Tepee

My 95 year old mother insists on this soup especially in the winter. . . and she ain't lactating! ← ROFL!!!!! About the soup's milk inducing qualities, I kid you not. Been there, done that. So, Origami, what did you end up doing with that papaya? Did you pickle it? Great pickle with chillies, vinegar and sugar.

Laksa, you captured the colours so well! If mani chai can be found in Kuching markets, I'll badger DH into getting some on his next business visit; he also gets our nasi bario and nasi hitam there. Edit 'nasi' to 'beras'.

I hope this isn't TMI, but the above papaya/pork soup is the #1 soup for lactating mothers. Any chance you can do somebody a service?

OK, Patrick, you're killing me with your photos!!! I want a piece right NOW!

...you feel that food must not only taste good, it must look good. A friend of mine can't understand why I've to arrange all my blanched bok choys in one direction before drizzling it with oil and fried garlic, and why I've to choose the right plates.

On the flip side, if you don't finish all the food on your plate (squeaky clean), your husband will be as pimply (as the amount of rice/crumbs left on the plate).

Tembak #2 - Acar Buah (Fruit Pickle) Edited to add Veggie Pickle to enhance my chances (by the way, Yetty, what's the PRIZE?)

I think I see........... chicken...adzuki beans...long beans... dried chilli...possibly bitter gourd... sea cucumber (ha ha!). Just trying to shoot and see if I make the target at all. Whatever it is, it's got me drooling. I imagine it's asam-ish?

Gosh, Sharon, I don't know...I just don't know if you can use agar-agar instead of gelatin. They have different texture/elasticity, ya know. Jellies made from gelatin wobbles whereas the agar-agar ones do not. You can melt gelatin jelly in your mouth but you need to sort of bite into agar-agar ones. I'd say it would be safer to get Kosher Gelatin. Although Kosher and Halal is not exactly the same thing, Kew (another Malaysian Muslim eGulleteer) managed to find gelatin from Pakistan made from fish bones, I think. But, if you're game to experiment with agar-agar, please let me know the outcome. Wishing you the best.

Life is a simple formula for me = Instant Breakfast, Semi-Homemade for Lunch, More-thought-in-it Scratch Dinner, and Eat-Out Weekends.

Since it's food-related, how's the French hypermarket Carrefour pronounced? Most people here either call it Car-4 or Kah-Foo.

I had a seasonal "red spinach" dish at my local Grand Sichuan branch the other evening. I figure this is the same thing that's called bayam in Malay/Indonesian. Can anyone confirm or refute that, please? ← You're right on, Michael. It's bayam. I try to include that in my weekly vegetables as it's very rich in iron...for the girls, you know. Edit to add: The dramatic color fades to brownish as the veg sits or if it's overcooked. To me, that's the veg telling me to eat them up - quick! - before the minerals/vitamins disappear.

Do they allow reservations? BTW, I love the latest Haven issue. Good job!

Shiewie, which restaurant was that scrumptious feast taken? I love Mar Tai Gou .

Why is the first day of CNY a vegetarian day? ← This is probably for practising Taoists/Buddhists...that it is bad luck to slaughter animals on the first day of NY.

Great lists, ideas for future CNY meals. For the first day, we went vegetarian as is traditional. Went (again) to parent's home. I don't have to cook because mom is such an excellent one. She has trained 2nd SIL who stays with them well. Hoong loh bak (carrot) and Pak loh bak (radish) clear soup Char Yoke (Hakka Braised Pork) Char Siu Chai Mushroom/Carrot/Fatt Choy Sweet Sour Pork Goose Curry Chicken Edited: All the above are Vegetarian. Mock Meats.

The first of the fireworks are going off now...at 11 pm. Firecrackers are banned in M'sia but that doesn't stop some people of creative means to get some.

That depends whether you want to fatt (sounds like 8) or want a union which is cheong cheong gau gau (9)? This is soooooo exciting. I feel as if I'm watching a chinese serial.

I shall not look, I shall not look/read about at all these neen go variations until I survive the cheongsam for the first day of CNY. Then I'll get hubby to do his very own neen go creation - he breaks apart a love-letter, sandwiches a slice of neen go, dips in thin batter and fry. Easy to handle and crispy/gooey at the same time.

If these are allowed into the US, I'd be happy to send some to you. BTW, Yetty, have you tried Indonesian Layer Cake (specot) with haw flakes in between the layers? About chinese candies, I owe my imperfect set of teeth to the many mug nga tong and ting-ting tongs I consumed waiting for my school bus. I still see it being sold, but I stir my kids away for fear they'll be addicted to it too! Naughty mommy!

Gosh, I didn't realize I said 'ang-pow'. Yes, it's Hokkien/Fook Kin. Malaysian chinese are quite at home with several of the main dialects, ie. Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien. I'm Hakka and hubby is Teochew, but we speak Cantonese to each other besides English. Go figure.

Thanks, Yetty, Ben and Sue-On. Gung Hei Fatt Choy to you and all at eGullet too! Yetty, as for ang pows, we who are married are on the giving side, not the receiving side. However, it is fun to give, although inflation has hiked up the amount of $$ expected somewhat. Sue-On, you can see how yee sang is made here. It's a great appetizer, but I don't mind swapping this for your loh bak goh. And, that wasn't creamed seafood in the veggie dish. It was crab meat. But, if I'm not mistakened, there was dried scallops in that dish too. Can't wait to see what you guys had. After posting this thread, I realized that there is another similar thread going on in General Food Topics. I hope I didn't cause too much confusion.

We already had 2! One impromptu one at my in-laws on Saturday coz one of the sis was going to be away during CNY. Another one, we had last nite at my parent's...a potluck. The menu was relatively un-banquety and it catered mainly for the grandchildren - 9 of them. We started off with Yee Sang brought/bought by my tai go. This is the pic before "lo hei". This is "during"... and this is "after" We were late so I had to make a quick job of the photo-taking...excuse the quality. Mushroom/veggie dish made by mom Seafood soup with every exotic sea-creature in it made by mom Sweet sour fish fillet made by yee so Deep-fried wantan made by mom and some grandkids Pak cham kai (white chop chicken) made by mom to be taken with Yee Cheong always makes Teochew duck but this time he made braised trotters Since it was my sis's hubby's bday the next day, she made a carrot cake DH and I had a jelly challenge. He made cendol agar-agar while I made lychee agar-agar with big sago balls and kwei feh lychee liqueur. Guess who won? My yee ko made this tong sui, called "mat du yao", it really has 'everything' in it from gingko nuts, red beans, sea coconut, tiny cubed sweet potatoes, longan, lotus seeds.... This year, they seem to be introducing a tiny kam/mandarin orange (next to tong sui). They are quite sweet and cute, and supposedly doesn't give the sup yit effect. After the heavy meal, we went for a walk to the night market (pasar malam in Malay) and bought these neen go in banana leaves. The one on the left is trimmed. 2 down, one to go. The actual in-law do will be on the eve itself. I'll be making braised abalone with mushroom and fatt choy. Soooooo...what are you having? Edited: wrong image was inserted.

I've sent both Malaysian and Indonesian pandan extracts to a US friend before. Nope, both doesn't compare with the real thang, Edited to add: Since I've got a plant at home (as does every other M'sian), I don't have to use extract, but I tried it once just to see how the taste was. It was weird.

Well, I haven't tried dry leaves before so I can't really say, although the same reasoning for the coconut milk should apply here. You have to wash and blanch the leaves to soften and make them more supple before you can mould them into your tin. HTH. How many hours did you steam your neen go? The color looks good.