'Chap Goh Mei'

A big thank you to all those who had given me red packets this year.

The whole lot was enough to cover all the functions I had to attend this month, be it weddings, birthday, etc etc and treating people to meals.

Thank you Lord for your blessings.

CNY in General

These are some of the things that I like about CNY

1. Holidays, relaxing time.

2. Meeting up with friends.

3. Food and more food. I have been good. Though I like mandarin oranges, I did not take a single one cos my throat has been acting up a bit.

4. Smooth traffic though some drivers are on holiday mood so much until they are driving 25-30km/hr on internal road and 40km/hr on major road!

But there are also some things that particularly irk me during CNY

1. When cousins or their wives give me angpow, they would ask when it’s my turn to give their children. I mean if you wanna give, just give. And keep quiet. Otherwise don’t give at all. I would not blame them if they do not give any. That is why last year and this year, I chose not to attend their open house.

2. The hot weather.

3. Restaurants would charge exobirtant prices for their food. At least there are some that still maintain at the same prices.

4. The sound of the drum from lion dance or unicorn waking me up instead of the chooks or dogs.

5. The sound of firecrackers is so deafening until sometimes car alarms would go off.

CNY Day 3

I woke up feeling normal once again after complete rest yesterday. PTL!

Mum took away some ‘Roti Canais’ at one of the shops near the Inanam Bus Terminal when my SIL sent her parents there to take the coach to go back to SDK. We had that for brekky.

After midday Jeff drove mum, Aunty Alice and I to New WK Restaurant. Mum was mentioning we went so late, we may end up eating the tail end of the food. So I told her if there was no more dimsum available, we can order a plate of noodles to share among us.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were told to go upstairs and there were plenty of tables unoccupied. So we did not have to wait. I guess if we had gone during the morning, we might have to queue up.

One of the waitresses brought the first five dimsums and plunked them on the table. The action was like the ‘take it or leave it’ mentality. We accepted everything of course.

Then the next two were once again plunked on the table. There were some ‘pau’ available as well but we did not have that.

Mum then asked the waitress for the Prawn 'Cheong Fun'.

We had another serving of 'Siew Mai'.

At the end mum predicted the bill would be less than RM100, taking into consideration today is still a holiday. But I did not even have to pay half of that amount. Aunty Alice said jokingly that we should have ordered more. Haha

(Jeff was telling us that eight of his friends went to Foo Phin Dim Sum yesterday and they ate around 30 servings of dimsum. The bill came to a whopping RM580!)

CNY Day 2

Woke up with fever and therefore all plans to go out for open houses had to come to a halt. :(

Mum, Aunty Alice and Jeff went to Menggatal Nyuk Pau in Nountun for ‘Ngau Chap’. I only had ‘Mi Goreng’ for brunch.

Rested almost the whole day. The weather has been super hot and humid.

That is why I never take annual leave to stay home.

CNY Day 1

Sophia and I arrived at Silk Garden, Pan Pacific Sutera Hotel before 10a.m. Some people were already enjoying their food. The restaurant is open from 9.00a.m. to 2.30p.m. for buffet dimsum for today and tomorrow.

They serve less finger food as compared to Shang Palace, STAR but they have more hot dishes. The amount they charge per person is RM10 less than Shang Palace.

Sophia and I saw some friends there as well.

While enjoying the food, we chit-chatted and it was a relaxing buffet. We were the second last table to leave the restaurant.

After our buffet, we went back to Sophia’s house to chit-chat some more and enjoyed more tit-bits. Lily arrived to join us after that.

While we were chating, Deborah Tai, Andrew Tai and Rebecca Poong brought their kids to join us as well. The kids were so active and Isaac Tai had some Shandy. For a while we thought he might be drunk. Sewelyn Tai likes to grab anything he can lay his hands on. He played with the pomelo.

After Sophia’s place, all of us went to Jonathan and Julie Wong’s house at Masoinette Radiant. This was my first time entering this condo. I like the condo.

Double Celebrations

A warm Kongxi Valentine to everyone who reads this blog.

Yesterday morning the deejays on MyFM were commenting that blokes in PRC hire ladies to be their girlfriend during CNY to bring home to see their family so that they would not be pestered by their family and relatives asking them when they will have a relationship, get married and have kids. And these ladies charge their service by the hours.

So the deejays were giving an example: Imagine the bloke is working in KL and has to go back to Singapore for CNY. How much $ would he need to spend to lie to his family?

Just a thought.

CNY Comes Early This Year

Today I received the biggest red packet in my entire life. The biggest as in the amount of $ and not the size of the red packet.

It was exactly the same amount of tithe I gave yesterday.

Thank you Lord.

Mid Autumn Festival

Celebrated two nights ago and therefore we had a normal dinner at home.

Dinner at Home

Sweet and Sour Prawns

Roast Goose

Sauce for Roast Goose

Vegetarian Dish

Dinner at Home

Pork Spare Ribs with Cabbage and Tomato

Stir Fried Scallops with Ginger and Shallots

Dinner at Umai Fine Japanese Cuisine

This year Jeff and I decided not to go our cousin's open house for dinner.

Instead we went to Umai Fine Japanese Cuisine located at 1st Floor of D'Junction building. I had wanted to eat in this restaurant since exactly one year ago and tonight I finally got the chance to do so.

Exterior of Restaurant

Interior of Restaurant

Interior of Restaurant

We were the first customers for the night and after being there for a while, a couple turned up. As we were about to leave, a family of three people arrived. While the restaurant has quite a number of workers working, most of them can only speak Malay.

Hot Ocha

5 Types of Sashimi

Jeff and I love to eat sashimi while the rest of the family do not take this stuff. He ordered the 7 type of sashimi to share between us but only the 5 type of sashimi was available.

For those who do not really like sashimi, I suggest you order something else and not this dish because the fishes can be really fishy esp. the one with the skin still intact. Only with the help of a big chunk of wasabi the fishy smell disappeared and we could swallow. I have not had so many varieties of sashimi in one sitting and therefore I enjoyed this dish a lot esp. the salmon.

Chimi Moriawase

Chimi Moriawase

Chimi Moriawase is an assortment of baby octopus, seaweed, shellfish and fake sharkfin. It is quite enjoyable to nimble bit by bit when time is on our hand.

Empty 5 Type Sashimi Plate

Empty Chimi Moriawase Plate

We took half an hour to finish the two plates. We rested for ten minutes and then ordered noodles with tempura.

Soba with ...

Tempura

Udon with ...

Tempura

The soup for the noodles was too salty and therefore we did not drink any of the soup. The price of salt must have come down. This is also the first time I have tasted prawns inside a bowl of udon.

Overall I enjoyed myself and were satisfied with the meal except for the soup in the udon.

When it was time to pay the bill, there was a 20% discount during CNY and no 5% Government Service Tax was charged.

I will definitely go back to this restaurant.