Sun Lien Fai Lock!

Wishing you a Propserous New Year!

Tonight, the family (Mom, Grandma, Brother, Me and Kay) went out to celebrate Chinese New Year. Apparently, families are suppose to have their big dinner on the eve of Chinese New Year or the day after New Year. We are not suppose to have a big dinner on the day of Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of the Dog which means it's Kay's year :) R said that the Dog and the Dragon are not good for each other, bringing bad luck or a bad year for the dragon, R is a dragon. So his father and R went to the Temple to bai sun. For dinner, we reserved a table at our 3rd choice chinese restaurant on Fraser Street called Koon Lock or something like that. Mom couldn't get a reservation at the other two restaurants because she made reservations way too late. Two days before Chinese New Year Eve. The restaurant we went to was TERRIBLE. The service, what service? The food was late, and all the dishes came in the wrong order. The Peking duck that we RESERVED came at so late that by the time we got to it, we were practically full. To make it even worse, they did a terrible job at trimming the duck which meant all the crispy pieces were drenched in fat gao! Kay had a tummy ache right after she ate a piece. Mom was quite upset but now we know (well we already knew this) the next time we are to reserve a table at our first choice restaurant at least a week and a half in advance. But before we headed out for dinner, Mom and I went to Richmond to pick up some Chinese almond cookies and sweet chinese desserts. The ones that come in a steamed container which you bring home and slice them thinly, dip the in egg batter and pan fry lightly until inside is soft. Yummy! We picked up a Coconut Sweet Cake. We also had to pick up some Lo Bak Gao for my Grandma because tomorrow she will be visiting friends to wish them a Gong Hay Fat Choy and to play Mahjong. Although, Mom can make some really awesome LBG, the reason Grandma wanted us to pick some up for her is because when Mom makes it, she does not place the LBG in nice little containers like the ones you can get the bakery. After the bakery, we headed over to Richmond for the specialty store that sells all Chinese products like spices, sauces, rice, dry noodles, cookies, sweets, dumplings etc. Mom picked up some almond cookies and a few other items while I decided to pick up some rice crackers and dried noodles. We also headed over the a very famous BBQ place. Mom and I had to wait in the line up for almost 20 minutes to get our BBQ pork but this place is well worth the wait. She picked up four large pieces which ended up costing her $30.00. We also wanted to pick up some duck or crispy pork but if you did not reserve these items, you were not going to be getting any today! Wow, it was crazy busy in there. See photos below for yummy BBQ items :)

After our trip to the BBQ store, we were getting a little bit hungry so we stopped off at No. 9 to have a snack before heading back to Mom's house. We needed to snack even though it was 6ish because our dinner reservations were at 8:30pm and even though we are suppose to sit down at 8:30pm, we probably won't be seeing any food items until 9pm. After our snack, we headed back to Mom's to prep the items we bought today. She also gathered the gifts she had for my little brother. Mom picked up a small rice cooker, some LBG and some food items for him because my brother is unemployed and lives on his own (bachelor). Mom has a huge heart and loves her son so much (even though daughters are more thoughtful than sons) that even at his age, him being 27 years old, my Mom feels the need to take care of him. That was our day! I hope R had a wonderful day with his family.

Again, wishing you a very propserous new year or Sun Lien Fai Lock!