One Malaysia Wedding

I attended one of my highschool mate's wedding over the weekend... It was truly an extremely interesting one.... Firstly Eve is a Christian indian so she had her ceremony at the church which I unfortunately didnt get to attend.. So I attended the dinner at nite not knowing what to expect... Invitation says HGH Convention Centre so there I went...

I was first greeted by throngs of people all beautifully dressed in Sarees of all colours... Some were truly breathtaking... Lo behold right outside the hall was the registration table... how odd huh? Normal indian wedding you just go in... this was where things started to get really interesting... I signed myself in...got my assigned table.. No 56... went through the door and Oh My God!!! 95 tables in total...

Was the first to my table, sat down and picked the menu up... hmm... what for dinner? Mutton curry perhaps.... Imagine what I saw....

A full 9 course chinese dinner complete with sharkfin soup and ending with chinese pastries... whadayaknow... haha!! Chinese food at an indian wedding and that was when I noticed chopsticks being laid instead of fork and spoon... hmmm... :D

Then there was these little cups of something alchoholic... wasnt too sure what it was for but I soon found out... :) But before that finally the rest of my gang appeared and we went on a picture taking frenzy....
Soon the announcement came for the bride and groom to enter and before the door opened we had the shock of our lives... There was fireworks being lit within the hall and it was flying our way!!! OMG!!! it flew right above our heads and hit the wall.. yikes!! Then the music started playing... We had Black Eye Peas with 'I got a feeling' playing as the couple walk in... interesting huh? The best has yet to come... After a brief intro the emcees for the nite welcomed dinner into the hall and dinner came with this!!!! Look for yourself... Our very own fire show....hahaha!!

Somewhere between the 4th and 5th course of the meal we were told to welcome the bride on the stage for the cake cutting and champagne pouring... That was normal... what came after was not... We had a yam seng session.... haha!! Now that is what those little cups were for... It's the wine to toast... :D

To top it all off we had a Philipino band playing throughout the whole nite... This is definitely the most eclectic wedding I have ever attended... It truly is One Malaysia....

Oh I almost forgot... we had a photo montage of their childhood photos all the way to adulthood... It was the coolest I have ever seen... It was like an Ipod advertisement... Coolies... :D

Well, that's the story of the wedding... I do wish Evelyn and Lionel all the best in their marriage... May it be filled with love and laughter always....

My God-awful trip to Penang...

It's Saturday 19th September 2009.... It's a day before Raya.... I had to wake up at 0630hrs to send my sis to the airport then head to elaine's house to pick her up for our drive up to Penang.... For what? to attend a wedding...

So I arrived at Elaine's house at 0840hrs and we headed off... traffic was quite decent... just many cars on the road but overall quite smooth... as we passed Tg Malim we decided to turn in for some breakfast... it was about 0930hrs.... We had the all famous curry pao thanks to the trusty navigation... :) We had toast Kahwin as well with ample butter... yum!!!
and it was downhill after this.... the freeway/highway came to a standstill... yes I mean a standstill... we were crawling between 20-30 km/hr for the longest of time... the highway had some weird split which I didnt know about so we were unable to turn into Ipoh.... uurrghh... and it was already 1330.... so no lunch for us.... why oh why!! Why did I agree to attend this wedding... can you imagine... it took us almost 4 hours to arrive in Ipoh from Tg Malim... this is insane... it is probably 100++ km only....

We finally arrived in Penang at 1630hrs... after almost 8 hours of drive which usually only takes 3.5hrs.... aarrrghhh!!!!! so we had lunch at 1700hrs.... Char Kuey Teow.... elaine enjoyed it but I thot it was kinda normal... oh well....

Took a nice picture the next day heading out of Penang towards Prai for the luncheon wedding... I am sometimes amazed at my gungho-ness when it comes to frens... I keep asking Elaine why are we doing this... and she answers... "you wanted to wan ma..." so nice of her hor.... Along the journey we planned our revenge... if Elaine ever gets married she is to get married in Terengganu during Raya... better still on Lang Tengah island and make sure that Ah Hean (whose wedding we were attending) travels all the way to attend... if you know your Malaysian map well you will know that even by car on a normal traffic day it takes 10 hours to reach terengganu from Penang... muahahaha!! Imagine Hari Raya..... *gives a sly snigger*

Never ever am I doing this again..... If I ever do... give me 2 slaps on the face....

Alter ego...

Yesterday I made my mooncake's alter ego.... the snowskin... Looks quite successful huh? :D

Mooncake - The Journey

I have always believed that there are a few chinese traditions which should be kept and passed on from generation to generation so that we never forget such tradition.... There is 3 in particular which I have always wanted to learn..

1. Bak Chang (chinese dumplings)

2. Mooncake

3. Lin Kou

Well I have done the first a number of times and this year I felt extra hardworking so I attempted the second one... So here is my journey...

I was highly ambitious so I tried both lotus paste filling and red bean paste filling... fuiyoh!! talk about an ambitious first time!! :D

First you start of with the beans... Red bean is pretty easy... You got the beans... cook them til soft... blend them... sieve them... cook them for an hour and a half...

Tadaa!!! all done.... still took about 5 hours as a whole though....

Next up... the lotus paste... now this one is kinda a toughie.... first you need to remove the pith from the 'lin chi' (lotus seeds) so that you dont get the bitterness of it... Then you boil it to soften the shell....

Then you soak it and piece by piece remove the shell... Fuh!! This was back breaking work.. took me 3 hours to remove all the skin....

Clean babies.... they then go into the pot.. cook til soft... blend then sieve... then cook for about an hour and a half again....

Waalah!!! the paste is at last ready.... I slept at 2am to finish this... haiz.... the things I do for tradition.....

Next morning it's rise and shine.... time to make the outer skin... after again having a mixture left over nite now I gotta mix the flour in til I get a dough consistency...

Shape the fillings into little balls...

I am ready to make wrap the filling in my mooncake skin.... The mould is nice and oiled... ready for some stamping... luckily I have the modern contraption and not the traditional wooden knock knock wan... that is only for elaine's fishies...

The raw mooncakes ready for the oven... looks authentic huh? Me so proud of meself... hehe!!!

Made a little piggy for fun.... cute huh?

Final step... into the oven it goes.... Oops... kinda over browned some bits... couldnt estimate the temperature of the oven..thank god nothing got burnt....

Check it out!!! looks good huh?

The inside view....

Well I hope it taste as good or even better than the ones bought... hehe!! For those who got a chance to try... please leave your comments... :D