Chinese New Year Eve Dinner 2012

This year we had our CNY Eve Dinner very early - at 5.30 p.m. My brother and his family were flying in from Singapore to join us, but their flight got delayed so we had to finish our dinner early then fetch them from the airport. As expected, we were the first guests to arrive at the restaurant.

My dad had ordered quite a sumptious banquet, and as usual it started with Yee Sang. This was no ordinary Yee Sang though - it was spiked with baby abalone, more abalone slices, and salmon.

The Cold Platter was quite impressive. It had Roast Suckling Pig, Prawn Salad, Jellyfish Salad, Baby Octopus and Mussels in Spicy Sauce.

The Shark's Fin Soup is essential for CNY Eve Dinner - but as is common nowadays you can hardly detect any shark's fin inside. Which is just as well - less shark's fin, better for the sharks.

The next dish was the best of the night. It was a Seafood Stew full of premium ingredients - abalone, scallops, large prawns, fish maw (Fish bladder), sea cucumber, etc cooked with Chinese cabbage. This was delicious.

The Steamed White Pomfret was quite unusual - it had been butterflied and spread out before steaming - easier to serve as you don't need to turn the fish over. Turning over a fish is usually considered not so good in Chinese custom, especially for those with careers connected to the sea at it is though to portend misfortune at sea. 

Buttered Prawns and Sauteed Scallops with French Beans. The Prawns were just OK, the scallops were too small, but the frech beans were really sweet and crunchy.

Meatballs Stuffed with Dried Oysters with Fatt Choy (black moss) and Brocoli. An auspicious dish - as "Fat Choy" sounds like "to prosper" and dried oysters in Cantonese "hoe see" sound like "good things". Put the two together and you have "hoe see fatt choy" - lots of good things and prosperity for the New Year. This was quite a good dish.

Finally - noodles. Frankly we were too stuffed by then to touch the noodles.

Our dinner was at Yamisu Restaurant at Premier 101 Commercial Centre. It is known more for dim sum, but they have done a creditable job with the New Year Eve dinner.