Okay, I know that December 31 is not the beginning of Chinese New Year, but somehow, it became a Dowd family tradition to have a homemade Chinese feast on New Year's Eve. Traditionally, New Year's Eve is a silly non-holiday- it alternates between maudlin and downright dangerous. Since my husband and I have only been to one New Year's Eve party in 32 years of marriage, Chinese New Year became a way to entice our teens, 'tweens and adult children to hang around on New Year's Eve (it sometimes works!) 
So what do we have every New Year's Eve? There are staples like Hot and Sour Soup and homemade egg rolls (a lot of trouble but so worth it) both recipes we have gotten from Cook's Illustrated. A recipe called Twice Fried Beans which are really only fried once, but are delicious and spicy; steamed dumplings, and some delectable sesame chicken wings that are really incredible whenever you make them. We also usually make staples such as "Peanut Butter and Worms" from the Jeff Smith cookbook The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines (this is a great resource for good Chinese food recipes) and beef and scallions and/or chicken and cashews (depending on how many guests we are having). Making Chinese food at home is very labor intensive, but so totally worth it and you can make extra and freeze (egg rolls and dumplings) for a night when you crave Chinese food but don't have the time to make or the money to buy!
We make it into a real event- we spread a tablecloth over our coffee table, pull the cushions and pillows from all over the house, and eat at our low table with chopsticks and everything! I have always wanted to make my own fortune cookies with personalized fortunes inside, but somehow have never gotten around to it- but I think it would be a real hoot! We top the evening with fireworks in the backyard to ring in the new year, and of course watch the ball drop with Dick Clark.
Since everyone in our family loves Chinese food, I always have plenty of help. Bridget is the Hot and Sour Soup maven- her soup is better than any local take-out. She always makes a large batch because leftovers are great when the kids come home from school. Molly helps fill and fold the dumplings (kids love any job that lets them put their hands in food- just be careful with raw meat!) Chinese New Year means a messy kitchen and lots of chopping, but it is worth it. Don't feel like trying more than one dish at a time? Choose a dish to try and then fill out the rest of your Chinese meal with your favorite take-out. It is the experience that counts as much as the food. Show your kids where China is on the map. Have a Chinese trivia game to encourage children to learn about China's history and culture and even give prizes to make it more fun and festive. Play Mah-Jong. It all contributes to the 
experience and the fun!I have made these recipes so many times that I don't measure everything, and besides, I want you to play with ingredients. There are lots of great cookbooks with recipes for Chinese foods, so don't be afraid to try (I personally never do Chinese on a weeknight because of all the steps involved). Most decent-sized cities will have an Asian market where you can find many of the ingredients and many dishes can be made with ingredients that you can find in the international aisle of your supermarket. Make a New Year's resolution to be more adventurous and try cuisines of the world- and start with your own family's version of Chinese New Year!
Twice Fried Beans
(Serves 6 as part of a Chinese meal)
1 1/2 lbs of fresh green beans with ends removed
1 lb reduced fat or lean bulk sausage
1/2 cup brown bean paste
1 tbsp sugar
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp chili and garlic paste (add this a quarter tsp at a time till you get to the spiciness you want)
3 cups vegetable or peanut oil for frying
Heat oil until a cube of bread browns easily, but doesn't burn. In several batches, fry beans until skins blister, but don't let them brown. Remove from hot oil and drain on paper towels. Meanwhile brown the sausage in a pan, breaking up the meat, until all pink is gone. Add brown bean paste, sugar , lime juice and chili paste to taste (my family likes hot, but you may not want yours quite so hot. Once sauce is the way you like it, stir in the beans and keep hot until serving.
Sesame Wings
(serves 6 as part of a Chinese meal (or two servings for my husband!))
3 pounds of chicken wing drumettes (wings with tips removed and cut apart at the joint)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sherry
2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2-1 cup of cornstarch
1/3 cup sesame seeds
3 cups vegetable or peanut oil for frying
Defrost chicken drumettes and combine soy sauce, sherry and sesame oil. Marinate wings overnight. when ready to serve, pour wings and 1 cup marinade into large bowl. Add cornstarch 1/4 cup at a time, mixing until a light batter clings to the wings. Mix in sesame seeds. Fry wings 4-5 at a time in hot oil until golden brown and remove to paper towels to drain. A little work but well worth it (you can use the same oil that you used for the green beans)
Steamed Dumplings
Makes enough dumplings to serve an army (or the Dowds). You can freeze premade dumplings before cooking or freeze the filling to fill dumplings later.
1 package wonton wrappers
1 lb reduced fat sausage or ground pork
1 quarter sized piece of ginger chopped very fine
4-5 scallions chopped
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of sherry
1 small egg beaten
Mix all ingredients except wonton wrappers together n a quart sized ziploc bag and smoosh (a technical culinary term) together to combine ingredients. Put a scant teaspoon of filling on middle of each wrapper, dampen edges with water, fold over and seal (you will be left with a triangle, then moisten the two long ends of triangle and seal together (result looks kind of like a hat). If you want to freeze for later, put on a cookie sheet and freeze then transfer to Ziploc bag. To cook, I use a bamboo steamer from an Asian grocery which holds two layers, but you can use any steamer, just keep dumplings in a single layer and steam 15-20 minutes (I am always cautious with pork). Another way to cook is to put a little oil in a large frying pan, brown dumplings lightly, then add 1/2 to 1 cup water and cover and lower heat until all water is gone. Serve with a dip of soy sauce, Thai chili sauce or a mixture of soy sauce and a little chili-garlic sauce to add heat. These are habit forming!
This is actually the Hainanese style chicken chop and Coliseum's version is one of the better ones I've tasted.. The chicken was too salty (I think the marination had too much salt), but the sauce was well balance and tasty. The chicken was fried till crispy, but tender and juicy on the inside.
You can hear the sizzle when the ribeye was placed on the hot plate and the black pepper sauce drenched the whole steak..CW's ribeye was medium, nicely done, tender and juicy. Still, I'm not a fan of black pepper sauce, so this was not my kinda steak. 
The ribeye was served with sides of roast potatoes and boiled veg..
The noodles was the rite type, but they replaced the fried anchovies and mince meat with char siew, meat balls and fried fish cakes..Yup, those onion bits look-a-like in the picture are actually deep fried sliced fish cakes. We tossed the noodles and took a bite.. surprisingly, the noodles tasted pretty good.. The fish cake actually make quite a nice alternative to the ubiquitous ikan bilis and the sauce was just nice. The pan mee noodle was too thick for my liking though, mental note to order thin noodles next time..Char siew was so so, but dipped in their pan mee chilli.. man oh man, its yummy! After taking a few more mouthful, I would think that the main 'attraction' in Bao Bao would be the pan mee chilli and the fish cake. 
It was basically sausage and cheese wrapped in a bun.. The bun was deep fried, tasted like those fried mantou in chinese restaurants... Once we cut the bun open.. the melted cheese started oozing out....ooooo... This, I must say, is pretty good..:)
The soup was slightly murky, but was very aromatic. Rolly polly liked this version better than PG's as he finds the PG version a tad sweet, whereas he prefers it salty..This bowl of goodness was filled with prawns, chicken and veg.. I actually find the kangkung very yummy.. I think they chose very tender shoots and maybe they did stir fry it a lil before pouring in the broth.. Dragon found the noodles a tad salty though, which I agreed.. Not sure if it's due to the fact that this is our first meal for the day, our tongue is still bland or maybe it's really salty....anyways, its salty la..
Anyways, took a shot of the place, just in case you may wanna look for it.. It's facing the no 46, Jalan San Peng shop.Opposite TM building. Off Jalan Loke Yew
The fried beancurd was topped with seaweed, bonito and a sprinkled of spring onions.. drenched in loads of sauce, P said that it was a nice dish as the beancurd was silky inside with crunchy on the outside... 
My yakiniku came soon after and as usual, the portion was huge :p. Usually their yakiniku is tasty, tender strips of beef stir fried in sauce till fragrant, its fantastic to go with rice. Maybe they knew I was writing about them, they got rather nervous and was a lil heavy on the salt on that day. :(. still, it tasted good...
The sets are served with some pickles, a side dish and fruits. Bentos would have chawan mushi too...
I am never a fan of siew mai as I think this is a very delicate dim sum. Those who cant do well will make the siew mai taste very porky (i donno how to explain it, but it's not very pleasant taste). So, I was pleasantly surprise that Oriental's siew mai turn out well, it was sweet and juicy, texture was springy.
The har gau was ok only, I thought the skin was rather thick and rough...
Each roll was plump and juicy, the sauce that clings around the beancurd gives a burst of flavours that complements each other well. I really cant pinpoint what's in the sauce..Kinda plumish with chilli..Yum :)
They're generous with their serving, there were lots of beansprouts and eggs too. Taste wise was good, but I find the carrot cake texture too soft and mushy...
The lor mai kai was also too sweet for my liking, which was most unfortunate as the glutinous rice was cooked just the right stickiness, and the chicken was well marinated. I guess they got a lil heavy on the sugar when they cooked the rice :(
