Talking about the reunion dinner reminds me of that advert of the orphaned boy forced to draw about his reunion dinner in his Arts class. The boy couldn’t draw maybe because he doesn’t know what’s a reunion dinner. (Though I’m sure he could have from some form of imagination).
Reunion dinners for the Chinese during Chinese New Year is probably the most important part of the whole celebration. It is a time when family members that may be living abroad and those that are near get together for a sit down dinner on Chinese New Year Eve. The dinner usually consists of the most lavish food, prawns, fish, meat, shark’s fin and the like.
For many years now, we’ve celebrated our reunion dinner in the restaurant instead of at home. This saves my mum some time and energy from having to cook and prepare all the food. This year, I am still celebrating the reunion dinner at my own hometown, although traditionally I should go back to my in-laws. Well, we will be doing that next year and taking turns each year since we live 6 hours away. So the family was complete save for my 2nd sister, Gabby who’s in confinement.
We went to this Seafood restaurant in Pending, run by this guy called Ah Thung.
My mum cooked one dish of her own, Kampung (village) chicken with Shark’s fin.
Remaining dishes are cooked by the restaurant. We had Tomato Kueh Tiaw, fried in tomato sauce, with cuttle fish, chicken, vege and prawns. You can’t find this anywhere in the world! It’s one of my favourite dishes and definitely something I looked forward to in Kuching.
The next dish was the Pork Leg. Not something I was crazy about, coz it’s really fat. It’s usually eaten with a steamed bun, but we didn’t order, since it was too filling and full of carbs.
We also had Paku Midin, a local wild plant. You can pluck these off the forests along some roads. Can’t get these over in West Malaysia either. It is best cooked with Belacan (local prawn paste) or just mildly fried in rice wine.
The fish was definitely the main dish. Chinese people believe you must have fish at the Reunion dinner. My mum brought this fish from home, I think this cost over RM70 alone.
Of course, another favourite dish is fried crabs! We usually like it fried with egg.
We were so full!
Yeah, I know which ad you’re referring to. Petronas always comes out with great ads during festive seasons. This CNY one with the orphan kid sure got me wetting my eyes towards the end.. Haha..So kesian.. Oh btw, such a sumptuous meal!! Hehe.. :p