A Taste of Tradition: Hakka Stuffed Oysters for Chinese New Year

Coming from a Hakka family with a large extended family on my father’s side, Chinese New Year always meant a trip to Cameron Highlands. My papa would drive us there to celebrate with my paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was a happy occasion with lots of delicious food, snacks, and playing firecrackers with my cousins.  My paternal grandmother, an excellent cook, would prepare an array of traditional Hakka dishes and snacks. One of the highlights of our CNY feast was her famous Hakka Yong Hou Si—stuffed dried oysters. She would also fry prawn crackers and salted dried tofu crackers and store them in those traditional big biscuit tins for her super large family to enjoy when they all returned to Cameron Highlands.

This Yong Hou Si dish, synonymous with CNY, is both delicious and labor-intensive. My grandmother would prepare it days, sometimes even a week, in advance. With 10 children and their families to feed, she had her hands full. The process involved stuffing fish and pork paste into large dried oysters, and then pan-frying them to golden perfection. The dish was served with a rich 'fatt choy' (black moss) sauce, symbolizing prosperity and good fortune. This auspicious dish, known as “Fatt Choy Yong Hou Si,” is a cherished tradition among Hakka families during the festive season.

After my grandmother passed away in the early 2000s (both my paternal grandparents lived into their 90s), my papa took up the mantle. A self-taught and passionate cook, he has faithfully prepared this dish every year since—for more than two decades. He always made extra so I could bring some back to KL and savor it long after the reunion dinner.

This year was no different. Though I couldn’t be in Ipoh for the CNY reunion dinner, my papa made sure I had six pieces of his stuffed oysters with the signature fatt choy sauce to take home. Today, I finally had the chance to indulge in this special dish. My MIL braised pork belly with sea cucumber and fish maw, then added the fried stuffed oysters and sauce. The result was absolutely delicious. Each bite brought back nostalgic memories of those CNY reunion dinners in Cameron Highlands and Ipoh, surrounded by family and laughter.

I hope my papa, who turns 82 this year, continues to cook this beloved dish for many more years. Perhaps one day, I will learn the recipe from him and pass this cherished tradition down to my daughters and future generations, ensuring that the legacy of Hakka Yong Hou Si lives on.

Saturday, 15 June 2024

It will be a long, late night for Cass and hubby today.  Cass has a figure skating rehearsal at the skating rink from 10pm to 12 midnight. Fortunately hubby is free tonight to do the chauffeuring, otherwise, I'll be waiting at the freezing skating rink until midnight. 

Cass has been eating clean and healthy lately. These is what her meals look like these days:

Salad with kimchi, Korean marinated pork, half an avocado, broccoli, cauliflower, and scrambled eggs with cheese. After her main meal, she ate a slice of air-fried sprouted wheat bread, low-fat yogurt with granola, an apple, an orange, and a few slices of papaya. 
 I also air-fried a slice of quiche, which was given to us by Alycia's bosses at the cafe that she works part-time at. When Alycia's bosses heard that she injured her hand, they passed some goodies from the cafe to her.

Steamed marinated spicy chicken chop, an ear of whole corn (I sliced out the kernels from the cob), sauteed assorted vegetables (from her dad's kitchen), steamed sweet potato, and sweet cherry tomatoes. I love the colors on her bowl, and so does Cass. I'm glad my years of training her to eat vegetables have paid off well.

After Alycia's terrible mishap in the kitchen last week, resulting in shards of broken glass cutting her finger badly, we now have a phobia of using glassware. I've since switched to using stainless steel bowls and containers.  Moreover, our microwave oven died on us yesterday, so we have no choice but to reheat our food using stainless steel dinnerware in the wok 😁

Colorful & Healthy Meals

The girls and I love colors in our food, natural colors of course. I like buying colorful fruits and veggies and the girls were trained from their baby days to eat healthy, with lots of fruits and veggies. I never had difficulty coercing the girls to eat fruits and veggies. 

Eating colorful meals is beneficial for good health due to the variety of nutrients provided by different colored fruits and vegetables. Each color typically represents various type of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that contribute to overall well-being. 

Lunner for Cass ~ air-fried salmon with air-fried shimeji mushrooms, blanched broccoli and cauliflower, Mediterranean chicken stew, raw greens and fruits of avocado, jumbo golden kiwi and purple grapes.  Cass and I eat half an avocado every day.

Delicious air-fried salmon and shimeji mushrooms, seasoned with herbs and spices.

Chilled lemon juice.

Cass is a fruit and veggie lover and can chomp down a lot every single day.

My healthy bowl - salad with Mexican chicken stew.

This is how I like to eat capsicum - with cream cheese.

Homemade Mexican tortilla made with whatever ingredients there were in the fridge - frozen capati, guacamole, air-fried chicken chop, and sauteed capsicum with shimeji mushrooms and big onions. The two serving plates on the right are from Le Creuset. They're cute, eh?

My chia seed pudding with coconut cream and Gula Melaka syrup. It tastes exactly like Sago Pudding but it's healthier as chia seeds are packed with minerals, omega-3 fat, and antioxidants, including tocopherols, phytosterols, carotenoids, and polyphenolic compounds. And it's so much easier to prep - just soak the chia seeds in water in a glass bottle overnight in the fridge, add coconut milk/cream (I used packet ones) and Gula Melaka (I use bottled ones).

Sherilyn cooked this very yummy pumpkin + minced pork porridge using the Philips pressure cooker. She first sauteed the minced pork with lots of garlic and onions before adding the rice and pumpkin to cook the porridge. I love this porridge. My comfort food, always.

Camera Crumbs - Round Up Of The Week

My Tennis Elbow right arm has little progress in healing, making it challenging to perform household chores, cook, and lift heavy items.  Consequently, my cooking routines have been simplified. I’ve primarily relied on the air fryer and toaster oven for meal preparations. Thankfully, we’ve had a steady supply of food from hubby’s central kitchen, which has been a lifesaver, reducing the need for extensive cooking.

I suspect that the pain could be a side effect of Atorvastatin. Last month, my cardiologist prescribed me this statin at 20mg per day to bring down my cholesterol levels. I have familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). My two younger daughters have FH too, which was discovered during blood tests when they were hospitalized for other conditions.

FH is an inherited disorder that makes it harder for your body to remove low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol from your blood.

No matter how hard I control my diet, exercise, and stay away from foods with high cholesterol, my blood cholesterol reading is still very high.

Familial hypercholesterolemia can affect anyone whose family carries the genetic mutation. The biggest problem with FH is that more than 90% of people who have it haven’t been diagnosed, which means you should pay careful attention to your family history.

About a month into taking Atorvastatin, I started to have pain in my right elbow bone. I later found out that I have a condition called Tennis Elbow.  Later, I started to have aches in my right hip and buttock. My doctor has advised me to take a 4-week layoff from Atorvastatin to see if the pains and aches in my right hand and hip will go away. 

My lunch usually consists of salad, with food from hubby's kitchen:

Chicken and beef satay with satay sauce, Mackerel fish cooked Indonesian style, Sayur Lodeh (Indonesian vegetable stew in coconut milk) in a bed of salad.
Dessert - yummy kuih.

Sambal Sotong, Sayur Lodeh with tempeh and cabbage, and Ayam Masak Merah in a bed of Mizuna salad.

Meehoon Siam, Sambal Sotong and Ayam Masak Merah.

One-tray-grill - green curry chicken thigh with green and yellow bell pepper, Shimeji mushrooms, sweet potato, chopped garlic, and onions, drizzled with olive oil, and seasoned with black pepper, cajun spice, smoked paprika, and garlic powder.
To reduce washing and hurting my tennis elbow arm, I bought disposable aluminum trays for my grills.

Slice of Life ~ Throwback Food Photos

Photo dump of some food pics that I forgot to post:

This is what Cass and I usually have for our meals lately:

A protein (usually fish or chicken breast) on a bed of yummy refreshing salad and raw turnip with no rice or low carb.

Sherilyn's salad with air-fried salmon, mozzarella cheese, cherry toms, avocado, and homemade salad dressing. She still eats rice at times.

Air-fried salmon with sauteed cabbage.

Sherilyn cooked these during her semester break - Japanese curry with fresh udon and chicken Karaage. 

A big pot of Japanese curry, enough for everyone for several meals.

Curry noodles shared with hubby at a curry noodle stall at Kuchai Business Park, after he sent his car for repair.

Hubby ordered siew yoke and cha siu from another stall to add to this bowl of curry noodles. This is what a true foodie will do!  The chicken breast was for me.

Kali meen kar liu (curry noodles with added ingredients)

Tuesday, 21 November 2023

Hubby hadn't eaten his lunch yet and Whatsapped me to join him for grocery shopping and then for lunch. He needed to stock up for some upcoming events. I was having brunch at home when he called and later drove to the supermarket to meet him. 

After we were done shopping, we went to LDG for lunch.  He has been craving steak for a long time but each time he suggested steak, I declined his suggestion as I preferred something light and easy for  my digestion. Moreover, I am now cutting down on red meat due to Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (genetic high cholesterol).  FH is an inherited condition characterized by higher-than-normal levels of blood cholesterol. I only eat red meat once or twice a week.  For the rest of the days, I usually eat eggs, chicken breast, and fish, prioritizing plant-based foods but avoiding soy products.

Hubby's steak was cooked to a tee. Superb taste and texture. I love the side of mashed potato with cheese and mayo.

After lunch, I rushed home to prep lunner for Cass, who would be coming back from school soon.

I cooked steamed herbal chicken drumsticks.  Cass loved it and ate three drumsticks.
This recipe is simple and mess-free.
The drumsticks are seasoned with soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, chopped garlic, some Chinese herbs, red dates, and wolfberries. Place everything in two pieces of baking paper and wrap well. Then steam in medium heat for 40 minutes. The result is chicken meat that's really juicy and succulent.

* Herbs used - Yu zhu (Soloman’s seal), dang gui (Chinese angelica), hong zao (dried red dates), gei qi (Chinese wolfberry) and dang shen (Codonopsis root).

My Simple And Healthy Breakfast

If only my girls could eat such simple food for breakfast or even lunch, life would be so much easier for me and for them, and healthier too!

Chicken porridge before going to the hospital with Sherilyn.  The chicken meat used to cook the porridge was leftover Ipoh salt-baked chicken for dinner.  Luckily I ate this bowl of porridge that was enough to fill my tummy up the whole day as there weren't many good choices of restaurants and cafes at SJMC. We were stuck at the hospital for 6 hours.

Mashed purple sweet potato with Lurpak Light butter.  I love this butter as it's healthier and less salty and made with only a few ingredients - butter, water, rapeseed oil, lactic acid culture, and salt.

Egg and purple sweet potato boiled in the same pot.  This was what I ate for brunch before I started cooking lunch for the girls.

Simple And No-Brainer Dishes

On weekdays, we have pretty simple food and on weekends, hubby will bring us out to have more decent meals and occasionally splurge on elaborate meals.

On most weekdays, there'll be excess food from hubby's shop, so I only need to cook a veggie dish.  I'm very happy as long as I don't have to cook and dirty the kitchen. 

This is what I had for brunch several days ago:

Air-fried shishamo, scrambled eggs, and half an avocado.

After brunch, I had less than an hour to whip up lunch for Cass.  Her UEC trials are ongoing for two weeks and she comes home very early on exam days. So I cooked fried noodles.

Fried noodles for everyone. 

One-pot veggie + mushroom + foo pei, miso paste, and chicken soup.  The chicken stock is from Japan, which MIL bought when she went to Japan for a holiday recently. It's really convenient to just throw in a packet or a cube of dehydrated chicken stock and a few tablespoons of miso paste to make delicious soups.

Purple + yellow sweet potato and purple + yellow sweet corn kernel 'tong sui' with pandan leaves, gula Melaka, and evaporated milk for myself.

Very Simple, No-Brainer Dishes

As most of you already know, I do not like cooking because of having to deal with the aftermath of cooking.  Actually, I used to love cooking and making healthy breads when I had live-in maids for 10 years. My maids would do almost all the prep work and washing up and I just had to cook. So easy and fun. But with no one helping me now and a part-time maid who cannot come reliably on the days that she's supposed to come, I have resorted to cooking really easy-peasy meals that are a total no-brainer; like dumping an assortment of veggies into the rice cooker together with the rice, steaming, baking and air-frying meats.  

The thought of pan-frying, searing, and deep-frying just turns me off because of oil flying everywhere! 😬

Marinating chicken drummets and wings and leaving them in the fridge for 1-2 days.

Oven-grilled marinated Beacon chicken drummets and wings with red rice + parboiled rice + sweet potato. The girls and I love grilled marinated chicken drummets and wings. 

I love cooking rice with sweet potatoes as the juice-infused rice grains will turn sweet and fragrant naturally. Sometimes I add organic yellow and purple sweet corn kernels and pumpkin.

Air-fried salmon.  I found a simple recipe that gives me really delish air-fried or oven-grilled salmon.  I marinate the salmon with a salmon rub composed of paprika powder, black pepper, brown sugar, soy sauce, olive oil, minced garlic, and mixed herbs.  And it only takes 10-12 minutes to air-fry the salmon (depending on the size).  When this is served, there's always a wrestle at the dining table.

I like to bake some nuts after baking chicken in the oven.  These sweet organic cashews are great for snacking and for adding to our sugar-free low-fat yogurt.

Wednesday, 5 April 2023

Alycia and Sherilyn took the morning ETS train to Ipoh to visit their grandparents today. 

The ETS departure time was at 8.47 a.m. but someone dilly-dallied as usual and only left the house at 8.15 a.m.  All of us had totally forgotten about the girls having to do a Covid self-test until about 7.45 a.m. when I remembered and quickly rushed them to do a nasal swab test, which is faster than a saliva test.

Their dad Grab-ed them to the KL Sentral station like an F1 driver.

As today is a weekday and school day, there was surely bound to be traffic congestion on the roads, especially on the KL-Seremban highway at that peak hour.  After they left the house, I prayed that they wouldn't miss the train, and thank God they managed to hop onto the train in the nick of time 🙏

I was very surprised that papa brought the girls to Texas Fried Chicken for lunch as my parents don't really fancy fast food and deep-fried foods. 
But seriously girls, eating fast food when you're in Ipoh, a food haven?
I told the girls that they have to eat famous Ipoh food when they're in Ipoh and not fast food.

Cooking for only Cass is such a breeze vs cooking for the whole jing-bang, coz Cass is satisfied pretty easily, unlike someone.

Cass' lunner - air-fried marinated chicken chop, blanched romaine lettuce, curry veggies (stall-bought) hard-boiled chicken egg, and quail egg with black rice + parboiled rice + 10-grain rice.  Chickens from Beacon Mart are free from antibiotics and hormones and are specially catered for cancer patients.  I love their marinated chicken chops that come in a variety of delicious flavors.

I was on a meat-free diet today and this is what I ate today:

Breakfast - fruits, decaf coffee, walnuts, brazil nuts, peanuts, hazelnuts, organic dark chocolate almond milk with ground flaxseeds, air-fried sourdough bread with cheese, hard-boiled chicken egg, and quail egg.

Lunch - spinach, curry veggies, and Chinese cabbage from the economy rice stall, a few sticks of Biscotti (homemade by the mil), and a piece of 90% Lindt dark chocolate. I also ate half a piece of Rawa Tosei with dhal and half a piece of vadai which Hubs bought from Brickfields after he sent the girls to KL Sentral.

Dinner - skinny sugar-free yogurt with sunflower seeds, blanched romaine lettuce, and a handful of vegetable chips 

My breakfast - crispy air-fried sourdough cheese + jalapeno bread with a slice of cheese on top.

My Life In Photos The Past One Week

School reopens today after a one-month-long break, phew!  School holidays are suffocating for me.  My me-time, morning exercise, peace, space, and freedom at home are literally gone.  The littlest one can be such a handful though she's already 15.  

Besides making a trip back to Ipoh for 3 days and 2 nights, Cass was mostly at home or at the skating rink.

Now that school has reopened and the pandemic is almost behind us, co-curricular activities are back to normal.  Cass will stay back for the first time in high school this week.  CoCo activities were conducted online for the past 3 years. Cass also has to sit for her UEC exam this year. And a few more tests on figure skating.  Cass is going to be one very busy girl this year.

Me at the loo at Pavillion Bukit Jalil.  After sending Cass to the skating rink, I had nothing to do.  To kill time, I did a selfie and rambled around the mall with nothing in mind to buy.  Cass' classes are now from 8-9pm on Fridays 😩

Even though I had absolutely nothing to buy, I still ended up with some stuff from Guardian Pharmacy and a bunch of unnecessary snacks from Food Merchant.  Sherilyn texted me and asked me to help her buy make-up removal oil and I bought a bottle of expensive body shampoo simply because it was on offer and the scent is irresistibly fruity - a mix of grapefruit, apple, peach and all my favorite fruits. That's the reason why I hate going to the mall when I have nothing to buy as I will always end up buying unnecessary things 😁

While window shopping at Guardian, I stumbled upon this - sheet mask for your bust, butt, and belly.  Seriously, would you buy this to nurture your assets? 😆

Ever since mum fractured her right arm two months ago and was down with Covid a month ago, my 80-year-old papa has been taking over all the chores at home in Ipoh.  Mum even taught papa how to bake bread using the breadmaker.  Here, he's removing freshly baked bread from the breadmaker and slicing it, for me to bring it back to KL the next day 💗

The smell of freshly baked bread is heavenly!

Papa also made his signature pandan kaya for us. He stood next to the stove for over 1.5 hours, patiently stirring the santan+egg+sugar+pandan juice mixture, turning it from liquid to a thick kaya paste.  His kaya is the best in the whole wide world. 
This is my air-fried homemade whole wheat bread spread with papa's pandan kaya. It's so delish!

Cinnamon rolls baked just an hour ago - Sherilyn's first bake, post-SPM!  

'Tai Yee Ma Kar Lui' for dinner tonight. 
Hairy gourds are currently on promotion at our neighborhood supermarket @ RM5 for two.  I bought four and gave one to the girls' grand aunt.  Today the MIL cooked all the hairy gourds. Dinner for tomorrow is also settled!

Besides braised hairy gourd, we had steamed free-range chicken with ginger paste and steamed pomfret fish (tau tai chong) for dinner tonight.