Golden Tiger Reunion Dinner

Was in Sitiawan for CNY and boy, was the weather hot hot hot.
I could sweat even while sitting under the fan in Grandma's house.
We were the first to arrive in Sitiawan and soon the whole family started to trickle in one by one till the house was full.


Somehow, the spirit of CNY only comes alive when everyone is squeezed into the house together while cookies and conversations flying in all directions!
It's the havoc of having little cousins running here and there...adults catching up on gossips... that somehow makes me appreciate having such a large family.
Various personalities all thrown together for a few days means many funny moments and drama =P
Okay lar...the havoc and craziness is great for a few days only.
I like my home to be peaceful and quiet.


The 1st visitor caused lots of excitement in Grandma's house....

Uncle John brought home a large roast piggy!!!

It's super yummilicious as the tasty meat is still warm and juicy with crunchy golden brown skin *drool*

Poor piggy got chopped up...

As usual, the hype of CNY is the reunion dinner and everyone dressed up even in little Sitiawan.

Yeah...it boggles the mind but I dressed up too =P

Reunion dinner was at Bei King Restaurant's new building. Bei King is famous as they serve the best Foochow food in Sitiawan. We've been to many restaurants in the past but I still like Bei King the best =)

From the deco...most likely this place would be hosting lots of wedding banquets in the future.

The hall was very spacious and everything is new with good ventilation. I reckon it could accommodate more than 100 tables.

Sat at table No. 25. In the past, they would put our family name on the table cards and now that got replaced by a number =(

Before anything else, Melaine wanted to camwhore =P

I'm wearing my RM30+ dress...I know it's black okay...that's why I had my red spaghetti top on as well =)

There's this very peculiar habits of Sitiawanites...whenever there's a dinner banquet be it wedding, birthday etc...you'll find plastic bags on the table. That's for you to tapau(take away) the leftovers. It's a common practice, so no need to feel shy =P

Clockwise : Me, Melaine, Sarah, Ann & Hannah

1st dish of the night...lou sang

Royal Salute 21 years old =)

Four season dish which looks kinda bland and unappetizing.

Surprisingly...it tasted pretty good thanks to the amount of yummy seafood used to prepare the dish. There's scallops, sea cucumber, sea asparagus, clams, fish and fatt choy (the black stringy moss)

Shark's fin soup topped with dried scallops.

I like the light texture of the soup as it's not starchy. Just wished that they didn't put sliced ham into the soup...it just doesn't go well together with the shark's fin.

With 2 brothers as my bodyguard...

Edwin - he's only 14 and so much taller than me!!!(btw...I'm wearing 4 inches heels), Me, Nic and Cheng Yan who is only 11 years old. Wonder what my aunts are feeding these boys =P

Edwin was kinda shy to take pic with all his pretty cousins ;P

I'm the oldest among all the cousins in the pic...

Braised pork and chicken with man tau

Cod fish steamed and fried. Gone in 5 mins. It was that yummy.

A signature Foochow dish. Fish maw in sweet and sour soup. It was a little spicy but I loved it. The soup was thick enough and the fish maw has a nice bite to it.

Braised mushrooms...

Fried prawns and soft shell crabs with salad on the side.

Desserts were longan with mango pudding and some pink kuih

These signs got people to stop in their tracks and looking baffled. When I first noticed the "pipe" and "shoes", I actually thought they had a smoking room and a shoe closet (no idea why I thought that people needed a place to store their shoes when they go for dinner in this place). In case you're still wondering...it's Male(pipe) and Female(shoes) signs for the washroom. Guess Sitiawanites are kinda creative when it comes to things like this.

Our family needed 4 table for the reunion dinner and that's without everyone in the family present.

Eric's in Macau, cousin Melissa is in Russia, aunt Belinda's family is in the USA and aunt Helena's family couldn't join in our non-Halal dinner.

We miss all of them...how I wish everyone could be there together.

Anyways, in our family, angpows are given out right after dinner when everybody gathers in Grandma's house.

Grandma will start the ball rolling and soon it gets a little chaotic as we go around hunting for my little(who were playing fire crackers) and not-so-little(you know who you are =P) cousins to give them their angpows.

I received a few angpows myself...Eric too =)

How fast the year goes by and how fast my cousins grow up.

If only time could slow down a little...I feel like I'm getting old really fast too!

Here's wishing everyone had a joyous and memorable reunion dinner with family and friends.

Gong Xi...Gong Xi!!!