The first days of spring…

When I was teaching Geography a long long time ago, Spring in the Northern Hemisphere was always sometime in March – the Spring Equinox…but somehow or other, Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival.

Well, on the first day, of course, we had the traditional longevity  mee sua (thread/string noodles)…

…for long life and good fortune in the year ahead.

I also got some things ready…

…in case we had some early visitors and we quickly went to visit my parents and also my mother-in-law to perform our filial duties and wish them a Happy Chinese New Year after which, we went straight home to wait for anybody who cared to drop by.

My sister-in-law and her family would be taking the evening flight back to Kuching and she said that before leaving town, they would drop by at around noon. Well, my missus did do a bit of cooking so of course, we invited them to have lunch.

She made some ngor hiang or lor bak as they are called in the peninsula…

…and fried her special prawns…

…with garlic and sesame oil and whatever else.

Her oven-roasted chicken wings…

…were a hit and so was her kacang ma chicken…

Of course, we must have fish – 年年有余　(Nian Nian You Yu, meaning “Abundance through the year”) so we had this steamed pek chio (white pomfret)…

…and this was my missus’ sambal prawns with pineapple…

…and this one was her satay beef…

I ordered the Bangladeshi lamb curry…

…and the green curry chicken…

…from Payung and we also had this salad dish…

*prior to the adding of the creamy dressing*

…to go with everything else.

Of course, we also invited anyone who came to visit us around that same time to join in and help themselves to the food except those friends who are unable to eat non-halal food, my sincere apologies to those concerned.

There was a lot of plain white rice left over – probably, most of them just had the food and did not care for too much of it. That was why I next morning, I whipped up this dish of dabai fried rice…

…to go with whatever was left of all the aforementioned dishes.

By the evening of the second day, most of the food was finished so anyone dropping by on the third day and thereafter just had the cakes and cookies to enjoy.