Happy Lunar New Year!

Hey guys! Happy Lunar New Year! 

I can't talk much right now, as I am too busy feasting away and collecting ang pao (aw yeah!), but here's a lil snapshot from our reunion dinner last night.

My parents have been menu planning and prepping food since Wednesday for our reunion dinner last night and for Chinese New year itself today. This is one of the more traditional dishes had on new year. Bit of abalone, some dried oysters and scallops, sea cucumber and dried Chiense mushrooms. Eat this to have good events in the year!

Yee Sang salad! One of my favourites. This dish is unique to Malaysian/Singaporean-Chinese culture, as my dad remembers not being able to find it anywhere in Hong Kong or China while we were living there. It's essentially a salad, traditionally with raw fish, but we use cured salmon with lots of shredded veggies. This year our Yee Sang (or yusheng, depending on where you're from) had carrot, radish, sticky pickled vegetables, beetroot, pear, apple and fried wonton skin (for a bit of crunch). Before serving it is dressed with sauce and peanuts.

Then it's onto the best bit of the salad, 'lo hei', or tossing it! Everybody cheers loudly and then dives in with chopsticks to mix the salad to usher in the new year, stir up new business and make wishes for wealth, health and prosperity. It's always good fun and something that we all look forward to. I hope my video of us mixing up the Yee Sang gives you an idea of how fun it is!

It helps the salad is darned tasty too!

This mini spread is only a small part of what will be served up today as we open up the house to invite all our friends over to celebrate with us!

Even if you don't celebrate the Lunar New Year, may the year of the snake still be a good one for you. I was looking at some Chinese horoscope forecasts with my dad, and apparently if you're a dragon (like me), we're due in for a very good year! However, if you're a rabbit (like Brad), you will need to be extra cautious of accidents and sharp objects... interpret at will!