CHINESE NEW YEAR - FAMILY GET TOGETHER

Last Saturday, our family had a get together party to celebrate the Chinese New year. We invited a Lion dance troupe to bring good luck and prosperity to our family. Almost everybody was wearing red, a sign of good luck and fortune for Chinese New Year.

Happy kids and the old man

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Just before 18:00 hours, the Lion dance troupe arrived at the gate of our house and greeted us with the beat of the drum and cymbals. This troupe moving-in with three "Lions"
The audienceShow time All camera(s) zooming in on the "Lion"Happy parents and frightened kids.Receiving a Prosperous gift from the "Lion" at the end of the showFinal greeting from the three "Lions"Posing with with this "joker" Dinner time - plenty to eat . It was amazing to see so much food prepared by my wife with the support from the maid and my sisters-in-law. The menu included roasted pork, Chinese sausages, sweet and sour fish, spring rolls, steamed chickens, Yam-pork, adobo, macaroni salad and others.

Close-up of the ever popular roasted pork Chinese New Year sausages

Sweet and sour fish

It was a fabulous evening with the "Lions" and the food!!! What we missed were our son and daughter who were unable to return because of work commitment.

GONG XI FA CAI (恭喜發財)

"Gong Xi Fa Cai" - Wishing all my Chinese friends and visitors a very, Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year! May the year of the Tiger brings Health, Wealth, Joy and Prosperity to every body. 恭喜發財,紅包拿來! Gong Xi, Gong Xi!! A Tiger lantern ushering the Lunar New year.

CHICKEN CURRY IN 2 MINUTES

Coming back home yesterday, I was immediately invited to join in a cooking demo. My wife's friends came to show us how to cook curry chicken in "2 minutes" using this Amway's Noxxa Electric Multifunction Pressure Cooker.

But ...the cutting of the chicken and potatoes took more about 10 minutes.

The recipe consisted of chicken, potatoes and curry powder.

Before closing the cooker's cover.

2 minutes later.

Hmmm..."bagus"... not too bad! The end product was really good with the chicken and potatoes cooked to perfection.

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According to them, this Noxxa Electric Multifunction Pressure Cooker is an 8L non-stick pot with a choice of High & Low pressure multiple functions like, slow cook, steam, stir fry, reheats and keep food warm. It has also a delay timer up to 8 hours. Beside curry chicken, this cooker can also cook all sorts of food in a very short time.

What a wonderful cooker - everything is high tech nowadays. It comes with a price tag of RM695.

JAPAN TRIP - YAKINIKU (焼き肉)

"Yakiniku" or grilled meat is another favourite of ours when eating out in Japan. Many Yukiniku restaurants served all sort of meats, like beef, pork, chicken and even seafood, but our preference was those shops offering only beef. This time, we returned to our favourite place to enjoy "yakiniku". As usual, we ordered "Jo Karubi" 上カルビ (Premium beef short Rib), "Jo Rosu" 上ロース (Premium beef loin) and Jo Gyu tan shio 上タン (Salted premium ox tongue)

........and some fresh lettuce to go with the meat

The shop "home made" special assorted kimchi -ナムル盛り合わせ - a comination of "Daikon" 大根 (radish), "kyuri" 胡瓜(cucumber) and cabbage (白菜).

Dinning in a Yakiniku shop, customers have to "cook" their own meals. We started "cooking" as soon as the raw ingredients were placed on the our table.

This restaurant used very high quality "Wagyu" 和牛(Japanese beef). The meat was tender and to put it literally, "melt-in-your-mouth" ..so delicious!

Picture taken with the shop's owner to mark our return to this old favourite place.