Chinese new year food

The way my tummy is bloated is rather scary. And the way I am talking about my tummy, is totally not blog-reading-material. Who talks about how their tummy looks horrendous after eating a good Chinese new year lunch?

Chinese new year dinner with family friends last Saturday

But, not to worry folks. I know it ain't exactly healthy to eat loads, but tomorrow, I'm planning to have a fresh new start of running 10 km! I can never run away from food feasts.

The plum sauce wasn't poured yet. This is my mum's reinvention  (not as traditional with the fruits and salmon) of yee sang, using different fruits.

It is always traditional for my family to eat yee-sang for Chinese new year. Yee sang is what I'd call a Chinese salad, with plentiful of bright-coloured vegetables, sashimi or jellyfish, sweet plum sauce, and to top it off, crunchy little fried biscuits on top (childhood memories: picking out the crunchy biscuits separately, because at that time, I despised vegetables!). Everyone uses their chopsticks, and mixes this salad around. Whoever tosses up the highest is supposed to have good prosperity. Always good fun.

My mum's famous roast pork belly on the left (extremely crispy crust!), her famous curry, deep-fried prawns, san choy bao (the lettuce was on the other table), noodles and the centre piece, the yee sang!

My mum made some carrot cake, which well, frankly isn't traditional for Chinese new year. But she said something about today being 'everyone's birthday' for Chinese new year, or something like that and she made carrot cake. I made the cream cheese frosting.

 The carrot cake turned out scrumptiously delicious. I love carrot cake that has a slightly crunchy and chewy crust, a good texture and perfect balance of sweetness. Oh and who could forget the cream cheese frosting?

My mum actually used my aunty, Da Ku's recipe! So cheers to her, because this carrot cake was really, really good. My mum bought some cherries, and decided to top it off, which I thought was a little bit weird since carrot cake and cherries = ? But nevermind! It looked really pretty. She was inspired by a cake we saw in Queenstown.

My tummy really needs a break.

Do you have any favourite Chinese new year dishes?