CNY Seaweed Snacks Recipe

Chinese New Year is finally here! Gong Xi Gong Xi!

Traditionally, every household will stock up variety of snacks at home in anticipation of relatives and friends who would visit during Chinese New Year.

One of the best one is the seaweed cracker. It is basically deep fried seaweed wrapped in spring roll skin.

Use egg as sticking agent and applied it onto the spring roll skin. Place the seaweed on top, apply another layer of egg with brush. Sprinkle some sesame seed and seal it with another layer of spring roll skin. Use scissor to cut to your favourite sizes. Tossed them into a hot boiling oil to deep fry.

Let's see how it is done in action.

农历新年来咯！恭喜恭喜！ 传统上，每个家庭都会在农历新年期间准备各种零食来招待拜访的亲戚朋友。 最好吃之一是紫菜饼。它基本上是用春卷皮包裹紫菜然后拿去油炸。 用鸡蛋作为粘着剂，将其涂在春卷皮上。将紫菜放在上面，再用刷子刷上一层鸡蛋。撒些芝麻，然后用另一层春卷皮盖上去。用剪刀将其切成您喜欢的尺寸。最后把它们放入热沸腾的油中油炸。 让我们看看它的过程吧！

Old House Restaurant @ Kimberley Street

It was Chinese New Year's Eve, most people have gone back to their hometowns respectively, the usually jam packed streets around George Town were deserted, peaceful yet warm atmosphere throughout as everyone was getting ready for the welcoming of the new year the next day.

Chinese New Year's Eve has always been one of the most significant date on the Lunar Calendar as it is the time when families are having their reunion dinner. In today's globalized world, people work at various places around the world but on that day most will go back to their hometowns to spend time and reunite with families members. What is greater than the feeling of going HOME after all?

The place we went for our reunion dinner in 2014 was at the Old House Restaurant at Kimberley Street, George Town, Penang. It is a located in a row of beautifully preserved heritage shop houses.

Old House Restaurant main entrance.

As the restaurant's owner also does some other business like selling Chinese worshiping items, there are many interesting things to see such as the statue of Tang Sanzang (唐三藏) at the front of it along the five-foot way.

Tang Sanzang (唐三藏)

As we were directed to our reserved table, there were small porcelain bowls elevated on a porcelain tray with candle in them. What was inside the bowls was the exact dish that I had been waiting for: 佛跳墙 (literally means that this dish is so good that even the Buddha will be tempted to jump over the wall and have a taste of it). The waitress then light the candles to warm it up for us which made it looked even more appetizing. 

佛跳墙

Appetizer - roast pork, scallop, salad prawn & century egg.

Penang Hokkien Mee

Beautiful colors of this unique Penang hawker food which some people also refer to as prawn noodle soup.

Chinese Tea in glass