Jia Jia's Birthday Party

On the weekend of 23-24 Jun'12, we celebrated Jia Jia's 70th Birthday. It was a good get-together for Jia Jia and her siblings. It had been about 20 years since all the siblings got together. As Jia Jia is the only sibling living in Singapore, the rest flew in from New Zealand (Tai Q), Australia (Uncles Jeff and Terry, Aunties Nancy and Tze Yin) and Malaysia (Uncle Cho Kong), some with their spouses. We also had a couple of nephews fly in for the event from KL and HK.

Here are the photos pre-dinner.

The siblings

All the ladies - we skipped a generation here

The highlight, of course, was the dinner at Summer Pavilion, which KK helped organise, in addition to sponsoring the spirits, both liquid and otherwise. And here are the photos at the dinner.

This is the photo of the middle generation toasting, plus one from the senior generation. Guess he was there to show the way. Or maybe he's training ... for Oct 2012.

Uncle Jeff. Great speech!

In addition to the dinner, we also organised the inaugural Hakka Iron Chef competition. It was no surprise that the surprise common ingredient was abacus seeds. For those who are not familiar, it's basically mashed yam kneaded into little balls shaped like abacus seeds. Or for those more western, it's our Hakka version of gnocchi.

Here are the seeds, before cooking. Looks more like brains in this photo.

Contestant A, Choong, with his number 1 supporter. 

Contestant C, KK, who was just cooking for fun, but brought along his own stock, sauces etc. I can't seem to find the photo of contestant B, Yun, cooking. Think he may have been inappropriately dressed and hence the photo was deleted.

The food tasting. Contrary to what some claimed to be Hakka tradition, everyone was given an equal vote, regardless of age, sex, spouse etc.

Here are the neutral officials, counting the votes

And the proud parents of the winner!

 We all had a great time, especially the birthday girl. Thanks everyone, once again, for making the trip here, from overseas and Bukit Timah. Till the next big gathering and Hakka Iron Chef competition.