Happy Valentine

Guys, if you are married, chances are your wives will be like me and tell you not to be silly to spend so much $ but deep down inside she's longing for you to show 'ain't no costs high enough' as far as she's concerned. So, like it or not, BUY HER FLOWERS, *****.


Fresh cream durian Valentine's Cake with durian custard topping, made last night.

Khong Aunty's Prosperity Soup

Looks like I put a handful of hair into the soup??

My friend Khong's mom used to cook the family a special fatt choy soup for CNY. Upto that point (more than 10 years ago), I had never heard of fatt choy soup because we ate fatt choy as a stew instead. Since then I have cooked fatt choy soup only a couple of times on CNY so it makes it all the more special.

I was told that black moss (called fatt choy in Cantonese, which also sounds like 'to prosper') has been found to have some toxins that can attack the nervous system (is that why my motor skills are so bad today? I kept typing 'p' instead of 'o') so it is a good thing we only eat it once in a few years. Maybe it is wiser not to add the moss to the soup because it has no particular flavor at all. The other thing about black moss is that it is found in the wilds of Mongolia, making it very rare and expensive. Which means the black moss we eat may not be the real thing, because at RM300 per kg, it really is not expensive as it is light as air.

Ming, a soup lover, took a sip of this soup last night and said "Perfect!" I was surprised that even Wey drank half a bowl. Some may not like it because the dried oysters will give the soup a fishy smoky flavor and the addition of so many ingredients makes it a delicious but rich and heavy soup. I could only manage one bowl.



Khong Aunty's Prosperity Soup

1 kg pork bones, washed & fat trimmed off
1 handful black moss, soaked & washed well
6 to 8 large dried oysters, soaked
10 dried chinese mushrooms, soaked
1/2 cup peeled gingko nuts
1 cup sliced sea cucumber (optional)
1/2 pkt dried beancurd sticks, soaked till soft, in 6 cm lengths
1 cup peeled water chestnuts
10 red dates, soaked & washed
2 thin slices ginger
salt and white pepper to taste

1. Blanch the pork bones with plenty of boiling water to get rid of any dirt and smell. Put bones into a large pot with the ginger, red dates, mushrooms and plenty of water and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the meat falls off the bones.

2. Add the gingko nuts, water chestnuts and oysters and simmer another 30 minutes. Add the sea cucumber. The soup will turn cloudy because of the dried oysters. If you like to, remove the bones and meat because they are tasteless by now.

3. When the sea cucumber is tender, you can add the beancurd sticks, salt and white pepper to taste. Lastly add the black moss (this softens and disintegrates easily) and switch off the heat.

Chinese New Year 2008

CNY lions used to be raggedy and dirty but I've noticed that this year, most lions have had makeovers, in untraditional colors of psychedelic blues and greens. Maybe they went to the same tailor?

I can hear "tak dong chang" as the lion troupe comes closer and closer to my house. I love it. I love CNY. If you are overseas and can only come back once a year, CNY is the best time. This is when relatives and friends meet up to EAT, talk, laugh and just forget about whatever problems they have. Everybody would wear new clothes (especially red clothes because that is the happy color for Chinese) alongwith new underwear, get newly-styled hair, the works. Houses will be cleaned, new brooms bought, and for some super superstitious people, there would be no sweeping (so as not to sweep away their good luck) or even washing of clothes. I suspect this is one superstition some housewife cooked up. There should be no swearing or fighting as it is believed that to do so will set the trend for the whole year. Kids love CNY too because they get a week off school and get their parents off their backs because they are too busy gambling/eating. Children and unmarried people get compensated (or rewarded, depending on how you view it) in the form of 'lucky money' called angpows (money in little red envelopes). This year Wey reported that nobody gave anything less than RM10/US$3. About time too.


Look closer -don't blink- and you'll see the Swarvoski crystals on the angpow.



Chinese love noise and merriment (evidence: supermarkets, restaurants), and during CNY, the traditional belief is that the more noise, the better to drive away evil and bad luck. If only it were so easy. I love being woken up on Day 1 of CNY by the lion troupes that come banging and clanging. The hyperactive lions and unicorns prance and bow to bring good luck, but mostly they come for the angpows that you are obliged to give once they get past your gate. Weeks before CNY, the fireworks and fire crackers had already started and I must say it irritated me because nowadays (despite the ban), instead of fire crackers, people are letting off bombs. These explosions are big, public-display type fireworks that give off an earth-shaking BOONG! that can give you a heart attack.

I love to stay up for the countdown at midnight of the New Year, when fire crackers burst everywhere to usher in the year. The smell and smoke of the gunpowder that fills the air and light up the sky remind me especially of the years when I was still unmarried and living with my parents. In those days, fire crackers weren't banned/just got banned, and we'd stay up as a family so we can light our best and longest fire-crackers at midnight but we'd always loose to a certain family a few doors away whose dad worked in the Customs and Excise Dept and they get the best (confiscated) fireworks. Sometimes they'll give some special fireworks to us. Playing with firecrackers was so thrilling. Once, I even lighted a fire-cracker in my hand (to prove I'm not a wimp) and 'accidentally' threw it at my sister. Fire crackers are good for letting off your grudges.

There were so many fireworks this CNY midnight it sounded like war zone. This year, Ming was out with friends, Hub went to bed early, Wey was watching cartoon (couldn't be bothered by all that bombing), Yi in Melbourne, so it was just me out there on the road in front of our house at midnight. Then my neighbour came out and we enjoyed a little chat as we admired the kaleidoscopes in the night sky.


Although we are Christians, I still boil a pot of pomelo leaves water for us to bath on the eve of CNY. For me, it is more ritual (handed down by my mom) than belief that washing in pomelo leaves water would wash away any bad luck from the year before. Most years I don't even buy the pomelo leaves bundled with some lengkuas ginger leaves - I just make do with kaffir lime leaves and serai leaves from my garden. After all, it's the scent I want. But the tree died last year, so I reluctantly paid RM2/US$0.60 for a bundle this year. But what a lovely citriousy scent it made the water; I felt very refreshed.

The 1st day of CNY was spent visiting/'bai nien' my in-laws, my mom and friends. It is a tradition to go bai nien to friends and relatives' houses where people who never meet up the whole year get to do so. You wouldn't go empty-handed too, and the most common gift to bring is mandarin oranges, called 'kam' in Cantonese, which also sounds like gold so it is auspicious.

2nd day of CNY I opened my house for a late breakfast at 9 am, impromptu because I met up with some classmates from high school the day before and one of their hubs teased me about not opening my house. And so I decided I would. I woke up at 7, which is early for me, and whipped up a prune cake, California maki sushi, Shanghainese fried rice sticks and a tang sui and fried the chinese radish cake and water chestnut jelly cake I had made on CNY Eve. Alongwith the prawn crackers and pineapple tarts I'd made earlier, everything was home-made. Unfortunately, I was so flustered and busy I didn't take any pics of the food but here are pics of the leftovers...



These are the best pineapple tarts I've made and tasted, and the recipe is from Greg & Nee's on my links. Thanks, Nee! The pastry is melt-in-your-mouth and buttery, and there's lots of sticky pineapple jam inside. Making pineapple jam takes hours so I bought the jam from the cake ingredients shops, Pelangi and Bake With Me. (I recommend that you get one packet of jam from each shop because Pelangi's a little too sweet while Bake With Me a little too sour. Mix the two. And make the tarts small. Just big enough for one bite is best). I tried a commercial pineapple tart at a friend's house and it was downright yukky, with what my mom would call 'nose booger-sized' pineapple jam filling and pastry that tasted of cheap margarine.



This is that very Cantonese water chestnut jelly cake that you find in dim sum places. I served it 2 ways: fried and chilled. I'm very lucky to get this recipe from Chin Aunty; it makes perfect waterchestnut jelly cake. Last year I used a recipe from a cook book and it turned out greyish and dull-looking instead of translucent and the texture was weird.

This is Chinese radish cake (lo bak go in Cantonese or daikon in Japanese), adapted from Chin Aunty's recipe again. Made with waxed belly pork, dried mushrooms, dried prawns and lots of white radish. My Dad would make this cake with my younger bro assisting him, on the eve of CNY. Unfortunately, none of us bothered to record his recipe. I continue his tradition and this year got Ming to stir the batter for me.



Wey' s favorite, California rolls, and he's always telling me to blog this...


Black and red melon seeds.

White pumpkin seeds are never served during CNY because white is the traditional color for mourning.

Two of my closest friends and their families stayed back, some resting (there was a cool, strong xi bei feng or north-west wind that always blows from China this time of the year, when it is winter there) and some playing blackjack, Russian poker, 'red dots' and even 'prawns and crabs', all the while nibbling on melon seeds and prawn crackers and sipping Chinese tea. Very enjoyable and comfortable afternoon. Too bad I can't put up the pics here, because some players were kids. For most families, card games/gambling is strictly allowed only on CNY. Dinner was all my leftovers from the reunion dinner, and then we all adjourned to S's newly renovated house for wine and chit chat. The hot topic was 'Why are we unable to discipline our kids?' That took us well past 1 am, and there was no conclusion! All-in, I had a lovely day with lovely friends.

Reunion Dinner II

Our second reunion dinner was at my in-laws' on the 1st day of CNY. MIL, being Shanghainese, does not follow the Cantonese belief for symbolic dishes. No fatt choy or lettuce, which is good because we get to eat completely different dishes. MIL is a very good cook, a perfectionist who will fry, then simmer her Shanghainese 'red-cooked' dishes whereas I, forever taking short cuts, will skip a step here or there and never come up with dishes as good as hers. The only thing I don't compromise though is the quality of the ingredients.

This is one of the most famous and delicious Shanghainese soup called yin doo xin (I think) meaning cured and fresh meat soup, referring to the mixture of Chinese ham, salty pork (xien rou, which is not as strongly flavored as ham) and fresh pork bones used to make the stock. Other ingredients are fresh winter bamboo shoots (ours was brought in from Shanghai), and fresh bean curd sheets called bai ye (also brought in from Shanghai, lucky us) which are tied into knots. Bai ye is not available here or even in KL I think. I used to bring them in from Hong Kong but they go sour easily.

The Shanghainese are especially good at braising and stewing meat in soy sauce, a method called 'red-cooking'. MIL is so good at making loh mei, a red-cooked dish of beef shins, pork stomach, tongue, bean curd cakes and eggs that some of my friends who have tasted it before still talk to me about it. Note: to cut eggs as perfectly as that, with yolks intact, MIL uses thread. If you use a knife, the yolks will break up, fall out and some will stick to the knife.

These are large prawns butterflied, seasoned and dipped in cornflour and deep-fried in very hot oil until the shell is crispy and edible. Very yummy.

Sweet and sour black pomfret with a too-thick blanket of sauce. My fault, I cooked this.

Hakka-style stuffed tofu, a dish from Hub's SIL's aunt. The meat filling was very smooth and springy.

Every time we eat braised pork leg in restaurants, we'll end up saying "Nobody cooks it better than Ma." This is not a prejudiced exaggeration. The flavor is strong and just perfect and the pork tender because she steams it for 3 hours or more.

Another of her specialty: stir-fried celery, water chestnuts, button mushrooms, carrots, fresh baby corn and diced chicken. Anyone can do a stir-fry, but it takes a very good cook to make it perfectly blended in flavor and texture, and MIL gets an A+ for this.

I dared cook drunken chicken for a Shanghainese family. The relatives visiting from Shanghai said they loved it and were impressed that I could prepare it from scratch because in Shanghai, everybody uses packets of ready mix.

Ma's tang sui is a refreshing drink of gingko nuts, dried longans, red dates and lotus seeds.

Also in the pic, braised Japanese dried shiitake mushrooms (very smooth and tender) and stewed bamboo and pork, from MIL's best friend Chin Aunty. Everything Chin Aunty cooks tastes better than the restaurants. And that's another CNY dinner.

Reunion Dinner I

It is a Chinese tradition that when a woman gets married, she'll have reunion dinners at her in-laws'. Outrageously unfair. So what I did after I got married was I'd go to my parents' for a quick dinner, then scoot off to the in-laws. MIL wasn't happy at first, but I was adamant about my arrangement because with my 2 bros and my sis not around for CNY, it leaves just one bro around with the old folks. I know a lot of battles are fought among couples over the reunion dinner, and if I may, let me suggest that if you live in the same place, try and go to both sides, or have one do lunch and the other dinner. Or, like me, we do a reunion dinner when my sis and family get back from Sandakan. But if you have to come from far, alternate your dinners yearly. How's that?

This year, MIL has relatives from Shanghai and they were in Mulu Caves during the new year eve, so reunion dinner was postponed from the traditional eve to the 1st day. Which meant I could have reunion dinner with my mom and bros, SIL and niece! And since mom's too old to cook, I got to do that in my house. And so we had a simple dinner, bearing in mind that we would be having another the next night.



Reunion dinner spreads have changed a lot since we were young. In the past, Dad would have 8 dishes to symbolise 'fatt' (good luck). The chicken for the reunion dinner must be a spayed, home-reared cockerel reared specially for CNY, which means it will weigh about 4 to 5 kg! These chickens, called 'yim gei' (spayed chicken) in Cantonese, are usually plain-boiled and have tougher flesh that is aromatic, oily and delicious! The next must-have dish is the stewed 'fatt choy' oysters dish that symbolises prosperity and success especially in business, then a stewed pork koe yuk, then a fish to symbolise lots of wealth because "yaw yu yaw jing" (plenty of leftovers; abundant wealth), raw lettuce (one of the few times when Chinese don't stir-fry their greens) to symbolise health and long life because lettuce in Chinese sounds like the Chinese word for life, alive and to give life/birth. As for the other dishes, in the old days, the best and most expensive would be reserved for this most important dinner of the year. One of these dishes we used to have was abalone slices with kailan greens. But now that a can of good abalone costs more than RM200/US$62, some people go for substitutes like clam slices or even gluten/vegetarian imitation abalone slices . Another was sharks' fins soup, which we used to look forward to. In those days, you get real fins and the soup is thick with them, some of them in whole pieces, and not thick with cornstarch like those served these days. Btw, all prepared sharks fins now, especially the wet ones, are fake. Go ahead and pay rocket prices for gelatine strips if you want.



I made Foochow fish maw soup with prawns and pork mince balls, and dried scallops for that extra flavor. Topped with fried garlic, this soup is heavenly. For a richer version, go to Greg n Nee's on my links.



Now that the whole world is getting diabetic, I realise why our ancestors created a Chinese cuisine that is weak on desserts. Usually fruits or a light, sweet soup is served after a banquet meal. For CNY, most families would make 'tong yuen', which is glutinous rice balls and I think it symbolises family unity. Being Cantonese, I did a simple sweet soup of Chinese brown sugar (those that come in slices) and old ginger for flavor, and since the soup is already sweet, I added unfilled glutinous rice balls (just add water to glutinous rice flour, roll into small balls, drop into boiling water and scoop out when they rise to the top of the water). If you use filled glu rice balls, balance the sweetness by serving it in plain hot water.