Christmas gathering

This year, my family had our Christmas gathering at my mother's home instead of Da's and my home. What a feast it was!

The day started at about 8 am when I drove to my mother's home to fetch her to the wet market near her home. The blue marketing trolley that you see in the photograph below was only purchased yesterday. The red marketing trolley that Da and I have been using for the past 10 years gave way the last time that we used it a few months ago - the wheels fell out.

Before we started on the marketing, we decided to have our breakfast at the Haig Road hawker centre. My mother ordered breakfast bee hoon and selected 3 ingredients - the total cost? S$3.

I ordered a bread bun with fish fillet and a tea without milk.

Da ordered a fried carrot cake. Speaking of fried carrot cake, there is a coffee shop near my grandmother's home in Muar, Malaysia that sells delicious fried carrot cake for RM2 (equivalent to about US$0.50!).

After my mother finished purchasing the ingredients / food for tonight's dinner, Da and I dropped her off at her home before we proceeded to the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Due to the coming Christmas holidays, the church was having a combined service at 10 am. As such, the service was held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium instead of its usual venue.

After the church service, Da and I drove to my office where we unloaded the Christmas presents that I had wrapped for my colleagues. I would usually distribute the presents after work on 23 December, so that my colleagues will see the presents on their table when they go to work on 24 December. However, since we were already at my office, I decided to distribute the presents there and then. :)

By then, our stomachs were growling! Knowing that a feast was awaiting us for dinner, we decided not to eat rice for lunch. We walked to Lau Pat Sat, a hawker centre located along Boon Tat Street. Hmm... the place was not that crowded, considering that it was a sunday.

I decided to order a bowl of chicken and vegetable ramen. This is the first time that I am eating ramen. (Hi LSD, I thought that ramen has the same texture as instant noodles. I was wrong. It has quite a starchy texture, similar to that of ban mian.) I did not finish the noodles as I found that I did not quite like them. The soup was also starchy, probably due to the noodles.

Da ordered a bowl of hot and spicy ramen. He enjoyed the dish but commented that it was not as spicy as tom yum.

Da's dish came with a small plate of deep fried chicken cutlet. The garnishing that you see in the photograph below are black sesame seeds.

By the time Da and I left Lau Pat Sat, it was about 4+ in the afternoon. We actually intended to visit two showflats near my mother's home. However, when we arrived at the showflats, we discovered that one of the showflats was not ready and the other showflat had a sign that said "viewing by appointment only". As such, we decided to go home to rest.

Dinner time! When we arrived at my mother's home, dinner was ready. Hi Aunt Peh, to make you "lau nua", let me describe the dishes! *grin*

First up, roast pork. We prefer the roast pork sold at one of the stalls in the Haig Road wet market as compared to those sold at the roast meat stalls in the Haig Road hawker centre. My mother would usually re-bake the roast pork in the oven before slicing the roast pork so that the skin is crispy.

From the same stall at the Haig Road wet market, we also bought roast duck.

We also bought char siew from the same stall (okay, we were too lazy to patronise too many stalls! But seriously, this stall sells delicious roast duck, roast pork, char siew and roast chicken. We did not buy the roast chicken today.) I have a recipe for char siew which I have not gotten round to typing out in a post (I have to remember to do this soon... before I forget the recipe! You can either bake the char siew in the oven or use an AMC pot to cook the char siew. It's easy to make and the char siew is delicious.)

My mother liked the ngoh hiang (five spice meat roll) that she ate with her breakfast bee hoon. As such, she decided to buy several ngoh hiangs for dinner.

My brother cooked one of his signature dishes, stir-fried vegetables.

There is a stall at the Haig Road hawker centre that sells vegetarian food. The stall holder is prepared to sell you the ingredients without your purchasing their fried bee hoon. Although we arrived at the stall quite early in the morning, most of her ingredients were sold out. As such, we only managed to buy 2 types of vegetarian ingredients that had not yet been sliced by the stallholder. The ingredient that you see in the photogaph below with the seaweed wrapping is mock fish.

From the same vegetarian stall, we also bought mock char siew and mock intestines.

My mother also cooked a pot of soup although there were so many ingredients in the soup that our bowls were overflowing.

We certainly enjoyed the feast!

Even my brother's Jack Russell Terrier enjoyed his dinner although the little rascal ate up all the ingredients first and left behind some rice for "round two".

Da and I had brought some fruits to my mother's home, intending to cut the fruits after dinner. However, my mother informed us that she was given a log cake from York Hotel as a gift. As such, we decided to cut the log cake instead.

The log cake had a lovely brandy / rum taste. What a wonderful end to a great meal!