Happy Yuan Xiao Jie (also known as Chap Goh Meh in Hokkien) to everybody who celebrates Chinese New Year!

“Chap Goh” means 15 in the Hokkien dialect and ‘Meh’ means night.  And Chinese New Year is usually celebrated for 15 days ”traditionally” so the night of the fifteenth day marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebration.  It is also the Chinese Valentine’s Day.

All the Chinese radio stations are going to stop broadcasting Chinese New Year related songs and contents.  Shopping malls are also going to remove all their Chinese New Year decorations.  In order to enjoy this festive celebration and its atmosphere again, we will have to wait for the year to come.

Well, here are some of the decorations that we have had the opportunity to get a glimpse of before they all disappear.

This is the year of dragon.  May the dragon brings good health, happiness and prosperity to everyone.

Happy Chinese New Year from Colin and SiewPeng! :D  May the year of dragon brings you great health, happiness and prosperity!

We have taken our picture with the golden dragon at Sunway Pyramid.   The decorations are fantastic.

Unlike previous years we have taken the pictures of the cat statue in Kuching, this year we are enjoying a quiet Chinese New Year in KL and we have just visited some of the largest shopping malls.

Lots of people were taking their pictures with the golden dragon too!

There are effects like smoke.  Take a look at the dragon’s tail closely.  At random times, the smoke comes out from the dragon’s nose.

This is the dragon’s head.  The art work is nice and meticulous.

Opposite the golden dragon is a Chinese pagoda.

This is how the pagoda looks like from the top.

This is a larger view opposite the golden dragon.

There are fire balls hanging down from the center of the roof.

Inside the mall, there is a place for ice skating.  The red lanterns are above the skaters.

Before we left, we took some pictures outside Sunway Pyramid.

The side view of Sphinx.

As we walked further, we found a small roundabout decorated with lanterns, beautiful lights and flowers.

Lots of peach blossoms.

We went to Pavillion at Bukit Bintang earlier this month, and we found a huge dragon there.

Colin, SiewPeng and the huge dragon at Pavillion, KL.

Once we entered the mall, there were children singing Chinese New Year songs on the stage.

Outside Pavillion, Bukit Bintang.

A few days before, we went to The Gardens Mall and found these cylinder lanterns.

Instead of setting up the dragon statue, Midvalley Megamall used paper cutting lanterns, which is really nice and big and I think it is not an easy job to set them up though it seems easier than the dragon statue.  If you look closely, the patterns on the lanterns were cut and pieces of patterns were then stapled together.

And by the way, lantern in Mandarin has the same sound as dragon, which is ‘Loong’.

SiewPeng with the Sphinx statue with red ribbon (decoration for Chinese New Year).

And here we are again.

Wishing everyone all the best in the year of Dragon!

We eat at home more often now.  There aren’t many choices at where we live when it comes to vegetarian food.  Perhaps we haven’t been looking hard enough.  We used to take away economy rice, which is white rice with dishes to choose from and pack into a lunch box but that seems to be difficult to find here.  Most are non-vegetarians.  For lunch or dinner, we have two dishes with white rice.

Sometimes, we have other things like vegetarian sushi.  They are made with vegetarian sausages or soy ‘chicken pieces’.  With some mashed potatoes added in, the sushi taste marvelous!  Lately, a new flavor has been invented, corn kernel salad, which is a good combination for sushi too!

We also use bread as pizza base to make vegetarian pizzas.  Nowadays, they sell readily mixed pizza cheese toppings and it is so easy to use.  Just cut some tomatoes and capsicums, lay them on the bread, spread the cheese on top and put them in the oven.  Within a matter of minutes, you will be served with hot and yummy pizzas!

Well, there you go!  Some of the food that we eat now.  We intend to try more new things and keep you updated soon!

This is one of my favorite food - Vegetarian Nyonya Fried Rice.  I tried it at a vegetarian restaurant near the place where I live now.  The price is quite reasonable, but the portion is too small.  What do you think about its plate presentation?

This is the vegetarian mushroom noodle.  I tried it in a food court in a shopping mall.  Like it, except it is a bit salty.

Most of the time when I had lunch with my colleagues, we went to an Indian restaurant.  It is a new type of food to me, since I have never tried it when I was in Kuching.

The way of eating is special, there is no plate, but we use banana leaves.  We have an option to eat with our hand also, but I have never tried and I am not going to try as well.

After finish eating the banana leave rice, I was told by my colleague that we should fold it to tell that we have finished with it.  There is a way to tell if the food is delicious by the folding direction, but my colleagues are not sure about it, and most people just simply fold it.

Out of all the food I ate in different restaurants, Indian vegetarian food is the cheapest.

Every Friday night, I went to the night market to buy this “Peanut Pancake“.  I like to see the seller cut it into pieces from a big round pancake.  He usually cuts a few horizontal lines and then cut them diagonally again to make them into triangular shape.

There was one time when I was queuing to buy a few pieces for my dinner, I heard someone in front of me told the hawker that he wanted the pieces to be cut out from the border.  Yes, the border is crispier, but also harder to bite.

The smell of peanut makes me mouth watering when they are served hot.

Ice-cream is my dessert after I have my dinner.  I have finished 3 boxes in 2 months.  And this is my favorite flavour - Lava.

I always buy this fruit from the night market as well.  This is called “yacon“.  In Chinese it is called “XueLianGuo“, which means the fruit of icy lotus.  It tastes like pear.  It can be cooked, but I like to eat it raw.

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SiewPeng has come here and I am not living alone anymore.  I have brought SiewPeng to try the vegetarian restaurants I have been to, and bought the same things from the night market.  They are our favorite food now.

I started to cook “again” for myself while I was living alone for the last quarter of 2011.  It was about 8 years ago when I last touched the stove.

I try to make things easy, but it seems not really easy.  The easiest way is to go to a restaurant or a hawker stall to have my meals, but there is not much choice in my area (since I am a vegetarian), and it is neither economically efficient nor healthy.

Therefore, I cooked my own meals “sometimes”.

There was one time I cooked 60% of dried mushroom with 40% of green (it seems like an unusual ratio), because I didn’t buy enough vegetables.

This recipe is given by SiewPeng, and it is very easy to prepare.

I cut the carrots, potatoes and tomatoes into pieces, boil them in water and add some salt, done!  - My favorite soup.

Another meal I like to cook is the porridge.  I do not have to measure how much water I need to add to the rice, and just put all the ingredients into it.

To make life easier, I prefer to use an electronic stove, I am also worried about explosion if I use a gas cylinder.

I also ate some canned food.

I fried hash brown.  I have a few metal bowls, the reflection makes the food seems like duplicated.

These are the ingredients I added into my porridge.

These are the ingredients I used for frying spiral macaroni.

50% of spiral macaroni + 50% of add-on (mixed-vegi, greens and mushroom).

This is tomato version of fried spiral macaroni.

I fried rice twice only after I have got a rice cooker.

Sometimes I used shortcut when I was lazy to prepare food. - Instant Noodle.  However, I don’t like the taste.

This was even easier.

I bought an apron and used it not only when I was cooking, but also when I washed dishes to prevent water splashing onto my clothes.

The tough part of my life has gone because now SiewPeng has joined me for a new living environment.  She prepared the most delicious food for me, and I want to thank her.

Next I will show you the food I ate in restaurants, sometimes with my colleague, sometimes I ate alone, and sometimes I bought it and ate at home.