Not yet…

It was not Chap Goh Meh (the 15th Night of the Chinese Lunar New Year) yet on Tuesday, the 15th but we took advantage of the public holiday on that day to have our family dinner earlier as on the actual date, Melissa and I would be in KL on her way back to New Zealand.

We had the stewed lamb shank from Mum’s…

…which was really nice and tender. Melissa loved it a lot and she remarked that the gravy tasted like oxtail soup. At RM18.00, that was really a steal!

Other than that, there was this specially ordered lemon chicken using roast chicken instead of the usual fried-in-batter chicken from Y2K…

We had it like this once at the restaurant but I suspect that on that particular night, they had some roast chicken left, so they decided to refry it lightly and pour lemon sauce over it and serve. It turned out to be really good and that was why we wanted the cook to do it that same way again.

Also from Y2K was the sweet and sour fish fillet…

– another one of my daughter’s favourite from the place.

Beside that, my sister bought something from a restaurant near the Sibu Civic Centre – if I’m not mistaken, it is called Siong Loke Yong or something like that. It has been around for a long long time and that night, we ordered this dish from there –

– the sea cucumber and beef tendon plus broccoli dish and also the sea cucumber soup as well as this vegetable dish…

It certainly was a delightful gathering – Melissa, my missus and I with my parents and sister…but my mother did not seem to want to eat much of anything that night. Perhaps she was feeling a bit down that Melissa would be leaving in a couple of days time and would only be home again by October or November at the end of the year.

As a matter of fact, before she came back for the summer holidays at the end of last year, my mother kept asking about the days and dates and when her granddaughter would be home. I guess she was looking forward to it then…and now she will have to start counting the days again till she comes home once more.