On the flipside, waiting for visitors to come randomly at any time of the day or evening can also be a stretch. And to reduce this stress every year, we invited our family & friends over to our place on the 2nd day of CNY within a window of allocated time, usually starting at 11 am & closing shop at 5 pm.
Starting late in the morning allows Nee time to cut and arrange all the cakes, and do all the necessary ding dongs that we did not manage to do on the eve due to Nee's heavy baking which usually lasts till then.
I think doing all this is Nee's way of reaching back to her childhood days of playing bo-bok.
Traffic control is important when dealing with hungry crowds of people. We'd usually let them sit on the sofa area & feed them with Nee's lapis, crackers and cookies and other tidbits. That distraction usually works & it keeps them busy for a while.
Then when the table is ready, we'd herd the cows there for the real deal. There's also desserts including jellos, cheesecakes & chocolate cakes with tea.
Let the games begin. The main dishes:
Serving every year is Nee's home cooked traditional mee sua (mien xien). No home is a Foochow home without this.
Nee's melt-in-your-mouth baked potatoes. Window of opportunity only lasts 11am-1pm-ish. After that, you can eat your own self.
Nee's lamb stew is like wine. It gets better every year.
You don't need teeth to eat this. It just melts in your mouth.
Red Hot Curry with plain rice.
NEE: Should have done coconut rice or pandan rice.
But was a little knocked out by the first day due to flu.
Mum-in-law's super Lo Duck with super recipe - not available anywhere. Got money also cannot buy. This came to the rescue when the baked potatos disappeared.
The guests left raving about this duck. All in all, it was a good feeling to be able to feed a few starving people of Kuching. But seriously, it's always a joy for us to be able to share food with friends who enjoy them!
No comments:
Post a Comment