Traditionally Chinese New Year means lots of sumptuous food, goodies and everything new but somehow I noticed I've 'slowed down'. Slow down in terms of gorging all the goodies unnecessary but to consume in moderation coupled with exercise too so yay.....that's the way to go.
Went to soak in the Chinese New Year atmosphere as I need to pick up some goodies for my Mom and ourselves. You would noticed that the lanterns were not lighted up as we were there in the evening.
Lots of mini mandarin oranges going cheap at $2 for five pieces.
How about this at $2 then? Mini pumpkins which we love to display as the colour symbolizes good luck and auspicious too.
We must have Nian Gao which is our tradition sticky rice cake :D Over in our family, we sliced them thinly and fried them with flour & egg. Some would 'sandwich' them between a slice of yam and sweet potatoe which is equally yummy.
Sweets and more sweets :D We love to usher in the new year with everything nice & sweet :D Pick & choose any flavours that you like folks!
Groundnuts at $9 per 500 gms is way too expensive to my liking so I 'let it go', I can have better stuff at the supermarket.
Alright....they let you have a go to sample these pumpkin seeds but I had a nasty experience many years back. You sampled the good ones but when you buy some, they actually packed some really bad pumpkin seeds so..... :( Just make sure they pack what you have sampled.
This is what we displayed at home.....groundnuts, pumpkin seeds (black & red), chocolates & sweets :D
You would never get to miss any of these stalls hanging wax duck, dried sausages and liver for all to pick & choose. I just love the colourful display, do you?
If you have a sweet tooth, you must have a go at all these candied goodies of dried longans, sweet gingers, lotus seeds, canded carrots or dates. My eyes went crazy.......
Now this is what my Mom wants me to buy..... dried octopus. Mom would soak this for a day, cut them into small pieces and together with sea cucumbers, dried scallops, meat, mushroom, dried mussels to stew her signature dish.....it was heavenlicious :D
Other dried goodies are also found here in Chinatown, sometimes one whole piece of dried squid is also used to boil the stock for soup which is very sweet. Takes a long time though :D
Well I know it doesn't look very appealing but this is how dried sea cucumber looks like. Now it takes more than two days to 'soften' them so I remember Mom changing the water all the time. When it went into the stew pot it is oh ssooooooo......... slimy and nice :D
And can you find a 'hidden Mickey' here folks?
There I hope I have shared some of our Chinese tradition with you, I remembered when I was a little girl, we get to eat all the sweets that we wanted too and my parents will not scold me on the 1st Day of Chinese New Year :D
Now that I am a Mom, I tried my best to retain some of our Chinese tradition and among all things, the most important aspect of our festival is the Reunion Dinner and Family Bonding during this time so Cheers to all for another good year :D
Let the God of Fortune bless all you nice people out there :D
Chinese banners full of auspicious wordings for people to buy and hang at their homes. You would notice that we love the colour red and orange during this festival.
