Mooncakes, mooncakes I love you

Mom just remind me that the 'chinese lantern festival' which falls on the 15th day of the lunar 8th month is coming soon (on the western calendar that will be on the 25th Sept this year, another 10 more days to go).


Lantern Festival in Chinese Garden, Sg

Back home, there will be more celebrations..usually the little kids will carry their lantern and walk around the park. I remembered when we are little, the group of cousins, we loved to lit up candles in our paper lanterns and ah gong will bring us downstairs to the playground to walk around with our lanterns..giggling, laughing. It such a beautiful sights with so many lanterns. As we get older, mom will hang some lanterns on the balcony (we are too old and too shy now to carry them) hahaha

What is a latern festival without mooncakes! :) With the commericalisation of this festival, in Singapore, you can get almost all sort of mooncakes! All the hotel pastry chefs will be competing for the most innovative, most tasty mooncakes every year during this time..lets hv a look at this year's varieties...

Marriott's Hotel new flavour this year : Snowskin Blueberry cheese mooncake




Pan Pacific's hotel "Six Chefs, Eight Mooncakes, One Boutique Collection"

Imperial Golden Custard (Chef Lai Tong Ping, Hai Tien Lo Cantonese Restaurant)
Sweet Wolfberry & Wai Shan (Chef Lai Tong Ping, Hai Tien Lo Cantonese Restaurant)
Osmanthus Divine (Chef Lai Tong Ping, Hai Tien Lo Cantonese Restaurant)
Velvety Umeshu & Sweet Potato (Chef Hiroshi Ishii, Keyaki Japanese Restaurant)
Decadent Brandy Truffle (Executive Chef Joseph Martin, Global Kitchen)
Heavenly Red Wine and Chocolate (Chef Phillip Lee, Atrium Deli)
Ambrosial Honey & Ricotta Cheese (Executive Chef Dennis Sim, Zambuca Italian Restaurant)
Aromatic Cloves & Figs (Executive Sous Chef Vinod Kumar, Rang Mahal)

The famous D24 Durian mooncake from Goodwood Park Hotel

The traditional baked mooncakes, snowskin mooncakes including the signature D24 Durian and Cempedak Paste in Snowskin, and the new addition – Golden Mooncakes with Yam Paste or Durian Paste (cripsy texture)

Home's Favourite (L-R): 100% Black (Charcoal) Gold Durian Mooncake, Champagne Paste With Baileys Truffle Mooncakes and Pure Mango With Mung Bean Mooncakes



Of course there are alot more varieties in more hotels that I simply dont hv to remind myself that I dont get to eat them...here is our humble mooncake that we got here. The traditional baked lotus paste with double yolk (hmm, pretty small yolk compared to those that I used to hv) hahahaha



Happy Mooncake festival!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Dumplings festival

Mom reminded me that today (in the lunar calendar) is the 5th day of the 5th month which is also known as 'duan wu jie' or the 'dumpling festival'..arhhh...time to eat rice dumplings or 'bak chang' as we used to call it back home.

I only saw the 'red bean' dumpling the other day in the asian grocery that we frequent..but me, I love my bak chang in 'meat style'! hahaha (meat eater lah, cannot help it :P). Let me take u on a little tour of a few of my favourites...

Salted Rice Dumpling This dumpling is wrapped using bamboo leaves with fried glutinous rice and the filling of chestnut, mushroom and pork cubes marinaded with five spices. A typical Chinese style rice dumpling

Nonya Rice Dumpling This dumpling is wrapped using pandan leave with white glutinous rice and the filling of fine pork cubes fried with coriander powders. A typical Singapore Nonya style rice dumpling.

Salted Rice Dumpling with egg yolk. This dumpling is wrapped using bamboo leaves with fried glutinous rice and the filling of egg yolk, chestnut, mushroom and pork cubes marinaded with five spices. A Chinese style rice dumpling with more fillings

Chilli-Shrimps Rice Dumpling This dumpling is wrapped using pandan leave with white glutinous rice and the filling of finely ground shrimps fried with chilli and pork cubes fried with coriander powders. A different style of Chilli- nonya rice dumpling

My most favourite is the Chilli-shrimps Rice dumplings..ah ma used to make these really spicy and really meaty and they always taste so yummyyy..and of course, my galfriend Pearline, the rice dumpling that her mom make is also one of the best. With scallop inside..ohhhhh yumm yummm..how I miss all these bak chang..might be one of this day, I'll try to make too :P

Happy duan wu jie!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With love from PoohBear

Ashbridge Bay Fireworks Toronto May 21 2007

Firework on Queen Victoria Day 210507

21st May was Queen Victoria Day, it was a holiday and "The One" was off from work. We decided to go out for a night out to watch some firework at the "Ashbridge bay park" near the lake where there will be fireworks...

Fireworks will start at 9.45pm so we decided to go out a little earlier, have dinner before going. When we reached the park, around 8pm, my god! The park was packed with people. Some had been there since early day to do some pinicing, bbqing, enjoying the nice weather..the car park was full and we had to circle round the parking lots for a whole 1 hour plus! In the end, we couldn't get a lot in the park parking, we had to park a short distance away near some shopping area and walk in to the park.



The firework was nice, the atmosphere was great...we took some photos of the firework and a short video of the firework. Wish our friends and family were here to enjoy this with us..although you guys can't be here, hope you enjoy the pics and video as much as we did..

p/s The video is on the next post :P

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Happy Easter!

Easter, the Sunday of the Resurrection or Resurrection Day, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, which his followers believe occurred on the third day after his death by crucifixion.

Eggs are associated with Easter which symbolise new life and fertility (As with the bunny for fertility), traditionally Easter Eggs are decorated with dyes and in modern time, they have been substituted with eggs made from chocolate (hollow chocolate eggs wrapped in coloured foil), or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans. These are often hidden, supposedly by the Easter Bunny, for children to find on Easter morning.

You Are a Cadbury Creme Egg

You're the type that stole little brother's easter basket so that you could have MORE CANDY!

What Easter Candy Are You?

OK, that's a little note on Easter, Happy Easter..hope you guys have fun looking for Easter Eggs, Easter bunnies..and had lots of Easter chocolate eggs too!

P/S: kiddo bro, do you remember me ever stealing from your Easter basket huh? how untrue huh..hehehe

Cheerios and keep smiling!

With Love from PoohBear

Photo from http://www.parkenet.org & http://www.petcaretips.net

Yuan Xiao Jie Kuai Le! (Happy Chinese Lantern Festival)

Time passes so fast, it seems just yesterday that we celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Pig and today marks the 15th day of the lunar Chinese New year (Yuan Xiao) which is also the last day of the celebration of CNY. On this day, traditionally, "Riddles lanterns" are hang up. Riddles are hang at the end of the lanterns for people to guess, the ones that got the correct answers are usually rewarded with a prize.



Other than this, the traditional food to have on this day is Yuan xiao (or better known as tang yuan), it is a kind of sticky sweet dumpling made from sticky rice flour stuffed with sweet fillings (sometimes peanuts, red beans or sesame); simply made by boiling it in hot syrup water and eaten as a dessert. It symbolizes family reunion, completeness (Yuan man), happiness and a sweet life.


I remembered when I was little, my parents and us (Jie, kiddo and I) used to go to the community centres or basketball courts where the residential community (RCs) held these festival celebrations. I'll try to "look smart" staring hard at the riddles while having no clue what the answers to the riddles are hahaha...Mom used to make these tang yuans at home and as usual the KPO (busybody) me, will want to 'help' her roll the tang yuan, hmm, somehow the tang yuan that I rolled always turned out ovalish rather than roundish hahaha Fond memories :) This year, I'll be keeping the tradition, but instead of rolling the tang yuans myself, I'll be boiling and treating "The One" to a feast of nicely rolled sesame and red bean filling tang yuans brought from the Asian groceries. Perhaps, next time when I have kids, I'll do the traditional tang yuan rollings so that they too will have fond memories like I do...

Yuan Xiao Jie Kuai Le!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With love from PoohBear

Photos courtesy from http://www.chinapictures.org and http://www.chinapage.com

Happy Birthday everyone! (Ren Ri)

Today is the 7th day of the lunar Chinese new year (Chu qi), which is also known as "Ren Ri" which means "Everyone's birthday"

Back home in Singapore (if I'm not wrong in Malaysia too), family and friends will celebrate with a feast of "Yu Sheng" also known as "Lou Hei". Its a dish of pickled ginger, shredded vegetables, lime, raw fish (the main star ingredient as raw fish is 'sheng yu ' in chinese), raw cuttlefish, sometimes there's spicy crackers as well and some sauces. This 'Yu Sheng" dish is to ensure prosperity and good fortune. Everyone will use their chopsticks to mix and toss the ingredients as high as they can while saying all the auspicious words like 'pu pu gao sheng, xin xiang shi cheng, long ma jing shen, nian nian you yu' etc etc. The higher you can toss, the greater the prosperity you will enjoy throughout the year. I always enjoy the fun of mixing especially the tossing and making a mess on the tables! oh and not forgetting who gets to find the first slice of "yu sheng" hahahaha...

Wishing everyone Happy Ren Ri!

Cheerios and keep smiling,
With love from PoohBear

Picture courtesy from: http://www.tourismpenang.gov.my

Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Happy Chinese New Year!)

Today's the first day of the Chinese New Year (year of the piggie), May we wish both our parents, sisters, bro, bro-in-law, families and friends, Xin Nian Kuai Le, Xin Xiang Shi Cheng, Sheng Ti Jian Kang, Long Ma Jing Shen, Wan Shi Rui Yi, Tian Tian Kai Xin! (thats about all the new year greetings that I can think of for now :))

This morning, I've prepared the red dates, long gan and gingko nuts tea for "The One", a tradition we always observed on the first day of the CNY, Mom used to make it every year on the first day of CNY. It's supposed to mean good luck and a sweet start for the New Year. Since "The One" has to work today, we didnt go visiting, "The One" brought some sweets to share with his colleagues at work.

During this time of the year, the shopping malls usually have Chinese new year events lined up. The other day, "The One" and I went to Scarborough town centre and watched some children dance performances and a Korean Dance performance. The weather is so cold at this time of the year (temp in the -20oC range with the windchill) that both of us ain't willing to go walk about in Chinatown! hahaha, I'm sure in Chinatown, they will have lots of decoratives and Chinese new year goodies sales.

Tonite, we'll have steamboat (its wonderful to have steamboat at this time of the year, to feel your tummy feeling nice and warm from the soup) and we might do some visiting tomorrow...

so thats all for now, take care and have lots of fun!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With love from PoohBear and "The One"


Pictures courtesy from http://www.ukstudentlife.com and http://www.free-press-release.com

Happy Chu Xi (Chinese New Year Eve)!

Happy Chinese New Year Eve (Chu Xi)! Time to send the year of Dog, welcome the new year of the Pig, time for spring cleaning and of course the much awaited..Reunion dinner (nian fan)!

Spring cleaning was pretty easy since its just "The One" and I, vacuuming the floor, moping, changing bedsheets (yup yup, this is my favourite among all tasks), cleaning the bathroom, putting nice tablecloth. Thank you mommy for sending the CNY couplets (we hang it up on the wall) the ang baos from daddy and mommy :)))) and everyone in the family who put in something for us in the parcel (I always love receiving parcels from home).

This year Reunion dinner is a simple affair between "The One" and I, initially we planned to have steamboat (tradition we have back home) but since "The One" will be working on the first day of CNY (yeah, its not a holiday here in Canada) we decided to have a meal instead and have steamboat on the first day. Me, made sweet & sour pork, leek with fa cai and shrimp, steam promfret, lotus soup, we had baby clam (a smaller version of the big abalone ;)), some wine and cherries. As I was telling "The One" the meaning of what each of the dishes, in the end, "The One" said, 'eat fish for plentiful, this for aiyah..whatever the meaning, just have, just have" hahaha. In the night time, we called home and wished our parents happy CNY, my little nephew Max, who is 3 years old now, he can even say 'yiyi, happy new year, xin nian kuai le' in his own cute little 3 year old accent :)

Yiyi and Uncle wishes Max and twins, Caden and Zander, kuai

gao chang dao, sheng ti jian kang, tian tian kai xin and guai guai ok!

I do miss CNY back home where its always lots of fun and laughter meeting up with the cousins at granny's place, eating CNY goodies...now that there are little babies (3 of my sister's (Max, Caden and Zander), 3 from my 2 cousins, (Alston, Aden and Ethan) I'm sure they are such fun to be with. I figure no matter where we are in the world, keeping some tradition at times keeps our culture alive, give us a sense of belonging in this BIG world, how we are brought up and definitely, the happy memories we always cherish..Happy Chu Xi!

Cheerios and keep smiling!

With Love from PoohBear

Groundhog Day

Feb 2nd is the official "Ground Hog Day". Ground hog (photo on left) is an animal that hibernates in the winter and its emergence from the ground symbolized the arrival of spring. It is said that if the Ground hog emerges from his burrow and 'see his shadow', he will go back to his burrow and stay in for another six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't 'see his shadow', then he will remain outside because he knows spring will arrive early.

Photo courtesy from Matt

There's even a movie with the same name titled 'Groundhog Day' starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Murray played an egocentric TV weatherman, Phil Connors who was send to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney with his producer Rita, (played by MacDowell) and a cameraman, finds himself repeating the same day over and over again. In the repetition of that day, he starts to reexamine his life and priorities. Its a pretty humorous and interesting movie but can get a little draggy at time. I'll rate this movie 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

P/S: In reality, there is a famous Groundhog in Punxsutawney known as Punxsutawney Phil who has been predicting the weather for over 120 years! There's even an official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club...

Looking forward to Spring!

Cheerios and keep Smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Happy New Year 2007!

Happy New Year 2007 to everyone! To usher in the First New Year together, "The One" and I took the TTC to downtown Nathan Phillips Square to send the last day of 2006 off with hundreds of others at the annual New Year's Eve bash held there. It is a Cold, windy, rainy night (definitely not in the best weather for a party!) but there were still quite a big turn out, everyone armed with umbrellas in hand.

The pond in front of City Hall was converted into an outdoor ice skating rink, lots of kids and adults likewise were happily skating away in the rain while waiting for the arrival of the new year.

New Year's Eve Bash at Nathan

Phillips Square

Outdoor Ice Skating Rink

(Arches on top of pond are named "Freedom Arches" which symbolise 'Only in freedom can the Human Spirit soar')

We were holding our umbrellas (we even shared our umbrella with 2 french girls ;) ) and enjoying the open air concert. At the strike of midnight, there were fireworks display...and lots of well wishing, kissing, hugging all around..as "The One" tried to take photos of the fireworks amidst the swarms of umbrellas! hahaha

Fireworks display at the City Hall's New Year's Eve Bash on the
strike of midnight


As we made our way to the subway heading home, "The One" said lightheartedly, "this is the first and the last year we are coming out for New Year count down, this year just to show you how it is..(hehehe), next year we are going to just sit in front of the TV and enjoy the nice warm heater in our home"...I looked at "The One", grinned at him as we hold hands, walking side by side with our umbrellas in the rain.

Welcome 1st Jan 2007!


Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

p/s: "The One", these are what memories are made of, without such "unusual happenings, the rain, the wind, the cold", there wont be anything to look back on when we are old, you know? ;))

Toronto Downtown Christmas lightings

Earlier before Xmas, "The One" and I went downtown supposedly to catch the "Xmas parade" but we went too late and missed it! hehehe So instead, we were downtown to catch some christmas shopping mood and lightnings..here they are..

"X'mas tree" made up of light bulbs infront of Eaton Centre

The Streets Light up in Downtown

We didnt take alot of photographs as there were soo many people, so thats all for now...

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear