Lop Cheung 臘腸: Chinese Sausage

I've lately seen some websites in English referring lop cheung (臘腸) simply as the smoked sausage. Sadly, this explanation shows a woeful ignorance of the truth. Lop cheung is so named because it was usually made during the lunar month of December, the 'Lop' Yuen (臘月) in ancient Chinese. It can be

1) wind-dried (most common; cookery classics say the wind can preserve the meat's 'umami'
whereas sunlight can enchant its 'scent'),
2) baked or
3) smoked (least common; because the sausage is already well-seasoned). It is a member of the
Big Three preserved meat family: the remainder are the Chinese smoked ham (火腿) and the
wind-dried duck (臘鴨).

Basically there are two types of Chinese sausage. One is purely made of pork and the other of pork and duck liver mixture, something I reckon as the Chinese take of the 'boudin noir' because it is also almost black in color (though not made of blood). The fat/lean ratio for Chinese sausage used to be half/half, but, thanks to the ever-growing cholesterol censorship nowadays, the ratio is leaning towards the lean side (about 2 fat to 8 lean) -- some even comes up with the 100% fat-free version. Apart from the meat, flavorings such as the soy sauce and notably some mei gwei lu (rose rice wine) are also added to the mixture before filling into the casings.

There are many ways to cook these sausages. Take the duck liver sausage as an example: stir-fry it with greens is of course a brainy one; fry it with glutinous rice and eggs is also a laudable classic... yet the best way to fully appreciate this delicacy is to steam it with plain rice -- it deserves to be treated as chiefly as the black truffle. As banal as it may seem, every sausage connoisseur would agree this is the best way to taste the sausage to its fullest.

the symbollic meanings of the Food eaten during CNY

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Wish you all a prosperous and sated stomach in the Year of Rooster.
In less than two days we Chinese will bade au revoir to the Year of Monkey and greet salut to the Year of Rooster (probably with some firecrackers too): Tuesday is the Eve while Wednesday the first day of the latter(to learn more about the Chinese Horoscope, check here, to get a grasp of the your fortune in the year of Rooster, click here).

When is better then, to have the auspicious food for this very festival -- the Chinese New Year -- explained than now? I guess what is unique in Chinese culinary culture, when compared with others, is that we very often eat food in contextual way. We eat a food very often because of its name, its outlook and its association with good things in life, rather than its taste. Yes, when it comes to food, we are super superstitious!

Some food are eaten for their names while some simply because they "got the look." Lets have the mojo of Chinese food decoded one by one.

Eat it because of phonetic similarity:


The Pomelo: its pronunciation in Chinese, "lok yue," means "with good career and rich life" when read in reverse (yue lok).

The Mandarin: it's pronounced as "gek" in Chinese, which shares the same pronunciation as "good luck."

The Apple:
the first part of it is pronounced as "ping" in Chinese, homophone to the word "safe."

The Banana:
the second part of it is pronounced as "jiu," homophone to the word "embrace," hence eating it symbolizes embracing good things in life, especially money.

The Fish:
it is pronounced as "yu" in Chinese, homophone to the word "surplus." We eat fish on the first day of Chinese New Year and we never, never finish the fish. We always leave some bits of it on the plate so as to symbolize there's surplus in our house in the coming year.

The Rice Cake: you may also call it rice pudding or Chinese New Year rice cake. It's pronounced as "ling gou," which sounds the same as the word "year's high." Grown-ups eat this with the hope to reaching new height in their career or production while the growing ups eat this to becoming taller in the coming year. The traditional ones are made in round shape like a cake. But pictured here is a special edition, providentially made to form for the New Year: a crossover of two lucky contexts: "gou" and "yu." As far as food goes, it is the luckiest one can get...

The Peanut: called "fa san" in Cantonese or "hua sun" in Mandarin. Either way, the ending half shares the same pronunciation as the word "live." Thus, it is eaten for longevity.

The Lettuce: pronounced as "san choy," homophone to the words "gaining money."

The Black Moss: pronounced as "fat choy," homophone to the words "getting rich."

The Dried Oyster: pronounced as "ho sei," homophone to the word "booming market."

The Pig's Tongue: pronounced as "lee," homophone to the word "profit."


Seeds of Melon: pronounced as "gua tze." "Tze" is homophone to the word "offspring" in Chinese. Couples eat it with the hope to become parents next year.

Eat it for because of the look:

The Dumplings:
pronounced as "chiotze" in Mandarin. It's shape resembles that of the gold ingots. The myth has it that the more you eat in CNY, the richer you'll be in the coming year. In Beijing, people there play the trick in a more subtle way. Wok-fuls of dumplings are served as in every festivals. However, in Chinese New Year, some dumplings are placed with sugar in the fillings, some with peanuts and one, only one, with a gold coin. For those who end up with the sugared one in their bowls, it is believed that they will have sweet life ahead; those with peanuts longevity and for the lucky glutton with the gold coin, a profitable year ahead.

The Sweetened Deep-fried Sesame Ball:
eat it because it is gold in color, and thus, reminds people the gold ingots.

The Crispy Triangle:
for more or less the same reason as the sesame ball.

The Sesame Cookie:
the middle part of the cookie is fried to cracked, akin a face "cracking a laugh." Its name in Chinese literally means "laughing dates." Dates for its size and laughing for its appearance, I guess...

The Sweetened Glutinous Rice Dumpling:
the sweeten dumpling is round in shape. In Chinese culture, deeply influenced by the Daoist, round shape has the meaning of perfect, harmony and completeness. We eat it in family reunion and festivals with the hope to have the whole family in perfect harmony in the year ahead.

Anson's fav Nian Gao

年糕

One of the preparation for Lunar New Year is the preparation of Sticky Cake, or Nian Gao. The name of the cake 'nian gao' literally means 'year cake'. Since the word 'gao' has the same pronunciation with another word meaning 'tall' or 'high', people like the name because it means you get higher every year. Children grow taller/higher, exam result better/higher, income higher, number of wives higher, gets higher... oops!


Usually around the second half of the 12th lunar month, people will start preparing Nian Gao. The main ingredient in Nian Gao is glutinous rice flour, which gives it the stickiness. The process involves steaming. During steaming, children are cautioned not to disturb the process like opening the lid to have a look. There's supposed to be a Nian Gao God overlooking the steaming process. If you open the lid, you will disturb Him and He will fly away. Then the steaming process will fail.


Once upon a time, there was some beggar named Zhang who was having an affair with a SYT in his own house. When his Mu Yeh Cha (fierce ugly wife) came back, he quickly went and hide in the chimney. But the chimney was alive and burning! When his wife discovered, it was too late. He turned to ashes already. His ashes flew through the chimney upwards to the sky. Stupid Jade Emperor believed him that he actually committed suicide after he realized his guilt and proceeded to employ him as the Stove/Oven God. Wahahaha!

There is a purpose behind making Nian Gao. This Stove God is a very talkative, very busybody and very kehpoh person. He is also very greedy as far as food is concerned and eats like a pig. On the 24th day of the 12th lunar month, the Stove God will depart from each family to report to the Jade Emperor (his big big boss) regarding the family. About what they eat, what have they done etc. People are afraid of him very much. Afraid that he would talk nonsense and kehpoh in front of Jade Emperor during his report.

You see, once upon a time, there was an old couple. They have only one son. Their son worked in a coal mine. One day, the old man went to visit his son. On his way, he met another weird person. After talking on their way for some time, he came to know that the weird man was actually sent by the stupid and cruel Jade Emperor to collect 100 person from the coal mine to serve as sex slaves to the Jade Emperor.

So the old man panicked. He begged the weird man to let go of his son, which the weird man agreed. So at the coal mine, old man behaved as if he was severely sick by doing all sorts of sick things. Pretended to have stomachache lar, headache lar, schizophrenic lar, menstrual pain lar... oops!

So the son didn't get a chance to decend into the mine for work that day. Shortly after, the mine collapsed, trapping exactly 100 people inside.

For years, nothing happened. One day, the old man really bueh tahan and told his wife what actually happened and how his trick had worked to save their son's life. His wife suddenly realized that the old man whom she has been married to all these years was actually damn blardy genius so they... :P

This was heard by the busybody Stove God. On the 24th day of the 12th month of that year, their Stove God reported this back to the Jade Emperor. Jade Emperor damn tulan. He immediately ordered people to take away the son of that old couple to become his slave.
The people learnt their lesson well. So before the Stove God departs to report to Jade Emperor, they shove a whole chunk of super sticky gluey Nian Gao down the blardy bastard's throat to choke him to half death so that he would talk less in front of the Jade Emperor. Otherwise he would be damn kehpoh and talk nonsense. The tulan Jade Emperor would then give bad luck to the family concerned.

So this, my friends, is the true meaning behind our Nian Gao : a murder weapon against kehpohchis.

Nian Gao in Malaysia commonly come as a short cylinder wrapped in some kind of bamboo leaves. I'll get a photo later. During the prayer to send off the Stove God, one usually cut out some pattern from some red paper and put it on top of the Nian Gao.
Photo stolen from shiokadelicious.com. :P

Nian Gao can be served in different ways. The commonest is steamed. Steamed Nian Gao is very soft like err... semi watery diarrhoea glue. You can use either a pair of chopsticks or fork to dig into it and transfer it to your mouth. Some prefer to dip the chopsticks/fork with the Nian Gao into some shaved coconut before putting it in mouth.

Another way to serve Nian Gao is to deep fry it. Cut un-steamed Nian Gao (which is quite solid) into square pieces and deep fry. You can deep fry along with some other thing like sweet potato or yam dipped in beaten egg and flour etc.

I've heard some Japanese old men got choked to death consuming Nian Gao. Luckily one of them was saved after his daughter managed to shove a vacuum cleaner tube down his windpipe and switched it to 'high'. So, be careful! ^_^

orientation---detective game

whoa!!! PAndora had such really humongous big round breast!!!...Ah quah shall always remain as aqua..no doubt!!

neway, i thought everything went quite well with not many injuries happening. come to think of it, the number of casualties is way lower than that of B104. hmmm...wonder why the B104s are so prone to injury...????

Highlight of the event i think was Ai Lian's 'famous' junior. I think everyone in P104 knows about it already... hehe...that stuck up girl with her stuck up pants (as Ai Lian puts it). i don't really know her...but she does look snobbish.well...thank her parents for giving her those genes and thank her parents for causing her to get 'extra' punishment, 'extra' dirty water from the seniors..!!!

i think the seniors were having much more fun than the juniors...they were practically playing throughout the whole night!!!whatever it is...i have learnt through yesterday that ..there are certain ppl in our batch that you should never mess up...if not..you will end up in deep H**L. What i mean to say is that...if you kena them 'kau kau' , they will kena you back 3 times as ' kau kau kau'!!!!but, i think life really becomes even more fun with such ppl...so i think i am really happy to be in this batch of fun and happening pharmacists..

reached home at 10.30 pm. whoa...so hungry and tired.....finished all the dinner leftovers and finished 2 big pomelos in the fridge...i think when i am sooo hungry... i always tend to overeat.then....was so tired right after..i went gao gao...

25th wedding anniversary

hey...my parents are having their 25th wedding anniversary celebration. i am planning to celebrate it for them extravagantly...

has anyone hosted such an event before?
.any good location as to where i should organise it?
..anyone mind educating me about how they actually organised their parent's wedding anniversary?.
what hotels do you all recommend?

.thanks ya

must start studying!!!

aiyo...today we had microbio tutorial...self-assesment it seemed....i think it felt more like a 'you must strat studying now, junie' kinda tutorial..i studied a little bit..but no use also wan!! what they asked was not really what u could find in the module notes.anyone with me?haha...and joe sat beside me thinking i could help him when the fact was that he helped me even more so...he knew bout the gonorrhea stuff and how it got infected.

so i asked him ' how did you know bout gonnorhea?'
he said "i have it ma... want me to transmit it to you?"
haha!! He is really one great clown joker!!! no wonder he has so many friends...

anyway...having such clownish friends like joe , anson, who never seem to tire me of their jokes makes life in uni so much more relaxing realising the fact that uni life can be so stressful..there is just so much to study in such a short span of time!!!without some crappy jokes ...i really dunno how i am gonna survive in this real competitive world!!!

so...i guess crappy friends are indeed essential in this world ...someone i knew told me he did not like to mix with crappy people who just hang around together and make lame jokes because he thought they were a waste of his time and energy. he preferred friends that could exchange info with him...talk too him about intelletual and practical stuff...but..i think if life was to be sooooooo realistic...sooooo practical , what is fun then?..what is life as a teenager then?..aren't we meant to have fun together and do all these lame things at this stage.is it not only at the older stage that we will be having these 'educational' conversation topics?..anyone with me?...

but.,..my advice remains....have all the fun u wnat while you are still young!! dont' act like an adult while your days as a young adult is numbered while the days as a matured adult will be countless...

today....after micro is yet another day where i feel like another dumbo who knows nothing...haih..must be more rajin from now on...

Favourites....

I suddenly think that.... it is very important for a person to have favourites in his or her life... your favourite movie..fav singer..fav drink..fav food....fav book.... why?..because it makes life so much easier for other people.

the other day.... i was just shopping to buy a present for a friend.....how hard it was..that person did not have preference in anything... in everything also..the answer was cin cai....
come to think of it... if we have favourites...it is also easier for a person to show love and affection to you because then the person would know what to buy for you to make you happy..isn;t this so?...so....pls..pls..pls...have some favourites in something everyone...even if you do not have...create one!!!.....to make ppl's life easier....rite?just like my grandma knows my fav kuih kapit, my father know my fav pomelo and sis know all of my fav things...and i too know hers....chocs , chicken floss popia and pineapple tarts!!! and i'll save the most delicious tarts for her...just bcoz i love her..hehe...

Tuition and pomelos...

I am now currently teaching tuition in the place of mummy dearest. She is currently doing her master in Education.I think she must be really busy and exhausted having to earna living as a lectureer and at the same time study for her Masters. Anyway, i really enjoy teaching the kids...( can bluff them with stories i simply make up ..and the most intersting part is that... they actually believe what i say !!Of course... they are only stories..so i guess its ok to simply make up stories to light up the class)

ya..what about pomelos and tuition.
well...i teach tuition..but i don't get paid for it !! my dad gets all the money. But, i was the one who told him that he doesn't need to pay me. i am already direly grateful to them for bringing me up..so, who am i to ask them to pay me for this little favour i am doing for them. it was just to relief my mama of her burdens. what about the pampers, milk powder, education they had to pay for the whole of my life, rite?..anyway... i know dad feels bad for not paying me...so everytime after tuition, he would go buy a pomelo for me... so sweet of him , huh?..and i'll finish the pomelo that day itself while watching tv. The pomelo sometimes even though might taste a little sourish but is filled with a taste of sweetness.. a taste of love.... and i think love rules..above alll!!! love rules...above all things...even pomelo..

TOO MUCH COOKIES!!!

hai....down with cough and cold yesterday. couldnt go uni because no transport to uni!!so pathetic! anyway...mum promised to buy me a kancil!! am waiting ever so eagerly...wonder when is it coming..so excited la!!!

y cough and cold? i think its bcoz of the cookies i ate...everyday...cookies and kuih kapit. i love the kuih kapit so much that i finished the whole tin of kuih kapit in2 days!! its really nice. made by my beloved grandmama. she says that when her hand heals ( she fractrued her wrist ) she'll make somemore kuih kapit especially for me!!! aww...how nice of her!!! i think my family really loves me a lot. then my sis...the last time i went penang to visit her.. she bought 'tarn sarn' ( twisted biscuit ) for me around 1 packet and i finished it all at one go. she saw how much i loved it and learnt how to make it for me. so, this chinese new year..she actually made one tin of it for me!!!!my sister, the girl who never steps into the kitchen to cook...made biscuit just for me !!!see how they love me !!! i really dunno what i can do to repay their love. i miss my sister so much...and she is leaving to penang again tomorrow....if only tomorrow never comes...then i can have her by my side....for the rest of my life!!!!

Chinese New Year.!!

AHhhh...my favourite festival of all..where all my relatives come and visit...hehe
LAst time, on the first day of cny... our family always had to travel to seremban to visit out ' agong' .but..ever since he passed away..we stayed at our house every first day of cny. then, grandmama will cook her most delicious 'chai choy'--my favourite, chai curry, and chai duck. really very happy this cny...so happy that i don't even feel like starting uni , studying again. how nice it would be if life was just spending time with your family doing things together everyday... i think family is so important. its so nice to have them around even though they are of ages 80 or even 6. the warmth and comfort they give just by being there...the feeling is so different.
had 3 lou sang this year...wahh...i love lou sang..!!! if only we could have it all year round!! i pestered my mom to buy lou sang just for me to eat..but ..i think its very expensive...haha..nvm....ill just keep pestering until she buys me one lou sang just for my own consumption .!!!