happy birthday mum!

Last weekend, I had family over to celebrate mum's birthday. My aunt took charge and organised for each family to supply a component of the night's meal. As is the tradition in my family, everyone ends up buying enough food to feed everyone else. So a bbq that was meant to be for 15 ended up being a bbq for about 60. It was all good fun though and everyone left home with enough food for the next couple of dinners.

To start the night off, my aunt brought over these Korean puffs that she made. It's a puff/bread crossover and tastes like the fried glutinous rice balls you have at yum cha except without the filling. Apparently you buy it as a batter from the Korean stores and it doesn't take long to cook. I chomped away on quite a few of these whilst waiting for the bbq to start up.

These look like pebbles but they're actually chocolate coated apricots. I wasn't a big fan - they were sweet and unfortunately, I couldn't quite get over the fact that I was eating what looked like a rock.

The highlight of the night had to be this wagyu. Mum bought it for about $40/kg (not your highest grade wagyu) but a bite of this, I don't think I can actually go back to eating any other beef. The texture was so soft and so juicy that it just melts in your mouth. If you can, try have this medium rare/rare - it's the best! Anyway, these were cooked on the big bbq - had two bbqs running on the night.

We're all growing up! It's now our job to start up the BBQ.

Here's a snapshot of half the food.

The other half.

Behind the wagyu, this was my second favourite - tandoori chicken wings! Anyway, did my best to squeeze as many chicken wings onto this as possible. If you've never done bbqs HK style with the forks, chicken is one of the longest items to cook.

Chicken wings - nearly done. We had a good fire that night and it was actually nice to sit around the fire and keep warm.

I find I can't actually eat all that much these days. I don't think I even got to half the food that was on the table! Despite my initial reservations about sitting outside in the cold, a bbq actually ended being a quite nice idea. It was nice and toasty to sit around the fire and at the end of the meal, to toast marshmallows! The best marshmallows for toasting are the No Frills ones from Franklins - they're the biggest (bigger than the non-branded ones from Woolies) and they're actually not as sweet as your branded marshmallows. Haha...I do love toasted marshmallows.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mum! Thanks for being the great mum that you are!

the cupcake bakery @ qvb, sydney

For a recent family together, my cousin A bought cupcakes from The Cupcake Bakery in QVB (it's near T2 - another of my favourite shops!) You can hardly miss the shop - the sight of cupcakes screams out at you and if not, you'll probably see the crowds of people at the counter; some still picking their wares, others balancing their bags and boxes of cupcakes or eating them straight out of the bag. I've been to both the QVB shop and the one on George Street and slowly, I'm eating my way through their flavours.

A's order of 16 assorted cupcakes (2 boxes) came with a rather pretty cupcake bag. Unfortunately, my aunt was the first to say how pretty it was otherwise I was tempted to keep it for myself.

My favourite flavours out this batch - Tiramisu, Carrot & Walnut + Profiterole (note that the profiteroles are unfilled but there's a heavy dosing of custard filling under the tower of profiteroles on the cupcake!)

I'm pretty sure there were 16 of us on the day (if not more) but we struggled to get through them all. We finished about 8 and every family had 2-3 cupcakes to take home. And it wasn't just me that was taking photos! The pretty sight of cupcakes got everyone's cameras and phones out!

My tip for eating cupcakes is to cut them up into 4. That way you can try up to 4 flavours yet you've only eaten the one cupcake. These cupcakes from The Cupcake Bakery are quite big and do make a decent meal. My max. is probably 1 cupcake at a time. I wonder if they'll do what Cupcakes on Pitt did and downsize their cupcakes sometime soon?

annual suckling pig night

It started off as an idea one year and since then has become tradition that every year, the family gets together for suckling pig night. It's usually around Chinese New Year, give or take a month and as it's name would suggest, is celebrated with a whole suckling pig. We've tried pigs from a couple of places - this year's pig was from BBQ One in Eastwood.

The responsibility of cutting up the pig seems to have fallen on my uncle's shoulders. He does a rather good job!

I was telling mum how I was fascinated by the 'Yee Sang' which Malaysians have to celebrate Chinese New Year. I'd had it once at J's place and his aunt had made it; mum had seen some packet ones at Ton Yon and said we could try one of those. Minus the sashimi, all the other ingredients you see in the below pic were in the packet.

To top it off, you have some fresh cut coriander and shallot. 

The fun bit is the tossing where everyone puts their chopsticks and everything gets mixed together. It's a tad messy but a lot of fun - and anyway, eating food should be fun!

So to add to our suckling pig nights now is 'Yee Sang'. The packet 'Yee Sang' was actually quite good although the dressing they had was a little sweet but people didn't seem to mind too much. I've already discussed with mum what ingredients we'll put in when it comes to us making it ourselves - can't wait till next year comes around! 

introducing the new bbq

BBQs are quite a thing in my family. We've gone from the good old (not red) but black Weber, to one of those big outdoor BBQs, to the funky gas-powered Weber and now finally, a slick black outdoor BBQ (and this one really does top the cake!) Dad happened to find this one on sale at Myer; bought even cheaper because it was the last one on the floor.

The new bbq with way too many accessories (dad went on a bit of a shopping spree). But as you can see, dad still likes the good old Weber (BBQ HK style with the forks) and he insisted on having both on that night.

J&I had been at the fish markets and came home with oysters and salmon sashimi. My gosh, I am never going to buy oysters or salmon sashimi from anywhere else - it's so much fresher (and might I add cheaper bought direct from the fish markets).

The first burgers came off the BBQ and into the mouthes of my cousins. Tops to Andrew! You are quite the budding chef!

My attempt at garlic and butter big-headed prawns. Not bad at all!

Food for two BBQs + more. There was so much food left over that we had another BBQ the next week. Admittedly, we all got a tad excited about the new BBQ joining the family.

And well, now we've definitely got way too many BBQs at home - it almost seems like we're starting a collection of them! I agree with Dad though, and I probably still prefer the old Weber and HK style of bbqing with the forks - a lot more flavour to the food and food that gets enjoyed over time. With the new BBQ, food gets cooked up in a flash and in some cases, temperature is also hard to control. Might I add, the new one is definitely a bummer to clean.

belated suckling pig family do

It's become a bit of a tradition in my family that every year (usually around Chinese New Year but this year it happened late) that we have a 'Suckling Pig Family do'. As the name of the event would suggest, the get together surrounds the yummy-licious Suckling Pig which we use to get from the city but now are getting closer to home (given there are so many Chinese BBQ shops around us). Really, there's not much else to this event: it's pretty standard for there to be a lot of food (it's almost like a potluck dinner where everyone brings a dish or two along), in most cases we order some local takeaway and well, it's almost just an excuse for everyone to get together.

The highlight of the evening. There was one year where the pig had flashing bulbs on the top of its head and that freaked me out so much that I almost didn't eat any of the pig.

My aunt made some chicken as well as cheese and spinach puffs which were extremely tasty..I probably popped 3 into my mouth just before dinner My younger cousin showing of his new camera.My dad in the kitchen making his specialty fried oysters. You've got to try one of these - oysters have never tasted so good.Not so much characteristic of 'Suckling Pig Night' but rather all family get togethers is cake. There's bound to be one, if not two cakes...mmmm...

It really amazes me how food can bring people together and I'm incredibly grateful that my family has taught me how to appreciate food. Some of you may baulk at the amount of food consumed at these get togethers but I assure you, these family dos are a thing to look forward to each time and I've never had to find excuse to get out of one.