Chor 2 of CNY

This time our second day of the Chinese New Year was a bit more hectic. The lion dance was expected to arrive at 11am. So here are the 2 "workers" with their "supervisor":

I woke up early as I planned to add the flour to the seung wan yuen but when I got down, Tiger Chim Poh was already working on it. She said that she was fine doing it. I took over for the last 10 or so, as she needed to go out to pick up with pork. 

Here is our family favourite, the seung wan yuen:

Mei-mei helped Yvonne Kor-kor to set up the basket which I had prepared the night before for the lion dance. You added the "gold ingots" and flowers:

Finally the lion dance troupe arrives. Coming into our house:

Offering prayers to the alter/ancestors:

The "band":

Sneaked a wefie with daddy:

Everyone busy videoing the dance:

The lion climbing up the pole for the lettuce and ang pow which daddy had  hung:

The other lion "preparing" the "gift":

Ta-da.. it rearranged the fruits in the basket:

When the troupe left, it was time for lunch. Our customary shredded chicken and scallop porridge:

Soon Ashley Kor-kor and Uncle Dennis arrived with Smoky. After a short rest, it was time to fry the chu yoke yuen (it takes a long time to fry up all 200+). The first few also needed to be taste tested.. guess who is our official taste tester for this year? (This is a hot job with many willing volunteers! *grin*)

3 hard at work: shaper, stirrer and picker

And again, here is our amazing dinner spread:

While daddy and Ashkey Kor-kor sent the maid home then went in search for ice, everyone at home started "happy hour":

When they arrived home, we let go of the last fireworks. It was drizzling, but we were again feted with the spectacular fireworks:

The lasted later tonight.. even Smoky had fun.. here he is with his "favourite" snack provider:

Welcome! Year of the Rabbit

This year, we had woke up to a leisurely start of the Chinese New Year. The lion dance which is usually on the first day is to only visit the house on the second day. So we woke up, had a slow breakfast and then got ready (i.e. shower, make up, dress up).

For Mei-mei, you were given an assignment "To serve tea to her parents". So we took a cup of tea to the living room and prepared for the "ceremony". Daddy was shocked when you kneeled down to serve him tea. But that was what was apparently taught/briefed to you at school before the holidays. So we went ahead with that: 

Serving daddy's tea

Then time to give out ang pows:

Family picture

Then we went to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Kor Poh already had the soup starting (or done..), Yvonne Kor-kor fried the eggs, I cooked the mee suah and Mei-mei cut and squeezed the lime for the chilies:

Always so delicious

Did I tell you that we seem to have a very relaxed Chor Yat this year? Well, we were sitting around the kitchen, and as we started to prepare for dinner, I took out the fruits to cut for our lou sang. What did I have to do? Break a mug and cut my foot! So daddy had to clean my wound, kakak had to sweep the floor and Doctor Chek Kong had to come earlier to clean and dress the wound. So my doctor gave me an "MC" from the kitchen for the day. The rest of the family including the 3 girls who were not cooking helped to cut and make our rabbit lou sang.

This was the rabbit

After my wound was covered, I hobbled to the kitchen to check out the lou sang. Slightly tweaked it and we're ready for dinner. Here is our dinner spread:

Lou Ahhhhh...

And of course our night entertainment were playing fireworks (big and small ones):

I wasn't ready for the big fireworks.. only got a partial recording.

Headed back to the house where the kids entertained themselves and the adults dared each other to try out Ah Chor's antique wine.. (claimed to be deer pen*s wine)

Can you see the contents clearly?

And so that is how our first day of CNY ended. 

CNY Eve

The eve has finally arrived. We spent the morning eating whatever leftover or kuih and cake and cookies there were in the house. Then we continued to julienne and cut up the rest of the vegetables for popiah. Lunch was roasted pork bone porridge. 

Later daddy and I worked to blend up the sesame, peanuts and melon sugar for the seung wan yuen. 

Urgh.. it was a mountain to shape into balls! Luckily Kor Poh came to my rescue. 

Done! Albeit larger in size than it should be

Soon it was time for daddy to put his muscles to work.. help to mix up all the ingredients. 

Working with 2 supervisors

Such hard work

Dinner was served. We started eating at around 6.15pm. Poor kiddies had to wait for the stew that Yvonne Kor-kor was cooking. Mei-mei seemed to enjoy it. 

Popiah!! Yummy!!

Later in the evening, the kiddies went to the garden to play with the variety of little fireworks that daddy and Ah Pek had bought. Then we brought out the big guns... 

Ipoh! Here we come!!

Since Ko-ko didn't want to travel to Ipoh yesterday night, we agreed to leave the house at 7am. But of course, by the time everyone was ready, we left the house at 7.30am. Luckily there was no school, so there was no jam at the traffic lights nearby. We wanted to try our luck to buy Char Kuey Tiau. While daddy checked the tyre pressure, I tried calling one of our usual shops. He was selling for the day still... but not yet open. We attempted to drive to another shop near to Super Tanker.. but the traffic there was standstill because of the nearby market. So we gave up and headed to the bridge to begin our drive back to Ipoh.

We took a slow drive as we were transporting fireworks and heavily loaded boot. When we finally arrived in Ipoh, we offloaded all the stuff then we leave Mei-mei at home and headed to Jaya Grocer to pick up the other things needed for the house: drinking water, beer, lemon, etc. We decided to try our luck at the Chee Cheong Fun stall and it was open! Hopped down to buy several packets.

These old men.. so busy yet so friendly

We had our curry mee lunch and rested a bit. Soon it was time to start work in the kitchen. 

This kid.. came to help for all of 5 minutes then ran away to play with Martin

Daddy was also busy fixing all the stuff that needed to fix, the lantern, the soap holder in the bathroom, whatever lighting and wiring around the house. 

Dinner was delicious fried noodles and fried rice from Tong Hoi. Jack Min Ah Pek and family also arrived just on time with yam cake made by Ah Mm.. 

Later that night they all went out to buy some BBQ chicken for supper.

Can tell by the expression how yummy it is

Reunion Dinner in BM

This year, we decided to dine out for the reunion dinner with the Yeoh's. So I booked a room at Daorae in Icon City. It was not too crowded, and we got to pick the larger room. Daddy ordered 2 of the sets and even wanted to add some lamb, but our nice server said to hold that lamb order and eat what we have first. It was good advice. We were all too full from the 2 sets, and he even packed up the kimchi soup we had. We were even given free tteokbokki (which we also packed home). 

Family picture.. missing your 2 uncles

Our super yummy stew with noodles and many plates of banchan

Gurney Plaza's CNY Decoration

We decided to take a drive to Gurney Plaza in search for some new clothes (to no avail). Also took this opportunity to take pictures with the beautiful decorations there:

Lucky Day

After dropping Ko-ko at tuition on Friday evening, we decided head over to Mercato in Island Plaza in hopes of finding more ciabatta for our sandwich day on Saturday. When we were done shopping, you decided that you needed to pee. On our way to the toilets, you reminisced about the time daddy won you toys from the "claw machine".

On our way back, daddy decided to give it a try. We put in RM6 for 3 tries but daddy failed to get the pink unicorn. He said that he was down to the last RM2 and this would be the last try.. and luck was with you (or him)... The unicorn tipped into the chute and you were rewarded:

Picture with your latest toy

Introducing "Sparkles"... I think you have renamed her "Precious Sparkles"

Having chee cheong fun for lunch

She follows you up and down and you have declared her to be your "travel bolster" which you would be bringing to Ipoh (and wherever we travel to). 

Eating Out

Ah Ma said that she wanted to treat us to lunch at Din Tai Fung. And as it was a replacement public holiday, Gurney Plaza was quite full. By the time we reached the restaurant, there was a queue outside. As usual, the inside was not full, but there was still a queue. Nevertheless, the waitress was polite, inquiring on how many people were dining, and even gave us the menu and order form up front so that we could decide on what we wanted while waiting to be seated. She had also explained that they were short of staff, hence they could not seat us.

We gave her our order form and were finally seated. Our food arrived shortly and it was nice. We had to add another portion of noodles as they were rather small. The waiter told me it would be a 15 minute wait, but in the end, I think we got our noodles in less than 10 minutes. 

Xiao Long Pau

Photo for daddy, who didn't join us today

Happy New Year 2023

It seems like the celebrations are still on-going. Today is another delicious meal cooked by daddy and Ah Ma. We had a simple Japanese meal at home. There was steak, prawns, vegetables, garlic and a little piece of salmon.  

Dinner

Mine with Japanese soju

Our family picture around the table before dinner

New Year's Eve

We spent the day taking down the Christmas tree. Mei-mei helped me remove the ornaments while Ko-ko and daddy went for a haircut. Then when the boys came back, we put away the branches and tree. Daddy was in a CNY mood.. so he very efficiently put up the lights. lanterns and "ang chai" at our front door. Mei-mei was tasked to put up the 2 rabbits we bought as well as hang more decorations on the cherry blossom tree (beginning to feel like our Christmas tree!!)

For dinner, we managed to get the beef bacon, so Spaghetti Carbonara it is for dinner.. Yummy. Mei-mei was the garlic bread maker.. 

Our dinner

We planned to have a cheese + sausage platter to usher in the new year. While waiting for midnight, we watched a movie and at 11pm, Ko-ko started to prepare the cheese and helped me fry the sausages. While the plan was to start at 12, we started savouring the platter once it was ready... around 11.20 pm! My oh my, you sharks.. just inhaled the food.. and us the Prosecco *grin*

Well, I guess it does count as a "New Year Platter" since we only finally cleared the board totally after 12am... 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023!!