again, the Chinese New Year is going to end soon. Although it seemed like there isn't any festive atmosphere this year, I do hope I could feel the atmosphere next year.
