Reunion lunch and dinner in Singapore

Da and I had two reunion meals today! But more of that later in this post.....

As Da and I will be driving to Muar, Malaysia tomorrow, Da decided to send our car for servicing today. While he was attending to this, I baked some cookies known as "Melting Moments" (see photograph below) and also prepared the pasta sauce for tonight's reunion dinner. As Da and I will be going out in the afternoon, I decided to cook the pasta sauce using a crock-pot (that is, a slow cooker) instead of over the stove top. I also boiled some potatoes and made mashed potato with sauteed corn and mushroom.

Fortunately, Da came home timeously otherwise I would have proceeded to bake another Chinese New Year goodie known as "tan san" (using my maternal grandmother's recipe). I had already bought the preserved red bean curd (known as "fu joo") and the plain flour yesterday. With my headache gone, I was on a roll, eager to make up for lost time. I had already baked 6 types of cookies (including the Melting Moments) this past week to bring to Muar, Malaysia for the Lunar New Year and I wanted to bake some more!

Our reunion lunch was held with Da's parents. We fetched FIL and MIL from their home and proceeded to the food court at Katong Shopping Centre. All this while, I never knew the name of the food court. Da's family has always referred to it as "De Castle" as it was the name of the restaurant/cafe that used to occupy the shop unit where the food court is currently located. After patronising the food court for so many years, I only realised today that the name of the food court is "Katong Gourmet Centre".

The four of us decided to eat chicken rice today. While FIL, Da and I ordered roast chicken, MIL decided to order steamed chicken. The chicken rice sold at this food court is quite renowned and is delicious. Each order of chicken rice comes with a complimentary bowl of soup and a complimentary plate of pickled vegetables. We also ordered a plate of beansprouts with salted fish.

After we sent Da's parents home, we made our way home as I had to cook the fettuccine noodles for dinner. En route home, we passed by the same nursery that I patronised yesterday. Goodness me! There were so many cars parked outside the nursery. It would seem that there are many last-minute shoppers at the nursery today.

While waiting for my family to arrive for our reunion dinner, I baked a tray of brownies which I intend to bring to Muar, Malaysia tomorrow.

Ding-dong! My family arrived shortly after 8 pm. They had brought along dinner which my mother had cooked for the little darling of our family. Our dear boy-boy ate a bit of his dinner before he stopped to play with his rubber bone and his rubber ball.

The appetiser for our dinner was "yee-sang" (that is, raw fish salad). It is a tradition amongst the Chinese to eat yee-sang during the Lunar New Year. Da had bought the salmon sashimi from the supermarket today. Fortunately, I managed to find a knife that was sharp enough to slice the salmon thinly.

The communal part about eating "yee-sang" is that after the ingredients for the salad are arranged neatly onto a large plate, everyone uses a pair of chopsticks each to mix the salad. The belief is that the higher you toss the salad, the higher your fortune will be in the coming year (of course, it also means more wastage of food as more of the salad would probably drop onto the table!). It is also customary to say auspicious words while tossing the salad, such as "more bonus", "prosperity", "longevity", "salary increment", "happiness", "peace", etc.

After the appetiser, part two! My brother had brought along a bottle of Shiraz wine from Hunter Valley, which I found to be very smooth.

For dinner tonight, we had:-
(a) fettuccine with pasta sauce
(b) salad with home-made salad dressing (olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice, freshly ground mixed peppercorn, mixed Italian herbs)
(c) mashed potato with sauteed corn and mushrooms
(d) pig internal organs with jelly (this is a Teochew delicacy) - made by GPL
(e) spring rolls (which I re-heated at 220 degrees celsius until each side was crispy) - made by GPL
(f) jellyfish - made by GPL

(Thanks, GPL. Your culinary skills are superb, as always!)

This is the first time that I have cooked mashed potato from scratch. I first boiled the potatoes till they were soft. Then I fried the potatoes, corn and mushrooms (you can use whichever type of fresh mushrooms that you like) in olive oil. I added mixed Italian herbs, freshly ground peppercorn medley and all-purpose seasoning and continued stirring until the potatoes became "mushy".

Ever since my brother introduced me to fettuccine, I find that I prefer this type of Italian noodles to the normal spaghetti noodles. Here is a tip to a delicious plate of pasta noodles - sprinkle chilli flakes and grated cheddar cheese over your paste noodles and mix thoroughly.

Ah! GPL's mouth-watering spring rolls. To prevent the spring rolls from burning, you will need to turn them over halfway through the heating up in the oven at 220 degrees celsius.

As we were eating our dinner, we heard whining from beneath the table. Our little rascal had figured out for himself that we were having a feast and he did not want to miss out on the fun!

After my brother and ZT gave boy-boy some pasta noodles, he was more than happy to pose for photographs for us. As such, my brother decided to use the timer function in my digital camera to take photographs of boy-boy. Doesn't he look cute peeking at us in the photograph below?

Burp! While my family had their after-dinner drinks (I opted to drink the Chinese tea that ZT gave Da and me), I decided to cut the brownies that that I had baked today and store them in a container for easy transportation to Muar, Malaysia tomorrow.

Okay, my dear Malaysian relatives, we shall see you in Muar, Malaysia tomorrow morning! We have to leave Singapore about 6+ in the morning as my relatives have arranged for prayers to be said at the temple for my late maternal grandmother at 10.30 am tomorrow.

Abba Father, I thank You that there will be no traffic jam at the Tuas checkpoint and Malaysian customs tomorrow morning and that we will have a smooth and safe journey to Muar, Malaysia.

In the meantime, I wish all of you a very blessed Lunar New Year! This is the year of the free favours of the Lord. Bring the Lord into our situation and there will always be deliverance.