Lo hei! Huat ah!! That above, my non-Singaporean friends, is a plate that you'll see often in Singapore just before and during the Lunar New Year.  It's a salad of grated radish, pickled ginger, carrot, sesame seeds, crushed peanuts, pomelo pulp, crispy crackers and topped with a sweet plum sauce, vegetable oil, five spice powder and what we all love...slices of raw fish.

Why is there a photo of this Lo hei/ Yu sheng? My dad's side of the family had our reunion dinner last Sat at Keng Eng Kee (aka my neighbour's zi char stall) and the first mandatory dish was the Yu Sheng.  Golden crispy crackers to symbolise gold-paved paths in our lives, sweet plum sauce so that our lives are sweet and fish to symbolise abundance in wealth in our lives.  In true Singapore fashion, you're supposed to toss it high up with chopsticks while saying auspicious idioms.

Highlights of some of the other dishes that we had

 There was too much starch in the Shark's Fin Soup. Disappointed.

 Sliced abalone with mushrooms and veg! Yums...

 Oh...I love the Marmite Ribs.  The bottom is the lotus leaf rice which was the best dish thus far.

With the cousins.  Not all of my cousins were there. If the whole brood were there, we'd need another table.  Which might've been a good idea since we had to squeeze 11pax into mine.

When I reached home, the Lunar New Year spirit was catching onto me and I had to decorate the house some how.

I made paper plum/cherry blossoms and I'll definitely take some photos of all the other decorations that I've done.  I even bought a Japanese New Year mochi cake with a plastic horse for the Lunar New Year.  Haha...I'm the interior decorator of the family!!

Wow...quite a load of things have happened within a span of 2 days and well...for those who love pics...be glad that this entry will have TONS of them.

Let's start off chronologically so that its neater. My mum had received a bag of belimbing (sour fruit that apparently belongs to the starfruit family) and she decided to cook it the traditional peranakan way (err...is there any other?). Voila (to the left)!! Its not chilli hot at all (although its bright red) but its sour and savoury. Reminds me of peranakan achar minus the peanuts. Love the prawns in there...yumm.....

I just HAD to blog about it because most of you prolly aren't peranakan or have peranakan heritage so you wouldn't have a clue what Belimbing is (side note: Marriott Hotel in Orchard has a meeting room named Belimbing room).

Had reunion dinner last night and guess what? Ailian and I have the exact same camera except that hers is black and mine is pink. Wenqing has a Sony camera too!!! How many cousins have the same camera???


1st course - assorted platter of spring rolls, baby octopi (looks a little larger than the usual ones you get), ngo hiang, jellyfish, prawn mayo on a bed of mango and bbq pork. This reminds me of weddings already... (-.-)


2nd course - the typical shark's fin soup. Those who know me well know that I'm anti-shark's fin soup...especially the starchy variety presented above. Well...wasting food's a greater sin AND the shark's already dead...so...ah well.


3rd course - sliced abalone atop pork tendon and sea cucumber. Here's my critique:
Abalone = nothing exciting. It wasn't tender.
Pork Tendon = passable but the gravy didn't give it the oomph.
Sea cucumber = mix of soft and hard pieces. Uh...were they cooked at the same time???


I was just pretending to be yau kwee ok....we did take nice shots with Ailian's and Wenqing's cameras. I want them!! :P
4th course - steamed groupers. Whatcha looking @ me for? *aims for cheeks*

At this point in time...Zhi Jian was teasing how 3 of us were whipping out our cameras each time a new dish came and he even asked the waitress whether she had seen such people before. Haha....actually, Wenqing and I would've forgotten to take pics if it wasn't for Ailian - our resident food blogger.


5th course - fried/ roasted chicken. I'm guessing fried but it was really juicy and yummy!


6th course - curry cereal prawns. Knowing how much butter goes into this dish just makes me stay off it...ate only 1. Not bad but...buutteerr...*cringe and looks at tummy*


7th course - broccoli with shredded scallop. Ailian was disappointed that we didn't get whole scallops (I feel you babe) and our nephew Ming Ming spat it out. Hey...veggie's good for you!!


8th course - the usual fried staple dish. This time it is fried bee hoon. Not bad but as usual, we're all filled to the brim at this point in time. Took a couple of mouthsful and left the rest behind. I know...we shouldn't waste food but you're not fat like me :P

While waiting for dessert, we all got bored and started mucking around. Me admiring Wenqing's decorated Nintendo...amusing ourselves with our nephews' reactions to having toy cars 'stolen' by my uncle.

And then Ailian whipped out a box of fortune cookies that her aunt from the US bought.

Yes...fortune cookies...the not-quite-Chinese-but-yet-Chinese "invention" that Chinese outside of USA are exploring and are having fun with.

Here's my fortune: Luck will visit you on the next full moon. I hope so. I hope and pray that OopsIWannaSay.com will take off :)

Dessert's still not here and more mucking around. Here's me 'feeding' Ailian a cookie and she looks pained. Wenqing has another shot where Ailian looks as if she's eyeing my cookie. Haha...again, I WANT THAT SHOT!! This one's funny though...hahaha.....





Finally...dessert arrives. After distribution...its a pathetic amount in our bowls. Less than half man...and it seriously, looks better than it tasted. Ah well...at least that wraps up dinner!