Christmas Lunch

Holiday season is officially finish for me now. Until 2 weeks later then another long long break coming up :D Major backlog with posts though. Let's just do those more 'time critical' stuff first shall we? I don't think it's good to do Christmas lunch post during Easter break :p 
Had a lunch party on Boxing Day. It's not 1 of those traditional Christmas lunch though, as in no turkey or leg of ham or something like that. It's more an Asian style feast :D 

Here's a close up of a yummy snack you would normally find on the street in Hong Kong - Curry fishball. It's not just fishballs though, we had sotong (squid) ball, pig's skin, beef balls and the square tofu fish. 

Here's 1 of my favourite Chinese dessert - 豆腐花 ("tau fu fah" in Cantonese, "tou huay" in Hokkian, dou4 hua1 in Mandarin - no idea what's the name in English though, other than literrally it means tofu flower). This is homemade fresh though. Still warm when it got there. Normally I prefer it cold though. In Malaysia I used to buy them in tubs with gula Melaka (dark coconut sugar) in pasar malam (night markets). 

Here's some onigiri (Japanese rice ball) served with seaweed. There are 2 types, 1 with bonito in the centre, another with the purple flakey stuff - I think those are the sour plum flakes thingy, but not 100% sure. Need to check with the chef who made those again :) I'm very sure these are as authentic as they can be being made by a Japanese chef. 

As I was busy "taste testing" the curry fishballs and snapping away, someone has nicely stacked those prawns in a bowl. If it was me, I would just pour them out from the bag and straight to a plate. Some creative person actually managed to create a pyramid of prawns :) New things learnt - stack prawns in a bowl to make them more presentable and more inviting. 

This is what you get when you have a chef making gyoza (Japanese dumplings) at home. Even the way the gyoza being served is so artistic. New things learnt - arrange gyoza in a flower pattern while frying and flip them straight onto plate. Isn't it cool to have lunch with a family with 3 chefs? :D 

Yummy chrunchy salad - salad leaves with cashew nuts and Asian crunchy noodles and some balsemic dressing and sesame oil. Very refreshing and it's the only greens on the table to complement all the heavier stuff like rice and meat. 

Here's our table. We also had a whole roast duck and some Hainanese chicken and chicken rice. 

Here's our very nice looking Christmas Tree with lots of presents :)  Very satisfying lunch and we had lots of fun opening presents.