Ben and I celebrated Chinese New Year at a friend’s house. This is a group of Singaporean and Malaysian friends that is like family to us. We called our group Mamak Stall.

The hostess of the house always prepares the Raw Fish Salad for Chinese New Year gathering. The salad is tossed high in the air while we wish one another with auspicious Chinese New Year greetings. This dish is commonly eaten on the 7th day of Chinese New Year which is a day the Chinese celebrates everyone’s birthday.

K & J made a spicy prawn dish. Prawn is also a popular dish during Chinese New Year as the name prawn sounds like laughter in Cantonese (“ha”). It symbolizes happiness and laughter.

K also made a “Sayur Lodeh”; a vegetable soup prepared with vegetables like cabbage, lady fingers, long beans, carrots and tofu puff. The broth is a coconut based broth.

I made Asam Gai Choy upon request as my friends do not have access to roasted pork feet in their area. They love the gelatinous pork feet and the slightly bitter mustard greens.

We also bought some roasted pork, BBQ pork and Taiwanese Sausage from Parker Place. Luckily, the gathering was in the middle of Chinese New Year, otherwise the queue will be super long.

K also brought pineapples and pear to make “Rojak”; a fruit salad.

K made some Snow Fungus sweet soup with red dates and gingko nuts for dessert. Ben and I had a great time. M & J, thank you for hosting the Chinese New Year gathering and thank you all for sharing the delicious food.