Ramming into 2015: The reunion

Actually, this is the lunar new year eve but don't the celebrations truly begin on the eve? This year, it fell on a Wednesday and I decided to take off. The best feeling is when turning off the alarm. To be awoken naturally and not by external forces on a weekday is the best ever feeling. Sometimes I do miss following the Malaysian public holiday calendar but when I think about the allowance, I'd give it up altogether.Plus, it's not like I have any other better things to do than just sleep the holiday away T_T

I made these pineapple tarts and arranged them neatly in a biscuit box. Don't they look nice? ^_^

Traditional Chinese lanterns. Compared to my parents', my own abode is quite barren, devoid of any festive signs.

I dub this the carbs corner as the biscuits are all stacked up. Can you spot the ones I made? Actually, I made only 2 biscuits this year which is quite a step up from one.

Could you guess what these are? It is a Chinese delicacy that as been unfortunately featured on Fear Factor. The Chinese in me feels slightly offended/sad that one of my favorites things are scorned with disgust.

Obviously, you'll need to clean the outer mask off first. You could remove the bag and scrape the dirt off with a fork/spoon/knife. As I don't like to dirty my hands, I scraped it off in the bag itself. Once done, just remove the egg from the bag and throw the bag away. No fuss, no dirt.

Hand it to your mother to do the rest =D Clean the egg with running water to remove the dirt off the shell.

Don't crack the shell too much as it'll be difficult to remove later. Yes, it is century egg. Best with porridge or on its own.

The best ones are imported from China but those are banned. These were locally made and didn't have that runny yolk. Trust me, it's awesome.

Every year, my aunt will make her own special blend of chilli sauce. All of them pairs well with a particular dish and we all love our chilli hot.

A CNY must-have dish: vegetarian dish. A direct translation from Cantonese, zhai choi. Every year without fail, my aunt would cook this and she makes it like the original.

Another must-have dish: prawn. It doesn't matter how it's cooked as long as there's prawn because prawn sounds like laughter in Cantonese. Yes, I am partly Cantonese.
This was cooked in tomato sauce with chilli, a crowd pleaser.

Fish maw stir fried with pineapple, chilli and onion in tomato sauce.  This was contributed by my aunt's partner.

An overall sweet dish, we all like how the fish maw absorbed the sweet gravy. Did you know that fish maw is a Chinese delicacy? It's supposedly a good source of collagen, something that I could make use of as it contributes to youthfulness and skin buoyancy.

Roast pork from my brother-in-law, the Englishman. Thankfully, this was made in Oriental style with a five spice blend on pork belly. It turned out surprisingly well.

Roast sweet pork was from my sister. Using those pre-made marinade, it lacked the sweetness and caramelization that you usually get with char siew. 

Lotus root pork soup. I love soups in general. It might have been ingrained in my Cantonese genes. The funny thing is my Teochew genes are supposed to be the dominant one. Maybe it's my upbringing by my late grandmother who was Cantonese. Each meals would be accompanied by a soup. Chinese soups are healthier than its western counterpart which often includes cream, milk and all things that'll break your diet.

This one was quite flavorful as my mother added dried oyster, abalone and squid to sweeten the soup more. To my horrors, my parents actually throw away all that and the meat away. That's really the best part of them. Thankfully, they (the leftover meat) are now sitting in my freezer as they fit in nicely with my protein diet.

Steamed fish. For the gravy, my father added tomatoes, chopped red chilli and fried bacon. Yes, bacon. Unfortunately, the fish wasn't very fresh. Otherwise it would have been a very great dish. This year, my father didn't deviate far from the traditional path with his cooking (much to our delight).

Reunion dinner is served =D
Looking at this picture, I realized I missed out on two dishes: the stir fried snow peas, carrot & chicken and fried pork patty. Still, it was a great dinner, one that I thoroughly enjoyed and well worth the week long starvation. Well, I didn't exactly not eat for an entire week, just munched on very small portions of oats, (microwaved) scrambled egg and coffee and milo. It turned out to be a good decision because I gained 3kg over the course of 3days. Sigh.

Time to crunch again.