Reunion dinner

As usual, every year, My auntie and uncle who has a son studying secondary (now going to Poly) here in Singapore, would always invite me to have a reunion dinner, i.e. the dinner before the Chinese New Year.
And This year, again, I went with them for reunion dinner.
I would say that this uncle of mine is actually quite a spendthrift especially when it comes to food. We would listen when he shared with us about the good that he had tried in other parts of the world, showing how professional in judging food he is.

Nevertheless yeah, He decided that he take all of to Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant for the dinner. My auntie, who is the one blood-related to me, called me and said that, come over at 7pm for reunion dinner. I had no idea where we were going so I just wore a fancy T-Shirt and shorts with sneakers. When I reached at my Uncle's home, they were like, "huh, how come you are wearing shorts?"

Me: "Oh, are we going to somewhere formal?"
"Yeah, we are going to a restaurant! Isn't it obvious that every reunion dinner we'd always go to restaurant?"
Me: "Ah, okay, I didn't notice that, so sorry.."
"But it's okay, doesn't matter.. Anyway"
Auntie: "Ah, it's my fault for not telling him, anyways, you already know what to wear for next year's!"

I was feeling a bit awkward already when I saw no one in short pants, but without losing any confidence with my appearance, I thought to myself when I was inside, "what the hell, there's no one wearing pants but this place isn't such a place that requires you to wear long pants!"

I sat down, the waitress/manager there seemed already familiar with my uncle.

In fact this story got a little bit disorganized, but actually it wasn't only us who joined the dinner.
There's another family of my uncle's friend, with whom I had my second reunion dinner (which is last year). His son who joined us is already 20sth and was in Singapore since small and graduated from some Canada University that I can't remember.
It was even more awkward to know that I had to have the dinner with them. If it was only my relatives and me, I wouldn't feel anything at all.

so back to: I sat down, the waitress/manager there seemed already familiar with my uncle. And it was that friend of my Uncle which had already done the booking. To cut the story short, I shall just state out the food that we had:

1. the "Lao yu sheng" dish (Singaporean tradition of celebrating chinese new year: some veggies, some sauce, some small crackers and raw salmon meat. Eaten after being "lao"ed (dank says it's louhei, i'm just trying to be anyhow here don;t worry) [mixed by raising it up with chopsticks and then putting it back again. The action is done when you speak of some good words for chinese new year like "nian nian you yu" "wan shi ru yi" ) This dish said to have becoming popular in Medan.

2. Shark fin soup (The presentation looked like a normal soup on a plate with white thingy, took me awhile to figure it out since normally they were presented in a bowl not on a plate.)

3. Scallops served with "Fa Cai" (A chai named fat but it's reading is almost similar to fa cai "to grow fortune"

4. Abalone. Probably my first time eating a real one. Probably not so popular in my hometown because it tasted like a looooot of cholestrol. But tasty indeed. But maybe I've eaten it before, I just known that its chinese name is bao yu, (bao hu in hokkian, which is quite famous as an expensive food)

5. Fish (Some steamed fish which I don't the rem name but tasted damn good, another wordplay with "nian nian you yu" yu= fish "yu= leftovers meaning you don't overspend your income or money")

6. Grilled duck. Absolutely tasty and my favourite... A bit oily but the skin's crispy.. The duck were not like the peking duck which has little flesh to be eaten, but the taste was good.

7. Glutonious fried rice with shrimp paste (ebi? in hokkian is he bi which means granules of shrimps), and some tiny sliced char siew.

8. Shrimp. My uncle said it's called dua tao he (big headed shrimp). Yeah, not a cray fish not a lobster, just a big breed of shrimp. Again very nice!

9. Some lotus-like(not exactly lotus) shaped mooncake-like(not exactly mooncake) small cakes. The shape is to represent fa "to grow" filled with some sweet (probably lotus) paste.

10. Glutonious ball in peanut soup. The peanut soup tasted sinful but great. The ball, which is only one, tasted quite good as well.

Yeah, those were the food.. To bad no photos to share since it's a bit unreasonable to take picture of this food when you are not paying for them, nor you were with someone that familiar to do so, especially in the presence of your uncle's friend.

Because it's Chinese New Year, after we got back, I got an angbao from him (da uncle's friend). It is not my habit to check the amount of an angbao when I'm not yet alone or with my real family, but since my cousin and auntie wanted to know so badly how much I've got from him, it was just a mere $20 where my cousin got $60 since they are more familiar with my cousin.
This is probably one of the reason that I grow that habit of not checking the money amount of the angbao: "Fair Discrimination"; it's fair because it's discrimination based on familiarity and it's discrimination since you've got less than someone else. Though I actually don't mind since it's got the "fair" effect and $20 is not little although it's not that much for a rich guy like my uncle's friend.

I am very very very thankful that I am blessed with relatives who are very rich, not so much like my family, at least rich enough to take me to a restaurant with such good food, and of course, in an expensive pricing.
However, I've been missing my family recently which made me think that a humble home-cooked reunion dinner with my real family: Dad, Mom and my two imouto-s (younger sister) would be so much more enjoyable compared with that expensive dinner with good food but not so fun and awkward atmosphere, remember "uncle's friend?".

Since the term "Reunion Dinner" itself is self-explanatory: The dinner where you reunite with your family. Not your "relative's friend". Maybe not so well noticed by my uncles or family since they don't use the term "Reunion Dinner", but "sa cap meh" (30th night, it's the date before new year in lunar calendar) instead.
Probably some english speaking chinese knew about the true meaning behind sa cap meh and romanized it to "reunion dinner". Yeah, it is indeed supposed to be reunion with your family not with my uncle and uncle's friend.

Back in Indo it was more fun when my grandma was around. A steamboat eatery in Medan all booked only for our big family: my family with whom my grandma live, and my father's brothers and sister's family, and my other cousins. Truly a reunion dinner that we should have.
The reunion dinner is best enjoyed when it fulfills its own meaning.

Hahahaha, unless your food is dammmmmmm bad during reunion dinner. That spoils the whole thing. Luckily the expensive restaurant's food was good hahahahha.