Kong Hei Fat Choi

A happy Chinese New Year to everyone and welcome to the year of the Rat. I don't think I've been back to Malaysia for CNY in over five years so coming home for all the food and festivities was a special treat. Everyone put in a huge effort towards preparing a feast for the eve so that we'd have enough to cook in our steamboat. Well... everyone else helped out with food... I cataloged their efforts and provided much appreciated criticism on the size of the meat balls and prawns.



Alison playing the part of the diligent daughter-in-law made an inspiring contribution in the kitchen. New cultural experiences included; chopping and smashing sugar cane for the stock, rolling meatballs to exact standards and cutting up pig's intestines. All done with minimal squirming at the thought of handling "gooey bits" which was very impressive.



I think we might have had a little too much to eat at dinner but I guess it only comes round once a year...



After stuffing ourselves silly, Uncle Wing and mum took us out on a little tour of Kajang by night. Most of the local Chinese were getting ready to head to the temples for midnight prayers. The temple behind Wing's electrical store started burning their oversized jos sticks a couple of hours before the new year officially began.



The next day was a pretty cruisy one as we past the time by receiving a few guests and playing uncountable games of mah jong. Now that Alison's picked the game up we might even see if we can find a set to bring back to Brisbane while we're here.