Penang State CNY Open House

Thousands of people from all walks of life thronged Campbell Street for the CNY celebration open house hosted by the state government on the fourth day of the first month of Lunar Calendar.. Rows of red lanterns and light bulbs could be seen hanging across the whole street, welcoming the year of ox, a year full of challenges and surprises…

Traditional cakes, cookies, dim sum, mandarin oranges were given out to the people at roadside.. The whole environment was so amazing and the entire street turned into a sea of people…Besides, a spectacular lion dance performance was held at the junction of Campbell street and Penang Road and all the amazing stunts and dancing skills were portrayed to the public. The lions were prancing and jumping from pole to pole accompanied by exciting drumbeats…

“Cultural extravaganza” - The best to describe the State CNY open house at Campbell Street Penang. Taken from the Star



Free drinks like Milo and Nescafe were provided for the visitors and heaps of live singing and traditional singing packed the whole street… Another highlight of the event was the dragon dance by a team of children.. So cute and the skill of dancing they showed was so amazing.. Furthermore, about 9pm, the VIPS arrived.. Our Penang Governor, Penang Chief Minister and other VIPS came passing by sitting on beautifully decorated trishaws, wishing the people “gong xi gong xi”… The whole event was fantastic but to me I think it was over crowded d and we couldn’t even move, especially the area in front of the stage, as this open house was firstly held on the street instead of large field at the Esplanade..

Campbell Street Festivities


Stage Performance

CNY Friends Gathering @ Town Steamboat 火锅之家

At my house	Playing Cards together	Concentrate, dont look at us, be natural..
Wah.. Chung Ling guys	Kay Chuan & Chong Wei	Han Yue & Wei Liang
My Dear Friends	Did I eat that day?	My Old Friend Chong Wei
Min Yu, Christine, Theng		Yea, smile... ^_^

CNY Family Reunion Special Dish

Hakka Yong Tao Fu

For the past few years, my family reunion would be held outside, having dinner at restaurant.. This year again is a special year as we had our reunion at home, every family member prepared a dish for the reunion dinner and it was so special as I could try out a more variety of dishes..My mum prepared a dish called Hakka Yong Tau Fu and it was one of my favourite dishes. The ingredients of this special dish are “Xia mi”, tou fu, chilies, brinjals, bitter guards and so on… It was really a fantastic dish.. It might look familiar to the Yong Tau Fu sold at Hawker stalls but homemade one is always the best…

2009 CNY Eve

Happy Chinese “Niu” Year to everybody! On the right is a photo taken during the CNY eve at the 16th floor of my apartment.. Though the economy crisis is plaguing our country, this year CNY, fireworks (illegal) still could be seen all over the night skyline in Penang particularly.. But, I think, the Hokkien New Year on the 9th of first month of Lunar Calender would see more fireworks as Hokkien clan is the majority in Penang.. Boom boom boom… 5 minutes before the new year of ox, The explosion noise of “Hong Pao” started to dominate the night serene..Almost every house particularly in Air Itam district started to set off the fireworks and new year songs at max volume could be heard all over the place.

Chocolate Seduction

Chocolate Seduction is the most delicious chocolate cake I’ve ever made.. Christine and I made this cake before but it was not "muddy" enough and this time during CNY, we made again and this time with less self-raising flour and indeed, it was so "muddy" and sticky and it was really delicious and it's comparable with the chocolate cake made in Secret recipe, haha, but not similar to that because it doesn’t have the layers, layers of cream were not made as it took us more time to make the cake..

Qi Gu Crackers

Another CNY homemade crackers : Qi Gu crackers.. I’m not sure what is the English name for this and I’m sure you can buy a box of this type of crackers at Tesco and many other places.. A box costs about RM10 but actually the raw material costs only RM2.. It was the first time I ate this and this cracker was recommended by Christine and the way of frying it was from her..It was really scrumptious and crunchy.. It looks like potato chips but it has its own fragrance naturally without adding any salt.. The process of making it is indeed very simple : slice and fry… To enhance the taste, we added some black pepper and a bit of salt after frying it..