CNY dinner gathering farewell to the year of Ox

Last night my elder sister, younger sister and her helper Lea as well as myself made a dinner for 5 families. That reminded me of 30 years ago when I did that with my sister on my grand mom's birthday dinner. However, I made a big mistake with my abalone that made a flaw on the whole dinner, but don't let it spoil the mood. The most important thing is to have everyone be together and feel connected!

1. My sister bought this big fin, like big butterfly. 2. My sister made a very nice job in deep frying the pork - still very crispy even after coated with sauce. Lea cut the bell peppers and shallots/ginger and I made the sauce. :) This one turned out very nice and the kids love it.

3. took this photo a bit late. Though it's a bit scattered, the taste is superb. My sister bought some giant mushrooms and giant fish maw and very nice dried scallop. Seemed like we were eating mushroom steak and fish maw steak. So good. 4. BBQ duck and steamed chicken. These 2 seemed to be less welcome as we love the other dishes.

5. OK, the fins soup in chicken soup. Very nice! My sister put some very nice conch and Chinese golden ham in making the soup base. 6. Veggie with pork over abalone/mushroom. Only the veggie is nice. The abalone to be reported separately.

7. Scallop stir fried with celery. Pretty nice but I should have pan fried the celery a bit longer to clear the "grass smell". It's because I didn't wash the pan after the oil boiling of scallop. That made the pan a bit sticky and in order not to make it too burnt, I put the water a bit early. To me, it's disqualified. 8. steamed 2 garoupas. The first one is ok, but the second one I put the wrong soy sauce - dark soy sauce! I think it's all on the hurrying for all the dishes to go go go... :) Guess I haven't practised this for a long time. In the old time, I got used to it.
9. Wild catch sea prawn. Very nice and the meat is very crunchy and sweet!