Snacks…

Usually, other than the cakes and cookies, besides the keropok and acar, we would have some light snacks for people thus inclined or while sitting around the house, watching tv or waiting for family and friends to show up.

My missus would always buy some cashew nuts…

…that she would bake in the oven, brushed with a bit of butter for the added fragrance. Her brother, my brother-in-law, loves how she does it so he would send his cashew nuts over for her to do it for him. Indeed, those are by no means, cheap but anyway, Chinese New Year comes but once a year so it is all right.

In my younger days, my father would order the Perak/Ipoh menglembu groundnuts that came in a round oblong tin with a picture of an old man wearing a straw hat and carrying a hoe with some of the groundnuts dangling from it and these days, we have those famous ones from China, packed in Sibu but I am not all that fond of those as it can get quite messy and for that matter, the same applies to kuaci too. I don’t mind serving these…

…instead and it seems that they now have a new variety – with seaweed.

Personally, I love pistachios…

…not only because they taste good but because they are very auspicious as well. In Mandarin, they call them “happy nuts”/khai sing tao (开心果) because the slightly open shell looks like somebody’s mouth, laughing.

We’re not into the teeny-weeny popiah with either meat floss or sambal hay bee inside but if I am not wrong, they are very popular. These year, my missus made these…

…with seaweed and popiah skin and she also bought some imitation crab sticks which she cut thinly and fried…

I would say both are quite all right but I think I would rather stick to my keropok and acar.

Some people love sotong (cuttlefish) but if your house is air-conditioned, the stench can be quite killing.

I do love bak kua (barbecued meat slices) – here, we can get Loong Kee, not sure if we can get Bee Cheng Hiang anywhere this year. I’ve also seen woe lai yea, now renamed Oloiya (我来也) here before but the last time I had some from their outlet in Kuching, the quality had dropped so badly. So far I’ve not bought any and Chinese New Year is just a week away – I’d probably give it  a miss this year since I am not all that keen on going out.