Sea Palace Restaurant, Taman Pekaka

I would like to dedicate this post to one of my thoughtful, wonderful colleague cum good friend. It’s sad to say that she’s leaving us, but all of us are happy for her that she’s leaving for a better career advancement and future.

Thus, we organized a farewell lunch for her today in Sea Palace Restaurant in Taman Pekaka. I’ve blogged about this place before, sometime in year 2007 October. Since she’s can’t take any hot and spicy food due to sore throat, another colleague suggested Sea Palace Restaurant.

Well, I don’t deny the fact that the food that she ordered was good and nice. The only sad thing was, another colleague of ours could not make it as she was having bad migraine.

First dish presented to us was this Sichuan soup. It wasn’t that sour, and it’s pretty good to have it cuz, nothing full filling.

The rest coming along are Emperor Noodle which our friend highly recommended, which I totally agreed, because it wasn’t oily and it’s appetizing.

Deep fried Enoki Mushroom and French Beans is one of the best.

Claypot Bean curd with Salted Fish and Dried Chilli that we got to pack back cuz, 4 of us really can’t finish all at one time.

Fried 油炸檜 yau ja gwai with Mayonnaise Salad Cream. I supposed this is the famous one in Sea Palace Restaurant. Well, I wasn’t a fan of Mayonnaise Cream, thus, wasn’t that fancy over it. Overall, it doesn’t taste bad at all.

The lunch was full of laughter and lots of chats among us. I hope there will be the day even anyone of us has left the company, we will still have the opportunity to meet up for a drink and catch up with each other.

大年初二, 開年飯 2nd day of Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year gives lots of people lots of excitements, for the kids loving it cuz, they can receive ang pow. For the parents, they got to work thru out the days and nights to prepare dishes, and before hand got to clean the house and so on. For working people will make use of these holidays to rest at home. And some will stay at home to finish off their DVDs whatever missed out. Some will stay in and eat a lot…

Not sure about others, for Cantonese, they are treating day 2 of CNY a big thing. And they called it 開年. This represent an important day for them, and it gives them a day ahead to prepare dishes. Further, all dishes has their own name, and each names represent some auspicious meaning. For example, …

Five Seasons means五福臨門.

Prawns means 哈哈笑, laughter thru out the year and in the family.
Sea Asparagus with Broccoli means一路順利.

Mushrooms with trotter and dried oyster, 好事發財 and many mores.

Fish means 年年有餘.

金銀就手 is the soup that mommy make every year without fail, that soup consists of dried oyster, dried moss, carrot, turnip. She has to boil it for nearly for few hours and many times, this pot of soup will be finished within a day even she made it in a bigger pot.
Every year of this day, sisters and myself will be busy helping her arranging the dishes, and arrange table setting.

I have no idea how other people celebrating day 2 of CNY, for example like Hokkiens, Hakka, Hai Nan and so on. But this is what Cantonese did for day 2. Some have simplify in celebrating, but mommy and daddy has been practising this for many years and am sure all of us will practise this in the future too.

Well folks, … enjoy!

大年初一 1st Day of Chinese New Year

The long waiting Chinese New Year had passed for 5 days… and noted that not many bloggers have updated their blog. Hehehehe… so do I.

Well, let me start with 1st day of New Year, what normally Cantonese will have for their lunch?

Mom has been practising having vegetarian food for 1st day of New Year, and this has been practising for nearly 30 over years. This is something that we will yearn for days just only for this dish.

Mom used the fermented bean curd to cook the sauce, the dish is actually Chinese cabbage, and some black fungus. Simple yet delicious, with this dish, all of us could have 2 to 3 bowls of rice.
To add on to the dish and make it more appetizing, mom will add those deep fried bean curd skin and vermicelli.

I asked mom once, who taught her that, she said it was her mother in law that taught her such dish, and this dish is mostly Dai San/Sing Ning (台山/新寧) people authentic cuisine.

Well, here it is… will you be tempted to add few bowls of rice??

新年快樂 • 恭賀新禧

開工大吉!!!!

在新的一年裡誠心的祝福我的朋友和讀者,

開開心心!
工作順利!!
身體健康!!!

再恭祝大家 - 新年快樂! 事業高升! 身体健康! 萬事如意! 鼠年行大運!

新的一年裡祝你，
一帆風順，
二龍騰飛，
三羊開泰，
四季平安，
五福臨門，
六六大順，
七星高照，
八方來財，
九九同心，
十全十美，
百事亨通，
千事吉祥，
萬事如意！

Koay Teow Th'ng, Lorong Phuah Hin Leong

How many of you ever heard of this street name - Lorong Phuah Hin Leong?
But everyone will immediately know if someone tells them, ‘there… the street that opposite Primary Union School, or the road that you could see wedding planner shop in front.’

I in fact have never thought there is a Koay Teow Th’ng stall there. It’s literally a stall with a few tables and chairs. You only order your bowl of Koay Teow Th’ng and that’s it. No drinks are served.

Hubby knows the owner personally, and he brought me here once during our courting time. This is one of the many re-visit of this stall, that caught my interest of blogging it. And I know I’ve blogged about Koay Teow Th’ng many times, and I believe my readers will notice I do like Koay Teow Th’ng a lot! [LOL]
Ok, joke aside. They do serve the dried version which people called it Koay Teow Dried. What makes a dried version tasty, most important is the dark soya sauce and the oil that blend well and add well with correct amount. Apart from that, chillies do contribute a lot too. Don’t you agree? As for the soup, soup base is the most important ingredients. Cuz, that will make the bowl of Koay Teow Th’ng appetizing.
Oh ya, what contribute this bowl of Koay Teow Th’ng are the surrounding. You’ll see these houses along the street… and you could imagine how it was look like in that century.