To her, to cook is therapeutic, so despite her bad cough, she cooked up a storm for us on New Year's Day. On the menu : her famous Nonya Poh Piah (must stress that its Nonya), mee siam and fish porridge.
Here's the table setup. Ingredients include (clockwise direction), starting from vegetables (chinese lettuce and chinese pasley), raw garlic paste, chilli, ground peanuts, finely chopped hard boiled eggs, prawns, fried eggs, chinese sausage, cubed tau kwa, shredded cucumber and bean sprouts. Oh, and the sweet sauce. The middle bowl is for the turnip.
You see the up-turned bowl in within the larger bowl? That's to help 'dry' the turnip, the sauces will flow into the bowl and keep the turnip drier for easy handling.
This picture's with the turnip. Oh, there's also my favourite deep fried garlic (missing in pic).
Here are some samples of the poh piah creations.My mother-in-law's version that has everything, except peanuts:
My brother-in-law's friend's version. He made the most jumbo of all poh piahs with tablespoons of sweet sauce. One can conclude he has a sweet tooth plus a jumbo appetite.
Another of my brother-in-law's friend's. He's either very creative or just trying to be funny.
Anyway, after its all wrapped up, they all look similar, like this:
Oh, my mother-in-law also made pie tee shells.. which unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of.
Here's the mee siam and silly me forgot to take photos of it in a bowl. Too busy slurping it up. :)
In the evening, my husband, the fisherman who abandoned his wife and kids to go fishing on new year's day, came back with sotong, fish and prawns which was promptly steamed and served. So quickly was it eaten.. there were no photos.
Hopefully, this year I can learn to cook too... at least some simple dishes. I am really hopeless in this department! My wish is to be half as good as MIL. Eh... that's too ambitious, just 1/8 is good enough. Ha ha.
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