peony

those ribs sure look finger-licking good...yummy

same way as I make almond paste ya, I do make black sesame paste bao, but I ' cheated ' cos bought the black sesame paste jam ( look like peanut butter ) from Japan, so use it to make filling for bao, tang yuen, mooncake

thanks ladies n gentlemen for your kind comments.. Ben Hong, would def. be honour to have you as our guest...but aren't I inviting you visually to our food ? and how come I never see what you have been eating during the CNY ah ? make some auspicious snacks during the CNY period too Fish Nian Gao - steamed glutinous rice cake Fatt Gao, but sadly, these didn't really 'fatt' - open up Osmanthus Waterchestnut Jelly

The 7th day of CNY is everybody's birthday. We had a small gathering at my aunt's home. Just my family, my aunt and her son. We had Lohan Chai - a vegetarian dish Abacus Beads - a Hakka CNY dish, but we are cantonese the rest of the food spread, Yusheng Steamed Chicken Roast Pork and for dessert, Black Sesame Paste

Dishes eaten during the CNY period are symbolic and have auspicious meanings.. it is good that you have a dish of fish as it is a symbol of abundance and eating it means a year of abundance of good fortune... the last day of CNY is yuan xiao, so we have something round to symbolise fulfillment and unity among family members. So, we made glutinous rice balls or tang yuen on this day. a vegetarian dish - lohan chai , for it contains ingredients that sound like luck, good fortune and properity. a dish of prawns - laughter n happiness thru'out the year a chicken dish - it symbolize the phoenix, which by itself is a symbol of great fortune n prosperity.

ya, fun see is difficult to stir fry on its own without using lots of oil to prevent sticking, so I cook fun see in soup with fishballs. This is one of my chn favourite - in soup with big, bouncy fishballs top with crispy fried lard and chopped cilantro / sping onions.

make some prawn dumplings for tea break during CNY These are called Scallops Pheonix Eye Dumpling, one of the appetisers for the reunion dinner.

chives dumpling this dumpling uses tapioca and rice flour for the skin. however, you have to eat it hot as the skin hardened upon cooling. Ingredients for skin: 300 g rice Flour 80 g tapioca Flour salt to taste 500 ml hot, boiling water 1 tbsp vegetable oil Method: 1. In a mixing bowl, add flour, salt and water. 2. Stir with chopsticks to mix well. 3. Add oil. 4. Knead into a smooth dough. 5. Roll dough into sausage shape. Divide into equal portion of small balls. 6. Flatten each ball, add 1 tbsp of filling. 7. Seal the sides of dumpling. 8. Brush with oil before steaming. 9. Steam over high heat for 7 - 10mins. Serve hot.

ahhh...sorri..abt my incomplete steamboat dinner pic. ...ms racheld here's how the untidy dinner look like at the end of the meal

ya tepee, after all the cooking and baking for the reunion dinner, steamboat is so much easier on 2nd day of CNY. We have vegetarian meal on the first day of CNY too.

we have a simple steamboat dinner today with of cos the lo-hei ( yee sheng ) dish more snacks

that's a lot of lovely food, teepee and sheetz so me just show, CNY snacks serve to guests ...

chicken curry with potatoes eaten with naan

oh yes, love curries ... here's my fish curry. and to cool off after the hot, spicy curry pineapple tarts

my favourite Chinese dessert water-chestnut pudding / jelly this is a cooling, sweet and crunchy Chinese sweet.

think they r called arrowroot. you can slice thinly and deep fried them like potato chips. arrowroot chips

its' weekends again.. cook a simple meal of porridge n fried chicken wings Pork n Pei-dan Porridge Fried Salt n Pepper Wings

thanks alot , Ben Hong for this explanation.. I always thought that those people who went to 'gold mountain' are the cantonese, like in the movie wong fei hong...heehee now I learn something new...thanks again

here's another link but pic slower to upload making of love letters

wah, tepee. I can handle the tongs but to take pic at the same time ? you r asking the impossible lah... anyway, here's kuih kapit work stn pic not of me hor, I google this

now my turn to be a foreigner what is the meaning of Toisanese ? btw, I only know cantonese and got scolded in HK - Chinese don't know how to speak chinese - when I speak to them in Eng. In China, the natives there said I'm not chinese cos not born there

this may be just the custom in Singapore n Malaysia.. what other cny cookies that is special over your side ? I break just so that it can go into the pot. there r 2 types of dried beancurd sticks, one for savoury soup, the other for sweet dessert soup. or your side sell only one type ?

that's exactly what we do in Ipoh when we baked cny cookies... here, only my neighbour and her daughter to help. The 3 of us can handle 20 irons. we take turn to handle the tongs. 2 handlers n one to fold. funny that in Singapore, love letters r rolled while in M'ysia, fold into triangles. guess that's how we diff, between the 2 countries kuih, hehee.

from the supermarket here, but normally NTUC or Cold Storage. I love fresh beancurd sheet too, but dont know where to buy here, but in Ipoh, my mom wld get from a vendor who make fresh each day. I love the char er - vegetarian goose make from the fresh beancurd sht. missing this so badly. time for me to 'balek kampong' - go back to my hometown

after the past few days of baking ( and to continue soon with more baking ), make Barley, Beancurd n Gingko-nuts tang sui. I buy this particular brand of dried beancurd sheet as it will dissolve completely and turn like beancurd milky drink.