Yay! It’s Chinese New Year 2010 Edition – part I

Kong Xi Fa Chai!
Wassup! Chook Lei Oi Go Yong Tak Go Yong – you must read that with a Chinese accent… and it means “May you get whatever you want” – chook lei sam seong see seng – “whatever your heart desires you will get”… AHH!!! I love Chinese New Year! There are 3 major major celebrations I LOVE…

1. My birthday… yes, we need to celebrate that… for the uninitiated, it’s July 9th okay?
2. Christmas… Christmas is year, this time of year… fa la la la la…
3. Chinese New Year… I JUST LOVE IT! The red packets, the firecrackers (cd version), the food!

So anyway, it’s the second week of the Chinese New Year (lasts 2 weeks) and I’m back at work. How was it? Here’s a pictorial guide of my escapade…

New Year Eve
Reunion dinner! This year’s reunion dinner was unlike the many I’ve gone through. For the first time, my parents decided to eat at a restaurant with 2 other families! Usually, it’s a 1 family thing… So we had a private room at the restaurant (we took the 1st shift – which started at 5pm – I know, it’s weird EVEN dinners in restaurants had shifts… 2nd shift started at 8pm). We had karaoke for the first time… it was FUN! Did I like it? Yeah, it was different & great but maybe because I’m soooo used to having reunion dinner at home for the past 27 years of my life, it felt strange at the same time… but hey, does it matter??? My mum got us Abalone Yee Sang! Yeeha!

The Yee Sang story

(picture from friedchilis.com)

The Kiasu Abalone
You see, my mum can be very kiasu – I think I got the kiasu genes from her. The restaurant offered Abalone Yee Sang and the regular Salmon Fish Yee Sang… my mum ordered the Salmon Fish… while the other 2 families ordered the Abalone… (I honestly was a teeny weeny bit disappointed.. coz I love my abalones)… when the yee sang came… my mum brought out her ‘stash’ it was a WHOLE BOX OF ABALONES! WOOHOO!

The logic? Restaurant charges another 80 ringgit for the very very very very kedekut and thinly sliced abalones, with a little bit more money from her personal stash, my mum got us DOUBLE the thickness, DOUBLE the amount of abalones… it was FANTABULOUS.

So now you know.

Day 1
For the first time ever, Chinese New Year coincided with Valentines Day… the usual, on the 1st day, wake up early, have a home made vegetarian meal followed by the tea ceremony wishing everybody happiness, prosperity, good health then ang pau collection (YES! I still collect Ang Pau – my relatives LOVE me that much) then it’s visiting homes, having KFC for lunch (it’s a ritual, we do the KFC ritual EVERY year) then it was chill and the night comes by… BUT THIS TIME… night was not just night… it was VALENTINES…

So Stella and I sneaked out to the heart of KL which looked like a ghost town – there were hardly any cars to be seen… go to a nice restaurant… and VOILA!

I had a strange tasting duck liver thingy as appetizer…

Then it was one of the best risotto’s ever with truffle – they gave so much that I turned the rest into a beautiful valentines face…

and my main course… BEEF MEDALLION…

while Stella had lobster as her main course…

The dessert was MAMA MIA! Imagine this, chilled, cut strawberries, covered with lightly whipped strawberry cream… magnifique!

Day 2 – Cameron Highlands… HERE I COME!.. that’s in part 2
Here’s a sneak peak, one of my dogs got really rich…

more to come!

How did you spent your Chinese New Year? Comment and I shall reply…