Two days ago i went back to my hometown for my cousin sis's wedding dinner. It is a fishing village situated in Perak, Kuala Kurau for those who has heard about it or seen in some certain geography revision books back in form 3. Takes a 3-4 hour drive. My parents (after mum dozed off while driving) finally let me drive, and i zoomed like the wind.
Personally i hate going back to hometown. The humid sea air is terrible as it makes me sweat profusely. And the place is loaded with old busybody relatives (related, not-so-related and the random sister's husband's niece's daughter's son-in-law) of whom i have no recollection of. Anyway, the wedding dinner took place right outside my grandpa's house. Not of v. good taste, i must say. The music. Holy... Those loud shrieky hokkien songs + Teresa Teng + some 80's Chinese music + a mic for them to sing. I suppose it was to please those freakin kampung relatives who have no taste.
Some pictures of the food.
This is the strangest starter platter ever. Going clockwise. The aluminum dish does not contain loh mai kai, thank goodness. It contained otak-otak. Next, taiwanese sausages cut into flowers. Next, fried breaded prawn balls. Strange... oh well. The whitish stuff are some sorta saladish acar which tasted funny. Moving on the the black crispy fried chicken (strange but tasted good) and beside them water chessnut dessert thingies. In the middle is a clump of scrambled egg + carrot shreds + mushrooms + supposedly shark's fin shreds. V.v. strange combination of food, but tasted pretty good regardless.
Urgh. Chicken, mushrooms and 
Next up was this large bowl of shark's fin soup + crabmeat and mushroom (v. shark unfriendly) but it got distributed real quickly, so this is my bowl. Passable... Nothing special.
Aaaand here comes the dish i dislike most. Pork trotters + sea cucumber. I absolutely abhor sea cucumber. It's disgusting, man. Sure, it has lots of calcium and whatnot, but i'm just not a fan. And the trotters were 80% fat and 20% meat. The older generation seemed to like this dish though.
Thing good about having dinner in a fishing village is that we get super super fresh seafood. And i mean super fresh. God this fish was divine. The steam pomfret had no fishy smell at all. The meat was just heavenly, springy and soft. Ooooohh!!
Mixed vege with squid and clams in squid sauce. Squid! V. nice. And this is coming from a predominantly carnivorous person like me.
Huge plate of super super fresh prawns. Served with a crude dip of soya sauce + garlic and cili padi. Lovely, lovely prawns. They didn't trigger my allergy. Hehe.The dessert was just a typical white fungus and longan soup with ginkgo nuts. No point posting a pic of it here.
As i said, this is just a simple dinner to please the kampung fellers, who are miserably skinflint to the max. Kiam siap penny pinchers. It is customary for people who attend Chinese weddings to give ang paus to the bride and groom. Apparently the village relatives (related, the not-so-related, and the random) gave like 20 or 30 bucks. After that...
You see how they drink. Alcohol.
More alcohol.
Even more alcohol.
Holy crap, a whole lotta alcohol. And how much does a bottle of those Martell V.S.O.P. cost? 300+? I saw this particularly obnoxious uncle and his drunkard friends put away one bottle in less than 5 mins, then coming back for more. Sighs.Ah well. I shouldn't be bitching. Weddings are occasions for celebration. Here's to thrift, frugality and greed. XD
My cousin will be hosting a more formal and proper wedding dinner (free from karaokeing uncles clad in slippers, shorts and batik shirts) in Hotel Istana on Saturday, and i'll be posting up more pics soon.
***
Anyway i made some chocolate fudge using Yvonne Woi's recipe which can be found here.
I tweaked it a bit by using almond flakes, which wasn't a good option. Will try almond strips next time as they are thicker and will provide a better crunch. Fudge turned out too sweet for my liking. I think it's probably because i didn't buy the dark chocolate. Will visit Guten Braun next time (btw, jaya jusco supermarket failed me for the first time: i couldn't find cooking chocolate there and had to go to giant instead).
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Rushed back to Penang today as grandpa, 90, fell down and fractured his pelvic bone. My goodness. They replaced it with a plastic one. Thank god he fell down sideways. If he had fallen on his spine, or head-first... Brrr. Best not to think about that. Dad said his hands were all bruised as he used them to reduce impact. V. tough man, my grandpa, for someone his age. Escaped here from China few decades ago when the communists were stirring up havoc.
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Aaaand...
Green hair. Initially it was bottle green like this.
Then it faded into some sorta peacock green.
Now it is just blue. Will fade even more as i'll be going swimming (in chlorine) tomorrow.
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