Saturday, February 19, 2011

Chap Goh Meh 元宵节

17th February was the 15th day of lunar new year and the last day of Chinese New Year (CNY) (元宵节) or "Chap Goh Meh" (Hokkien dialect) which was also known as "Lantern Festival" and Chinese Valentine's day in the Southeast Asia.

On this day, Chinese in Malaysia celebrate with match making events where groups of unmarried ladies throw tangerines into the sea or river with their contact numbers written on them while groups of bachelors wait to pick up these tangerines and the contact number to begin a romantic relationship. You may ask why throw tangerines? This is because tangerines in Hokkien dialect has the homophone of husband, so the hope of finding a husband. J

Tangerines
I celebrated this day by inviting my cooking members over to my house for pot-luck lunch sharing. Thanks to Ellen who shared her catches of snappers and Kahawai fish, we had a great seafood lunch sharing.

I used the snappers for Assam Fish curry cooked with eCosway Assam paste brought over by Jenny. The paste tasted pretty good not too hot, my cooking members from Mainland China and Hong Kong liked it very much.


Assam Snappers

Snappers, eggplants and tomatoes
As for the big Kahawai fish, Ellen handed it over to nearby Chinese restaurant to make sweet and sour Fish.

Ellen's takeaway - Sweet & sour fish

Chap Goh Lunch Sharing - 17/02/2011
Vera's Coconut buns - 椰丝包
Jenny Yip's fruit cake - Birthday cake for Florence and Jenny



6 comments:

  1. Happy Belated Chinese New Year to you & your family! It has been a hectic season. It was exhausting after all those travelling, cooking & cleaning. Finally, it's time to visit some blogger friends now. Great that you're celebrating it too. At least, there's a little 'hei fun' even without the 'dong dong chiang' music. haha.... Btw, what a great catch of the day. Did your friend went out to the sea for fishing or just by the seaside? Lucky you, I'll have to say! haha... Hope you're enjoying the weekend.
    Blessings, Kristy

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  2. Nice dishes! Thks for sharing the M'sian customs, which I never knew :)

    I agree with Kristy, it has been a hectic period for us Chinese. I've been cooking a lot too. Happy belated CNY!

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  3. I lllooovveee this cap goh meh.. We usually call it 'lontong cap go meh' because we eat it with rice cake (lontong)... I miss these all foods Yin! You make me suffer with your post... :(
    hehehehee...

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  4. Yin - your recipes always look so tasty! I had to tell all my friends on facebook about your blog so they can cook some authentic Chinese food! :)

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  5. My goodness this is quite the new years spread!!! If you ever want to celebrate the new year with me...you are more than welcome to :) haha Happy New Year to you!

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  6. There is only one thing better than shopping in Hong Kong, and that's eating. From small noodle joints to upscale French restaurant, you will locate all sorts of restaurant, eating hall and snack stall on earth in Hong Kong. Here I found small amount of Hong-Kong-styled snacks online (yummiexpress.freetzi.com). This is definitely a good choice before I have $ for another trip.

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