Chinese New Year

This is Faith's first Chinese New Year. We've taught her to put both her hands together and wish "Gong Xi Gong Xi". Unfortunately, Faith felt that she didn't want to be a performing monkey, and hence, would only do it at her own whim and fancy. Usually, that excludes wishing anybody Gong Xi Fai Cai on first sight :)

Still, its exciting that this year, Faith would be able to collect some ang paos, although the meaning and symbolism of it might escape her. For Faith, all ang paos are chewables -- something she can put in her mouth :) The only damper during this festive period is that she seemed to have caught a virus or something. She's got a runny nose and might still be teething too. As a result, she seems to be like a leaking tap these days, leaking mucus and saliva from her nose and mouth :)

On CNY's Eve, we had steamboat dinner at my MIL's house. I've made 3 items to add to the food. The first was the braised abalone with conpoy, which I learnt from Sam Leong's class a while ago and blogged about. Decided to skip the spinach tofu as it requires deep-frying and I didn't feel like deep-frying anything. The other two were lemon tart and creme brulee for desserts as 2 of my MIL's sisters and a brother, along with their families were coming for the tail end of the dinner :)

The braised abalone turned out well. After 6 hours of braising, the abalones were soft enough yet with a slightly chewy texture. According to my SIL, she said that's how abalones should be. Phew.... was almost afraid that I would spoil the entire dish and waste the 2 cans of abalones.

The first day of CNY, we went to "bai nian" at my MIL's place, as well as to have our lunch there. Left Faith at my in-laws' place after lunch while Louis and I went home. He to sleep as he was working till 3 am the previous night, while I did some slight chores. As it was just my in-laws and us for dinner, we decided to head to Muthu's Curry at Suntec City.

Needless to say, we had to order the curry fishhead, tandoori chicken and 3 side dishes of vegetables. The fishhead was great and the portion was generous. The tandoori chicken was excellent. The meat was well-spiced and soft, with bits and pieces of the chicken well charred. We had a walk around Carrefour after dinner, as it was opened.

On the second day of CNY, we had dim sum lunch at Man Fu Yuan at Intercontinental Hotel. The restaurant was nice enough to give us a room. Like the previous years, my MIL's 2 sisters and brother joined us too. Interestingly, the older 3 children (with the exception of Faith, who was in pink) were all decked out in red. I simply had to have the children take a picture together with Faith. Anthea was delighted that Faith was sitting quietly on her lap for the photo-taking, without her usual wriggling.

Today, we had a vegetarian lunch at the Bright Hill Temple. My mom had a complimentary table for today and hence, my parent-in-law, elder FIL & family and us trooped to the temple for a vegetarian Lohei and steamboat.

Seems like we are having lots of food these few days. Thankfully, I ate normally, taking care not to over-indulge in the goood food, given the festive mood. Right now, we're not sure what's for dinner as my FIL is having some of his siblings over for a game of Mahjong. But I have this slight hankering for some sinful food, like MacDonalds :)

Hahaha... we'll see.

Throughout the CNY period, Faith's been having her usual porridge. I gather she must find it boring compared to what the adults were having. Come next year, she would be able to join in and eat what the adults are having. That would be fun. Especially when these days, it doesn't take much for her to go "Mum-mum"* at every sight of food.

*Note: Mum-mum is baby-speak for when Faith wants to eat anything or when she sees food. Occasionally, it also means for any objects and items that she wants to get her hands on :)