Birthday Celebration..........8 course dinner.......

The Carrot Fruit cake with cream cheese topping from Secret Recipe....hmm...delicious...

It was my sister Karen's birthday ......a time for celebration.....family and friends get together again....another excuse to eat..eat...eat...til our stomach full !! It is our Chinese tradition to invite friends and relatives to a full course dinner or lunch to celebrate their birthday. Especially when they celebrate their 60th, 70th,80th or even 90th birthday, they will even invite all their aquantainces to dinner. If the birthday boy or girl is well-known or a prominant figure in town, the people of the whole town will be invited! If many guest are invited , invitation cards have to be printed . Nowadays, people seldom celebrate their birthday in big bash...maybe they are too busy ..... ?.....too shy.... to let people know their age...??

Here are some pictures that I took yesterday of the 8 course dinner we had at the Tong Hoi Seafood Restaurant at Lone Pine Country Club, Penang, to celebrate my sister's birthday. The dinner cost RM 300 plus including government tax per table. ( There were only ten of us).....small celebration..... It is just so so only for a chinese restaurant.. Nothing very special .....but I like their warm and smooth soya bean milk with white fungus and ginko for dessert....they are very kiam-siap (stingy) with their gingko....cannot even notice it..!

The cold plate with 4 variety of food...............

First course - Cold plate with only 4 variety of food.(In my hometown Ayer Tawar) there are more than than 5 varieties of nice food but not much pretty presentation like the above..The cold plate has some chicken meat cook in satay-like spicy sauce, fishball in crabmeat, some very cute vegetarian small squids ( looks real, crunchy, and nice)wrap in cabbage .I like best the popiah like rolls with banana, crabstick , and salted egg yolk wrapped and deep-fried . Chinese course dinner always start with a big plate of few variety of food on plate... just like starters for fine dining

Vegetarian squid........looks real eh??

The delicious banana+crabstick+crunchy mah-tai(small turnip)+salted egg yolk rolls.

Second course - seafood soup with mushroom ,crab meat,fishball slices.....just like sharkfin soup....but without the sharkfins......good news for the poor sharks!..... no more killing of sharks for their fins....verdict: ok..ok.. only.....

Shark fin soup minus the sharkfin................

Third course - Steamed-Chicken......yellow colour skin......colour it yellow??......ok..ok..

The whole cut up steamed chicken begging for mercy...............??

Fourth course - Catfish cook in herbal sauce and spring onion...... not very nice because the earthy smell of catfish does not go well with kei-chee....taste funny...should cook this catfish in curries or something spicy to cover the fishy smell...anyway the meat is tender and fresh...

Catfish........oops..!....the head only....! because too busy eating......

Fifth course-Fried big prawns in tamarind paste.......nice and juicy......

Where are the presentation???........

Sixth course-Mixed vegetable stir-fry with cashew nuts.......my two boys keep going for the cashew nuts...... very small cashew nuts.....cutting cost..eh?....crunchy and nice.......

Mix vegetables-celery,mah -tai,asparagus,mushroom, red and green pepper with cashew nuts.

Seventh course-Yang Chow Fried Rice.....with char siew.... prawns......normal fare......ok.. not too oily or dry.

Eighth course - Last course is always dessert....Soya milk with white fungus, ginko and pak hup(lilybud petals).... cannot see much of gingko and pak hup??..cutting cost again?? But the soya milk is fragrant and nice..... not too sweet....Lastly,with a full stomach , we manage to push in our lovely cake after the birthday song.....waiter.. in a hurry... to .....get rid .... of......us....'.cos.... it was quite late...eating so much... food.

Soya milk with white fungus for dessert...............see..... no gingko...??