Happy Chinese New Year!!!

We had our first Chinese New Year celebration in Asia...I can't say it was much of a celebration since we haven't been here very long.  We only did our own thing and hung out at the house but it was still nice.  The boys were off of school on Thursday and Friday (Eve & NY) so on Thursday we had to find something to do while Mike was at work.  I also had it in my head that I was going to make some sort of traditionalish type Chinese New Year dinner so that meant I needed to go shopping which the boys were not happy about.  I tried to get all my ingredients on a list to make it as quick of a process as possible but when you are shopping for ingredients in a different language and in a store that you have no idea where they store things it make it a little more complicated. I must say the boys were fairly accommodating during my quest for ingredients and I think I got everything I was looking for...except Maltose which the lady looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her if they sold it.  Then she googled it and saw the chemical structure and she was really convinced that I was nuts.  She told me to try the specialty shop but my recipe said that it was a traditional Chinese ingredient and is what they would use in Asia vs what we would use in the US which would be honey....I guess the author for that recipe was a little mistaken.  Oh and the roaches in the veggies!!!!  I was looking for cabbage (the type the recipe called for I couldn't find) and I saw a few roaches on or near the veggie section.  I almost ran my shopping cart into the stand because I was reaching my hand over to check out some of the veggies when this huge roach comes around the other side of the veggie!!!!  Scared the shit out of me!!!  I know there are a lot of bugs here and it is very hard to keep them out but man I wasn't expecting that...in the store...in the mall for heaven sakes.  Anyway, it took me about 1hr to find the 6 sauces that I needed for my 2 dishes...it was an experience.  After that we got a few treats for the boys and headed back to the apartment to drop off the food. 

I had just enough time to make a few PBJ sandwiches cut up some fruit and buy tickets to the museum before we had to race out.  Lino was not excited about our days adventure because he told me he didn't like museums which I know is not true because the only museums that we have taken them to have been children museums and they love them so why does he wish to test my patience with his comments.  Although I didn't tell him it was a children museum I did tell him that he should trust me and he was not in the mood to trust me.  I almost had to leave him at the apartment by his self he was so not happy about going.  The problem wasn't so much about the museum as it was that he had to get off of the ipad.  Anyway, we make it there and as we get closer Lino sees some of the advertisement for the museum and he starts getting excited. When he reads the sign, Art Science Museum he really gets excited because he loves science.  So this could have been a true disaster because I only purchased tickets to one of the exhibits that the mom group had suggested as a good place to take the kids.  I assumed it was a large enough exhibit that we could spend a few hours there maybe half the day to kill the time but it turned out to not be that big.  But it also turned out to be pretty darn cool and the boys didn't want to leave so it all worked out.  It was some sort of light display and very interactive and very cool. 

The first part of the exhibit was this light and music show and it was really cool but Lino was scared.  It had some bird flying through the air and you could see the wind coming off of the birds wings and the wind around it.  The next room was a wave room...there were people sleeping on beanbags in this room so maybe it was more of a meditation room???  Then the main exhibit was a combination of light and digital wall displays.  You could color a picture, scan it in and it would be displayed on the wall.  And if you touched one of the displayed pictures they would move, bounce or do something to show that you have touched it.  There were 2 sections like this and one more that was just a wall of falling digital symbols where when you touch them the symbol changes into what ever it is...like there was a symbol for fire and when you touch it the symbol is replaced with fire on the wall. 

There were symbols for trees, animals, water, sun, different terrain it was cool.  Basically you touched the symbols to create your own world.  After a few seconds the items would disappear from the wall so it was always changing.  The boys had a great time touching the symbols and seeing all the stuff be displayed.  But what kept us at this small exhibit for 3hrs was the color changing balls that were in this small figure 8 shaped enclosure.  This must have been the most cool thing they have ever done because they refused to leave.  All it was was a few soft bouncy big balls that changed colors as you use them.  They were using the balls like they were demolition cars...ramming them into each other and the other kids too.  You would think that this wouldn't last long as fun but it lasted for hours.  We left a few times for potty breaks and even a snack break but they kept going back inside. We actually left once, like really left the exhibit and when they realized that was it they wanted to go back in for more!  It worked out I guess.  So after I finally was able to get them out of there we didn't have enough time to go home to meet Mike before having to head back out so we just decided to walk around there area.  

 

There was some festival/carnival/display across from the museum so we walked over there to have a look.  It was not what I was expecting but neat anyway.  There were a bunch of what looked like floats for the Chinese New Year.  Then they had a little display section that had some information about the history of Chinese New Year...the boys were not as excited about this but if I had more time I would have liked to have read it...maybe another time.  Then the carnival...I had to warn them before we even went over there that we were not riding any rides.  I was not in the mood to spend $100 for them to ride 5 rides each!  Eventually we left and headed to the Marina Bay mall to stall a little more and wait for Mike to start heading our way. 
 



There was another light display in the middle of the food court and I thought it was perfect because I could get a coffee and rest my aching feet while they play and kill 30min.  I figured it was free to get in because almost all of the activities in the malls here are free but this one wasn't...of course it wasn't it was in the fancy mall.  But we got lucky because we got free entry with our tickets from the museum so it did work out for us after all.  











Next was Chinatown!  We knew that it was going to be busy and it was but we wanted to go down and be apart of the festivities since we had nothing else going on.  It was so crowded though it was crazy.  I can't imagine what it would be like in China during these 2 days.  We had got there before Mike so we found a spot, in front of the TV of the Rin TinTin shop, to sit and wait on Mike.  Then we found a restaurant to eat...of course we picked the one that was the busiest because we figured it must be good if it was so busy but that also means that the service isn't so great.  It took a while to get all of our food because they must have different cooking areas for different dishes.  So we started to notice that one guy would only bring out dim sum type items and another guy was only bringing out the large steamed fish dishes and another guy was bringing out rice and then another guy for fried food and another guy for some other random dishes.  So anyway we got our meal in pieces and even though we were missing one dish we couldn't sit there any longer so we started to head to where the CNY show was suppose to be.  We were not exactly sure what was going on but Mike said there was a show that was suppose to start at 9:30pm then there would be fireworks at midnight.  We knew we would not be staying for the fireworks but figured we would catch the show or at least part of it.  So we got a spot along the barricade and waited. 

Some of the people in front of us were not happy about waiting and left so we ended up right on the barricade which we thought was great because we could see what ever parade or show up front.  We were there for a little while and Lino started asking what this was all about and when would the show start and all those questions.  We heard music and thought that a parade or something was going to come through so we told him that but he wasn't convinced.  We could see the stage from where we were so we thought that maybe the parade would finish at the stage and since we were close maybe it would take a little while to get to use?  Lino wasn't convinced.  There were 2 police officers inside of the barricade and Lino was trying to get their attention for a while to ask them what the deal was.  I told him not to bother them but he was like "We should ask them about the parade because they are the police and they would know"  I couldn't argue with his logic so I let him ask them and the guy was like "there is no parade?  there is only the filming of the CNY show up on the stage, its a nationally aired show but that is it.  no parade or show or display. "  So I asked him if there was anything coming down the barricade and he said no, the barricade is only to keep people away from the stage where the filming was going on!  Well good thing Lino asked because we would have been standing there for a while longer waiting on the phantom parade that we conjured up in our minds that was coming that was not coming at all.  Funny not funny.  The good thing is that we were able to get out and on the train before it got to busy on the subway...thanks Lino for asking...please do not loose this trait!  Your father never ever ever ever ever wants to ask so I am very aware that this is a great trait to have and I hope you are able to keep maintain it throughout your adulthood.  So basically there was no real activities, just a bunch of shopping because most of the stalls would be closed the next day so you can get all of your NY stuff cheap.  Maybe there were some other activities somewhere but we didn't see them...I don't think we will be back next year.  We have to make some friends to do something with.  Before we went to the subway we did make a pit stop at the golden coin shop...well they have more than golden coins but this is Mikes favortie...we got us a few and tried to get the boys to try them but they were not having it.  Mostly Lino wasn't having it so that meant that Shaun wasn't either.

Friday was CNY!  I had my ingredients ready to make my special meal but the directions looked pretty straight forward so I didn't think I needed to get started on them right away.  So for the morning we just chilled at the house and the boys got a surprise visit from their new friends. 
I was warned about this...living in a condo that the kids become friends and then come ringing on the door bell all the time to play with their friends.  Right now this is really cool and I love it but lets see how it goes.  Anyway, the 2 little boys we met the previous weekend and the one boy who we played with on Wed (you will have to check out the blog for the week to get his background story) came to see if the boys wanted to play.  The boys were still in PJ's but they quickly changed.  They played in the house for a little while then headed out to ride bikes.  It was nice and I didn't worry to much about them because the other boys were bigger so I didn't think they would lead them out of the condo or anything like that.  I should have given more instructions but didn't...I'll learn.  While they were gone I got a message from the condo ladies group that said that there would be a dragon dace in the courtyard and like 5 min later the drumming started.  So I raced downstairs to try and find the boys to make sure they saw the show but they were no where to be found. 
Most likely up in the apartment of the other boys which was fine but the problem was that I knew which building they were in but I couldn't remember the unit number...very bad parenting on my part.  So I just let them stay and I enjoyed the little show.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't put on by the condo.  It looked like a few families hired these people to come and do the dragon dance for them...it must be symbolic of some sort maybe good fortune or something I'm not sure really but the dragon went inside of about 3-4 houses and in between each house would come to the courtyard and do a little dance for the people.  With all of this banging going on there was no sign of the boys.  That is the good thing about the condo is that it stays relatively quite even though there are a ton of people here.  So the boys who were in a different section of the condo probably didn't even hear the drumming.  And if you have your windows closed it really keeps a lot of the noise out...its nice!  Eventually the boys came back to the house with their friends and I made them a snack, PBJ & fruit and the one kid was like "man you guys really are American...PBJ sandwiches and everything'  I asked him what would he have as a snack and he was like....maybe hot dogs or PBJ...OK kid hahahaha.  The 4 boys stayed for a while.  Lino and the older boy were on their ipads awhile the 2 younger boys played with the toys...its amazing the difference.  Eventually, and I mean eventually, which is much later than I thought it would be, the boys got board and decided to go to the pool. 

I was starting in on my dinner so I sent Mike down with them.  Somewhere in the middle the other boys didn't go to the pool and our boys ended up in a different pool than what Mike was expecting so we had a few minutes of panic trying to locate them but thankfully they were not too far.  So dinner menu was simple, at least I thought it was simple, dumplings, sticky pork ribs, spinach and some mixed grain rice which is Mikes favorite rice that Ha Eun introduced us to and always makes for him.  I thought it would be easy enough and I knew that the dumplings would be a little bit of a challenge but I figured it wouldn't be too bad since I halved the recipe that I got from Amelia.  Well it was a challenge and I didn't get the right stuff because I thought any cabbage would do and that is not true.  And I had asked the lady at the store dumpling wrappers and she took me to the freezer section and gave me wanton wrappers that said all purpose so I figured it was close enough to the same but it turned out to be not the same at all.  Its like needing an orange for a recipe and using a grapefruit instead...they are both citrus fruit but not interchangeable at all!!!!  So besides the wrong wrappers and the wrong cabbage which was too wet for what I needed and not having any maltose the whole process took me about 4 hrs!  I only made 2 things really!!!!  The strange spinach that I bought took all of 12 min (5 min to wash, 5 min to chop garlic and 2 min to season and toss in the pan).  The rice took 8 min to prepare and 2 hours to cook!!!!  I had no idea it took so long.  This is a detail that I should have got from Ha Eun beforehand but I thought I would surprise her and show that I made the rice on my own but that is not what happen.  I put the rice into the rice cooker about 30 min before the rest of the stuff was going to be finished and then I had to look up the cooking instructions online to see how long it would take...because I knew it would be longer than white rice so I just figured I better check to make sure...freaking 1hr to soak and 1hr to cook!  WTH.  So then there was the dumpling disaster...I am pretty sure I didn't make dumplings but instead some sort of wanton impersonation instead.  First the filling was too wet and I squeezed out all the water that I could from the cabbage and still there was about a cup more of water that gathered in the bowl.  I even left out the water that the recipe said to add because I knew it would be to wet...that didn't save me.  It didn't help that I added extra cabbage to the mix because it didn't look like the same ratio as the picture on the recipe...what a stupid move that was...basically more water added to my already wet filling....stupid Renee.  Next was the wanton wrappers that should have been dumpling wrappers that are not the same but I tried to make them the same which was a shame because it was a disaster. 

I had to cut the wrappers to begin with because they were too big and I didn't want to have to fry all of them (I wanted to make it a little more healthy if possible) but at the end of the day that didn't happen.  So I did a couple of tester wantons and had Mike and Lino test them and they said they were good so I dug my heals in and started filling and wrapping and pinching and breaking and cussing and ripping and dropping these little wantons.  Man did I say disaster...every time I touched one they would rip or all the water would leak out and they wouldn't stick...I thought I needed a little liquid to seal them but apparently not the amount of liquid I had coming out of these things so it was a hot mess.  And even though I only made half the batch size it took me forever to fill them.  I was fighting the freaking ants at the same time which made it even more time consuming.  These ants here are no joke, if you drop a grain of rice on the floor it will only take about 30min before its completely swarmed by the itty bitty ants.  If you drop rice on the table its about 35min max and seeing as though I was at this for over 1hr you could imagine what I was dealing with.  It wasn't like there were a swarm of them on the counter because I kept it pretty clean but there were always 4-6 bold ants that wanted to see if they could make it onto the wanton wrappers or they were just too close for comfort by my mixing bowl or something like that.  It was just a silent mini war between me and the ants and the wantons.  At some point I gave up with the proper wrapping of the wantons and just started making little envelopes which worked out great.  It was a much faster way to wrap and the insides pretty much stayed inside so a win-win for me!!!  My ribs came out good and I was happy about that.  I got them ready to go into the oven for a few min broiling to make them a little golden and then I put the wantons on the stove and tried to boil them.  Did I mention that I was using wanton wrappers and not dumpling wrappers???  Do you know that there is a huge difference between the 2?  Well there is and the wantons are not meant to be steamed...I found that out after I took the lid off of the pan and saw all my wantons had disintegrated  into mush and were sticking to my non-stick pan.  Great!  What a disaster...I need a better descriptor but that will have to do for this post.  It was a disaster but I didn't give up.  I went to plan B and fried them and all was good.  

So dinner is served!!!  Happy Chinese New Years!!!  

P.S. My ribs were on point (if I do say so myself) even though they stayed in the oven for a 2 min to long, Lino wouldn't touch his meal because he doesn't like ribs so he was sent to bed early without dinner and Shaun ate it up like a champ and had to eat with chopsticks which took us about 10min to realize that was what he wanted because he kept saying it in freaking CHINESE!!!!!   

The mixed grain rice took another 30min to finish so when dinner was over it was ready so we had it and it was hard as shit!!!!  I thought Ha Eun would be proud of me for making rice but I had to text yell at her that the rice was hard and that it was a disaster.  She laughed at me as she always does...actually it is usually me laughing at her for cooking something strange and not doing it the right way but anyway that is nether here no there...so I get a quick Korean titoruial on how to make proper mixed grain rice.  There is something int here about a knuckle amount of water over the rice?  Just an inch above the rice and it will be fine.  A little more water is not bad because you don't want the rice to be to dry.  You don't need a rice cup just make sure the proportions are right...blah blah blah...at the end I was still confused.  What I did take away from the conversation was that I need to make sure to wash the rice thoroughly which I did and add white rice to the mix because otherwise it doesn't come out right!!!!  This last tip was critical!!!  How come in 4yrs of knowing and cooking and eating with this girl did she never think to tell me this tip?  I mean seriously, it sounds like sabotage to me.  Thanks Ha Eun for the tip...how ever late it may be...hahaha.  Anyway, it was good rice and next time I will use my knuckles and add the white rice and make sure the proportions are correct...most importantly I will make the rice 2hrs in advance and let it wait for the rest of the meal to be done!


Stay tuned for week 5 update...