Chinese New Year Market @ Chinatown, Singapore

Every year in Singapore, the Chinese New Year celebration kicks off with Street Light-up, festive bazaar stalls, street performances and etc. And these activities usually takes place in the Key streets in Chinatown such as Eu Tong Sen Street, New Bridge Road, South Bridge Road, and Garden Bridge.

This Luna New Year would be the year of the Water Dragon and there would be with traditional Chinese lanterns and colorful street lights together with street performers and acrobats like lion dancers to buzz up the lanes in Chinatown.

Make your New Year wishes come true at the Chinatown Wishing Tree this Spring Festival! You can try your hand at tossing a mandarin orange wishing charm onto a lucky banyan tree at Chinatown.

The Lunar New Year bazaar stalls occupied the lanes from the Pagoda Street, Smith Street, Sago Street, Temple Street and Trengganu Street within Chinatown. Below are some of the photos showing the auspicious New Year goodies and the bazaar stalls at Chinatown.

Pussy willow or also known as Ying Liu has fluffy white blossoms which resemble silk with the color of green jade. And majority of the Chinese enjoy such signs of growth which represent the coming of prosperity.

Cakes such as "Sticky Rice Cake - 年糕" which symbolizes a rich, sweet life plus "Pomelo - 柚子" in mandarin word "柚子" sounds like the word for "to have" and "Red Radish" symbolizes auspicious beginning and etc.

All sorts of sweets, puddings, jellies, peanuts, preserved persimmons and etc which is must to purchase during New Year.

Stalls selling waxed meat products such as sausages, waxed meat, waxed duck and etc which most of the household used it to braised delicious dishes during Chinese New Year gatherings.

All sort of Chinese auspicious handicrafts, red packets and customary New Year decorations along the bazaars area.

In conjunction with the 2012 celebrations, the festive Bazaar runs from December 31 2011, opening from 6pm to 10:30pm daily till January 22 2012.(some stalls starts around NOON time during weekends too) And during Chinese New Year Eve, the Bazaar would extends its operating hours to 1.00am.

To avoid heavy traffic around the Chinatown area, you could take public transport as such the MRT and alight at Chinatown station.

KOHII - A Japanese Style Café in CBD Area

Located in Central Business District(CBD) which is less than 10 minutes walk from Raffles Place MRT, KOHII is a newly open Japanese cafe which serve busy executives, families and passer-by who is out looking for fresh and healthy meals other than those usual eateries available around Shento Way area.

At KOHII it offers a modern style Tokyo cafe and sandwich bar concept that is specialising in high quality coffees from imported from Japan as well as handmade sandwiches and soup to start of a healthy meal for the day.

While flipping through the menu, KOHII has a wide selections of beverages ranging from hot to cold drinks such as premium coffee from Japan, Tea, Soda, Smoothie and etc. Above show two of it's signature smoothies which named after the cafe owner's daughters; Ichigo Nana(front, S$6.30 each) which is a mixture of fresh strawberries with banana whereas Mango Momo(back, S$6.30 each) is a refreshing combination of Mango and Peach blended.

Compared the two smoothies that we had that day, ShiTing(author of Lobsterpaints) and me preferred Mango Momo more than Ichigo Nana as it has a very light and refreshing after taste fragrant which makes you crave for more.

KOHII has two types of home-made soup such as Pumpkin (S$7.50 per bowl) and Mixed Mushrooms (S$9.80 per bowl). Each order of soup is served with some freshly toasted bread and ours for that day is their Premium Mixed Mushrooms Soup which is popular among the ladies.

Indeed I was caught off with the taste of their soup which is quite different from the usual mushroom soup that I used to have. Kohii's mushroom soup which used 5 different types of mushrooms has a unique homecook taste which is light and flavorsome compared to those thick and creamy western mushroom soup. No wonder we saw most of the customers ordered mushrooms soup during our visit to the cafe last week.

The salad and sandwich bar where the customers could see how the food are prepared before being served or take-away.

Out of the 10 different fillings used for their Sandwich, we tried the Teriyaki Chicken Breast and Marinated Mushrooms. We love the Marinated Mushrooms which is something special and definitely worth trying. Each bite into the sandwich you could taste the assorted mushrooms bursting into flavour in your mouth together with the accompany vegetables and wholesome bun. And according to the serving staffs at the bar counter all their mushrooms used are imported from Japan and customer can also choose either plain or oatmeal bread for the sandwich too.

Teriyaki Chicken on the hand was a bit on the tough side perhaps due to the used of chicken breast meat but overall the marinated sauce and flavour of the chicken blends well with the sandwich.

As for Salad, Kohii has 6 different types of choices such as Plain(S$5.80), Teriyaki Chicken(S$8.50), Japanese Curry Chicken(S$8.50), Pesto Chicken(S$8.50), Assorted Mixed Mushrooms(S$9.80) and Assorted Seafood(S$10.50). Each is served with Kohii's homemade dressings (Soy Vinegrette, Goma and Miso) which would complement the light and fresh mix of salad greens.

For S$10.50 you would be able to enjoy a bowl of Assorted Seafood Salad which has very Fresh seafood that is air-flown from Japan. As you could see from the photo above, it consists of Alaska Snow Crab Meat, Octopus, Scallop and Prawn mixture together with Goma(Roasted Sesame Dressing) dressing.

And for those who wants some quick bite, KOHII also offer daily High Tea Specials from 2.00pm - 6.00pm @ S$7.90 nett. You could choose between, 1 sliced of cake/pie/muffin plus either coffee/tea to perk up your afternoon break or light dinner before heading for movie or meetup.

KOHII

1 Shenton Way
#01-06
Singapore 068803
Telephone: (65) 6509 9639
Website: Facebook Page

Operating Hours:
Mon - Fri: 8:30am - 8:30 pm;
Sat: 9:00am - 3:00pm

Closed on Sunday and PH

Round Up Dishes For Chinese New Year plus SWANSON CNY Recipe Cards

It's almost 2 weeks to Chinese New Year and having Steamed Boat with family and friends is always something most family would prepared during new year get together session. And sometime we even gets to eat steamed boat everyday during Chinese New Year period when hopping around from house to house visit.

This year I am honor to join in the project on developing FOUR quick and easy Chinese New Year dishes using these all-time family favourite chicken broth from Swanson. On the recipe cards we have Scallop with Wolfberries Soup, Steamed Dan Gui Prawn, Meatballs in Crabmeat Egg Sauce and Braised Sea Cucumber with Abalone And Mushroom.

Currently Swanson Chicken Broth is having promotion pack at some of the supermarkets such as FairPrice where you could purchase the 3 packets(1 litre each) bundle at about S$8.50. Each bundle also comes with a recipe card featuring 2 quick and easy New Year dishes for you to impressive your guests.

MEATBALLS IN CRABMEAT EGG SAUCE

Here I would like to share with you this "Meatballs in Crabmeat Egg Sauce" from the FOUR featured dishes in the SWANSON Chicken Broth Chinese New Year recipes card. This is pretty simple to prepare and it is quite similar to the "Braised Lion Head - 红烧狮子头" concept on making meatballs which is cooked in delicious fresh crabmeat sauce.

(serves: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
150g Imitation Shark’s Fin
300g Minced Meat
4 Water Chestnuts, chopped
50g Carrot, finely chopped
2 Fresh Mushroom, diced

Marinade:
½ Teaspoon each of Light Soy Sauce, Cooking Wine and Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon Cornflour
Dash of Ground Pepper

Sauce:
1 Can Swanson Clear Chicken Broth
100g Fresh/Frozen Crab Meat
½ Teaspoon Oyster Sauce and Sesame Oil
1 Egg White
Dash of Ground Pepper
1 Tablespoon Cornflour + ½ Tablespoon Water

Method:-

1. Season minced meat with marinade together with chopped chestnuts, carrot and mushroom till combined.

2. Using clean hands shaped 1½ tablespoons of minced meat into round balls and coats them with imitation shark’s fins.

3. Arrange on steaming plate, steam over high heat for 10 minutes until cooked. Remove and set aside while preparing the sauce.

4. For crabmeat sauce; bring Swanson Clear Chicken Broth to boil, add in crabmeat, oyster sauce and cook for 2 minutes.

5. Thicken sauce by stirring in cornflour solution, turn off the heat and swirl in lightly beaten egg white.

6. Season sauce with sesame oil and ground pepper, ladle over the meatballs and serve hot.

Below are some of the collections of my Chinese New Year round-up over the past years. Hope these could give you some inspiration while preparing the coming new year menu.

CHINESE NEW YEAR DISHES

Stir-Fry 7 Assorted Veggies	Braised Mushroom With Sea Cucumber	Pan-fried White Spotted Rabbitfish With Leeks
Braised Chicken Wing With Arrowhead and Mushroom	Steam Salmon Fillet With Herbs	Steam Osmanthus Cod Fish

CHINESE NEW YEAR DESSERT

Lotus Seeds, Longan And Persimmon Sweet Soup	Sweet And Savory Nian Gao	Orr Nee With Gingko Nut And Pumpkin
Lotus Seeds Soup - 莲子羹	Glutinous Red Date With Osmanthus Syrup

CHINESE NEW YEAR GOODIES

Pineapple Tarts	Peanut Cookies - 花生酥	Deep-Fried Arrowhead Chips

Till then have fun trying out these recipes and I hope I could be in time to share with you more new recipes on Chinese New Year theme soon.