One of my favorite holidays on the calendar is Chinese New Year because of the great food that brings everyone together. :)
This Lunar New Year, I had two Reunion meals. One with the Lim's and one with the relatives from my Dad's side. It was late lunch early reunion dinner over at boyfriend's place and it was also the first time I was having this auspicious meal with his family. I remembered his mother emphasizing the $100 abalone so it was an honor to be able to be a part of the dinner that evening! After which, I had to rush off to join the Ferrao's for the usual Reunion steamboat dinner. By then I was still stuffed from the meal with the Lim's before, so I ended up drinking the soup more than actually cooking any food. I liked the mini tangerines for dessert though, because it kept me awake with it's sweetness and I think I unknowingly continuously pealed and popped three into my mouth. Yum!
It was the first day of Chinese New Year the day after and I was already looking forward to our usual Peranakan lunch with relatives from my Mom's side. Lunch that day consisted of my two favorite dishes: Buah keluak and Hee Peow soup. Fantastic authentic home made Nonya food!
Also because everyone was present during lunch, my Aunt decided to have a pre-birthday celebration for my cousin Ben as his birthday was in 3 days. Already being stuffed from lunch, we each had a slice of Japanese cheese cake. Luckily it was light and easy to digest!
Like there wasn't enough food on the table already. For tea, Mom and I served the 'agar agar' we made when we stayed up the night before. This year, we made two types, one with a flower mold and another with a fish mold. Mom says it stands for 年年有鱼. Following the sweet dessert, you can never go wrong with a cuppa and and some CNY goodies. My favorite cookies this year were the Bengawan Solo corn flakes cookies!
After a satisfying lunch, I headed to Tampines meet Dear and his ex classmates. They were gathered at one of Dear's female best friend's place which was located at the estate of my previous home in Tampines, oh it brought back lots of childhood memories. When I arrived, they were in the middle of a hot pot lunch. I was still too full to join till only later at night when they had a second round. That night, it was the first night I got to 'lou hei' and teach some of the newbies how to play poker. But ironically because I was soo shy with a new group of acquaintances, I didn't join in the game. But occasionally I would count boyfriend's poker chips because that's what I've been good at doing, he claims. LOL.
Samantha (middle), was the host of the house
The next day, I met up with Jovene plus a couple of my ex colleagues from the OC for lunch. In other words, it was us taking a break of CNY visitation and probably the last meal in a long time as one of them leaves to go back for school at Aussie. Lunch was at OChre @ Orchard Central's 11 floor rooftop dinning. It was a semi-fine dining Italian restaurant and we were the only ones there as it was the last order for lunch.
I had the simplest food on the menu, bolognese, just because I didn't know what to eat after I've done soo much damage to my stomach the past few days.
Looking on a brighter side, we all agreed that it was a break off asian food for that day. Our meal included free flow facacia and mushroom bread with vinegar and olive oil, and two oven baked thin crust pizzas we shared for appetizer.
I visited Orchard Central twice that week, once again on Friday when I took cousin Ben out for late lunch at Tonkichi. It was a post birthday treat from me. Tonkatsu with cold Soba for him and Unagi Egg with Pork hot plate for me.
Luckily we were located in town, so while strolling and window shopping down Orchard, I was able to digest the food because a few hours later, I rushed down for Annual CNY Tempanyaki dinner with the boyfriend and friends at the Lentor Pad. It was my first time having a homely dinner with the whole group plus their girlfriends because usually we'd all meet outside to dine or they were more of bf's poker buddies to me. But that night, we sat around the table, cooked and shared food with each other, joked and laughed and definitely revealed a whole lot of skeletons in the closets. By that I mean tricks they played on each other during secondary school etc. Hysterical memories :) The night ended with a short two hour poker game where once again I sat down next to dear and counted his poker chips.
Saturday the 20th of February was Chu Xi or Ren Ri, where the Chinese celebrate the event of everybody's birthday. The Lim's catered a buffet dinner at home and invited his Dad's side of the family. Only till that night did I discover that his side of the family consisted of about ten siblings, including himself. Oh my! But not everybody was present that night, so I haven't really got around to meet all of them. For those who were present that night, I was introduced by my Dear and the parents as Keong's girlfriend. And because my hokkien and mandarin was atrocious, my mode of communication to them was to nod, shake hands and wish them 'xin nian kuai le'. HAHAHA. Since it was everybody's birthday, they ordered a 2KG cake and sang a birthday song, how cute. Oh, and it was my second 'lou hei' that night too.
On right: A picture taken with Keong's cousins with the blooming pussy willows in the background, spot them?
Towards midnight when everybody left, we drove down to Old school Timbre to meet my dearest Wifey and company. The weather has been too hot and humid these days that I decided I needed some beer to cool me down. Too bad it was past their last order but the waiter was nice to make a tiny exception and offered boyfriend some bottled beers, while I gulped Pam's unfinished Erdinger. Yes I literally gulped it down because spontaneously, someone magically booked a room at K*Suites @ Illuma for the birthday girl-to-be which is none other than my Wifey, Pamela!
HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAREST WIFEY!
and yes, you are a year older today! =P
Following a lil' pre-birthday celebration for the lady, I treated her to dinner at Sushi Tei @ Big Splash ECP last night. Did you know there was a Sushi Tei there anyway? HAHA, yes it is hidden next to Indian Times. After asking around, secluded and covered by some trees in a corner, we found it! We started to order and I remember counting the dishes and asking Pam if we over ordered. Her reply, "We didn't order carbo so should be fine." LOL YEAH RIGHT?!
I think just by mentioning what we ordered or just by looking at all the food makes me feel full again! Okay, we might have unintentionally inherited this 'over ordering disease' from the men in our lives.
Salmon Roe and belly platter, Fried prawn and Unagi sushi (very nice presented by the way), Spicy beef hot pot, Soft shell crab, Agedashi Tofu, Mixed Tempura and Saba fish. All this for two! Bill added up to almost $100, but it was an excellent meal all worth it!
Day two of CNY landed us at my grand aunty's place for another round of makan!
CNY lunch at my grand aunt's always means Do-It-Yourself Popiah, Pigs trotters and Rendang.
CNY lunch at my grand aunt's always means Do-It-Yourself Popiah, Pigs trotters and Rendang.
It takes a lot of work to prepare the popiah ingredients but my grand aunt still has the skillz. She even spoiled us this year by cooking sharks fin soup. This year I managed to eat only three popiahs, couldn't remember how many I ate last year but nothing beats rolling your own popiah for sure! Even my twin cousins loved it.
After a satisfying lunch, I headed to Tampines meet Dear and his ex classmates. They were gathered at one of Dear's female best friend's place which was located at the estate of my previous home in Tampines, oh it brought back lots of childhood memories. When I arrived, they were in the middle of a hot pot lunch. I was still too full to join till only later at night when they had a second round. That night, it was the first night I got to 'lou hei' and teach some of the newbies how to play poker. But ironically because I was soo shy with a new group of acquaintances, I didn't join in the game. But occasionally I would count boyfriend's poker chips because that's what I've been good at doing, he claims. LOL.
Samantha (middle), was the host of the house
I had the simplest food on the menu, bolognese, just because I didn't know what to eat after I've done soo much damage to my stomach the past few days.
I visited Orchard Central twice that week, once again on Friday when I took cousin Ben out for late lunch at Tonkichi. It was a post birthday treat from me. Tonkatsu with cold Soba for him and Unagi Egg with Pork hot plate for me.
Saturday the 20th of February was Chu Xi or Ren Ri, where the Chinese celebrate the event of everybody's birthday. The Lim's catered a buffet dinner at home and invited his Dad's side of the family. Only till that night did I discover that his side of the family consisted of about ten siblings, including himself. Oh my! But not everybody was present that night, so I haven't really got around to meet all of them. For those who were present that night, I was introduced by my Dear and the parents as Keong's girlfriend. And because my hokkien and mandarin was atrocious, my mode of communication to them was to nod, shake hands and wish them 'xin nian kuai le'. HAHAHA. Since it was everybody's birthday, they ordered a 2KG cake and sang a birthday song, how cute. Oh, and it was my second 'lou hei' that night too.
On right: A picture taken with Keong's cousins with the blooming pussy willows in the background, spot them?
HAPPY 23rd BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAREST WIFEY!
and yes, you are a year older today! =P
The Wifey and her Hubb-ies
I think just by mentioning what we ordered or just by looking at all the food makes me feel full again! Okay, we might have unintentionally inherited this 'over ordering disease' from the men in our lives.
Salmon Roe and belly platter, Fried prawn and Unagi sushi (very nice presented by the way), Spicy beef hot pot, Soft shell crab, Agedashi Tofu, Mixed Tempura and Saba fish. All this for two! Bill added up to almost $100, but it was an excellent meal all worth it!
I bet even the waiters stood around to watch us as eat as we did great justice to the food in front of us. They were probably placing bets to see if these two scrony lil' women were able to fit even 3/4 of all that food in their stomachs. LOL. But we did! After dinner, we both agreed that we can only do this once in a very long time, maybe just once a year on our birthdays? Feeling super stuffed at the end of the meal, we decided to 'walk it out'. About an hour walk down ECP allowed us to digest our food before we decided to head back home for an early night.
Wouldn't you just say that I've committed a serious sin of gluttony these two weeks?
FOOD, makes me happy especially if it's with great company! But overindulging sure makes me very guilty! ;)
Wouldn't you just say that I've committed a serious sin of gluttony these two weeks?
FOOD, makes me happy especially if it's with great company! But overindulging sure makes me very guilty! ;)
