There are a lot of things I can write about this but time is an essence. So I'll do the shortcut way hehehe sorry ok. Check out Renee's rendition of the New Year (in Singapore though).
This will be my last day of work for the year of Monkey. My office will only be opened on 15th February 2005 at 9.15am to welcome the year of Rooster, well it was supposedly an auspicious time and date to do so. So my blog will be going on leave too unless I find some time to squeeze in to write in between the visitings, dinners, snackings and drinking.
Will blog about my lunch today with Leo, Ed and LC over at Hong Ngek over at Jalan Tun HS Lee. We had half portion of Yue Sang (Raw Fish Salad in Cantonese) even though there are only 4 of us. What the heck but it was a good choice.
Yue Sang also known as Low Hei (means prosperous) is uniquely started off from Kuala Lumpur in those days where our forefathers who came from China to Malaya to trade and work in the tin mines. They missed their family back in China during the festive season, hence, created this dish to usher in the New Year with lots of prosperity.
This dish consisted of shredded carrots, radish, pickles (sorry I'm not sure of the exact ingredients), ginger, pomelo and so forth. Topped with some fried cracker puffs, peanut and sesame seeds, plum sauce, peanut oil and of course slices of raw fish (usually grass carp is used but due to commercialisation salmon, tuna, abalone, lobster, clams etc are available too) which is mixed with some pepper and 5 spice powder.
Once everything is poured into the plate, all diners will raise their chopsticks and start to low hei or low sang (toss). Good wishes and tidings will be mentioned by all whilst tossing the Yue Sang, hoping the new year will being in all the good tidings.
This is the dish before tossing.
Leo mixing the raw fish with pepper and 5 spice powder.
The tossing of our Yue Sang with chopsticks. Pardon my translation ok hehehe... Tidings heard were Poe Poe Go Sing (promotion in work to greater heights), Sun Tei Kien Hong (good health), Chuk Ed Fai Tit Sang Farn Guo Kai Tzai (hehehe wish Ed faster have a newborn baby Rooster) and many more...
This Hong Ngek was packed to the brim today even though Leo had booked a table. Thank goodness the dishes came out fast. This Mun Yee Meen (braised egg noodles) came right after we finish our Yue Sang. Done ala Hokkien Mee style, hence it's very dark in colour due to the thick soya sauce used in KL. Tasty and have lots of ingredients in there ie meat, shrimps, fishcakes, squid and lots of choy sum (errr I think its mustard green).
Next up is one of my fave, Fried Pak Kor Meen (fried rice cake where certain place this pak kor is also known as Shanghai Nin Go) ala Hokkien Mee style too but has a whole lot more of gravy than Mun Yee Meen. They have the similar ingredients with the addition of Chinese Parsley which gave a hint of flavouring that I liked. Yummm...
Close up on how pak kor in the shape of an oval looked like.
We added one Tong San Mai (China Bee Hoon or China Rice Noodles). Not sure how the name came about but this is the typical fried rice noodles quite similar to Hokkien Mee but drier. Hey, I know how to cook this hehehe... Next time ok I'll blog about it. Leo liked this dish.
We order one side dish which I did not grasp its Chinese name but it's vegetarian gluten stuffed with fish paste which were deep fried before coating with a sweetish honey sauce. Hmm this one I like. Something different from the usual Crab Meatball which Hong Ngek is famous for.
That's what we have for lunch today and hopefully we get to have another round of Low Hei during the new year. Err Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days hehehe...
I'll leave here with this. Will keep my fingers crossed for some time to blog about new year celebration. Oooooo I can now imagine all the lovely dishes and snacks like pineapple tarts, cookies, kueh kapit... waiting for me. WOW!!!!
Kung Hei Fatt Choi to all of you.
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