Gong Xi Fa Cai

Today Friday 12.2.21 is CNY Day 1. Not doing any house visiting today. Just drop off some food for the elderlies, a hi bye quick stop with masks fully on.

Yesterday at 3.30 pm, I received this lovely cake.

It has a hand written note on it from the seller on behalf of my friend.

Gong Xi Fa Cai cake.

It is a mandarin orange chiffon cake by sinyeebaker on insta.  Very light and fluffy cake with real fruit mandarin oranges in the middle of the cake. The frosting is very light too. I wonder what it is made from.

Yesterday at 5 pm, we delivered this 6 liter chye vegetarian to the elderlies after he spent hours cooking it.

Plant based meals for this day, Friday 12.2.21 from www.pbhall.org

Meal B: vege sausages and sweet potatoes mash.

Meal A: potatoes cauliflower kurma curry, brown rice and cabbage.

Meal C: Chap Chye Curry which I ordered for Sunday 14.2.21

Meal D: M'sian Inspired Poke Bowl which is Nasi Ulam which I tried the previous Sunday.

In the Mood for CNY

18 days to go before CNY and I am feeling CNY in the air. Quite excited about it. I don't visit friends during CNY so this year will be the same for me. 

Every chinese new year, we give my elderly inlaws a rest from cooking. For this year, we decided to buy frozen food to heat up for them during all 15 days of cny (I mean throughout the span of the 15 days, not 15 frozen dishes). We considered 3 eateries only amongst the many eateries providing cny frozen ready to eat meals.

The food provided by easy dot delicacies look very good but the portion is way too much for 3 pax so they were not chosen.

Next is Gao Ren Guan restaurant with their many types of frozen ready to eat meal. The portion is right for us but as we are not going to Jaya Grocer where these frozen meals are sold, we don't know where to reliably get them so no go here. Please click on the picture above to get a larger image to read the prices and dishes.

Gao Ren Guan restaurant provides takeaways for special CNY dishes too but the portion is way too much for 3 pax.

I am happy to say that we have ticked this item off our CNY preparation checklist as we bought the ready to eat frozen food from Eu Yan Sang because we know the taste of the food cooked by Zun express which is Eu Yan Sang's kitchen section. I bought them using eu yan sang hp app and got MYR 10 off.

Bought 4 types of frozen dishes on Saturday and they were delivered on Monday 25.1.21 which is very efficient.

2 packs of braised pork knuckle with black bean vinegar at MYR 25.20 Nett each.

One pack lotus leaf rice with waxed meat at MYR 43.20 Nett.

One pack Braised pork belly with herbs at MYR 38.70 Nett.

This is the pack of frozen pork belly.

2 packs braised pork knuckle with superior sauce at MYR 43.20 Nett each.

This is the frozen pack of braised pork knuckle.

Total price is MYR 208 after deducting MYR 10 e-voucher promo. Free delivery for purchase above MYR 200 Nett. 

Now that the frozen food box is ticked, next is to buy CNY goodies for them. I have fun every year hunting for suitable cny goodies for my in-laws. This year I will be hunting online instead of going to the mall. So fun, right? Are you ready for CNY?

Reunion Dinner

 Happy CNY to everyone! Angpow packets from Jacob's biscuits.

 Homecooked reunion dinner for 4 pax.

There are pieces of braised pork knuckles under the bean curd knots, mushrooms and wood fungus.

Yee Sang no. 3

Jelly Fish Yee Sang during CNY Reunion Dinner for 8 pax this year. It was a big portion of jelly fish!

Instead of the traditional dishes for the reunion dinner, we selected to have this CNY Set at AliBaba and Nyonya eatery in Midvalley Mall.

Delicious platter filled with 5 types of food item - 5 spice chicken rolls (similar to ngo hiong), crispy popiah, prawn kerabu, chicken and shrimp wanton and deep fried dumplings (sui gao) with what I thought was salted egg yolk fillings in them but later, I noticed that the poster printed "cheesy fortune cookies" as one of the items so it must be that this dumpling is filled with cheese and not salted egg yolk.

8 of us shared 6 plates of Nasi Ulam and 1 plate of plain rice.

 Lotus seeds, white fungus and lily bulbs dessert.

Total bill for 8 pax: MYR317.50 nett. 

2018 CNY Day 3 Dinner

A CNY dinner with friends or relatives most likely will have lou sang. Instead of raw fish slices, we chose jelly fish (海蜇).

Pork ribs with chestnuts, mushrooms and ginkgo nuts wrapped in lotus leaf.

This is a very flavourful dish with lots of gravy. The ribs are tender and succulent.

Bean curd (tofu), wheat gluten, mushroom, broccoli and carrot dish. I like the taste of the tofu.

Ching Long Choy (Green dragon vegetable which is young and tender chives).

Kai Lan Vegetable

Half a roasted chicken

Half a steamed chicken

Complimentary fruits

My portion of yee sang.

No rice, just 1 plate from all dishes.

Total for 9 pax is MYR 299.50 nett.

GS Lap Mei Fan

As with previous years, we ordered the Lap Mei Fan (Waxed Meat Rice) special set for 1 pax from Zun Express during this CNY period to share between the two of us.  This set costs MYR 26.80++ (MYR 31.25 nett) which includes the rice with 2 thin strips of cured duck meat, 3 slices of liver sausages and 3 slices of red sausages; a herbal soup (select from 2 choices), and a wolfberry jelly dessert.

Refreshing wolfberry jelly dessert.

We also ordered a portion of yam bbq meat balls (2 balls) at MYR 4++ (MYR 4.65 nett). They cut each yam bbq meat balls in half.

I like the taste of yam here. Can tell that there is a lot of yam used in the paste to wrap the BBQ meat fillings.

It has started

Pineapple rolls cookies from Mika - 21 pieces per box at MYR 50 nett for 2 boxes.

Arrowroot chips - MYR 15 nett. I finished all these chips and am nursing a sorethroat now so no more.

Mandarin Oranges

Bought a box of Mandarin Oranges from Aeon Supermarket. Less than one month to CNY!

28 honey mandarin oranges (medium size) for MYR 19.88 nett. It is succulent and tastes sweet with a bit of sourness but the membrane is a bit on the thick side. Quite ok.

More and more discounts

I find the pineapple tarts that were sold in the Klang Valley for the CNY celebrations too expensive for me so I did not buy any. Then I went up to Penang and spied with my little eyes a container of pineapple rolls in my sibling's house which I proceeded to attack because they are very tasty, melt in the mouth buttery texture and with sweet sourish pineapple jam fillings.

My sibling then told me that one container costs MYR28.80 and if you buy two, you get MYR10 off so bearing this in mind I went to Queensbay Mall 3 days before CNY and sought out the stall that is selling them. To my delight, they were giving more discounts - MYR8.80 off every container of CNY cookies so after tasting a few types of CNY cookies, I bought one container of pineapple rolls (26 rolls) for MYR20 and one container of cheese pineapple rolls for MYR22 (26 rolls) after MYR8.80 off each of them.

When my sibling heard that there were more discounts, I was urged to buy more so we went again 2 days before CNY and the price was down to MYR15 per container of CNY cookies. To my disappointment, all the pineapple rolls were sold out but all was not lost for there were pineapple balls cookies left with 28 balls in a case for MYR15 only. What a steal! So I bought another two cases. The main difference between the rolls and balls is that the balls have more pastry dough.

Now I still have a few left of each and I am treating them like gold. Eating only one each every 2 days to make them last longer.

4 in the end

Do you like cheesy pineapple rolls?

MYR8.80 off making them MYR22 and MYR20 each after discounts.

Instead of 6 rolls each layer, they give only 5 rolls with a plastic roll in the middle.

7 balls for each layer making it 28 balls in a case

It does not taste as dry as it looks.

From MYR26.80 to MYR15 - What a steal! Keep the best for last. I will look out for this stall again next CNY.