“It just hit me that I won’t have Mum’s Cooking for long”: A Chinese New Year Story
Chinese New Year meals at my Mum’s home for the first 2-3 days of Chinese New Year is always re-heated leftover food.
Jessica, my Mum would spend over 7 hours chopping vegetables mainly Jicama/Yambean (Chinese Turnip), shredded cuttlefish, pork, black mushrooms, carrot, and big shallots to make a Penang Nyonya dish called ” Jiu Hu Char”. The wrapped JHC with lettuce with a bit of Mum’s famous Sambal Belacan is super delicious.
The other Mum’s 3 CNY dishes are the Ngar Ku (looks like a yam-textured tiny potato), pork, and chicken liver dish, and steamed CNY Combo of pork lean meat and liver sausages, waxed duck (steamed in a small plate on top of the rice in the rice cooker), and black pepper pig’s stomach soup.
Mum would cook 2 big pots of Jiu Hu Char, and will reheat the 4 CNY dishes for the first 3 days of Chinese New Year for a quick lunch and dinner as CNY guests will visit my parents throughout the first 2 days or so.
Jiu Hu Char was not my favorite until the last few years. I only go back to my hometown Ipoh a few times a year so with my built-up craving for Ipoh (aka EATpoh) hawker food, I openly try to eat less of Mum’s cooking and go for a Seng Kee’s Ipoh Curry Beehoon-Mee breakfast (Old Hugh Low Street), Old Town Sin Lean Lee Gold Char Koay Teow (3 tiny plates) lunch, and Nam Heong Old Town White Coffee high tea.
And I’ll convince my mum to go to Kafe Hillview for dinner or supper for Ipoh Sar Hor Fun, Ipoh Rojak.
This year “It just hit me that I won’t have Mum’s Cooking for long” as Mum is getting much older. Over CNY lunch she mentioned about the famous Hong Kong phrase spoken in TVB dramas or movies “Ho Loy Mo Sek Jee Kar Farn” – “so long didn’t eat Mum’s family home-cooking”. Believe me I never enjoyed my Mum’s Jee Kar Fan so much – every bite of it.
Coincidentally my Dad, Michael Chen Kim Foo, died on Chinese New Year’s Day One at 12:03 am on 19 February 2015. So my Mum will take us to St. Michael’s Church Ipoh to light 2 candles and place some flowers by Dad’s Ossuary. I miss Dad. He does send me and Mum Afterlife Signs.
Now, I truly TREASURE Mum’s Jee Kar Farn home-cooking immensely, and still enjoy the Best EATpoh food – the best of both worlds.
Robert Chaen, Whisperer CEO of http://www.ChangeU.co
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About Robert Chaen
Biodata of Robert Chaen
Founder of Robren Mega EMall, Robren Services, ChangeU, CEO-Celebrity Whisperer, Asia’s #1 Change Expert, and the Father of Asian FireWalking
Robert Chaen is an International Keynote Speaker, writer, researcher, and change expert. He is famously known as the "CEO-Celebrity Whisperer”. Through 1-on-1 coaching, CEOs & celebrities whisper their issues and secrets to Robert, and Robert whispers back the best success secrets about business strategies, change tools, office politics & staff issues, and personal branding.
He has transformed CEOs and managers in Coca-Cola China, TVB Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airport Services, VADS, TM, Public Bank, , 300+ MSC CEOs in S.E. Asia's Silicon Valley, etc.
He is the EKing of EMalls, the Founder of Robren Mega EMall, the World’s First Parallel Universe EMall Chian, with 100 City Mega EMalls opening in 2021-2023 (fb.com/MegaEMalls).
He is widely considered as one of the top International Platform Keynote Speakers for Resorts World Genting Senior Management Conference (Manila), 7-Eleven HK, Samsung, Coca-Cola China Mini-MBA @Tsing Hua University, Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Jockey Club. He has interviewed PM Tun Dr Mahathir, Datuk Kamarudin (Chairman of AirAsia), Siti Nurhaliza, and other CEOs, Entrepreneurs and Influencers.
He has been widely featured in TVB, AWSJ, CNBC, SCMP, The Star, and Sin Chew. As “The Father of Asian FireWalking”, he coached TVB celebrities (Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin) to walk on 650°C fire; and raised HK$68M in the world’s 1st and only live TV Charity FireWalk (TVB Tung Wah Charity Show). If Robert can coach you to walk on 650⁰C fire, he can inspire you to be the best.
Originally based in Hong Kong for 20+ years, he had worked with top Branding/Ad agencies at J Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett, and was a certified FranklinCovey (7 Habits) in USA, and NLP MasterCoach (USA). His warmth is known to soften the most hardened, resistant skeptics.
Due to an ongoing paranormal encounter of the Angelic kind, he has been an Angel Whisperer 25 minutes before his late wife Brenda José crossed over on 23rd December 2013. Since then she has been sending him countless afterlife signs and he has written many articles and an EBook on his whisperings about The Afterlife and beyond from Angel Brenda.
Updated: 2nd August 2020.
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