Gong Hei Fatt Choy!

... albeit a rather belated Chinese New Year wish!

This is my sister's first CNY celebration at home in five years... so I think my most frequent question to her all of last week was... "So does this feel like Chinese New Year yet?"

CNY is a special celebration time for Chinese families worldwide.

There's the must-have reunion dinners... This is actually taken on the second day of CNY when we went back to my aunt's home in Rawang one more time for another round of "feasting'. In accordance with tradition, we went back to my dad's hometown on the eve of CNY for the actual reunion dinner.

My aunt's cooking is something I really look forward to every CNY. We had my favourite chun kuen (similar to spring rolls but its meat rolled up in thin pork fat sheets and deep fried), another favourite qu tou tong (pig's stomach soup with pepper), siew yoke (roast pork) and steamed chicken.


There's the rounds of full course Chinese dinners (and lunches).

Here are my cousins Samantha, Vanessa and Melissa tossing the "lou sang" at our family reunion lunch (for my mom's side of the family). We ate at Ming Room, Bangsar Shopping Centre.


We also had one round with my dad's side of the family on the third night of CNY. Here's my dad, his youngest sister (I call her Mui Gu), her son, her husband and my dad's second sister (Chui Gu). We had a great feast in Gu Yue Tien, Chulan Square.


This picture is for my friend Suen who sadly couldn't make it for my CNY party this year. She loves this jelly cake, ordered from this lady we've affectionately called "The Jelly Auntie" who lives nearby. Suen can eat a whole cake by herself!


The second night of CNY happened to be Rommel's birthday so we took a break from all the Chinese dinners and celebrated at Sage. They took the liberty to specially prepare the truffle pasta for us although it wasn't in the menu. This was so good, we wanted to go back for lunch the next day to have it again.

More pictures are here.