Ng Family Dinner on 28/12/14 - A Special Food Story

Ng's family dinner on 28/12/14 was a normal, simple gathering yet it portrayed an unique meaning, surprises and cohesiveness of a multi generation family.
It was planned by the generation X & Y for the traditionalist & the baby boomers generation.

Initially the plan was to go out for dinner together, do what every family will do, laze around, chit chat.....  Thereafter we realized that is too boring. No life..... After much discussion on the Whatapps Group among the cousins, the younger generation will cook up a feast and serve the older generation in the family......

Oh dear, this is real headache for me, I don't cook.... but thereafter I realized that it is not that I don't know how to cook, it is just that I am not keen to learn.... Since my cousins and brother can whipped specialities of their own, I decided to do dessert of my own........ Hahahaha.... That is a small small contribution....

However, my 3rd uncle and family were unable to attend and participate due to other commitments.

Finally, the list of menu was confirmed - All were made from scratch ........

- Chicken Curry
- Black Vinegar Trotter
- Seafood Lala
- Seafood Prawns
- Fried Kangkong with Sambal
- Chili Sotong
-Yam Paste ( Dessert)
- Gelatin Pinwheel/ Fruity Roll- ups ( Dessert)

Special add on - Shark Fin soup ( Specially cooked for this occasion by my 二婶）
Another add on - A loaf of Marble Cake ( Decided last minute)

After all the Discussion, we decided to go marketing at 9am, but you know, we have a habit of delaying the time, finally we reached our destination at Kovan Wet market, but before that we decided to have our breakfast first.... Thereafter we started our marketing journey.....

As we walked through the narrow pathway, pulling our trolley and slowly avoiding collision with the other shoppers, all the old memories of my granny and my aunts bringing me to the wet market was right before my eyes... They were so friendly, at any time, they were able to strike up a conversation with the stall owners or even fellow shoppers. This is what we missed, all this while....

This too reminded me of the last time I went to the wet market, oh my, that was even ages ago.....
To keep this fresh, I told myself, I should followed my aunt to the market whenever I am free and this helps me to brush my PR skills, improve my bargain skills, communications skills and most of all, further bring my family members and myself to be more cohesive and understand one another better....

As we have a certain budget to spend, my cousin JT was the one in charge with the money  and she distributed the money for us to buy whatever ingredient we need.....

We shopped from stall to stall,  curry ingredients...... garlic and onions..... eggs..... spices......fresh coconut flesh........ to vegetables......seafood- Prawns, lala and sotong...... Fresh Yam.........Pig Trotters..... Chicken wings and  dessert ingredients........

Actually, while shopping, you can learn knowledge that were not taught in school and you absorb the learning faster through communication, interacting with others....

We may have the idea of whopping up dishes, but have it ever come across to you, how to choose the freshest ingredients to enhance the dishes..... Nope.... Unless you are right in front of the stall, looking at all the ingredients arranged..... Ok... here is the difficult part, how well you are versed to choose the freshest of all..... Of course, we know what to look out for, but case to case basis........E.g, we know that choosing a piece of fish, we got to look out for its eyes..... bright and not dull......

But once there are so many fishes lying on the stall, how do you know which eyes that is considered as Bright......

These were all hands on learning...... that is what all our older generation are well equipped with and well versed with...... As for the younger generation, we were much orientated on paper instead, but we are not that  bad too, we ask for help .... Asked the stall keepers to help to orientate us to the freshest ingredient or poultry or meat.... provided you met a honest and responsible one....

We wanted to prepare Yam paste from scratch, thus we need to buy a yam... How to choose a good one and fresh one,,,, that is brain wracking.... Finally, we seek help from a Youtube video..... I ever came across a program that taught us to choose a good Yam ... But again, hands on is difficult.... How do you know that this yam is consided heavy - Heavy is one important point for a fresh yam to consist - It has enough moisture ...
The back side of the yam must be round and big...... It should not be sharp... The skin of the yam must be nice, should not have a lot of holes....
The inside must be purely white ... Now that is called fresh!
The stall keepers were also very nice to choose for us, he even suggested for us to buy bigger portion of pumpkin as after we cooked that, we might be left with small amount.... Later, he suggested us to buy any pandan leaves..... we asked him to give us for free instead..... HE was so cute, without a second thought, he agreed!!!

What about pig Trotters....... Trotters mean Legs..... But do you know which leg to choose.....? Front or hind legs..... That was our headache too.... The stall keepers educate us that when cooking pig trotters, you must choose the front legs.... not the hind legs....... See, another lesson learned....

Actually, after the whole dinner, I asked my granny, if eating pig trotters, which leg u prefer.....
My granny said - " I will definitely choose the front leg!"  You see...........

My cousins strike a  conversation with the stall keeper if her had any recipe to cook vinegar trotters ..... He joking told us to wait to read the newspapers tomorrow, as he had sold his recipe and he earned one million... hahahaha..... see.... Having a conversation with the older generation does not seemed that bad.... as long as there is a common language, understanding one another, learning  again took place as well ! He had also gave us a piece of pork skin too....

Of course, we did met some who nearly spoiled our day, while choosing for seafood.... we wanted to choose the prawns, one of the stall keeper initially wanted to allow us to do so, but the lady stall keeper stopped us and told us rudely that prawns are sold in that pressumed Kg and you are not allowed to choose.... We ignored the rude lady, but we proceeded to buy the prawns as other stall ran out of prawns.... See, the truth was  the prawns were not fresh after all.... That is a lesson learnt, when they does not allowed you to choose , something is not quite right!

Thereafter we stopped by the spices shop, why, Coz he sold fresh coconut, we need cream or milk which was required for the chicken curry and we wanted fresh ingredients.. The coconuts were all stored in the fridge which later the stall keeper took them out and  dropped them into the machine and they were shredded...... They only sold shredded coconut flesh and not liquid, thus we asked the stall keeper for some tips and advices . He was very patient and remind us that the coconut must be kept in the fridge at all times. if we needed to squeeze out the milk, all we have to do is- Pour boiling hot water over the shredded coconut and allowed it to be soaked until the water has turned cold and thereafter we can squeeze out the milk using the coffee strainer........Important - Hot water...!!!!

I continued to the supermarket to buy my ingredient required for the dessert, that was gelatine...& marshmallows ... and my brother decided to buy extra coconut cream as he feared that the fresh coconut might not be enough as he loved the curry to have lots of coconut taste.... Well actually, Me too!!!!

After all the marketing, We then proceeded to my second uncle's home.  Well, only I followed my cousins to their house, the rest will come back to the house in the afternoon as all were quite groggy and needed a nap before they could whooped up a feast.... After we reached, all the ingredients were taken out and packed... Whatever was required to be in the fridge went into the fridge, whatever was able to be in room temperature, were  placed on the kitchen table.....

My cousins continued with some of their personal errands and as for me... I borrowed my cousin tablet and started to look for my dessert recipe online....
After I had found the recipe, I started to make my dessert early as it was my first time trying out, if it failed... at least there was enough time for me to try again as the outcome of the dessert turnout was about 45mins.... The first round was kind of messy as I need the use of microwave oven, since we did not have one, I tried using the stove and boiling water.....
 Finally I succeeded at the first try and thereafter I continued my second and third tries, all turned out well!
By the time, I settled the dessert, My cousin was already cooking his vinegar pig trotters, my another cousin was preparing - washing and cutting all the raw ingredients - Sotong, prawns, vegetables etc..

We had a special add on recipe- which was my second aunt-in law 's shark fin soup..... That was solely  prepared by my second aunt-in law...... hahaha

After I was done with my dessert, I decided to bake a  cake as I was craving for a marble cake.....
I then prepare the cake with the instructions of my cousin who was the master chief of that day, He prepared vinegar pig trotters, the yam paste and of course, instructing me to bake a cake....

I had not bake a cake for ages, I thought, the last time I did was before I entered School of nursing!!!!

Since my cousin was good at that, I decided to try one on my own effort and of course with his guidance... While doing the cake, mixing here and there, my cousins preparing the ingredients, our stomach started to howl........I decided to call my baby cousin WW to ran some errands while on the way here. I made him buy 4 packet of chicken rice and a French loaf which we needed for the curry.  By the time, I leave the cake in the oven to bake, Lunch was here....

My cousin WW was here with his girlfriend and since he was not cooking, I assigned him to be the photographer! but he was not initiative enough thus I have to kept yelling at him to do him job!

We took a break, my cousin JT went for a short nap, my aunt in law, my cousin JG and I were spinning in the kitchen, meddling this and meddling that...... JG was really good in his cooking as it was also his first time making Yam Paste....  That is our Teochew speciality...... and it was known as the Asian Ice cream..... Why did I say that...

In olden times, there was a French official who came to Toechew Province in China to bring in his products and he introduced Ice cream . For us as the Teochews, we decided that we should show him something too, and we introduced Yam Paste to him and it was served hot ... Now that is what we called - Asian Ice Cream!

We have to steam the pumpkin and thereafter mash them up, while mashing them up, I have to slowly mix in the sugar and as too much sugar is not healthy, we actually cut down the amount........
JG had to cut and peel the yam.... then again steam them , mashed them up and thereafter fried them... We then heat up the gingko nuts and thereafter mixed them into the yam paste..... Finally, there was 3 bowl of the dessert - 1 bowl of coconut milk, 1 bowl of yam paste and 1 bowl of steamed pumpkin... You just have to mix all 3 together and walah - Here is the Asian Ice cream!
The Yam paste was my dad's favourite - He ate two bowl of it and the next day, He finished the portion that we packed home! it was mine too as the taste was just right, not too sweet and the fragrance there......

My brother came back in the afternoon again after he returned home for a nap after the morning marketing! This time he returned with a big pot that was specially used for cooking his curry chicken!!! He started to be busy with his chicken wings , washing them, peeling potatoes.... Occupied the sink area!!
In my aunt-in-law's house, there was only two stoves available for usage, thus everyone was busy asking, " are u done with the stove, my potatoes needed to be boiled" , later u hear  " My pig trotters needed eggs, I needed the stove to hard boil the eggs!" " Anyone boiled water? I needed it for my coconut!" " Do you have a pot? " " Do you have a wok?" "Where is the oil? Where is the sugar? Where is the salt?

Hahaha, I was away from the warzone...... I only neared two place- The sink and the dinning table.....
Why? Coz after the eggs were hard boiled, I helped to peel the shells off... I need to sit down so that I can peel in peace. Oh my god, my peeling skills really needed to be improved..... I peeled till the egg yolk was seen and the egg white disappeared!

I neared the sink to wash whatever plates or bowl or utensils that were used and cleaned, otherwise there were none enough to be used.... The morale of the story during cooking is to start washing  while cooking!

Finally, My dessert was done and I was busy cutting.... I was instructed by my brother to do some errands.... by the time I returned,  the rest of the family slowly strolled  in to the house... My brother then proceeded to fetch my granny from home...

Everyone was so surprised that we had really whooped up a feast for them... Initially all my traditionalist and the baby boomers were so unconvinced that the younger generation had cooked for them...... And all the dishes, were popular with all the family members.....

I was quite upset that the dessert I made was insisted by the older generation that I bought them instead ! They cannot believe that I made that.... (I will show you the pictures in facebook, currently I do not have them as they are in my cousin's camera!)


It was a great way to end Yr 2014 as everyone was satisfied with the feast and with  surprises from all the chefs ........  our happy mood was dampened by the missing  Air Asia flight.

If you happen to read my blog,
Lets observe a minute of silence in tribute to the victims who died in the plane crash.