Valentine's Day Cookies

Ok, I don't really like cookies that much but if I had to eat some, I guess I would go for lemon butter thins. Got hold of a good recipe and armed with my trusty cookie cutters, these were the results! Didn't have a rolling pin but a wine bottle did the trick. You can also get these easy tubes of ready-made icing and then stick sprinkles on them - very easy and fun.

Chinese New Year Dinner at My Place

This event totally encapsulates the Law family tradition! For the start of the New Year of the Ox, it is traditional to have a big "hoi neen fan" with at least 8- 9 dishes. There is no way I can cook so many (I am not my Uncle Wan!) so roped in a few friends and voila! 9 dishes in 2 and a half hours - not bad. Or 11 if you count the soup and dessert...The menu was as follows:

- Shark's Fin and Chicken Broth

- Pork-Stuffed Fuzzy Melon

- Soya Chicken

- Spicy King Prawns

- Pan-Fried Fish

- Ginger Beef

- Steamed Silken Tofu with Prawns

- Homestyle Tofu and Pork

- Braised Chinese Mushrooms on Bed of Romaine

- Baby Bok Choi in Garlic

Blueberry muffins

My first attempt at baking blueberry muffins! Can't believe this is my first time considering you can buy blueberries in bulk very cheaply. These look good and they tasted ok - not too sweet. Should have greased the wrappers though. Let me know if you want the recipe - actually it was quite easy.

Vegetarian Chinese Banquet

Ok - this was definitely an interesting culinary experience! So you guys are all familiar with those 10 course chinese banquets - shark's fin soup, scallops and brocolli, chicken, duck etc etc. - how about a totally vegetarian version? I had the good luck of being invited (last minute) to a vegetarian "Tuen nin fan" banquet in New York. All the attendees are strict vegetarians due to their Buddhist faith. Apart from veggies, they are really into fake meats made from tofu or bean proteins. Instead of coming up with whole new dishes, the whole idea is to duplicate the taste and look of the meat versions. Of course, it won't be exactly the same but all in all, very impressive!

Take a look at the photos - one is the vegetarian cold platter with veggie jellyfish and seaweed, the soup was an amazing winter melon soup with lots of ingredients. The presentation here was key - the waiter came round and cut the winter melon on the top which released the other ingredients from the bottom.

The "scallop and brocolli" was created with a stuffed braised shittake mushroom. The tofu rolls was masterful - the filling was a mixture of different vegetables finely-diced wrapped in a tofu pocket.

2008 Anniversary Dinner

Another one for the series - this year, we headed to the North End area of Boston which is basically Little Italy. Tons of italian eateries, gelato and pastry shops. We went to Mamma Maria where Paul had the rabbit dish and mine was the tuna with squid-ink fresh pasta. It was ok - perhaps we did not make the right menu choices !? It's a sad evening when Paul declares his favorite part of the meal was the bread basket with pesto and a whole jar of olives. It was good though...