Ruby's Full Moon Celebration

The dish of red eggs looked rather spectacular, I thought. In the centre is the pickled ginger. The egg is a symbol of new life, and in Chinese culture the colour red is associated with good luck.

Mum had cooked two lots of chicken curry during the week and had frozen them. Here’s one batch of chicken curry being thawed out in the wok on the barbie. As you can see, the curry is in the shape of the ice cream container it was frozen in. :)

Here are cooked curry potatoes. Chicken curry freezes very well, but potatoes tend to go soggy, which is why the chicken curry is frozen minus the potatoes.

Here are the potatoes being heated in the curry sauce…

… the chicken curry before the potatoes were added…

… and the curry chicken and potatoes combined. The smell was heavenly.

This may have been Jay’s plate of chicken curry and nasi kunyit.

Juji had also made a simple pasta bake, for guests who weren’t so keen on curry and rice. Of course, some of us had curry and rice and pasta bake!

My first plate of curry and rice. The sliced champignon you see there is from the pasta bake, not the curry! Heh.

Ooops, almost forgot the egg!

Juji had boiled the eggs so the yolks weren’t runny or crumbly – they were soft and gooey. With a little freshly cracked black pepper – delicious!

The first session was for friends, the second was for family. My aunties (Mum’s sisters) arrived for the second session with more curry!

Chicken curry.

More chicken curry.

Yet another chicken curry.

And yes, even more chicken curry.

My aunt S happily proclaimed it “death by curry”, and helped herself to more. :)

My brother’s mum-in-law, Ruby’s other grandma rocked up with a platter of sausage rolls and mini quiches, warm from the oven.

Juji had also made kuih bulu. She used my late grandma’s recipe – they turned out lovely. She warmed them in the steamer before serving.

CW made a lemon curd cake using a Delia Smith recipe. The tangy lemon was lovely.

Mum’s friend from work (we call him Uncle M) and his wife K arrived with a surprise – a beautiful homemade iced butter cake (K made my Mum’s 60th birthday cake last year -see photo here). As you can see, little Ruby has a few names – Ruby, as in the gemstone; Deirdre, the name of a beautiful heroine in Celtic legend (her mum, my sister-in-law, is Irish-Australian); and her Chinese name Yee-Ping, which means “harmonious peace” in Mandarin. I guess she’ll be Ruby when she’s good and “Ruby Deidre Yee-Ping!” when she’s naughty! My sister CW helped put together possible Chinese names for Ruby, and my brother and Ange made the final choice. Click here to read CW’s reflections on the process of coming up with Chinese names.

The cake looked so beautiful we were reluctant to cut into it. But I’m glad we did – it was delicious!

Mum friend M turned up with more food – bakewell slice (with jam and coconut) and chocolate slice…

… coconut cake

… and caramel slice.

Another of mum’s work friends J brought along some lovely little mini tea cakes.

Here are the ang koo kuih. They are made with glutinous rice flour and have a chewy, rubbery texture. Inside is a yellow mung bean filling. I don’t really like them that much personally, but my uncles and aunts really enjoyed them.

See? Sort of like turtles!

I love the expression on her face in this photo:

Here, in her dad’s arms (yep, a change of shirt was necessary after a little post-feed spew):

Here she is, at the end of the day, still snoozing and none the wiser for being the VIP of the day.