Days to Labbit Year

I feel like I am repeating the same phrase over and over again. "Another year, bla bla bla....". Spent the days approaching the Chinese New Year with more home-cooked food and, well, I would like to say rest, but I've been waking up really early these few days I think I am on the losing end this year-end :(

Pai pai Ah Ma with mostly vegetarian dishes. Not quite a fan of vegetarian stuff, so didn't take much shots of those. It was only Tua Ee, Sien Ee, mom, dad and me around in SP hehe....

Check out Mom's humongous fake orchid flowers beside Ah Ma and Ah Kong's nirvana condo units! Lol! They are so huge they practically obscure the neighbouring units hehe....

Papa's pose very the apek hehehe. Mom as usual camera-sensitive and Sien Ee is unsuspecting as usual.

Mom is really hardworking this festive season. She's like making everything from scratch! This time around she got this acar recipe from another aunt of mine, and she's getting into the groove of making them, through the basics. From the chopping of the large amount of ginger, to the soaking of the ingredients in vinegar and turmeric oil, I estimate the whole process took about more than 24 hours to finish. Crazy right, I never knew that acar would be such a complicated dish to make.

Mom and Dad hard at work while Pickles lounging around, hoping to snatch the first food that drops on the floor.

Mom pestered me to take loads of photos on her acar-making process which I duly inclined, though half-heartedly so. Simply because acar is not quite on my craving list but after sampling the outcome, I think I might just put myself through the trouble... some day.

After 24 hours of soaking, the result is a tangy, sour and spicy acar! The pickled cucumber is deliciously crunchy from soaking in vinegar. Mom is really proud of her acar!

Early Monday morning (3 days till CNY), Papa and I made our way to Penang to pick up my evil sister hehe... Her flight was delayed for a bit because of the heavy rain down South. Soon after we visited Chor Soo's place and check out the new deco!

It's some sort of Chinese blossoms or something... At first all of us thought they were fake, no leaves nothing but when Soohoo said they were real, we were really surprised! They looked so pretty!

Soohoo said he got the whole freaking tree for about RM200 I think. His friend or someone is still testing the growth and market, once they get the ball rolling, the plant can go up to thousands of ringgit!

Oraits, moving on to more important items:

Dinner of heng chai, lotus root soup, tomyam steamed fish and lab cheong.

More shots of the acar cucumber lol. Mom kept telling us not accidentally drop water into her pickled cucumber lest we ruin her 24 hours work.

Mi chubi Pichu

CNY Eve:

Got up at the ungodly hour of 7am, showered and left for Ah Ma's place (technically it's Tua Ee's place but we're so used to calling the place Ah Ma's) to help out with the preparations and to pai pai Ah Ma.

Ah Ma so ho mia! She got pai-ed second time already within the span of 4 days :)

All my favorite CNY items in its full glory.

Tu tor th'ng (got to eat it with the light-colored cili padi omgsoheavenly!!), heng chai, jiu hu char (with lettuce and sambal belacan yummy), lor kei (braised chicken), sar bi hu and an assortment of oranges, and kuehs.

Btw, those bowls of rice and chopsticks, spoons arrangement and all, done by yours truly. Mom said that Ah Ma used to be meticulous about the preps and arrangement and now she's passing them to me lol. Even scooping rice into the rice bowls also got method wan leh!

Oh silly me, how could I have left out Mom's painstakingly made acar! But seriously, they tasted really great with a sprinkle of sesame seed and deep fried ginger.

The building to the north-east of Ah Ma's place in a massive construction. It's completely gruesome, the way they are piling more brick and cement on this already towering building. We have no idea what this place is going to be used for. Though we speculated that it's probably going to become a swallow's nest hive of some sort, but I seriously hope not. The noise to attract the swallows is bound to drive anyone nuts.

Sisterhood hehe.

The place I used to call home, when I was much younger. This was my playground hehe. I remembered that I always look forward to sleep over at Ah Ma's until I reach secondary school days when instead of me begging Mom to sleep over, it was Ah Ma who would ask me to stay :(

Two of my favorite items! Jiu hu char wrapped in lettuce and sambal belacan, and the ultimate tu tor th'ng!

Craving for it again -.- even though I just had this earlier today...

Petai! Wasn't easy searching for buah petai around this period. Mom had a few of her friends searching for the stink peas, and finally when one of her colleagues called, I was even more excited hehe. It's one of the few dishes that I've been craving for and wanting to learn how to make. Costs RM40 for about 30 small bunches! A complete rip-off but it's alright, finally I will be able to have my heavenly sambal petai T___T

Tua Ee had me checking each pea for worms and I found a particularly fat one wriggling in between... yucks!

Want to go sleep liaw cos tomorrow another long day. Will update the CNY eve dinner soon (though nothing exciting. In terms of food I mean).