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This year I was extremely honoured to be invited to EG’s Reunion Dinner to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The dinner is traditionally held on New Year’s Eve and is one of the most important Chinese holidays. Families get together to consume a number of dishes that promote prosperity and longevity for the forthcoming year. As you can see from the image above, EG’s Mum totally excelled herself - her skill and knowledge of the ingredients is super impressive!

For starters we had fresh shucked oysters with lemon care of EG’s Grandma. They were huge plump things - and a lovely way to start the feast.

This dish is called Leng Puah, which is a cold dish. It consisted of thin slivers of green lipped abalone, sliced orange cuttlefish, ribbons of jellyfish and sliced calamari cooked in black soy sauce. This was actually my first abalone experience, and I commented to EG (unoriginally) that I thought it tasted liked chicken. But I then found out it had been poached in chicken stock - so I wasn’t half wrong!

Hai Som Arp was an earthy savoury stew of sea cucumber, duck and bamboo shoots. The duck was meltingly tender, and the sea cucumber an interesting lesson in gelatinous textures (another first for me). Unfortunately the mental picture of a certain Jackass stunt inhibited my enjoyment of the sea cucumber somewhat.

Kari Kueh was a chicken and potato curry swimming in the most divine coconut broth/gravy. It was so full flavoured and fragrant, and I was in absolute heaven just spooning it on to plain steamed rice. I could have eaten the whole bowl - but my faulty gall bladder probably wouldn’t have stood the onslaught.

So instead of eating the whole bowl of curry, I turned my attention to the stirfried vegetables. A healthier alternative

The raw salmon was presented two ways - Japanese sashimi style (pictured above), and Lo Hei, which basically means “stirred up”. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of this, but it was presented as a bowl of sliced raw salmon mixed up with slivers of ginger and coriander leaves, and dressed in dark soy and sesame.

Just some julienne of ginger, cabbage and coriander, which was used to garnish and flavour various dishes.

This was another sea cucumber dish, this time sauteed with leeks and prawns. The braised leeks lent a lovely sweetness overall.

Finally, was the Hokien Mee, a signature dish of EG’s Mum. Egg noodles, rice vermicelli (bee hoon) were stir fried with scallops, calamari, mussels, prawns, chye sim (green veg). The dish should be semi-wet (ie. not completely dry) , which is obtained through the use of a mild anchovy stock. Noodle dishes are usually eaten for longevity, and as I wanted some of that longevity (which is the excuse I’m using for my gluttony), I had two bowlfuls :-).

For dessert we had mango tart (which I made, but forgot to take photos of in my haste), mango cake and agar-agar jelly. We also snacked on love letters and small pineapple cakes.

The day was absolutely wonderful. I met with EG’s grandparents, an aunt/nephew from Singapore, two of his cousins, and his parents (who I have met a number of times now). I felt so privileged to be invited to this special family event (and gifted with some red packets), and to experience something that is completely different from my usual realm of experience.

I hope the Year of the Pig is a happy, healthy and fortunate one for EG, his family, and to all of you as well. Keong Hee Huat Chye!

Written by mellie on February 17th, 2007 | Tags: Chinese | Category: Uncategorized |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL