Woots! Today is the 3rd day of Chinese New Year.

Have you guys had your umpteenth CNY reunion dinner yet?

If your family is anything like mine, I can bet you've probably have sat to a few (if not many) dinner get-togethers thus far.

There are altogether 15 days of Chinese New Year according to the Lunar calendar so get your chopsticks and ricebowls ready, for it's dinner lou-sang sessions with the family, friends, workmates, ex-schoolmates, blogmates, campusmates and so many different groups of people!

i was at Tong Yuen in Hilton Hotel last week to taste their auspicious set menus and CNY delicacies

Right after work, I thought it would be wise to head straight to Hilton to skip the impending traffic gridlock. Typical evenings in PJ *rolls eyes*

But strangely I was wrong. The roads were traffic-free and I arrived Hilton almost 2 hours before dinner time! 🙁

I know I was too early. But hellooo hellooo anybody home!?

*sniff*

Thankfully, someone was inside and the gates were opened for me! 😀

First thing I saw as I stepped in:

Mandarin ducks, money frogs and china teapots

The hostess was kind enough to offer me some warm Chinese tea to accompany my wait.

It's gonna be a long wait, that's for sure

But I hope it's worth it 😀

I soon got bored and I had about 1 hour left to kill.

So I got up and started taking pictures of this very impressive, spacious and lavish Chinese restaurant.

I know right. It had so many sections and areas to dine!

Oh and I also learned that Toh Yuen is adjoined to the al-fresco and swimming pool area

Pretty good idea for weddings to be held! Nice place to entertain guests and throw the after-party too!

Separated only by a huge glass door 🙂

I then took my time to walk back to my table. But still, not a single soul to be seen yet.

So I made use of the glass mirrors they had all over the walls for some self-absorbed entertainment

ohai. Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Alright, time to go back to that private section 🙂

It was almost 7.30pm by then. Perfect! Looks like time flies when you're actually occupied.
 

See those 2 circular entrances?

That's where our tables are

This is how it looks at our table… before everybody fills it in 🙂

Yay! Finally I have some company. Elaine from Marketing & Communications took the seat beside mine and gradually, the other guests began to arrive one by one 🙂 Ivy from FOOD and her colleague came pretty soon too.

Eelaine and I

Kelly (my plus one for the evening) and I sipping on some Chinese Tea

After catching up and chit chatting, it was time to bring out the food

Toh Yuen's Yee Sang specials was the highlight of their Fatt Choy (fortune and prosperity) menu selections

Crackers represents happiness, peanut and sesame symbolizes harvest, oil represents wealth,

pomelo means good luck, raw seafood symbolizes life and longevity.

Yee Sang comprises of assorted condiments, which differ in their auspicious meanings as illustrated above

After the warzone of tossing and mixing the ingredients and

dressing with chopsticks, it was time for the feast to begin.

I especially loved their Sliced Abalone yee sang. It was fresh, tasty and had that tinge of sweet-sourness in it. The abalone came in abundance and it was very delicious and chewy too (I initially thought it looked like chicken slices before I had a bite of it! LOL)

The 2nd course that arrived was Braised Shark Fin Soup with Crab Meat and Roe.

Trust me, I've eaten this since my childhood days and there isn't really a complete Chinese dinner without it.

Served hot right outta the pot, it was just as good as what my tastebuds imagined it to be. You can never go wrong!

3rd Course : Deep Fried Chicken in 2 Flavours

Now this one was rather outta the ordinary 🙂

This poultry dish came with chicken – cooked in 2 different styles – encircled around each other. Yup, it was plated in a very pleasant way! The chicken with the darker sauce stayed in the middle while the whiter chicken surrounded it.

I loved the darker chicken while some of the others preferred the whiter one. Ohwell, looks like both of it were popular among us anyway; seeing that this dish was finished in such a jiffy!

After chicken, came the fish

4th course : Steamed Fish Pomfret with Soy Sauce

This fish fanatic is at it again. White pomfrets are one of my favorite types of fish, apart from Salmon and Snowfish. It was so fresh that I reckon it was just caught right off the sea yesterday! 😛 None of that stinky stale stench that some fishes tend to have.

The flesh was tender and was made right for our palate.

5th course : Stir Fried King Prawns in Pineapple Sauce

Now if the fish dish didn't exist, this one would most definitely fall in line being my favorite of the lot!

The prawns were really soft and succulent to the last bite! Kinda the type that melts in your mouth 😀 The tangy natural flavour of the pineapple complemented this dish very well too.

More tea anyone? 😀

The next course was something less meaty. Think veggies!

Just for the record, my favorite green vegetable of all is broccoli. And wa-hey! Look what's on our plates:

It IS broccoli! 😀 😀 😀 Do you spot lotsa mushrooms too?

A very happy me + Kelly

I like how most Chinese chefs cut up lotsa random things that their instincts tell them *might* just make the perfect dish and voila! It DID end up perfect after all.

The broccoli came cooked with so many other ingredients and condiments that it was bursting with flavour 🙂

6th Course: Stewed Sea Cucumber, Mushroom and Broccoli

7th Course: Sauteed Seafood Fried Rice with X.O Sauce

When I had a spoonful of the fried rice, I reckon it tasted kinda different though.

How come it didn't taste as usual or bland as the common Chinese Fried Rice?

Struggling to eat rice with chopsticks from a bowl

(I eventually requested for a spoon instead)

Since my younger days, I was never good at 'em two sticks. I don't know how you people do it. Hat's off to you!

Anyway, so why did my fried rice taste so unique? When I looked up the menu, I found my answer "... with X.O Sauce"! 😀 😀 Woots! Now, how's that for a twist? No wonder it was delish

While waiting for dessert!

Was told that the dessert was gonna be unexpected.

But then again, I thought how UNEXPECTED could a course of dessert be?

So I excused myself to the ladies' for a short while and when I returned, I saw a huge bowl of thick, white substance – of which I assumed to be some creamy delicacy 🙂 Looks yummy to me!

Since I was away when the discussion was made, I had no clue what this dish was

Tasted it and loved it! The honeydew was responsible for the sweet, fruity flavour. It also had this very mild, ice-cream taste and the texture was very gentle to the tastebuds... except for a very, very slight bitter aftertaste once you've swallowed it.

I honestly wondered what it was!

Must be some form of ice-cream or some form of creamy extracts, I pondered to myself.

The Head Chef came out of the kitchen to have a chat with us

That's Shian seated, also from Marcomm

And it was then I found out that the dessert, our final course for the evening, was none other than Hasma!! *gasp* Alright I bet you don't know what Hasma is. Neither did I, initially… before I had it down my throat, of course.

Hasma is a Chinese dessert ingredient  made from the dried fallopian tubes of frogs,
typically the Asiatic Grass Frog. The Western pharmaceutical term is Oviductus Ranae.

How's that for an exotic meal?

Hey don't freak out just because it's made of an odd anatomy of an amphibian. Admittedly, I did too at first but it tasted exquisite. Really! It was once served as royal food to the Chinese Emperors okay! 😀
 

This Chinese New Year, I am proud to say that I have ate animal organs! (something that I've avoided like the plague all these years for no explicable reason)

So, thank you Hilton for giving us this new and rather surprising experience at the end of our meal!

But if you want out on eating this exotic dish, you can always opt for the 'Happiness Set' where Chilled Sea Coconut with Ginseng and the 'Fortune Set' that satisfies your sweet tooth with Braised Red Bean and Glutinous Dumpling.

Our set for the day was 'Longevity Set' FYI 😀

So go have your next CNY meal here or even your company's 'sau kung' dinners or lunches! Their CNY set menus and festive a la carte Chinese delights promo will run until 28th Febuary 2011. 🙂

GONG XI FA CHAI!

Okay I promise this is the last post that has any connection whatsover with Christmas! 😛

I'm no festive laggard but haven't really been getting round to writing the Christmas posts instead of all the other posts first

So as a token of apology, here are 2 very adorable snowmen fer you! 😀 😀

So thefockers and I headed to this really nice place called Folie-Folie along Jalan Raja Musa Aziz in Ipoh for some Christmas dinner.

We frequent this place quite often as Uncle Mike knew some of the bosses and staff there 🙂

Say hello to my favorite uncle of all time!

Anyhoozers, the place was pretty packed with people, old and young alike.

All the waiters and waitresses dressed the part too – in the spirit of Christmas!

Silly me thought that these 2 waiters were the same person.

I was thinking "WHOA, he changed hats so fast?" But it's actually 2 different people!
 

Mom seemed pretty amused with the complimentary snowmen we had too! 🙂
 

Leafed through the pages of the menu and we finally settled on which Main Course to pick.

In the Christmas dinner set, there were choices of Roasted Duck Breast, Grilled Salmon, Chicken Roulade and Braised Lamb Shank

Om nom noms!
 

I obviously chose the fish. Salmon FTW forever and always!

My selection of meat is very, very predictable. It's always in this order : Fish, Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, Beef and last in line, Pork.

Or wait. Last of the last would be…. frog. Never my option! Yuck
 

So the Grilled Salmon was pretty damn awesome, just like everything else served too. Oh and the Pumpkin Cappuccino soup was really new to me! Some of thefockers didn't like it so I ended up finishing it for them 😛

The Roasted Duck, compared to the Chicken Roulade wasn't as flavourful as I had expected it to be.

This was really good. It was light and creamy, soft and frothy bursting with coffee aroma!

The perfect Tiramisu in a cup
 

The couzzies gobbled them down pretty fast! And so did it.

Anyway, couzzie group photo!

 

Yup. We're Blackberry addicts.

Sorry no Steve Jobs worshippers allowed at this table 😛
 

Without our BBs!

Looking a tad more normal here and not too Y-Generation as the previous pic
 

You've prolly seen them well over a hundred times if you've been following this blog for a long time,

but… *drumroll* the mad awesome fockers in the house!

Adjourned back home to partay at the patio 😀

Put on your Christmas hats yo!

Candid shot!
 

Our setting for the table. Pretty swell, ain't it?

It's been a longtime tradition for us to celebrate Christmas at home!

Hmmmm.. there's something missing though.

Now that all thefockers are here. Where's grandpa this year? It feels different without him this Christmas.
 

Oh! There he is. Came back perched by the ceiling to join us, perhaps? :D

I'd like to think so.
 

Do you believe that the deceased comes back in the form of insects i.e butterflies & grasshoppers?

According to the Chinese belief, it is apparently so.

So… HELLLLOOOO KUNGKUNG!! 😀 😀 😀

I've always wanted a red party of my own – and that day finally came!

My family planned an all-red birthday dinner for me during my 21st at San Francisco Steakhouse 😀

When I saw my dearest fockers in red before dinner, I raised my eyebrows with a pleasant surprise. Each and every one of them were decked in red! No, Chinese New Year did not come early this year. I found out that it was just for me 😉

with my lovely red guests 😀

and that's not all. I fell in love with the table setting too! The centerpiece was decorated with red roses in full bloom, reddish candles and on every seat there was red folded napkins with each a glass of red wine.

The view of the table from my seat! 😀

Not forgetting the red tablecloth too!

😀

I was still in awe, sitting there at the end of the table admiring the entire set up, while watching my loved ones chattering about. It's all slowly getting to me! My own red party – finally! 😀 Played with the stalks of roses a little…

I liked the outlet too!

It was more to a bar – cum – fine dining – cum – restaurant – cum – chillout place

They bought yummy red wine too for all

I can haz moarrrr!! 😀 😀

😀 why, thank you!

And I had a very cute pretty boy waiter serving me throughout the night too.

EYE CANDY 😛 😛

Fooling around with the cam before the food came. Got photobombed by godmom!!

Red Zipper Hairband + Iconography Ring by Soak Republic

Check 'em out! The Coronation Crown Rings on my left hand are from there too 😀

More fun-loving moments with the people that matter most to me 🙂

Meet the fockers! 😀 They're one awesome bunch

Granny, Godmom, Uncle Mike, Mom and Kakak (she's been my nanny since I was 3!)

Kakak fascinated with the humongous plate of imported fruits!

Goddy taking control over my DSLR cam while mom and I posed away ;)

Ladies 3 generations playing around with cherries and camwhoring with roses

Granny, Mom and I 😀

That's Uncle Philip and Aunt Karen below 😀 Figured I wanted to take a last shot of the table before everything gets messed up with food later.

….not predicting any cake fights with this crowd but still! One more for the memories 🙂

I'm sure the fabulous crew at the Steakhouse put in lotsa effort for this – THANKEWWW again.

ESPECIALLY ANDREW who was in-charge!

Very coincidentally with the arrival of the food, Germany VS Argentina began their match for the Quarter Finals. Excellent! We could all watch the showdown and cheer on the hunky Germans all the way while eating. Speaking of Germans, let's take a look at the German Sausages that was served

Almost a foot long! My, my..

One of the biggest ones I've ever seen *wiggles eyebrow*

The cheese and garlic lobsters were the freshest and finest I've ever tasted as well

Pretty bad to take seafood during the healing stages of my new tattoo but what the heck? 😀

I ONLY TURN 21 ONCE. *winks*

Lovely lovely… and succulent too!

I hear they cost over 200bucks here. Very well worth it

Mom loved it just as much as all of us did! 😀

Slowly but surely, Argentina was beginning to get thrashed real hard by the Germans.

Go Germanyyyy!!! All the wayyyy Germannyyyy!! I didn't buy your team's jersey for nuthin'! 😀 😀 😀

MAKE US PROUD!

The scores were getting more and more promising, and I was pretty convinced that Germany would whoop Argentina's ass tonight there and then. Was kinda engrossed in the match when I was surprised with a huge, round, chocolate cake with exactly 21 lighted candles!

Such a pretty cake! and I bet it will taste theyummmmmmmsss too 😀

The live band sang me a birthday song and after that I made a wish and blew off the candles

I make the same wish every year… hmm… now I wonder what that is? 😉 hehe

And when I thought all is over and done with, I was very, very wrong. I was surprised once again…

… with a beautiful bouquet of 2 dozen red roses!

It was given to me by my favorite uncle of all, Uncle Mike

Tonight will definitely be one of my most memorable nights ever. New age men and bachelor boys are always girls' best friends! (after diamonds, that is) They always do the most thoughtful and sweetest things! For planning my surprise party in such detail all the way up to the roses. Thankewwww

I'm never really a big fan of flowers ever, but how can I not be overwhelmed by a huge bouquet of roses – all in my favorite color!

That was such a sweet gesture. Looks like flowers will always have a place in a lady's heart 😀

I ADORE FLOWERS NOW. ESPECIALLY RED ROSES!!

Hurrraahhhh!!! 😀 😀

Mom and her 21 year old rebel

In case you were wondering what she got me for my birthday, it's the necklace I was wearing tonight

Scroll up picture#7 to see it again 😉

It's a very pretty cross made out of of Rubies! This gem represents the month of July, hence a Ruby cross. And most importantly, IT'S RED!!!! Squeeeeeee 😀 How lucky! Granny and Godmom got me a White Gold bracelet which I was wearing throughout the night as well. I know you're reading this guys, thanks again 😀

I love it, and am still wearing it now!

My loving focker family + the nanny (now, why is there a gap between Granny and I?)

Hmmm.. My guess is that Grandpa wants IN too 😀 He would fit in that space perfectly

Oddly, that actually makes sense 🙂 He would've loved to see his grand daughter turn 21. I'm certain he was right there in the family photo, between Granny and I *beams* I love you kungkung!

us with Uncle Philip and Aunt Karen!

Just like daddy at home, they gave me an angpow too, thanks yeah! 😀

No one would exactly let the birthday girl go that easily. The fockers made me bottoms up a few glasses of red wine before I left. *gulps*  But I assure you, I'm ay-okayy and still standing!! 😀 😀 Totally different from the night before LOL

Yeah yeah fine, not denying it. I wasn't so okay by the time the night ended during my birthday party with a group of friends in Twenty One bar (more on that on the next post I promise!)

A big gracias to the Fockers for making my 21st a memorable one

You're the best family one can ever ask for!

Obviously I've only had ONE family but whatev-

My statement still stands!! 😀 😀