Tag Archives: chinese new year

Special CNY Vegetarian Mix


Most Chinese traditionally consume a vegetarian meal as their first meal of the Lunar New Year. This particular vegetarian mix with lots of gravy is something my granny makes every year without fail. It is a mix of various mushrooms and fungus stir fried with red yeast beancurd (lam-yue) and cabbage. The beancurd gives the gravy a pretty pinkish hue. There are lots of variation to this dish. Sometimes my granny adds tofu puff and tofu sheets as well as fatt-choy (a hair-like black algae), which without it turns out fine too.

I have helped my granny prepare this dish every Chor 1 since a few years ago thus I am familiar with her recipe. Being away from home this Chinese New Year (CNY), I made this dish as part of my CNY dinner menu with Hannah and Murray. The taste of this vegetarian dish certainly helped get me into CNY mood away from home. My version this time consisted of ingredients I can easily find at Asian supermarkets here in Auckland.

Ingredients:

  • Red yeast beancurd (lam-yue) – 2 cubes and some of its gravy
  • 3-4 cloves garlic – finely chopped
  • 1 can button mushrooms – halved
  • 1 can golden needle mushrooms
  • About 10 dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 1-2 pcs of dried cloud ear fungus (muk-yee)
  • Raw glass noodles – about half a handful
  • 1/8 cabbage – sliced coarsely
  • Salt and sugar to taste
  • A teaspoon of dark soy sauce
  • Oil for stir fry

Method:

  1. Soak fungus and shiitake mushrooms in water overnight.
  2. Slice fungus into bite size and half the shiitake mushrooms (quarter if it’s too large).
  3. Heat some oil in a chinese wok or deep saucepan.
  4. Stir fry garlic until fragrant.
  5. Add in beancurd paste, fungus and shiitake mushrooms, stir fry at high heat.
  6. Add in button mushrooms and golden needle mushrooms (don’t stir) then add in cabbage (don’t stir).
  7. Add in a cup of water, cover and let simmer on medium heat for 10-15 minutes.
  8. Open lid. Cabbage should be cooked through. Stir to combine. Add water if too dry.
  9. Stir in glass noodles, cover for another 5 minutes or until glass noodles are cooked.
  10. Season with salt and sugar.
  11. Serve hot over rice or noodles or consume on its own.

Yee Sang (Rainbow Raw Fish Salad)


The Yee Sang is a very symbolic dish to have during Chinese New Year (CNY), especially on the 7th day (chor 7) – which in the year of the Rabbit – is today!! According to Chinese tradition, this day is everyone’s birthday (yan-yat 人日).  So, happy birthday to you…! However in modern days, the Yee sang is generally associated with CNY and many just consume this salad anyday during the 15-day festival.

The Yee Sang is a colorful mix of fresh shredded vegetables, glass noodles, some crackers and a few strips of raw fish with plum sauce-based dressing. The salad is tossed using chopsticks by a group of people, usually a family while saying out loud auspicious CNY greetings – this act is termed low-sang or low-hei associated with life, prosperity and good luck. That’s why it is especially special to have it on yan-yat (birthday – the day to celebrate life).

This is my first time ever preparing this dish. Back in Malaysia, boxes of ready made Yee Sang sets are abundant during CNY and most restaurants serve them as appertisers too. Therefore it never occurred to anyone to actually prepare this otherwise simple and very affordable salad.

What I used:

  • Carrots
  • Lettuce
  • Glass noodles
  • Cabbage
  • Red food colouring
  • Vermicelli
  • Wanton pastry sheets
  • Crushed cashew nuts
  • Smoked salmon strips
  • Plum sauce, lemon and sesami oil

To achieve a colourful salad, I used shredded carrots (orange), fresh lettuce from the garden (green), cooked glass noodles (white) and homemade pickled cabbage dyed with red food colouring. I soaked finely shredded raw cabbage overnight in a big bowl of boiling water added with a cup of rice vinegar and 2 tablespoons of sugar plus a teaspoon of red food colouring (or enough to achieve a bowl of deep red coloured vinegarette solution). For the fish, I have used a few thin strips of smoked salmon. I deep fried some vermicelli and wanton pastry sheets as crackers. The dressing was prepared by mixing 4 tablespoons of asian plum sauce, juice of one lemon and 2 teaspoons of sesami oil.

To serve, I arranged every colour nicely around a large round plate and broke pieces of vermicelli at the centre. Then I arrange the strips of fish on top of the vermicelli. Lastly, I broke the wanton pastry into bite size pieces and scatter them evenly on top and finish off with a generous sprinkle of crushed cashew nuts in the centre. Just before the low sang, the dressing was poured all over the salad.

I must say (and I am not trying to praise myself!) that this was the most amazing Yee Sang I have ever had in my life! It has a very good balance of fresh vegetables and crunchy crackers which goes perfectly with the refreshing sweet and sour dressing! Now I wouldn’t want to spend a dime on those lousy Yee Sang sets (which are packed only with artificially dyed crackers and zero fresh vegetables) anymore. Or pay to eat this at any restaurants when I can make it so much better at only a fraction of the price :)

Let’s low, low, low…!! (toss, toss toss…!!)

CNY Dinner at Home


4/2/2011

It was the second day (chor 2) of Chinese New Year (CNY) and also a Friday. Terry and I have planned to prepare a special CNY dinner for our Kiwi flatmates Hannah and Murray. I have decided to make the traditional CNY vegetarian dish (zhai-choy), a vegetable stir-fry, pork stew and of course, Yee Sang (Rainbow Raw Fish Salad)….!!

In accordance with CNY culture, I have asked everyone to wear something red for dinner that night. The highlight of the dinner was the Yee Sang which we insisted that Hannah and Murray join us to toss the salad as high as possible while shouting prosperous CNY greetings.

In case you were wondering why Terry and I were laughing most of the time or if you were trying to make out what Hannah and Murray were rambling about….Terry had prepared a list of typical CNY greetings, complete with parody translations and Cantonese pin-yin which we asked them to blurt out non-stop during the low-sang! It was good fun :)

After dinner, Hannah won us all over in a game of Monopoly!

Lots of laughter, lots of warmth and lots of fun are some of the phrases I would use to describe our little CNY party that night. Thanks Hannah and Murray for making us feel like CNY at home!

Wishing everyone year year got fish…..haha! (年年有余 – May you always get more than you wish for every year.)

Happy Chinese New Year, Kiwi-Bunny Style!


Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Say hello to Newton, Hannah's cute bunny

The Lunar New Year of the Rabbit arrived almost unnoticed here in New Zealand on 3 February 2011. No Chinese New Year (CNY) ‘tung-chiang-tung-chiang’ songs, no CNY-rush traffic jams, no red ornaments or CNY banners in shops, no CNY TV shows, heck I even had to go to university on the first day of CNY (chor 1)!

The second day of CNY (chor 2) fell on a Friday. I decided I deserved at least a little holiday for CNY and took a day off, and I spent it preparing a few CNY dishes for our Kiwi flatmates Hannah and Murray; sort of to make up for a family reunion dinner Terry and I did not get to have on the eve of CNY.

On the other hand, knowing that Terry and I were thousands of miles away from home during this major Chinese festival, Hannah and Murray was really sweet and thoughtful. They made it a point to celebrate with us and make us feel just at home. Guess what they gave us as CNY gift?! (Hint: Not red packets of cash…. ;) )

A surprise CNY gift

Many weeks ago, I had casually asked Hannah about fishing and crabbing in New Zealand. I have never gone fishing in my life and had always wanted to go on a fishing trip. Just to get us started, Hannah and Murray presented us with a fishing kit complete with baits and hooks and floats and…..an awesome fillet knife! We were so touched with their attention to detail…. :)

Now a fishing trip with them is definitely in my to-do-list in the year of the Rabbit!

Next up: CNY dinner with my Kiwi ‘family’.

Twenty Eleven


Happy New Year!

Tomorrow the university re-opens and thus the 13-day Christmas and New Year holidays are over. This year’s holiday was not as fruitful as the last where Terry and I went on a 3-day road trip to Tauranga, Rotorua and Taupo. I was initially toying with the idea of travelling to the South Island, particularly to Christchurch and Queenstown. Well, I did not really get down to business and worked out a plan so we ended up spending most days lazing at home or visiting friends’ homes for dinner!

My flatmate Hannah and Murray threw a Christmas Eve party and a New Year Eve party at our place and we had great company and food both occasions. Terry and I were invited to Ted and Magda’s for a traditional Christmas roast dinner complete with roast turkey and ham. And then Kinleng and Peter invited us for another round of home-cooked roast dinner 2 days after. Peter showed me how to prepare a complete roast chicken meal with gravy, and sides of roast vegetables, mashed potatoes and peas and corn. Not to mention traditional apple crumble for dessert. Looking back, the holidays were all about food, food and more food! I think I gained weight *gasp*!

The year 2010 was a challenging year for me. The year started with me being granted confirmed PhD candidate status after an oral examination and submission of a piece of written work on my progress during my provisional first year. Shortly after, I went back to Malaysia in February to spend Chinese New Year, my first visit back home in 18 months. I had a blast! Other memorable getaways include Waiheke Island, Coromandel, Adelaide and Japan!

Had a wonderful harvest from my first ever green patch, my backyard project – strawberries, corn, capsicum and cucumber. Moved houses (again) and started joining the university gym. Met an old friend, Bee who came to New Zealand on a Working Holiday.

My PhD progress in year 2010 was not as I expected. It was not satisfactory. Plans did not work resulted in delays. Change of plans and more delays. There were a lot of times when I was simply de-motivated leading to procrastination and more delays. Attended my first academic conference, CHEMECA in Adelaide but came back to conflicts with my superior, very long story *sighs*. Swallowed my pride, took all the blame, learnt and moved on.

Twenty eleven is here and I feel ready and energised. Tomorrow is a new day, new academic term and no more delays! Unfortunately, I will be spending my Chinese New Year away from home and family in Malaysia this year but I look forward to company and fellowship with good friends, more harvests from my vege patch, move closer to my graduation and oh blog consistently!

2011 bring it on!