Buzzing with FOOD

Today marks the last day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival (Hokkien: Kow Ong Yeah). This Taoist festival is a nine-day celebration where Chinese Taoist will go on a strict vegetarian diet lasting from 3-days to 9-days. In Penang, many will make a visit to the Nine Emperor Gods Temple located at Burma Road to pray and make their aspirations.

(For further reading: Nine Emperor Gods Festival, All set for the Nine Emperor Gods Fest)

The strict vegetarian diet means there should not be any consumption of dairy, onions or garlic (believed to give bad breathe, hence not allowed), spring onion and also other products from animal source. Even the cooking utensils, cups, etc. are strictly used only for this vegetarian period or completely new.

I’m not a Taoist but I joined in the vegetarian diet since it’s been practised in my household and also I somehow prefer to eat less meat these days, so going through this vegetarian diet is not a big change to my usual eating habit. My mum also cooks during this period (using all utensils used only at this time of the year), so it’s a healthy vegetarian diet for me (outside vegetarian food seems very oily nowadays)

I managed to snap some photos of the temporary stalls set up for the public to buy vegetarian food. This was taken in Madras Lane, just opposite the Nine Emperor Gods Temple. They have practically everything from economy rice, curry mee, loh mee, char hor fun, nyonya kuih, pau, poh piah, to even satay, pizza and bak kut teh. There’s also an array of snacks like crackers, biscuits and pastries.

Tonight, there will be a grand send-off procession to the sea for the nine emperor gods to mark the end of the nine day festival.

 The year come and go. It’s time again to celebrate the Mooncake Festival, or formally known as Zhongqiu Jie (Mid-Autumn Festival).

What is this festival all about and how did it started? How do the Chinese here celebrate it? Some dailies have written and compiled some history, the significance and also the observation on how this festival is celebrated here in Malaysia.

Read: Moon Struck, A Full Moon on the Rise, Tales and Legends, Moonstruck Lady, Mooncake Festival 2009.

There are tons of versions on this folklore. But I feel, the essence of it is that it is celebrated together with the family to build a stronger bond, from adults to children. Undeniably though, I truly agree with one of the article above saying that "For the Chinese, it is another excuse to indulge in feasting and merry-making."!!!

Mooncakes (surprisingly also known as reunion cake) traditionally used to contain fillings of lotus paste with or without a salted egg yolk in the center to symbolize the full moon. But nowadays, with the modern era, there are a variety of flavours like five kernel (A filling consisting of 5 types of nuts and seeds,), green tea lotus paste, black sesame paste, six-grain paste and pandan lotus paste. Some unconventional ones include green tea with dragon fruit paste, nuts with roast chicken, durian lotus paste, red bean paste with chicken floss and sunflower seeds, pandan paste with egg cream and walnuts, coconut paste with pineapple. (I’m not making this up. It’s really something which is now on sale to the public in Malaysia). Recently, everyone is also more health conscious, and hence there’s a variety of low sugar paste fillings.

Too mind-blogging to consider? There’s even more now with the addition of ’snow-skin’ (non-baked, chilled mooncakes) versions, with fillings like mango paste, black sesame with tiramisu paste, green tea with white lotus paste and sake kuaci, chocolate whiskey, and even ice-cream and coffee versions!!

And now there’s even jelly mooncakes!!!

All these is enough to make the excuse of indulging in feasting these mooncakes forgive-able!!

Anyway this post is to wish all Chinese a Happy and Joyful Mid-Autumn Festival.

Here are some mooncakes which I managed to get my hands on.

Consumers nowadays prefer to buy smaller ones (like the mini mooncakes above). The one here has pandan lotus paste filling.

This baby mooncake, reputably to be the best in Shanghai, made by Sheraton Hotel, Shanghai. Looks normal, but it cost almost RM 30 per box!!! Each box is the size of a mini mooncake like the local ones here. Imagine the quality of ingredients used (and of course with the addition of "Shanghai’s living cost"..this baby is really an indulgence!!!). I really have to thank a dear family friend for sharing this with us.

Not forgetting, the moon biscuits (gong zai peng) which is usually filled with desiccated coconut or lotus paste. 

Have a feast of mooncakes and tea but remember to eat in moderation to avoid complications :)

~

 Time sure flies. And we have yet again gathered like-minded friends for a session of Fun, Wild and Intimate, as the theme cleverly interpreted.

The venue:
Vintage Bulgaria, Tanjung Bungah
Located at Jalan Sungai Kelian, Tanjung Bungah, this area is popular among expatriates and tourist who enjoys a drinking session at pubs/bars and tying out international cuisines. Vintage Bulgaria is a neighbour of Ingolf Kneipe, a German food restaurant and bar.

The event:
Penang Floggers 4th Gathering.
Thanks to the owner of Vintage Bulgaria for putting up this simple but spot-on banner.

I still vividly remember the 1st gathering held at Hainan Town Restaurant @ Weld Quay. All of us were so new to each other that we behaved and speaked accordingly. It’s like when you made new friends in school or in your social life!! There was more introduction and the "about-me" than other conversations.

But fast-forward to the 4th gathering, although there’s more new faces joining the group (Yay!!) we blended much better and talk like we’ve known each other for years. We’ve even identified a few as our "mommys, brothers and sisters". Haha that’s the joking part.

As time goes by, with more of such gatherings, I believe we will be more acquainted to each other rather than just being friend in the virtual world.

Back to the venue, I’m pleasently surprised by the beautiful interior deco and clever design of the shop although it only occupies a rather small lot.

At the front, there’s a few tables and chairs for those who prefer to ‘people-watch’ while eating/drinking.

The entrance (left) and a bar on the mezzanine floor.

At the lower ground of the shop, the place is very cozy and cottage-like. Very suitable for a romantic meal with your partners.

And this is the upper floor, which is reserved for the event. The whole floor just for us!!

Bulgarian village painting on the wall.

After waiting for all to arrive and snapping photos of the surrounding, we had a very short introduction and then comes the main VIP of the night. If you know us, it’s not a person who is a VIP, but the FOOD!!!

The Food:

Soups are served first.
Mushroom soup served with ‘Vintage’ garlic bread (cheese-baked garlic bread)
The mushroom soup is the blended version where there’s no chucks of mushrooms visible. Not too creamy and just the right amount of herbs. The garlic bread topped with cheese is something different and is very aromatic. Ours was slightly under-baked, which makes the cheese a little less burnt and hence not as nice as the one in the photo.

Seafood soup
Also another blended version. We tasted some crabmeat and tuna?. It doesn’t have an overpowering pungent seafood smell so it taste quite pleasant and delicious. But I was thinking maybe by adding a little more herbs will do the trick!

We then linger around and talk and talk ’til the main dish arrived.
That’s next in Part II.

~

This post is specially dedicated to all those nice people who have spent some time celebrating with me more than a fortnight ago. My deepest gratitude goes to you for making that particular day memorable for me. It has been a long time since I last had a big celebration.

(above taken with friend’s camera)

(taken with my camera. This is what happens when you don’t adjust the white balance to align with the location lighting)

Packaging. Lovely box isn’t it?

Chocolate Cake from another group of friends. Thank You!

A specially-made cake by someone (you can never guess what flavour it is. Haha). Thank you too!

Had another feast too, but virtually. You might be thinking how? They are in different parts of the world, namely UK and Aust and they were so kind to forego their beauty sleep and wait till our morning here to wish me and have a "webfeast" which includes lamingtons, chocolate cake with lots of cream and strawberries, roti canai, spring rolls, poh piah and even hor fun!!!

Haha it was real fun….imagination that is! Gotta have a powerful imagination if you plan to try that out. But the underline is that there are really people who cared and are willing enough to go to a certain extend to make someone’s day a much brighter one!

And my solitary gift of the year (and many more quiet years earlier)….. tadaaa

I’m not gonna bore you with how it looked but one cute label written on the box is…

Thanks a million to the sender. You know who you are. You have always lived up to the tagline of "a friend in need, is a friend indeed". And I hope I can be that sort of friend to you too! *Hugs*

It has been a wonderful start for the first quarter of the year, thanks to all the messages and cakes.

Looking forward to next year as someone promised to take me to a 5-star seafood buffet!!!! Hahahaha

~Cheers~

Most families would opt to have steamboat on reunion day as it is easier to prepare and there’s a variety of things which can be cooked in a steamboat. Moreover, steamboat makes everyone sort of contribute to the cooking process and in between, while waiting for the ingredients to cook, family members can have a good chat. That’s the positive reasons which is making steamboat a more and more popular choice here.

Usually every year, we will buy a few large fish, prawns and other seafood directly from the fisherman in the village and then cleaned, "dissect"/cut, freeze it and unfreeze it again before we finally have steamboat. But because without the skill of "dissecting" and a really sharp knife like those fishmongers have, it was really hard work.

So how did we prepare it this year? If you are wondering where we get such big plates to display all the ingredients/why did we put it all so nicely??? We actually catered it from a restaurant. All was provided for…from plates,bowls,spoons,pots,portable gas stove and even ketchup and of course the main steamboat ingredients and two kinds of soup (clear soup and tomyam).

The only thing we did was to go to the shop in the afternoon to collect everything. We ordered 3 sets for about 20+ people. There were definitely extras and we continue eating it the next day! 

Easy right? Everything prepared for and we only had to set it up and put all edible stuff to boil. Save precious time which is spent on bonding with family members and eating!!!