: : Mum-Mum : : Eat-Eat : :

: : 1st Day of CNY : :

This brainless and self-deceiving kid (namely moi) was helping up her Granny put out the CNY goodies for the 1st day of CNY. I’m actually very tickled by the comment to the point I’m still laughing up till now. Just saw it about half an hour ago.

Anyway, back to the goodies. Let’s see : from bottom left clockwise – Indonesian layered cake from the local bakery, pieces of Mandarin oranges, Pandan butter cake, sweetened pieces of dried cuttlefish (red). In the centre was some bak poh @ BBQ-ed pork slices.

From bottom clockwise : kuih bangkit @ white cookies pistacchio (as reminded to me by my ex-boss!) that absolutely melts in your mouth, peanuts and peanut cookies in the shape of miniature curry puffs.

From bottom clockwise : pineapple jam cookies, cheese cookies and kuih makmur that also melts in the mouth.

One of my collegues at work gave me and Granny some dodol from Melaka. The boxes were small and cute! Great as gifts.

The ong lai plant that look good on the table.

Granny : I’m a lucky person! Even when I didn’t jaga (look after) the plant, it still flower and bloom for me leh!

So, that’s all for today from the brainless and self-deceiving kid. Hehehehe!!

(Sorry, I’m just having a good laugh here. Incidently, after speaking to my mother, whatever happened to SHELL’s refinery? Even though most of the crude oil is shipped overseas since it is sweet oil, doesn’t it have enough oil to backup shortages? Ok … enough of Wena doing a Jeff Ooi here.)

Mum : You? Brainless? Self-deceiving? Hahahahaha!

: : Reunion Dinner : :

Wena : Where is kuku (uncle) lah! Hungry lah!

Granny : Dunno leh! Think he go watch movie lah!

Wena : Aiya… can eat first or not ah?

Granny : Can can. Me also hungry lah. But lemme call Kuku first!

Wena : Ok ok ok.

Granny : (on telephone) Wei! Where are you lah! We hungry liaw!

Uncle Cyril : On the way back.

Granny : Hurry hurry ah! (puts down phone). Come! We eat first!

So, we started eating the dinner first. Just felt too darn hungry lah! Granny gets all the credit for doing the cooking. She started to cook everything at around 4 p.m.!

She deep fried a pomfret first. Then, stir-fried some strips of purple onions and ginger with soy sauce. Poured the sauce and onions over the fish. The significance of the fish is that we’ll always have some food leftover to eat!

We also had some fried prawns. She bought the big freshwater prawns which was very very very tasty! Yum! Had 6 pieces. Hee hee! In some years, it was just plain deep fried. Other times, it was good with assam Jawa. Wah!

Wena : Got meaning or not?

Granny : Think so but cannot remember lah!

This is a must : a mixed-vegetable dish. It’s significance is that we’ll always have vegetables to eat throughout the new year.

It was more of the sotong (squid) that had the meaning, rather than the mangkuang. She fried the strips of mangkuang (hikama) with strips of dried squid and pork. One of my favourite meals.

Stir-fried leek with pork and oyster mushroom. A compulsory dish to be eaten if one wants to have money saved this year. Forced to eat this. BUT! Missing this time was the Japanese tauhu. Oh well.

The curry chicken was suppose to be eaten over the next few days but since Uncle Cyril already started having it for lunch, we had a small bowl of it as well.

A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGG pot of kiam chai teng @ salted vegetable soup. Although not as elaborate as the one describe elsewhere, it’s a common soup dish that Granny makes the whole year round. Found out about the article from Uncle Alex’s site (not that I know him personally but it’s good to be polite to elders). I think the nonya restaurant mentioned in the article is the one located next to New Paris Restaurant but can’t remember.

Well, that’s it! Granny and I took a drive to buy some kitchen towels (Granny : Aiya! I bought toilet paper instead lah! Didn’t know mah!) and ended up driving around town. We’re back home now, waiting for another 1 hr 13 min for the firecrackers to go off!

GONG XI FA CHAI!

: : Kong Si Fatt Chai : :

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Got this in the email today. Haha! It sure was funny.

Some monkeying around!

: : Chit Chat with Granny : :

Two weeks ago.

Wena : Wahliaw! Big CNY calendar lah! So shiny somemore!

Granny : Yalah! HOK mah! Bring good good luck for Monkey Year mah!

Wena : Expensive ah?

Granny : Yeah lor! RM20 one! But! Buy one time good enough mah!

Today. Granny came back home late after buying a rice cooker that she wanted so badly.

Wena : Wah! Where you go with pipeman ah? So long one!

Granny : We go 4 1/2 mile to buy rice cooker mah! Special one! Non-stick wor! And small size some more!

Wena : Cheh! Then Ah Tin Kuku (Kuku = Uncle) give one you don’t want anymore ah?

Granny : Haiya! That one rosak (spoilt) already lah! Somemore, too big! This one better!

Wena : Got money yesterday so quickly spend today ah!

Granny : Hee hee hee…

Later on in the evening.

Granny : Eh! Tomorrow too much food lah to eat! Only 3 of us lah!

Wena : Every year you cook a lot lah!

Granny : What to do? Need to eat for good luck one!

Wena : OK ok ok. What we have?

Granny : Kiam chai soup, curry chicken but no santan (coconut milk), duck, fried prawn, fish, mee and 3 different sayur (veggie) lah!

Wena : Wah! How come 3 ah?

Granny : Aiya! Need to eat mah! Got mixed veggie with good good luck luck veggie. Then need to makan (eat) leek. Also, I buy some mangkuang (Chinese turnip) that need to goreng with sotong kering (dried squid). Pork leg stew we do for Chap Goh Mei. Ok?

Wena : Can can. Anything can.

Granny : Also, all the kuih (little cakes) come already lah. But, Uncle Dom’s wife still not yet send the kuih murmur and pineapple tart lah! Haiya!

Wena : Want me to call him?

Granny : No lah! If tak jadi (doesn’t take place), then never mind lah!

Looks like I have to look for kuih murmur elsewhere. Or, try making it one day.

And grace, you temptress you! Now, have to go and buy the mould and try to make it! Cooking is fun when you have an audience at the end of the day! Haha!

: : Kailan & New Stove : :

A gruelling day today and so near CNY. Was thankful to rest my feet and sit down to a nice dinner. We had some kailan.

Add the stem of the Chinese broccoli plant. Was definitely sweet and crunchy. The first time I had this was in Singapore back in 2001 whilst during training. Had never tasted such things before so was very intrigued by the looks. Then, after taking a bite out of it, was immediately addicted to it.

Granny’s new stove. The stove costs about RM200 with an interesting figure : centrifugal flame. There is now more flames than before and it rotates! Scares me quite a bit but Granny was intrigued by the salesman during the Kuching Fest last August that she bought one. The ventilation system, imported from Taiwan, costs RM1000.

Wena : Wah! How to clean the oil ah? Doesn’t look easy.

Granny : Turn this knob and will clean itself lah! Salesman say just turn and when it tings! all done liaw.

Wena : Errr…maybe need to switch power on first?

By turning the knob, lights come on inside that thing. I can only deduce that it heats up the oil so that it drips down towards this small pan. Don’t know if it will work well or not but let’s see what happens. There is also a little story behind the whistling kettle in the picture. I sort of spoilt Granny’s old whistling kettle (that no longer whistles anyway) so had to quickly get her another one before she came back from her holiday. Phew! That was 2 yrs ago. What happened? The plastic knob melted into the kettle, the water dried up and the bottom became discoloured. Don’t ASK!

: : Kailan & New Stove : :

A gruelling day today and so near CNY. Was thankful to rest my feet and sit down to a nice dinner. We had some kailan.

Add the stem of the Chinese broccoli plant. Was definitely sweet and crunchy. The first time I had this was in Singapore back in 2001 whilst during training. Had never tasted such things before so was very intrigued by the looks. Then, after taking a bite out of it, was immediately addicted to it.

Granny’s new stove. The stove costs about RM200 with an interesting figure : centrifugal flame. There is now more flames than before and it rotates! Scares me quite a bit but Granny was intrigued by the salesman during the Kuching Fest last August that she bought one. The ventilation system, imported from Taiwan, costs RM1000.

Wena : Wah! How to clean the oil ah? Doesn’t look easy.

Granny : Turn this knob and will clean itself lah! Salesman say just turn and when it tings! all done liaw.

Wena : Errr…maybe need to switch power on first?

By turning the knob, lights come on inside that thing. I can only deduce that it heats up the oil so that it drips down towards this small pan. Don’t know if it will work well or not but let’s see what happens. There is also a little story behind the whistling kettle in the picture. I sort of spoilt Granny’s old whistling kettle (that no longer whistles anyway) so had to quickly get her another one before she came back from her holiday. Phew! That was 2 yrs ago. What happened? The plastic knob melted into the kettle, the water dried up and the bottom became discoloured. Don’t ASK!