Pursuing tradition..

Day 1 of the New Year - 初一

dont know how everyone start their new year, but for us, we'll start with the most basic...that is FOOOD! haha

grandma say the first thing that should go into your stomach on the first day of new year must be vegetables, no pork, chicken, beef, mutton, lamb or fish...purely vegetables! that's why she wakes up real early in the morning to cook a dish consisting of only cabbage, fa cai, dried beancurd, tang hoon, mushrooms, and this other vege( i dont know what is it called!)
we eat it with plain white rice and that's for breakfast, or prolly brunch for some of us =P ...oh trust me, it's super super delicious! yummmmy!

so the rest of the afternoon, we were at my grandma's place again, gambling gambling gambling, gambling gambling gambling and gambling gambling all day long......until i got tired of it, i went to accompany my darling cousin - wei bhin =) as usual, he was watching Cartoon Network, so everyone else including my grandma has no choice but to watch Tom & Jerry haha...been ages since i watched that...meanwhile my ahyis were inside the kitchen preparing for dinner..heez
living in this big family of mine, there is always things to do, stuff to gossip about, doorbells to answer, phone to pick up, no one will be idling..haha seriously, the doorbell kept ranging the whole day! omg!

well anyway, before long it was dinner time! =P a very very sumptious homecook dinner @ my grandma's place, because it is the first day of the new year, we have our first dinner @ home.. i heard, they killed and steamed 5 whole chickens..haah scary huh..

round 1&2 of dinner, only the elders get to eat, which includes my grandmother, her sons and daughters, plus their wife and husband..haha too many pple...round 3,4 & 5 are for us! haha the grandchildrens..grandma house rules apply

the day's not over yet, we still got a very impt task to complete! that is to head down to the Dingies, and help my Ahyi prepare food for the next day...a dish called 算盘子, chinese for Abacus, a traditional Hakka dish which requires a lot of manpower to make it..which is why the whole family got to help!

it's basically a very simple dish, using flour and yam, my aunties knead it into a dough, while we mould it into a abacus-like shape, and then these abacus seeds will be cooked in hot water before being stir fried with heibee and black fungus...yummmmmmmy?! haha my fav dish, most looked forward dish during CNY!

even after the task is complete, no time to lose faster clear up the table and floor, and make way for the deck of kings and queeens .. hahai am so proud of being in this family! haha

v. happy=)

Kick the Rat and Welcome the COW

Yay! yet another chinese new year! we'll say BYE to the Rat and Hello to the COW
spent my chinese new year in Malaysia, not sure whether i'll finish blogging my entire trip today because it's uber happening!=P

CNY EVE

daddy drove to Malaysia on Sunday afternoon to avoid the causeway Jam..tgt with glenn, we made our way to Klang..usually it'll take us 3.5hrs to reach my grandma's place, but because we're tailing glenn, who drives god knows what speed, we reached there slightly earlier..haha =P

cny eve is where we gather to have our once in a year, uber sumptious, yummilicious TUAN YUAN FAN! quite looking forward to that, because i'll get to see everyone! plus we go to a different restuarant every year...and it's not the usual Singaporean kind of Steamboat Tuan Yuan Fan, ours is the dish kind of dinner!

and of course not forgetting the Yu Sheng , Shark Fin, Suckling Pig!

4 tables in all..so there was like 40 plus of us there...1 table for the men, 1 table for the empress and women, 1 table for the happening and another ermmm mix..haha good thing with big families, the food doesnt go to waste, it gets passed on to another table..haha and SOMEONE is sure to finish it..hehehez=Xahh if u havent come to my house during CNY, then u may not know that my whole family have a common interest during this time of the year, and that is BA LAT! (blackjack) haha from primary sch kids to grandmothers..we start young..we'll all gather round the dining table at my grandmother's house while the men settle down for some mahjongand of course! ang bao time! haha line up line up pple! grandma has got close to 100 ang baos to give out, so be patient! haha everyone has one, including my mommy n daddy's generation..haha it's very funny, seeing my uncle n aunties taking ang bao like they're only 12 yrs old..hahawhen the clock struck 12, a new year and new beginning, we welcomed the cow with a different light from Singaporeans do, we light the fire crackers, pik pik piak piak! it was super super loud la! need ear mufflers..haha didnt manage to snap a picture of it, maybe my cousin did, will post it soon=P

the air outside, after the fire crackers burnt out

GONG XI FA CAI!

and that's the end of Day 1 in Malaysia
v. happy=)

Early Reunion with beloved Lycans=)

thursday 22/1/09

got up thinking that there is a valuation quiz..argh hate the feeling of anxiety...anyway 2nd week of school and there's a quiz..booooooo!

and today we're also having lycans reunion! yipppeee! something to look forward to at least...so it wasnt that miserable a day..

caderam was so nice to get salmon sashimi for my family! thank you laopa!=) and offered to drive me to schooool..we only had 20mins to get from my house to sch or we'll be late for QUIZ! ahh! in the meantime ernest quizzed us in the car haha

alas! no QUIZ! omg what a relieve this had been for me...so it was lecture proper and i simply cant wait for dinner =)

kelly, eugene lee, zj, caderam, ezann n i made our way to cad's car after lecture, kelly set in front..and while ezann was getting up cad's car, we suddenly heard an ouch from ezann..n i thought she accidentally hit her head on the car or smth..but noooo! kelly slammed the doors against her fingers..wooooo pain pain pain! her fingers were quite swollen..*ouch*

well it got better when we reached the supermarket, haha grab something cold! to ease the pain! it was a fruitful grocery shopping, we got all our ADDED ingredients for the steamboat later at night, problem is, we've got no kitchen! only a knife and a can opener and kelly's huge plate

and this is lycan's laopa with a butcher's knife ready to massacre the poor tofu

what's new?! it was definitely an experience, washing vegetables in the girl's toilet, haha something that i've not done b4, and chopping food in the middle of sch on a beautiful plate haha

before long we're all done with cutting, chopping, washing and plucking, time for DINNER! yips!=)

oh! but but before that! something we cant do w/o during CNY...YUSHENG! HUAT ah!before tossing, we placed all the ingredients into a big red plate, each symbolising something, and we all recited along with ernest as he gives the que

haha messy messy messy, as usual, just like all cny, like all singaporeans, we only go for the good stuff, soo all the salmon was gone b4 u even know it, what was left were the debris....haha

and finally! we can enjoy our Steamboat! the food we paid $3 each were prepared by declub..we each spent another $7 each to ''jia cai''! we've added lots of veges, fish, pork, meatballs, lots of mushrooms, tofus, wantons, scallops and most importantly ABALONE! oh and a bottle of chilli sauce! haha 4bottles of drinks

with so much, we didnt exactly overbudget by alot, just a teeny weeny bit more =P for a sumptious sumptious dinner...lycans are always a different lot from the rest..haha even with dinner=P

Lycans's Hotpot Reunion Dinner 2009

oh and how can i forget, zijian, cad and jas's favourite food... the LIVERbesides eating, they had games too, organised by jian long, we all had 8 oranges per table, and the goal of the game is to make as many 牛 as possible

because we're a creative bunch of yr 2s and of coz a unique characteristic of lycans, we came out with not only the chinese character but also in english! with a "S" at the back signifying many many many many infinite cows! hah and of coz we won! =)and when all's done, time for a group Lycans photo=)

and lastly tgt with our extended lycan's family n boonpin

happy chinese new year you all! and i wish all you in the year of the OX
恭喜发财！