I too have wondered where those extra cans of foods, mountain loads of oranges, hills of cookies and cakes and piles of meats go to? Well, one doesn’t need to wonder because they got flushed down the toilets, right?

But Chinese New Year celebrations is not complete without pigging out on foods. Loads of them. The best foods are those seasonal ones which are imported from China. Things like Mandarin oranges which will give us toilet run, waxed meats and air dried meats which will give us cancer later in life and dried seafoods like sea cucumber, oysters, scallops, sharksfin…..which will also give us cancer. Hahaha. Who cares, eat first, die later.

(red sausage is regular Chinese sausage, dark coloured is liver sausage and the two types of waxed ducks, are the duck breast which is sweet and the duck drumstick which is salty)

Now is the best time to enjoy the Chinese sausages and waxed ducks because they have just arrived from China and hence, still fresh. I normally buy them the moment they arrived at my favourite Cantonese dried seafoods shop, Kwong Tuck in Campbell Street. (or is it Cintra Street?)

I love steaming those dried sausages and waxed ducks or just throw them into my rice while cooking. There are two types of waxed ducks. The duck breasts are sweet flavoured meats while the duck drumsticks are very salty meats.

Normally, I make lap mei fun or waxed duck rice by putting in liver sausages, normal Chinese sausages, both types of ducks, dried shitake mushrooms and some garlic. Colour the rice with a bit of dark soya sauce and you get a heavenly pot of rice.

Whenever I organise Chinese New Year meals for the in-laws (which have about 30-40 people), I will cook a few pots of this rice and it will keep them happy and talking about my rice until the following years.

Normally, I store the waxed ducks and sausages in the lower drawer in the fridge to avoid the meats turning rancid in our hot and humid weather. Of course, if you live in China where it is minus zero and dry, you can hang them around your house. However in Malaysia, it is safer to keep them in the fridge.

I also like to buy these early because they are normally snapped up fast and you cannot get anymore stocks nearer to Chinese New Year. Heh, typical kiasu China woman, I am.

It is the time when some Chinese believe that the souls from the netherworld are let out of their underground world and allowed to roam on earth. That’s why you will see a lot of stage shows or Chinese Opera like the above around the neighbourhood. The opera is to appease these wandering, hungry, souls who are on their annual ‘pilgrimage’ to earth.

People will try to ‘offer foods’ to these hungry ghosts by praying. These foodstuffs will then be donated to the poor.

Did you see a whole roasted pig being offered?

Seen here, is the paper figurine of god of hades and his helpers. These ‘gods’ have pretty scary faces like having bull horns, danging long tongue, huge eyes and etc. Their ‘job’ is to watch over these ghosts to prevent the ghosts from disturbing the humans.

Having said that, some people did go into trance when they are around these praying ‘stations’. One of my neighbour, a Chinese elderly man went into trance one day and he could speak Tamil, a subject foreign to him.

So, whether you believe or not in the hungry ghosts, remember to be ‘polite’ during the whole month because you never know….

Ching Ming festival is basically the clearing of our ancestors’ graves. Ching Ming can be carried out 10 days earlier from 4th April and 10 days after 4th April. That means we have 20 days to go to the tomb to clear it.

Colourful papers are placed on the cleaned grave and Taoists offer foods and paper offerings. My second brother-in-law seems to strike lucky number each year and he will sponsor a roasted pig. That’s how I ended up with so many slices of roasted pork at home now.

I didn’t join the Ching Ming festival this year because my children were either in school or the young one sleeping. They usually go very early in the morning.

Now, my problem is to boil that pig’s head and make ‘choy keok’ with them. I will probably cook the pig’s head and feet over this weekend.

Happy Ching Ming festival! I have some personal rants on Ching Ming festival on my personal blog as well, in case you are interested to learn about the prayers.

Why do you think I get all tensed over this? Because they need to find a schedule that fits four of them and their own in-laws. Arrggh…why can’t my hubby and his eldest brother just set a date and tell them, “come” or not.

It is usually a grand event where they will bring a whole roasted pig up to the hill where my father in law and mother in law grave is. Then, they will chop the pig after being offered for prayers and each will get a share.

As you can see above, there are lots of things to be bought and brought up to the hill. That’s when they assign who to buy what and etc. Me? I am now a Catholic and I don’t participate in the papers offerings, foods offerings but I do burn a joss-stick as an honour to my parents-in-law. But I have to make it loud and clear to my children (within the hearing distance of my inlaws) that we are NOT praying. Still, I do get tensed when the inlaws start to tell my little boy to ‘pray to grandma’.

I wish people can understand the dilemma I face each Ching Ming.

Yeah, Guiness Stout for the deceased parents.

I don’t think I will have much time to post over here as I just discovered that my inlaws actually expect me to bring foods for their gathering. *sweats* I had told them earlier that I won’t be doing much because my hubby works even on New Year’s eve and I do not want the hassle of fighting with the crowds to buy all the foodstuffs all by myself. I thought they are doing a pot luck party as one of them is having a housewarming. But oh no….my eldest sister-in-law said they thought I am going to get the foods enough for 40 pax. Whatever happened to communication.

Yeah…they will get to eat alright. Vegetable dishes and sausage rice (to feed my own kids). Maybe I will need to throw in some farfalle vongole aka butterfly shape pasta fried with chili lala in cans.

I don’t know to be proud that they think I am so dependable or be pissed that they think I am doormat superwoman. Never mind, Chinese New Year is only once a year and it was my late mother-in-law who bequeath the ‘authority’ of family gatherings to my hubby who is her youngest son. So, let me see what I can dished up for 40 pax with brocolli, carrots, cauliflower, capsicums and some waxed ducks and sausages.

It will be an adventurous Chinese New Year, just like some celebrity chef – reality show to me. Oh ya, did I tell you that I have no plans on what to prepare for the reunion dinner too? Which is officially today! Never mind, for that I have enough pomfrets (tau tay fish) and large prawns in the freezer to pig out on.

Let me wish all readers and faithful subscriber of Food Haven :

KEONG HEE HUAT CHYE ( hokkien dialect)
GUNG HEI FATT CHOY (cantonese)
GONG XI FA CAI (mandarin)