Mini Chinese New Year 2009

The only new CNY deco I put up this year besides the old ones. Made the round fan from empty ang-pows!

It became a tradition that every Chinese New Year we will have our Sabahan mini get-together at my apartment to celebrate this auspicious day.

This year, I have decided again to make it simple but warm. Unlike last year, this time I was able to prepare a little bit more Chinese delicacies since uhm...I brought some stuff from home. :)

Early morning I was awaken by the firecrackers that could be heard from outside my window. I tried to sleep some more but obviously the day had begun! Hobbit and I quickly jumped out of bed and went out to do a little bit of a last minute shopping.

By the time we came home, it was already noon time and I haven't started cooking! The party was scheduled to start at 4pm. We quickly got on our hands and feet in the kitchen! While busy at the kitchen, happy thoughts hovered my mind and that made all the homesickness bearable.

As for the dishes, I only managed to prepare 4 main dishes. I did plan to cook more but as I said, we were catching up on time. First, I prepared the chicken and ginseng soup for this takes time to simmer. I have always like this soup. It gives your body medicinal benefits since it's a mixture of Chinese herbal stuff. I will blog about each dish in a la hobbits when I find the time to do so. Next, Hobbit helped me prepare steamed chicken with sausages. I really liked this dish for the taste is so Chinese due to certain ingredients and oh, also the sausages used is the chinese sausages we call lap chiong. Next was the stir fried mixed vegetables. Ah, easy to cook but quite time consuming to cut. The last thing that went into the frying pan was asparagus coated with sesame oil and dried mushroom. I thought of preparing fried noodles bean sprout with spring onions and fried minced beef but then it was already 3:40pm. Hobbit thought the food were sufficient so I stopped and shooed myself to clean up before our guests arrived.

By the time we started feasting, it was about 5:30pm and everybody was hungry! The reason to the lateness was because we waited for other friends to arrive besides the fact that I know my house is not close by to where most of my guests live. :) While waiting in between, aunty D and Jathrow helped me fry the nien gao (CNY glutinious cake) dipped in beaten eggs. It was so sticky that we almost gave up frying.

The rest of the evening was filled with joys and laughter. We enjoyed the giving and receiving of red packets part. There were funny moments that just made everyone giggled and laugh! Oh, we also had our drunk moments where we adults pretended that the fantastic non-alcoholic wines were for real! We ended the day with lots of photo taking session.

I can say now despite me wishing I was home on this occasion, I know that God had blessed Hobbit and I with a bunch of wonderful family-friends here that we simply had a good blast! :)