12 Restoran Lee Heong, Jalan Ipoh (Taman Kok Lian)

Weekends are home-cooking breaks for me! This is what we had for dinner the day before. We haven't been to this restaurant in awhile since our food choices of late stray towards hawker fare, but we thought a proper meal at a roadside Chinese restaurant would make a refreshing experience for mum-in-law (mil) on this particularly long day of lazing about the house. She has zero cleaning, laundry and ironing to do - I get it all done for her before she finds the opportunity to. And prepare her meals throughout the day. Basically, she never has to get off the sofa! It seems right that she be pampered during her short visit with us, but I guess...

6 On the first day of the Monkey Year ..

On the first day of Chinese New Year ..     I jumped out of bed at 6am, showered and caught the sunrise! Every CNY, I'd have this spirit of seizing the day. On other days, I believe in staying in bed later than necessary and dreaming of breakfast in bed...who's with me? Mum-in-law would be up early too. She puts in the final touches on her herbal chicken soup, which is to be eaten with misua. These noodles symbolise longevity. We began our morning (and this has been a yearly ritual) with an auspicious breakfast of misua in herbal chicken soup for long life to be blessed upon us. Herbal Chicken Soup Misua Right after that,...

12 Our Lunar New Year Practices

I can't believe that Chap Goh Meh is over! It marks the last day of the Lunar New Year celebration. Back to long months of quietness until the next festive celebration, which for me would be Christmas. I remember the road trip to Penang just the week before. We had wanted to cross the new bridge to the island, but a flash of lightning appeared before our eyes in between frightening-looking dark clouds. We chickened out. "Better use the old bridge."  I blurted out. "At least there are many cars there. We brave the storm together with them.." I'm still chuckling over our reaction that day. On the eve of Chinese New Year eve, the usual...

10 The Reunion Dinner - Huat Arh!

Huat arh! is kind of a rallying cry (to me) for prosperity to be blessed upon us. The first time I heard it, I was tickled to bits. It is often cheered out with a lot of positive energy. Huat is prosperity in Hokkien, by the way. We are greeted with huat arh! every Chinese New Year. It's a common practice on hubs side of the family. My side of the family are of Hakka descent. Hence, we would go, "Kong Hee Fatt Choy! Choy Sin tao lor!" which simply means - 'Wishing you prosperity. The God of Prosperity is arriving!' The second sentence was really started by my aunt. We had our reunion dinner at Bayview Hotel Georgetown this year. The meal began...

14 Ipoh : Impiana Hotel - Not Badlah!

I've just returned from a week-long CNY holiday and whilst running through my blog posts, realised that I had missed out sharing about our hotel stay in Ipoh. Better late than never, right? Hah! The short trip for a wedding which I had written about here, was all about the food. I guess that isn't too surprising since I run a food blog as well. For this trip, we chose to rest at Impiana Hotel for the night. The rates are reasonably cheap at just over a hundred ringgit per night. The location is minutes away from the town's famous eats. The best thing about this hotel is the service. Always smiling, courteous and helpful - that is enough for...

25 Naughty Babe Dirty Duck - Mostly A Piggy Affair

"Come, I belanja you makan.." (let me treat you to a meal) my cousin started. I wanted to see her too. Chinese New Year is around the corner and I had a bag of goodies to pass on. In the bag are various foodstuff like peanuts, mandarin oranges, red dates, longevity noodles, plus a container of popiah snacks that I had slaved over to make the other day. The date was set and reservations were made at Naughty Babe Dirty Duck, Desa Sri Hartamas. Hubs and I walked in to see various paraphernalia of ducks and pigs near the restaurant counter. Then it hit me. Does anyone remember the movie 'Babe'? I'm guessing that 'naughty babe' refers to the pig...