Happy NIU year!!

It's a moo moo year this year, as how the Chinese call it. Honestly being brought up in a Christian family, i'm not so much of a fan of the animal years, and i dislike it when people characterise me according to the animal of the year i was born. I call it crap, and no offence, but everyone is unique and God has created mankind to be master over animals, so why should we let ourselves be judged by these animals? Anyway, here's something which i find very cute, a red packet (hong bao) we got from the yogurt pack.

Co-incidentally the word New rhymes with 'Niu' of the Chinese Character, something which i have never thought before..hehehe, interesting.

Yeah, time flies, i've said it again. Was anticipating for CNY to come previously, and before i actually realise it, it's the second day already! Have been eating for 3 days in a row, guess that's how CNY is supposed to be, FOOD!! Not wholly of course, but mainly. Hehe.

Here's a recap of the celebration here this moo moo year:

Before Chinese New Year

Like what i said in my previous post, CNY without pineapple tarts isn't complete. I think it's somehow a Malaysian Chinese custom, we often serve guests with pineapple tarts, nut cookies, lapis kek, nian gao, prawn crackers, mandarin oranges etc etc. Ya, so i bet almost every house that bakes has pineapple cookies lined up on their lists. Including mine of course. I baked two batches this year, and here's the second one.

I was trying to shape some of them like tangerines, but i guess my plan backfailed as Hubby thought they were apples, instead of what they were supposed to be. :-(

Would try harder next year, and hopefully he has a more 'CNY' sense then.

Chinese New Year Eve: Reunion Lunch

Ta-da. Reunion meals are first thing that come for this festive season where every family would gather and long distance relatives/ friends fly home to sit down with their family members and FEI LOU SHIP together. There would be lotsa food and dishes being prepared and laid on the table, different in every Chinese home, depending on where their roots come from. Since i'm now married into a Northern Chinese family, instead of kiu nyuk or yong (stuffed) veges or chu kiok or chicken mushroom (i come from a Hakka family), we had altogether different menus this year, and jiao zi is the highlight for this occasion. Northern Chinese eat jiao zi (dumpling) in reunion dinners, or on CNY.

Hub's relatives came over and stayed with us for two days this year, and here's the first meal we had together as a family on CNY Eve:

Food prepared by Ah Yee and my in laws for the reunion lunch

Some drinks me and Hub got from Jusco.

Ever since the government legalised firecrackers and works here few years ago, firing them is a custom on every CNY eve night. Cars are not allowed to be driven on the roads at 11.45 to 12.15am midnight, as this is the period where firecrackers are most rampant. This is a photo i snapped from our house balcony: (pardon me for the poor image quality, as it was pretty dark at that time and i was freaking out)

First Day of CNYYeah, today is the first day, and i got my second hong bao from parents in law (who said married cannot get hong baos ah?). My own grandmama and grandpapa had actually asked my aunt who is visiting to pass me and Hub a packet of hong bao each. Have to admit the number i received is much lesser but the total amount is more in comparison to when i was single and i'm beginning to love marriage life even more! :-P

Hub's gufu went out and grabbed some of these for us, fresh haws sandwiched with red bean paste and sesame and dipped in sugar syrup. I have had fresh haws dipped in sugar syrup but never with red bean, which is very unique in my definition.

Instead of only mandarin oranges/tangerines which we normally had during CNY back home, we had strawberries too! Big,juicy and very sweet! (My first time eating sweet strawberries is here, never had i came across sweet strawberries previously, not even in UK)

Something new for the moo moo year, Hubby finally eats apple! I couldn't believe what i saw when he picked up that piece and put into his mouth, but here's an evidence.



Hub's Gugu's birthday happens to fall on the first day of CNY. To mark this occasion, dad in law specially requested me to bake two cakes for her, and also because it's her 60th birthday, which is one to remember. I actually baked them on the day before CNY eve, and decorated them on CNY eve morning, i.e. the few hours before they arrived, so do not be surprise if the strawberries on them aren't that fresh anymore as both cakes were only cut and consumed on CNY night.

First cake was cotton cheesecake, and the second (the 'zhu jiao'), was fresh cream fruit cake.

Pity i didn't manage to snap a photo of a slice of the cake, but basically it's made up of three sponge cakes with fresh cream fruits sandwiched in between. Took me one and a half day to bake, whip, chill and decorate it.

We had to get these big red candles, as normal birthday candles are nowhere to be found, but we are thankful that we had actually bought them after seeing how pretty and compatible they looked on the cake stand!