Inflation spikes for Chinese New Year

Sorry for being away for a week... It is MAD RUSH HOURS here to get groceries in before the Chinese New Year starts in less than a week time... Because the first 3 days of CNY most shops in my neighbourhood are closed for this Major holidays as 70% are Chinese in my country. Some shops can even close up to 15 days as part of the traditions. So we better stock up food just in case.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have a traditional to meet all the family members for a reunion meal pre CNY, usually on the EVE... but most of us preferred to do it over the last weekend before CNY. I joined my Chinese Hubby for his family's reunion on last Friday night. We went out to a cheaper Stir Fry stall but even the Chinese menu for a family of 6 that night costs almost $300SGD (and we have 8 adults for that night!!!). Worse was all the portion sizes shrink half as compared to last few years! It's the inflation again!

They only serve half a chicken for the Herbal Chicken soup... and cheap frozen small steamed seabass... while the rest of the food were either steamed or simple stir fry due to the request of my Hubby's elder Brother who is very health conscious... the other dishes were Fish maw soup... a plate of 6 tiny scallops with 8 finger size brocoli and two miserable Chinese mushrooms... then a dessert of canned sea coconut with logans fruits in ice. All these with white rice if we requested, but I didn't ask as I don't feel like eating seeing how little the amount of food were available. Even the salmon slices in the YUSHENG dish were so thin that we can see the light through the filmsy pieces!!!

Well, at the end of the meal... the other family members (including the Brother's 16 years old son and his mother) were still hungry and ordered from the other food stalls. Anyway since the Eldest Brother is the one footing the bill as part of the Chinese traditions, we have no comments on what he ordered. His son soon ordered a whole steak from the western food stall while his wife ordered extra noodles with dumpling soup from the other stall as well.

As for Hubby and me, we left after Hubby's Dad and the maid had to leave as she forgotten to put adult diapers for the Dad and he wants to go to the loo. Since our appointed private ride medical van has also arrived to fetch us home, I'm okay with not feeling full for the night. Because the next day, I have another reunion meal on Saturday afternoon with my Elder Sis plus my Hubby in our home and since I am the one who's planning our menu, I will make sure we have more than enough.

I made my own version of DELUXE Yusheng with assorted sashmi (a dish symbolizing for Prosperity in our culture). Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but since "fish" (魚) is commonly conflated with its homophone "abundance" (餘), Yúshēng (魚生) is interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng (餘升), meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor.

Then I made Treasure Pot aka 'Poon choi' which is easier to assemble. It is a traditional Cantonese festival meal composed of many layers of different ingredients. It is served in large wooden, porcelain or metal basins called poon, due to the communal style of consumption. The Chinese name, transliterated as Poon choi, has been variously translated as "big bowl feast", "basin cuisine" or "Chinese casserole". But I choose to use a simple steamboat pot as I can warm it up whenever we want to eat the leftovers again later. In fact, there were enough to last till today/Sunday to eat with our rice too.

Oh boy, am I glad to finally have a bit of time to rest today after another communityCNY visit from my zone this afternoon after our church service. Thus, only now I have some time to log into my blog land to catch up. The past week I was quite burdened with my tenancy issues as the China workers tried to test my patience. That will be in another blog post later, with updates on my freelance works too.

Anyway, back to food. What do you think of the two CNY dishes I made? I spent less than half of what my Brother in law paid for their family's reunion meal.