dumplings

yup, that's right. 端午节 is round the corner again. this year, jan promised my mum that she'll come by to learn and help her out.

i fear for her. :P haha...

unfortunately, estee is down with flu... very likely that she had caught the bug from me a few days earlier. so in the end it's only mum and jan doing all the work. my contribution to the annual festival remains consistent, i eat the cooked dumplings.

delicious! :)

端午节

although this chinese festival isn't as widely celebrated here as places like hong kong or taiwan. you know it's round the corner when hotels and restaurants bandy new and sometimes bizarre flavours of dumpling. or when you hear news reports that the dumpling chains have increased prices or have long queues at their shops.

it only hits home when my mum makes her own today assisted by my sis. i contribute to the process by eating the dumplings. :) hehe...

i don't know if her version is cantonese or teochew because some of them have a dollop of red bean paste in addition to the usual ingredients of pork, chestnuts, dried shrimps and mushrooms since i'm not a dumpling connoisseur. this year, she didn't make the cantonese version that comes with steamed green mung beans.

my mum's version isn't too salty and she trims off most of the fatty bits from the pork belly meat that she uses, so it's less of a cardiologist's nightmare. i relish the annual indulgence for a few days while she gives some away while saving some for prayers on the festival which falls on this coming saturday [5th day of the 5th lunar month].

how did a festival originally meant to commemorate 屈原's patriotism and his love for his state become another gourmet experience? guess that's uniquely singaporean, isn't it? :P

洛阳大伯公

first time there... went along because there was transport available. :P

it was still bustling even though it was nearing midnight, there was a continuous stream of devoutees the whole time we were there.

the prayer offerings package costs $2, consisting of 6 items: incense, candles, joss paper, another piece of 'petition' joss paper, crackers and tea leaves. the whole process of offering incense to the various deities has been systemised.

you start off with placing the offerings on the table. next you light one candle on each side. once your incense are lit too, just follow the numbers and proceed from station 1 to 12. a small card-sized note at each station even tells you the correct number of incense sticks to offer to the deity.

after that is done, you can proceed to offer the joss paper in the fiery mini pagoda.

what's so different about this temple?

1 of the stations is the indian elephant-headed god, ganesha while another i don't even have any knowledge of. hmm... so this is the temple that a certain minister had commented on how multi-culturalism had seeped into our everyday lives.

surreal.

zi yean

sl wanted to meet up for dinner so i suggested zi yean since i've heard so much about the place from eric and tracy. finally have the chance to try the food there after a failed attempt during chinese new year with the jc gang.

the restaurant occupies the entire void deck of the hdb block, just a short walk from redhill mrt station. it's divided into air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned sections. the difference being the gst charges levied at the air-conditioned section. i also read that this section also serves the more expensive stuff like shark's fins and 'live' seafood.

doris spotted apple who helped to recommend the dishes to us. janet commented that we seemed to have over-ordered when all the dishes arrived. in the end, we finished almost everything. that's testament to the good cooking and delicious flavours. all of us enjoyed the meal lots.

an interesting speciality here is the deep fried shrimp in beancurd skin. it's not a pretty sight but somehow the combination works. the other is the dog duck. no worries, no dogs were harmed in the preparation of this dish. the name is such because it's supposed to be dog stew but with the dog meat substituted with duck meat.

the deep fried fish skin was interesting. crispy yet not fishy. could it have come from all the salmon used for the chinese new year yusheng? :P i like the chicken especially. didn't really catch the name of the dish. but it's flavourful and goes well with the rice.

dessert was black sesame paste. not too sweet and thick a consistency. the sweet deal? it's on the house!

yummy! :)

traditional chinese festivals

saw a programme on channel u about how chinese singaporeans [do not] celebrate our traditional festivals such as mid-autumn festival.

who’s guilty of it? probably me. :P

while me and my family do not really observe/celebrate mid-autumn festival with a dinner or a special gathering, we do however, buy mooncakes for prayers and consumption.

the reason that it’s not a special occasion here in singapore is because it’s not a public holiday to begin with unlike in hong kong which i heard it’s celebrated in a much bigger way, perhaps due to its pre-dominantly chinese populace.

in fact, this year, in addition to the traditional lantern festival at the chinese gardens, chinatown is also lighted up with a bazaar set up specially for the festival.

but do i feel the festive mood in the air? nope, i think it’s because my family do not have the tradition of celebrating the day. in fact, i’ll be catching a string quartet performance at the esplanade with my sis this sunday. :P

nevertheless, i still partake in mooncakes in copious amounts during this period. love them since young. not helped by suppliers who send them to the company. i know it’s loaded with sugar and oil but who can resist a once-a-year indulgence?

i prefer the traditional baked white lotus seed paste version, without yolk if i can help it. this year, adelyn is not around to mop up the pieces of yolk that i scrape off.

i think it’s ridiculous to charge more for yolks since there’s a corresponding reduction in the lotus seed paste. does the yolks cost that much more than lotus seed paste?

however, i’m also open to new flavours. this year i bought something new from szechuan court, mini snowskin with a dark chocolate centre with almond slivers. yummy!

the best part? got a good discount since i asked thomas to buy for me. hehe... :)