I’m a tiger…

新年快乐 Xīn nián kuài lè!!! A very Happy & Prosperous Year of the Tiger to one and all.

Yes, we have some oranges on display in the house, the small ponkans…

…that are so very sweet. We have been buying these from the fruit and vegetable sundry shop in the next lane from my house to enjoy long before the festival drew near.

Their round shape and golden colour are considered auspicious, symbolising wealth and good fortune; and they are conveniently-sized for giving and eating. Other than that, the Chinese word for oranges —kam—sounds similar to the word for “gold” so, having these around the home for the New Year is said to bring riches into your life. We did not buy any of the old school Mandarin oranges that came in wooden crates, in fact, I have not seen any this year, nor any of the larger varieties of ang kam (red oranges/Mandarins) or ponkan this year for the simple reason that everyone enjoys these small ones a lot more.

Pomelos and pineapples are auspicious too. According to one website, pomelo in Chinese is called ‘da ji’ which means ‘to have’ so it is like a wish to achieve prosperity. That is why pomelos are held in high esteem as it is believed that this fruit is a symbol of prosperity and good luck. The Hokkiens consider certain fruits auspicious, and they are particularly fond of pineapple, ong lai in the Hokkien dialect, which literally means “fortune come”

No, we did not buy any pomelos nor pineapples for display in the house but I did stop by a bakery among the shops in the commercial area near my house because every year, for many many years now, we have been buying these pineapple nuggets…

…from there. For one thing, there is pineapple jam inside and for another, the golden egg wash makes them look like gold nuggets and that would be considered auspicious as well. Unfortunately, they were all sold out!!! They only had a few tubs of peanut, almond and peppermint cookies left and the girl said they would not be making anymore. When I was there, I saw that they were so very busy cutting and wrapping their kek lapis (layer cake) and putting them in the fridge – it did look to me like those were their best sellers this year but no, I did not bother to buy any, not when I am on a low sugar diet.

In the end, I decided to drop by the bakery in the next lane from my house, the one where they make the most awesome croissants in town, to see what they had there. I was thinking that since they were able to make such nice croissants, their cookies shouldn’t be too shabby.

There was only one tub of these pineapple cheese rolls…

…left so I grabbed it to give to my sis. I also bought her these pineapple nuggets…

…and I took two for ourselves. I’ve opened one already and we’re already halfway through it – I would say it is nicer than the aforementioned, the ones we always bought before. If only they were a bit more generous with the egg wash so the nuggets would be gold in colour all over.

I bought their peanut butter cookies…

…and I gave my sis a tub as well. Gee!!! These are really very nice and as the name implies, I am quite sure they used peanut butter to make them, not just crushed peanut. My girl prefers these to the pineapple ones.

Incidentally, the other day, she asked the mum to cook the sotong (squid) that I bought…

…when I managed to buy those gorgeous crabs that day and nasi lemak (coconut rice) to go with the dish.

For some reason, the mum did not use the sotong to cook the nasi lemak sambal and came out with some other recipe instead. Thankfully, it was very nice and anyway, I still had the sambal tumis…

…so we could enjoy that with the rice with some cucumber…

…by the side.

That was on our no-meat Friday last week. As for what we had for our Chinese New Year’s Eve Reunion Dinner yesterday evening, my girl’s good friend, Dayang (a teacher like her but in another school) dropped by yesterday afternoon to give us the ayam masak merah (red-cooked chicken)…

…that she cooked herself. I remember we had that when we visited her one Hari Raya before the outbreak of the pandemic and it was so very nice so we had this for our dinner in the evening.

She also gave these green tea mini puffs…

…and charcoal kuih kapit/sepit (love letters)…

…both of which are very nice, not really sweet, plus the latter is very lemak, the way I like it, thank you so very much to her.

My brother-in-law also came by to give us the daging masak hitam (black-cooked beef)…

…that his friend in the kampung cooked and gave to him. He liked it so much that he insisted on sharing a bit of it with us for our reunion dinner, thank you so much to him too!

As for the rest that we had and during these few days throughout the festival, you will have to wait awhile. In the meantime, here’s wishing everybody once again, Gong Xi Fa Cai (恭喜发财/wishing you happiness) ! Wan Shi Ru Yi (万事如意/good luck in everything)! May God bless all of us abundantly throughout the coming year! Cheers!!!