Reunion Dinner

Probably everyone is rushing home for reunion dinner on the eve of the lunar new year. A dinner prepared lovingly with traditional dishes by mom or grandma and every member of the family tries to be present for this dinner. These days, some family reunion dinners are done in restaurants because it is just too troublesome to cook a huge dinner.

In the old days, my eldest aunt and grandma would cook and we would all go to my grandparents house for this dinner. Imagine cooking for 30-40 people using a wood burning stove. Eating on long dining tables on wooden benches. Some of the dishes I remember: salted vegetable with duck soup (kiam chye ark thng/ kiam chye boey) or pig innards soup (tu tor thng), shredded turnip and carrot with cuttlefish (jiu hu char), mixed vegetables (chap chye or koh le chai hua), fried chicken or curry chicken, meatballs with fatt choy, shrimp paste chilli (sambal belachan), soy sauce pork (tau eu bak), pork roll in tofu skin (lor bak/ngor hiang), tamarind prawn (assam hae) and shredded vegetables in flour cups (kuih pie tee).