Anno Draco 0: A Dragon's Appetite!

Food Coloring, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Even before we went for the Hong Kong trip, my mum was already fussing about the fact that she would have soooo little time to prepare for Chinese New Year. Knowing my mother's penchant for 'anxiety attacks' and 'indecisiveness' when trying to get things done, SK helped a lot by buying her the necessary groceries like fish and prawns. When SK needs to buy anything she walks into a market and exits ten minutes later with tonnes of stuff. My mother on the other hand, takes ages and comes out with nothing of significance. And later complains later that she needs to go out grocery shopping again. She seems to delight in the hassle of making multiple trips. And regarding spring cleaning, I knew my mum would go ballistic, so I secretly arranged an Indonesian maid to come over and do the major stuff like scrubbing the toilets, cleaning the windows, washing the fans and cleaning the porch. Gave SK the keys and she supervisored the whole effort and even helped out. I sure as hell did not want to come home from my trip and have to do a whole lot of cleaning. MYR50 is a small sum to pay for some peace of mind. Not surprisingly, my mother still insisted on doing some duplicate cleaning because she just can't register the fact that she need not do any cleaning. :S. Stress. Stress.







And so, on CNY eve, still did some last minute shopping after our breakfast. This year, SK joined us for dinner, so she also cooked a couple of dishes. As expected,mum prepared her favourite dishes-- lotus root soup (with lotus root that was lugged back from HK! Not much difference la... :P), blanched free-range chicken, salad (bell peppers, pomegranates, rocket, cherry tomatoes with lemon-EVOO dressing), braised duck, steamed pomfret, fried beancurd skin and fishcakes and drunken prawns (with Johnie Walker!). On SK's side, she whipped up a bowl of tasty sambal prawns (would go perfectly with nasi lemak) and stewed sea cucumber with pork belly (scallops and dried oysters too!). We were so full... Luckily I had mopped the floor and washed the car before dinner, else I would have been too lazy to move. CNY begins!