Chinese New Year Preparations

The Chinese New Year takes a fair bit of preparation at our place. Not like it's any different at other people's but I have to do a bit more extra planning. It's kind of stressful because I do cake orders from friends and some regulars. Year after year, it would always continue to feel like there's so much to do. I have come to the conclusion that the only time that there's no stress is when Chinese New Year is somewhere else other than home (like far, far away in UK, US or AUS).

I know it's kind of funny to write about the CNY preparations AFTER the event itself, but I just thought that I'd better jot these tips down & share them with you while they're still fresh on my mind. (Whisper: It's actually more like so that I don't make the same mistakes again the following year)

For The Food:

Tip #1: A really well organised preparation should start even in October or November. Homemade keropok can be prepared at this time when there's more sunshine. I made mine this year only in January, two weeks before CNY, and I was praying for sunshine almost every day. Bad mistake! We were lucky to get about 2 days or so of sunshine as the rest of the time was just rain rain rain. Acar for keropok can also be done around this time to prevent over-crowding in the last minute.

Tip #2: Ang chew (Foochow red wine) were done in November and harvested in December.

Tip #3: Cookies and cakes of course can be done nearer to the date, like two weeks before the actual date. The best is to do it bit by bit, starting from layer cakes to cookies then finally frying seaweed crackers and keropok. Pace yourself well & spread everything out so that you don't cramp everything into a short span of time.

Tip #4: I normally do our fresh groceries the two days before CNY. Wet markets in certain places are open from the evenings to early mornings for a few nights before CNY. That's right, they don't sleep. And usually, a lot of fresh stuff arrives around 8 pm. If you want to avoid the crowd and traffic, do your shopping around midnight. Heheheh that's the vampire part of us talking. I will get my vegetables and meat around then because most stalls are closed till Day 4 or 5 of CNY.

Tip #5: I would try to book all my prawns and fishes in November or even Octover. Not only it is cheaper to buy early, buying too close to CNY would rarely get you fresh ones. So I would get mine in sort of bulk (like 3-4kg medium prawns, 3-4 kg large ones, different fishes like pomprets in 8 to 10 pieces) and repack-freeze them to be used in the wetter days or at least till March or April.

Tip #6: Try getting your dry sea goods early too. Items such as scallops, oysters, abalone slices, red dates, ginsengs, thornberries, chinese sausages can also be bought early like in December or November. I strongly suggest buying them in Singapore or Hong Kong for the freshness and better pricing.

Tip #7: For consumables like tissues, toilet papers, washing detergent, new mats, new kitchen towels (yes i change them every year), brooms, mops, hand gloves, drinks, etc are bought 2 weeks or so before CNY. And I would normally go with Greg on a week day evening to avoid the crowd. Weekends will guarantee better pricing on some items but I prefer to stay away from the stress of people and limited parking.

For the house:

We believe in yearly house maintenance because a clean, comfortable home facilitates better living. I usually start spring cleaning the cupboards and my wardrobe in December, or before any shopping trips (evil laugh).

We would usually fit the actual house cleaning 2-3 days before CNY because of my rigorous baking. In order to get the dates that I want, I book my cleaner in November. This year, I did 140+ of layer cakes including the regular cheese and chocolate cakes plus 4 agar agars. So the house needed a very thorough cleaning.

The professional cleaners would come in right before CNY with the floor scrubbing machines and the industrial chemicals. And after that, my mom's maid will clean all the inside of the kitchen cupboards.

I would also send all my cushions, sofa seats & curtains to the laundry bit by bit starting in December and they would all be done before Christmas.

We would normally get a fresh coat of paint for our internal walls every year. Painting the internal of the house can be done a week before CNY while external painting if necessary should be done in October when there is more sunshine. Garden overhaul should also be done around then to avoid wet weather.

Flowers & catering should also be booked a month before CNY to ensure that they will take your orders. Confirmation of menu and flowers will be done two weeks prior.

For Your Ownself:

And don't forget to book your facial, manicure, pedicure and hair styling for CNY early to guarantee the time that you want. I booked mine all in December. Pretty kiasu, hor?! You don't want to be getting everything else ready except yourself during CNY.

I try to keep a to do list so that everything is in place. Stress is still there but I don't have to stay up till 2 am every night. Although there are things which may not be so smooth but quoting my project management motto "Planning does not ensure success but no planning guarantees failure". Will update this when it is nearer to next CNY.

Greg & Nee's CNY Food Gallery

We do almost all of our Chinese New Year visits on the first & third day. The first day involves squeezing in as many relatives' houses as possible, following a patriarchial hierarchy, starting from both sets of our parents down to our first uncles & so on down to the rest in line.

Whatever that is left over is squeezed into the third day when we do our friends'. And you can imagine that by the third day, it's usually a full day, non-stop marathon. We targeted 12 houses & hit 10 on the third day. Not bad eh? It felt like a bull run.

This year has started out pretty good with cool weather albeit a little rainy. That was perfect for our outings & sleeping in as well. Oh, FYI both of us are not exactly sun people. In the olden days, they call people like us vampires.

Our second day this year was our open house from 11am-4pm. We like to do open house. It's a great way to get everyone to come within a stipulated window of time, rather than having to sit around waiting for little spurts of people, or having to greet them in our pyjamas i they come by too early, or having to rush home immediately just because some guests decided to pop over out of the blue.

This year, I decided to go for catering so that I could take a break from all that baking. I certainly didn't want to jump from one baking marathon to a cooking one. If I did that, the State Sports Council would have awarded me with a SPORTSwoman of the Year award.

These were the flower arrangement from Spring Florist. We wanted a garden feel and they gave us orchids and helicornia. Quite pretty dont you think?

This was where the main setup was. Our walled up porch was converted into this little dining area which confused a couple of kids who were trying to make sense of whether it was a restaurant or a house.

This was entertainment/dining area no. 2 which allowed Greg & I to alternate between our guests, splitting them up, sort of like a crowd control mechanism, in case they fight over the food.

We've had Kuching Park Hotel food quite a number of times before & they have been consistently quite pleasing. The umai was excellent & we'll definitely be bringing it back next year.

However, I can't say the same for the Lamb with black pepper sauce. Somehow, I think nobody touched it at all. This one will be out of our menu.

This was actually quite nice but the brocolli turned slightly soggy and brown after a while due to the continuous heating. So the presentation didn't looked too appealing & thus it wasn't very popular.

Next time we will get butter prawns to replace the lamb and brocolli.

This was Greg's must-have chicken curry which went very well with the bee hoon.


This was the fried bee hoon that went very well with the chicken curry that Greg must have. It was completely gone by about 4pm.

The Braised Seacucumber with mushrooms were excellent. The Sea cucumber was still very crunchy and the mushrooms were really thick and fresh.

The was the dessert department which consisted of my very own homemade cakes. They were also completely wiped out by 4pm.

Nee's Fruit Cake ~ yes this is really my cake because for some reason I just love the smell of rum and fruits. So I made this for myself.

Nee's mango agar agar.

Nee's Choc Brownies



All time favourite ~ Nee's White Choc Macadamia Cheese Cake



Nee's Blueberry Cheese cake.

And this was the eat-cookies-as-you-wait-for-your-turn section.

Nee's Kuih Momo

Ikan Bilis ~ a gift from Aunty Yeo. Do not be fooled by it's simplicity. It is deadly addictive.

Grandma's Traditional Mung bean cookies (Lack Tao Koh) made with traditional patterns from traditional wooden moulds personally carried home from China more than 50 years ago.

Nee's Almond Cookies

Nee's Pineapple tarts.

Grandma's traditional Kuih Bangkit.

Nee's Namyue cookies

And of course, the lapis gallery. This was what I've been doing all this while.

Cheese lapis

Mocha Lapis

Choc Mint Lapis

Prune Lapis

Sancha Lapis

And with that, we officially end our New Year binging ... until Chap Goh Mei of course.

It's Another One: Happy CNY 2009!

There's minimal decoration this year. As usual, we're sandwiched between two neighbours who are all out in full blast with their red lanterns & firecrackers, while we opted for the more sanitised & minimal display. But of course, in keeping with the tradition, there's always pockets of red colour here & there in the living room, the sofa, the flowers & the dining table.

As usual again, we have our one flower for all seasons, the lily.


Nee's keropok of the fish & sweet potato kind turned out alright. The sun decided to come out long enough one day & my mom managed to sun dry & fry them with my sister's assistance. It sounds like a family affair, but CNY always does.

Last night, it was like a war zone as usual, albeit with a shorter window of firecrackers. This morning, as we drove around the neighbourhood, we couldn't help but notice the piles of used fireworks boxes all stacked up neatly & orderly in front of houses. It looks like a direct defiance of the police's warning.

Greg & Nee wishes all our dear readers a very happy, prosperous & healthy New Year, & may you find hidden opportunities within the feconomic crisis!