Ushering The New Year of The Rabbit - Part 1

Today, Penangites witnessed a very grand Thaipusam celebration ... second to the one in Batu Caves, Selangor. However, my story today is not about Thaipusam ... the truth is, I couldn't take a wink ... selagi cerita ni tak dipublish! ( hehehe ... I just need an introduction paragraph).

Among all the celebrations that I celebrated, special attention would be given to Chinese New Year .... partly due to culture and partly due to just for the fun of it. Usually my routine CNY preparation just involved buying new clothes (including undergarment), spring cleaning my house and office plus checking feng shui updates for the new year. These photos were taken last 2 weeks during my last trip to KL.

This is to ensure not a single dust or spider web was missed out!

Habis all my sofa kena turned upside down.

Hehehe ... finally found the solution how to blend this wayang kulit puppet into the ID.

However this year, the preparation is a bit special because now I am in Penang and be able to witness CNY preparation for the New Year here. These are some of the photos taken over the weekend at the Chowrasta Morning Market (enter from Campbell Street). Harusssss akak berlakon jadi tourist.

Actually, the Morning Market is very famous to the locals ... seafood and poultry are sold fresh every morning. Pricewise ... quite OK. Cleanliness, acceptable.

Last weekend, the market was more crowded than usual and we could see many cars with "W" plate numbers parked along Penang Street and Campbell Street.

Bright colour CNY decorative ornaments.

The traditionally made Kueh Bakul ... between RM 1.50 to RM 5.00.

Haaa ... actually, the main reason why I wanted to visit this market last weekend was to see this particular shop's wax meat (lap cheung), which is very very famous among the locals and KLites ... was featured in the Star paper, 2-3 years back ... I was very suprised then because I usually come to this shop to buy some rations but never knew they are famous for their lap cheung hehehe

These wax meat are usually made with duck meat or pork (sometimes into sausages). Grandma love to steam her lap cheong while cooking rice. Usually, these wax sausages are cut into small pieces and added in Chinese fried rice. Never tried the duck wax meat.

Many, many years ago ... Chinese invented wax meat as a method to preserve food, especially during the winter. It is a type of preserved food that has been salted and cured but nottttttt with wax ... it just that, it looked like wax.

Next entry ... renew craze for feng shui and dzi beads!