Chinese New Year 2020

Koong Hei Fatt Choy to all my Chinese readers who are celebrating Chinese New Year!

Sorry for the lack of update as I was back in my beautiful hometown of Ipoh for 5 days to celebrate the Lunar New Year.  The days seem to pass so swiftly when you're with all your favorite people and having loads of fun with them. Today is the 7th day of CNY and the CNY atmosphere seems to have dissipated the moment we returned to KL on the 3rd day of CNY and instead replaced with another kind of vibe. 

Everyone's talking about Coronavirus since the start of the CNY.  The topic of discussion during our CNY dinner on the 3rd day of CNY with the Yaps was centered on the novel Coronavirus / Wuhan Virus.  As we have relatives who are frequent travelers, everyone couldn't help but to talk about the latest epidemic that has swept like wild forest fires to many parts of the world, including our country. As of the date of this post, there are 7 confirmed cases in Malaysia.


The mil left for Chiang Mai early yesterday morning for a holiday with sil #2 from Hong Kong. I've been helping her get ready for this trip since two weeks ago with multiple trips to the pharmacies and clinic. I called most of the hospitals in the Klang Valley to ask if there's stock for the flu shot but all the hospitals and clinics in Malaysia have run out of stock! SIL #2 from Hong Kong also asked us to help her buy cartons of face masks but most pharmacies in Ipoh and Klang Valley have run out of stock too.  Same goes for hand sanitizer. Fortunately we managed to get a box of N95 face mask from a pharmacy in Ipoh (last box) for the mil to pass to SIL from Hong Kong when they meet in Chiang Mai.  Two days ago the mil made a trip to a warehouse in Klang to get a few cartons of face masks for SIL #2.  A family friend managed to help us pre-order a few cartons of this precious commodity!




One carton contains 1000 pieces (50 pieces x 20 boxes)

Thousands of pieces of face masks went with the mil and another family friend to Thailand yesterday for the Hong Kongers who are in desperate need of them.

OK, back to my main topic - Chinese New Year 2020!

Our trip back to Ipoh on the eve of the eve of CNY went pretty smooth, except for the traffic congestion in Selayang. It took 3 hours to reach Ipoh (with one toilet stop) instead of the usual 1 hour 40 minutes.  The returning trip on the 3rd day of CNY only took 2 hours as we left Ipoh at 7:30 a.m.

Doting indulgent daddy got the girls Baskin-Robbins ice cream at the Tapah R&R and they ate it in his car, something that I prohibit the girls from doing in my car 😐


The gourmand hubs just had to get his fix of Hakka noodles on the eve of CNY. We had this a couple of hours before our reunion lunch with the Yaps at Mun Choong Restaurant.  CNY is all about food, eh?



Cass helped her dad to wash car to earn some pocket money to buy more novels.

Our reunion lunch at Mun Choong Restaurant:







And this is our reunion dinner at my parents':



A huge spread of CNY dishes, all lovingly cooked by my 77-year old papa who loves cooking.


This year hubs bought a big fat capon / castrated chicken (RM210 for the capon) from KL to bring back to Ipoh for the reunion dinner. The capon weighed 3.5kg and has firm and tasty meat.  Some chicken lovers even eat the capon skin as it tastes better than regular chicken skin but chicken skin is a big NO NO for me.   A capon is a cockerel that has been castrated to improve the quality and taste of its flesh.



Papa started to prep the 'yeong ho si' (stuffed dried oysters with fish meat) a few days before the reunion dinner. It's a Hakka dish that my late paternal grandmother would cook every CNY - tedious to prep as it involves many steps. Thanks papa for cooking my favorite dish 💗


The cousins played with firecrackers after dinner.  When we were kids, my papa never failed to buy firecrackers for my brothers and me to play every CNY and that was the best part of CNY for us, besides the Fanta Grape and Fanta Strawberry soda 😍


To be continued...