new yr

Suze's family kindly let a bunch of us over to their place for a chinese new year dinner with some of their other family/friends. It was fantastic. it's funny, it's like a bbq but asian style, with ppl sitting around chatting and food galore. Oh the food. i think i had more obviously malaysian food here than i did in Malaysia. the flavours were new to me, very different. I admit it'd take me a little while to get use to but it was tasty. especially the satay sticks, mmm. fish balls, mmm. noodles, mmm.
The highlight was the ice kachang. we were so excited when we heard that it was going to be brought out. Ppl actually make it for themselves. there was a cool manual ice shaving machine where you have to rotate a wheel to shave the block of ice. oooh red beans, jelly, sugary sugary syrup. yummmyumyum. i wasnt too keen about the creamed corn in it though. sure it's sweet, but not THAT kind of sweet.
and THEN it was dessert! i dont think im that keen on whisky cake. but the cream was soo light and chocolatey. i brought a lemon tart. my poor tart. the pastry had been a pain and despite my shoving dough in the gaps it still had cracks in it after baking. thus the filling leaked, making soggy tart. it was still edible. mm lemony.

it was a great cultural experience (well for someone that didnt even know when chinese new yr is). thanks suze and family.

On a side note. i was running late to go to the party cos i'd been at an engagement party, just as i was about to leave, my foot hit the sofa and my pinky toenail decided to rip itself off. lovely. it didnt hurt, just inconvenient. the nail was hanging precariously off the edge and then i looked again. oh a lot has ripped off. oh there's skin, oh there's blood. coool. it's interesting seeing wat under ur nail looks like-skin. i found it absolutely fascinating. i even was taking pics of it. i had been thinkin of posting them but after showing them to my friends and seeing the absolute repulsion on every one of their faces, i decided perhaps not. surely im not the only person that finds these little detailed bodily mishaps interesting. i would have looked at it longer if time allowed.