Love bites…

Hey! It’s Chinese New Year’s Eve!!! All ready for the Big Bang tonight? This was what it was like last year in my neighbourhood…

*Huai Bin (sixthseal.com)‘s video on youtube*

I wonder if it will be just as grand/noisy this year or not.

It’s going to be a busy day today with the last bits of cleaning up the house and sprucing it up a bit, the baking of the cakes and the cooking of the dishes for tonight’s dinner and for visitors who care to drop by in the next couple of days.

The cookies are all ready. We have these nice butter cookies and the peanut ones…

…that my very very dear friend gave me when I was visiting her and her family in Auckland, New Zealand at the end of last year.

I also bought this kuih makmur or ghee balls – one of my festive favourites…

…from this new place in Sibu…

…except that they do not use ghee. The lady told me that they used butter instead, Golden Churn no less and I love it. Very nice!

My missus made a lot…including these that I have featured before in an earlier post, using the breakfast cereal that we got in New Zealand…

…and these chocolate delights that my daughter loves a lot…

*Melissa’s photo on Facebook*

…and these cheese ones…

…and as in previous years, we also have the traditional “kuih dahlia“…

…named after the flower and if I’m not mistaken, this year, they’re strawberry-flavoured for a change.

These are the coconut ones…

…and other than all the cookies, my missus has baked the cashew nuts already as well…

…and fried the papadums and the keropok (fish/prawn crackers)…

…that goes absolutely well with the acar timun (cucumber pickle) that my mother-in-law would not fail to make every year and give us a jar of it to enjoy.

Of course, there will be the kerepek gunting…

…and the bak kua (barbecued pork slices) that I have received from some dear friends of mine here, here and here and all the food that we’ll be serving to family and friends who care to drop by during this auspicious occasion.