Whats CNY without FOOD & All Things RED!?

Happy CNY Everyone! Chinese New Year has finally come and its initial days moved on. As usual, the first day is LOADED with visiting, eating, giving Ang Pows, receiving Ang Pows and reconnecting with relatives that you MAY or may not get to see only once a year.

I'd like to start off with gracious thanks to Silk Mineral who has very kindly sponsored a very gorgeous range of sparkly mineral make up eyeshadow. I'm using *starlight copper* here. I have previously used Fine Gold HERE. I like sparkly! *ok.. ooops... ditzy moment... moving on...*

We headed off this year comfortably in comfortable tops and jeans. No polyester woven Chinese New Year outfits that are worn once a year this year. Thank God!

Lauren and Eirian with me in the cab....

The hubster, CJ and me colour coordinated with red tops and blue jeans... whoot! And of course, I took a picture with Serene, my sister in law when I met her later that day. *loves both*

First stop of the day... my auntys' house! Very nicely decorated... hungry and looking forward to 2 main items that you'll see here. Oh and the lucky apples are cool eh! There are chinese words on them!! And they're ON THE apple skins.. not pasted on.

How did they do that! They could make branded apples! Or imagine wedding favours w ur names/pictures GROWN on it. U literally have to grow them apples months ahead before your wedding to ensure you have a crop harvested in time for the wedding but SO COOL CAN!

And this is part one of what I was looking forward to! Deep fried yam nian gaos!! *sslluuurpp!!* these are SOOO good! Hows it done? Sandwich the sliced nian gao in between yams/sweet potato. Dip in batter and deep dry and serve crispy, chewy and hot! *drools*

And an assortment of ingredients for DIY pohpiah and pie tie!! *shiok lah!* ... yam cake too... So good lah!

Pineapple tarts and Kuey Lapis! (Layered cake) and a prominent CNY dish. Pen- Cai! Which is a braised dish of alot of expensive ingredients like abalone, prawns, mushrooms, scallops, mushrooms and alot more on top of braised cabbage chap chye mix served in a giant bubbling claypot.. quite visually impressive...

And this crab ball bamboo shoot soup is only made ONCE A YEAR during CNY and every single person in our family LITERALLY looks forward and waits a whole year just to get this and when it comes out! *Wahh!! Wack it!!* I had at least 12 balls. So there's carrot cake, curry chicken and roasted chicken too... so good..

And of course... CNY is extra nice when my sister, Alex is in around to celebrate it together. *hugs*

A highly amusing thing this year though was that MANY relatives on MY SIDE, couldn't recognise me for a while. They greeted me like a stranger ONLY when we first exchanged greetings only to realise once I sat down to speak to them that it was ME! I thought it was strange but highly complimentary lah! "Oh! Its you Pam! My god! Its you!"...

Me: "Uh huh... -.-""

I didn't change THAT MUCH! Last CNY 2008 post can be found HERE! but I suppose they didn't expect me to be even smaller?! And then it was even more hilarious at CJ's relatives home. Even more didn't recognise me.. some thought a stranger tried to gatecrash!... Can't be that CJ remarried SO FAST RIGHT! *pFFFFFffft!* Wahahaha!!... I wonder how they will react NEXT YEAR! We'll see!

And surprises of surprises.. I asked my grandma to take a photo with me and guess what! This was the first shot and then she asked "like that can take meh?" So I showed her that we were perfectly in frame. And she said. "Take again!"... uh huh... oookay... *looks at her suspiciously* and then we took at least another 8 more shots... "again! again!" she said and then a final shot where she was smiling.

So sporting and fun lah!! *big hugs* I'm the eldest grandchild okay! :) My grandma if only blogging was popular back in her days would be a cool blogger chick okay! Wahahaha!

Minutes later, CJ walked into the kitchen and asked "what are u two doing?!".

Me: "CAMWHORING!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

I walked into my uncles' computer area and noticed a frame and squealed. "Ah Gong!!" It was a picture of my grandfather when he was about 22 years old. I miss him so much!! Will visit him at the church one of these days...

After all visiting my family side, we head off to visit 3 more relatives homes from CJ's side and then we all adjourned to Pizza Hut! And stuffed ourselves silly with Lava Crust Pizza *slurps*, Lasagna, Fish Nuggets and icecream! So good lah!!

And we caught Gareth, our nephew with a new "thing" where he trembles on command and its so cute lah!! Check that out! :) So how was your CNY?