Celebrations on Valentine's Day

Gosh that was 2 months ago....shows I have so many pics and details to blog about. Thing is, Monkey didn't wanna pick and choose, everyday every events, every session is truly important to her, and it must be documented for memories.

Since February 2015 was around the celebration of Chinese New Year, we decided to kill many many birds with a single stone. To celebrate the arrival of Sheep Year, TC the Photog's birthday and finally Valentine's Day.

In fact JS and Monkey don't really celebrate V-Day, more like of anti V-day bcoz according to JS, everyday is Valentine's Day....hiak hiak hiak. But since we are cooking, we invited friends to dine with us with home cooked food, with love of coz.....candles and flowers and chocolates. Hahahahaha.

We bought the prepacked Yee Sang set from Isetan, added more sashimi slices of Salmon Belly. Added more fresh pomelo sacs, grated fresh daikon and carrots, used own extra virgin olive oil and we have a semi-home made yee sang.

Hmmm where's the condiments? I only see fish around here...but no complaints coz in the end everyone went for the sashimi quality fish!!!

Lou ah!!!
Huat Ah!!!!!

It's always a mess but this is a good mess, it's wat every chinese who celebrates Chinese New Year would want. The abundance of good things in a single dish...but to me Yee Sang is quite symbolic and serves as a quick appetizer. The true full abundance of good things kinda dish to Ms. Monkey is actually "Pun Choy". I had so many this year and would rate the one from Chuai Heng Chinese Restaurant at Jalan Imbi the most delicious one. :)))))

So far the year of Sheep has been a fantastic one, I am really enjoying each and every day with good company of friends and loved ones, amazing eats and drinks but most of all absolutely amazing new experience in life....

to sum it up, I just need to do 4 things this year.
Travel
Eat
Learn
Live

:)))) simple and meaningful.

Not bad.....guests did an amazing job in tossing the auspicious yee sang to such beautiful mix of colors. Just reminded me of the recently launched Hennessy VSOP Privilege Collection 5, a bottle with vibrant colors and stood the test of time, designed by British Art Director Peter Saville. :)))

Read more about it *here*

because I've promised all my beautiful guests that it will be a dining experience for them on their Valentine's Day, so it had to have some for of decorations for mood and ambience.

Japanese Yuzu with the special citrus grater and "duster" which JS acquired from Japan. Basically u grate the yuzu and dust it off ur dishes straight fr it.

Cute isn't it? we saw the same one at Kame-Sushi Desa Sri Hartamas, :)) Kame also means turtle in japanese.

Bahahahaha Horses are indeed so last year...
Welcome year of Sheep Sheep and this lil cute card is now sitting on my office desk. Reminding each day to Bahahahahahahaha. Which I do....every morning without fail esp with my secretary first thing at 7.30am

double boiled superior stock....all made with love by Mr. JS and boiled for 7 freaking hours!!!!.....those were not sea cucumber floating in this soup, but grand cru level of fish maw, acquired and procured by none other than his mommy dearest. The texture was so so good, almost like gelatine but with a good bite.

The soup was extremely sweet with a certain umami-ness. Yuzu zest added right before serving just further enhance the flavour. Indeed this was a very rich bowl of soup. Every guest only got to have one single bowl coz there ain't enuff!!! hahahaha

YS the giraffe was the only lucky one to have an extra bowl, to the dismay of other guests. Everyone was watching him slurping down the last drop. Hahahahahahaha

Mr. JS frying some greens with prawn oil. Look at that face.....it's like I got this under my control....I called this the LCLY look. LOL. Agree?

His kitchen is considered spanking clean looking at the amount of food being churned out from here. Since we have TC the Photog as one of the guests, he was also made to "work" here....snapping pics for Monkey :P

what is chinese new year without the yummy claypot waxed meat rice!!!
all cooked from scratch...where the waxed meat from Yung Kee Hong Kong were sauteed on the same claypot, rendered its fats and oil....then some these oil were used to fry the rice to a certain degree before being left to boil on its own.

the superlicious yummy waxed meat!!!! U only get this at certain time of the year :)))) So rich and full of flavours bcoz the darker colors were made with mixture of foie gras :))))

JS cooked a small portion of baked prawn pasta for Joey C coz she doesn't take meat. But it ended up in everyone's stomach. Yeah the piranhas...u know who u are :D

My dearest Dom Perignon Chef :)))) made ROAST PORK wahahahahaha. This pic was taken by Photog TC on 14th February, way before I joined the brand :)))) I know...he's really supportive of my career and I think he secretly wants my job :) kekekekeke.

We bought this apron during our visit to Dom Perignon's maison, Epernay a few years ago.

Proud Chef with his mouth full of roast pork....bz chewing...krop krop krap krap. We forgot to snap upclose pic of the roast pork...coz once it was presented on the table.....it was WAHHH all gone!!! real quick!!! well u could tell fr Chef's face he was already enjoying it before serving it to the guests.

yup we are only 30 years old.....really young :))

all the great whiskeys of limited edition and limited productions, especially the sherry cask and mizunara. What a privleged to enjoy them, :)))


Happy Guests eppy hostess....
Beautiful CS must be trying to stress her points *as always*

Ben smacking his head....can't remember what it was about...while Cat was bz helping herself to more japanese whiskey.

It was also on 14th February 2015, that her husband fell in lurve with whiskey for the first time. When he was served alcohols that nite, Cat insisted that the hubby doesn't drink a lot. Now he's a true whiskey connoisseurs with knowledge spanning from production, the types of barrels used, its peats to the different style of whiskeys and of coz the tasting profile.

what is chinese new year without "Tong Yuen"???
and what is valentine's day without something sweet to end the dinner?
so JS made the ginger jus from scratch and with love of coz, but store bought frozen black sesame dumplings.

Not forgetting the birthday boy TC the Photog with Joey C

It has always been a joy to work with TC and *click here* to read about the making of one of the project we did together --> Shell Shell's Bridal Shower photoshoot

JS was so tired by now, from cooking hahahaha and drinking :P

Joey C, Cat, Beautiful CS, Monkey and BCBG Amy

and bcoz it's Valentine's Day, all ladies deserve a bouquet of flowers :))))
thank you for coming :)))) so blessed to have all of you in my life. But most of all thank you to chef for such an awesome dinner.