Family reunions and festive feasting

“There are 15 days of Chinese New Year, so does this mean 15 days of feasting too?” I wondered while I was planning meals with our guests this festive season.

Mum with her children, grandchildren and great-grand kids.
Even baby Audrey got into the craziness in this silly shot!

In any community, food is an essential part of celebrations and for Chinese New Year, traditional Chinese will indulge in feasting on auspicious food to usher in good fortune for the year ahead.

Feasting traditionally begins with the reunion dinner when family members come together for a festive feast on the eve of Chinese New Year.

Many enjoy the tradition of preparing a wide array of ingredients to cook and eat in a steamboat meal while many modern families may opt to enjoy their reunion meal in a restaurant.

Following this popular trend, restaurants have prepared festive menus that start with a prosperity toss of Yee Sang or Raw Fish salad followed by dishes created with high-value, quality ingredients in superior soup, whole fish, poultry, meat and vegetables.

Generous chunks of fresh salmon to top our
own-made Yee Sang tossed at Mampir Lagi

To accommodate this demand, restaurants offer two dining sessions for reunion dinners, with the first starting as early as 5.30pm and the second session at 8pm.

As “non-traditional” Chinese, our family always opted for something extraordinary to enjoy for our reunion dinners.

For a start, my mum did not have parents-in-law, so she never had the obligation to go to her father-in-law’s house to be a dutiful daughter-in-law.

This is because traditionally, the reunion celebration would be held in the home of the family patriarch.

I remember joining my cousins, uncles and aunts for a huge gathering at grandfather or Ah Kong’s house at No. 154 Jalan Ngee Heng.

Ready for our Yee Sang toss at Mampir Lagi

This was my earliest experience of such a family reunion with large-scale cooking for a family who would feast on grandmother’s specialty dishes, especially her tender Teochew braised duck!

In the kitchen, grandma’s dutiful daughters-in-law would be helping her, the chief cook, to chop or peel ingredients that would go into the delicious soup and dishes.

I must emphasize that Chinese New Year is a serious time of feasting for families especially for folks whose forefathers arrived here with very little and had carved out a living from very humble beginnings.

In olden days, working-class Chinese lived humbly throughout the year and Chinese New Year was the only time of year to have a taste of real meat.

Teochew braised duck prepared in
grandmother's recipe by Aunty Polly

I remember stories told about how boys were favoured over girls and that mothers would set aside the fleshy chicken thigh for her son/s while the daughters had to settle for bony bits of the chicken.

Thankfully, this mindset had changed and there is now a sense of equality and balance in treatment towards sons and their high-achieving daughters.

Meanwhile I’m pleased that mum and her sisters not only inherited grandma’s recipes but have also mastered the art of preparing her famous Teochew braised duck and warm Cantonese egg pudding!

[I knew that these two specialties would somehow surface during Chinese New Year when family members from near and far would enjoy a taste – and I was right!]

Chinese New Year 2020 coincided with the birthday of eldest uncle who is advancing with age – he said he’s 91 – so many journeyed from UK, Sydney, Perth and Kuala Lumpur, to enjoy a double-celebration with him at his home in Kota Tinggi on the first day of Chinese New Year.

Family reunion dinner at
Sisters Barbecue Korean Family Restaurant

But before the dawn of the New Year, family members arrived in Johor Baru – family by family – and the feasting started from our humble home with a home-cooked meal that my nephew, his wife and young family (from Perth) had the privilege to enjoy.

Weeks ago, my nephew Brendon, who’s also based in Perth for studies, had a FaceTime chat with my mum (his grandmother) and told her that he would be back for Chinese New Year.

Among other things, he told his grandmother that he longed for a taste of her special bitter-gourd soup!

It was so funny because traditional Chinese would never consider bitter-gourd as part of their festive menu. But as we are “non-traditional,” my nephew had his fill of grandmother’s bitter-gourd soup with his home-cooked dinner!

On the day before Chinese New Year eve, dinner was arranged for more than 20 people in our extended family that included the parents-in-law of my two nephews plus a brother-in-law who had returned from Belfast.

All smiles for a delightful dessert of fresh durian!

This feast was hosted in Mampir Lagi, a café that serves Indonesian cuisine, prepared by master chef and proprietor, Henny Lumintang, a native of Lombok Island.

Henny was so kind to accommodate our request to Bring-Our-Own ingredients (platter and chopsticks too!) for a toss of refreshing Yee Sang or Raw Fish salad before enjoying the flavours of her tasty Indonesian dishes.

It was an unusual combination of food especially when my sister-in-law arranged for a generous portion of fresh salmon topping on the Raw Fish salad!

The next day was Chinese New Year eve and for the reunion, dinner was arranged at Sisters Barbecue Korean Family Restaurant in Bukit Indah for Korean cuisine.

Chinese New Year 2020 coincided with
Uncle Roland's birthday for a double celebration

This was indeed a special reunion for us because our group increased by another three – Aunty Polly, her husband and daughter (Wimbledon) – who had arrived from KL by road.

After a leisurely meal with countless refills of tasty kimchi, I overheard the buzz whispered way down the long table and learnt about the impromptu decision to meet back home for dessert.

Then I was given the pleasant task to drive the seniors home to await the delivery of our dessert of fresh durian!

Then our reunion dinner continued with a deeply desired feast for the fans of bitter or sweet tasting durian, getting their fill of this unique King of Fruits.

Our Chinese New Year Day kicked off with well-wishing each other as the elders and married women presented Red Packets or lai-see filled with fortune money while the children and single adults, happily received.

Then we had another Yee Sang toss at home accompanied by a meal of – wait for it – thawed-out-frozen Kway Chap.

Chinese New Year dinner at Village Briyani Cafe

My brother and his wife had thoughtfully bought this in advance and stored it in deep-freeze so that relatives who lived abroad and who longed for a taste of this Teochew specialty in JB, could savour it as a special treat!

With a hobby in photography, my nephew’s wife came armed with her clever camera and organized us for a photography session – family by family – to capture photo mementoes, both formal and silly shots!

Later for lunch, everyone converged at the home of Uncle Roland, including his daughter (Sweden), Aunty Nellie (Melbourne) and Aunty Sylvia, her husband and son along with Aunty Polly’s younger daughter (Sydney), four who drove directly to Kota Tinggi from KL that day.

Lunch at Fika Farmhouse in Horizon Hills

Uncle was clearly overwhelmed with emotion when he was presented with two birthday cakes, one from me and the other from his grandson, and we sang “Happy Birthday” to him in three languages – English, Mandarin and Malay – while his daughter and husband sang their Swedish version of Happy Birthday!

For dinner on the first day of Chinese New Year, our family feasting continued in JB with North Indian cuisine at Village Briyani Café.

By this time, our group had increased by another four people and our table was extended a little longer to accommodate this large group.

And just as we did in previous group meals, those who had eaten their fill, moved up and down the long table to chit-chat and snap photos with each other.

Warm Cantonese egg pudding
made by Aunty Sylvia 

As I licked my fingers, I thought it was simply bizarre to enjoy a delightful dinner of Briyani rice, Roti and Naan with a selection of tasty gravies for Chinese New Year!

In the next two days, there was more family feasting held in homes and in favourite restaurants like Fika Farmhouse at Horizon Hills for Iberico pork ribs and for meaty crabs at Tian Lai Restaurant in Gelang Patah.

Even as I write, most of the family members who joined our reunion, have left JB for the next leg of festive visits in KL.

From the photos shared, I saw that they also feasted on homemade braised duck in grandma’s recipe and freshly made egg pudding with a dash of brandy.

Meanwhile some have returned to Australia or will be boarding their flight in a few hours’ time to head back to the UK.

It was so good to welcome all of you back to JB and to make more memories together.

I think we can aptly describe it as an epic reunion, don’t you?