Lo Hei After Lunar New Year

We didn't do the lo hei thingy with the family and friends. There were to be a couple of obligatory Chinese meals. Those were done with minimal fuss and weren't too painful, especially when the folks are rather tactful and aren't the usual representatives of tales of dinner horrors.

Some friends have relocated to Singapore and begun new jobs. I wasn't around to say hi when they flew in, and could only meet them after they've more or less settled into new apartments and jobs. They did mention it wasn't too difficult to get around the administrative procedures, and public transport is a breeze. Oookies. While they've managed to trek down to catch the kavadi bearers in the awe-inspiring and colorful Thaipusam, they're unfamiliar with local culture and food. Even Chinese food is exotic to them; effectively, they only know 'moo goo gai pan' (蘑菇鸡片) and 'chop suey' (杂碎). What the crap! They had arrived in Singapore at the tail end of Lunar New Year, and missed out on all the corporate lunches where they would have had a chance to lo hei. So I arranged for welcome meals at a favorite Chinese restaurant.

Nobody said 'yusheng' and 'pen cai' could only be served during the Lunar New Year. We checked with our favorite restaurants on whether they would be willing to do either yusheng or pen cai for us. They were happy to do both! How very nice. The kitchens were fine with preparing special orders. They reassured us that it wouldn't be too much trouble. We asked for a private room as well, so the other guests wouldn't be quizzical about it. Lo hei with the folks and friends it would be over separate meals.

Since we were able to give them an advance notice of 2 days, one restaurant also merrily readied pots of 'pen cai' (盆菜) in 2 versions, a regular and a vegetarian. That was very much appreciated. Pen cai, in a vegetarian version contained mock meat and gluten, fermented beancurd, loads of mushrooms, chestnuts and vegetables. I've no idea how they did it, but the thick gravy was really tasty. Pen cai, in a non-vegetarian version, had a thick rich broth that contained huge chunks of pig's trotters, duck meat and pig skin.

Half the table knew what pen cai is; the other half didn't, but knew a similar dish called 'lo kai yik' (or 'loh mei'). 'Pen cai' seems like the 'atas' (i.e. more expensive) version of 'lo kai yik'. The folks loved that rich brown gravy poured over steamed white rice. Kinda comforting and satisfying. The best part, we had 2 pots for each meal; with other food items, it meant we couldn't finish the whole pot. We insisted on tapau-ing the leftovers for the friends to stuff into the freezer. We're all experts in freezing food items. It was hilarious to know that the friends thought that the gravy and all tasted even better after a couple of days. They even know to throw in extra potatoes, pork ribs or slabs of chicken breast, broccoli and squares of tofu to enrich the ingredients already in the broth.

What's up with the gold flakes in yusheng?!