coca restaurant cny giveaway – win a steamboat set meal for 2 worth rm150!
As Chinese New Year is just around the corner, Andrea from COCA Restaurant e-mailed me to ask if I’d like to host a lil’ contest for my readers. Of course I love being seen as generous, especially on someone else’s generosity 
You may remember that the lot of us were invited to dine at COCA sometime last year. We sampled dishes off COCA’s new menu, but I was told that COCA is better known for their steamboat. So if you are reading this, I guess you’re in luck because…
COCA and I (well, more COCA than me) are giving away a COCA steamboat set meal for 2 worth RM150 to 3 of my fantastically lucky readers!
How To Win
As Chinese New Year is synonymous with steamboat (for me, at least), I thought the contest should run along those lines. All you have to do is to write a grovelling story on your memories of having steamboat during Chinese New Year. Three lines, one paragraphs, one Word Document, doesn’t matter. Good memories, bad memories, fortunate or unfortunate memories, doesn’t matter. As long as they make me smile or laugh, and remember that I am very easily amused. Off the top of my head, I can already recall a few incidents from my personal experience, so this is in fact easy as pie!
You could be enjoying this for free!
The Fine Print
- Contest runs from 15th Jan ‘09 till 21st Jan ‘09
- Winners must be able to collect the vouchers from COCA Restaurant in 1 Utama
- Vouchers are valid for one month, and are redeemable at either COCA Restaurant in 1 Utama or Subang Parade
- Vouchers not redeemable for cash and all that common sense stuff
Good luck!
Related Posts
- coca steamboat meal
- scrumptious thai food @ coca restaurant
- dine for haiti @ damansara village steamboat restaurant
- damansara village steamboat charity dinner
- what i did last night…
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Chinese New Year’s never held a lot of sentimental value for me. After all, I am only technically 18.5% Chinese, but I know more about Chinese entertainment than eyeris. Hah! (Who I love for surrendering me his Faye Wong tickets because he had to go cover Sally Yeh the next day. Silly man.)
But the first time I had steamboat at CNY was with my family, when my parents were still married to each other and not making my life a living hell. Yet. I remember being all of eight years old and wondering why we were drowning our food in hot, boiling pots of water. Fascinated, I watched as my mother dunked a huge piece of cabbage resulting in something so thick I swear I could probably brain something with it.
Picking it up with a fork (my lack of co-ordination ruled out chopsticks), I brandished said cabbage and announced to my mother, “Look, Mama! SUPER CABBAGE!”
And my mother laughed. I still see her laughing, in my mind, at her silly little eldest daughter waving her food. When times weren’t hard, when the lines around her eyes were smile lines, not wrinkles. When life was as simple as dunking cabbage in steaming water. So I’ll rarely say no to steamboat dinners. They remind me of the good things in life – laughter, love and loved ones. And the way my mother used to laugh.
Still haven’t been there, will have to go soon.
The prawn overbalanced onto the tablecloth with an almost graceful plop. ‘Oops’, said Nell, her painted fingers tightening their curl over the chopsticks.
No one else said anything, as I looked around the table. Ah Kong, flanked by Ah Ma and his eldest son, blinked several times, as he always did. The smile First Uncle wore was just a little too wan, not effortless enough. Second Uncle, who was beside me, said nothing and fetched his girlfriend a new prawn.
‘Awfully sorry,’ she said, trying a smile. ‘Can’t figure these wretched things out, is all,’
There was an assent of nods over the other side of the table, and conversation resumed, adding to the potpourri of syllables washing over the restaurant. Nell looked helplessly at the prawn on her plate, chopsticks in one hand and porcelain spoon in the other. Second Uncle said something to her which I did not catch, and her face did not change.
I looked over at my own younger brother, who had missed everything and was happily drinking soup. I hoped I would be good enough for him, one day.
Murphy Law happens everywhere and anytime.First,I caught a flu on an auspicious day,and had to be packed off to bed instead of chomping down veggies and seafood.Obviously I wasnt all too happy at the fact that the rest of my family will sitting down without me and enjoying their food,so a little ten year old chit sadly went to bed weeping bitter salty tears.
This ten year old at that time was also very schadenfreude in nature,and cackled with joy when her mum recounted the disaster of the steamboat dinner,snickering madly when her cousins screamed,”Where are the quail eggs?Where are the fishballs?” in horror,said foodstuff were forgotten in the mad rush to buy gas,and an uncle crashed onto table punch drunk when they were dishing out the crabs,which turned out to be horrible.
I think I’ll skip this one.
The prawns in my bowl are vermillion and white. The fishballs are white. The cabbage is pale green.
Nothing in the bubbling broth is this bright green color, has this limp tubular shape…
… has this many legs.
I drop the chopstick I’ve been prodding it inquisitively with and scream, backing away from the table. My family is immediately on their feet, crowding around the offensive bowl, tilting it this way and that. “What’s that?” “A worm!” “A caterpillar!”
My mother shudders violently.
GrandUncle, calm as a limestone hill, leans over to me. “You’re afraid of that?”
I nod.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s protein. See, I’ll even eat it for you.”
“During the Japanese Occupation, the starving ate worms and insects to stay alive,” GrandAunt begins, but raps GrandUncle’s chopsticks sharply as he reaches out. “Stop that. You’re old now.”
Two years back we had steamboat for CNY eve dinner. We skipped last year because there were many goodies and we cooked dishes.
This year I look forward to ’stim-sampan’ again because we’re too tired and lazy to cook. It’s the easiest!
I love it and certainly don’t mind having another steamboat soon
i have always been plump all my life! and i dread going back to my hometown because i will be judge by my relatives T_T. they’ll always say, wahh, u put on weight again ahh… grrrr.
anyway, every year since before i was born, it’s customary for them to have steamboat dinner during cny! The steamboat my granny make is super delicious okay.. and i love steamboat v much (fyi, i have to eat steamboat at least once a week and i am a regular at bee ho steamboat @ ss15 ). however, i am always too shy to eat alot during our CNY steamboat dinner because if i eat abit more… they will say things like… wahh, u better control your diet and dont eat so much! T_T. so i always have to control and not eat too much !
of couse now that i already an adult, although i am still plump but i am not as plump as i used to be! however, i still have the tendancy to control and not to eat so much in order to avoid listening to their negative comments about me needing to control my diet!
i also have another concern in recent years. i am single and am in my mid twenties, i am afriad in few years time, instead of commenting on my weight, they will start asking me… eh, when’s your turn? T___T
Lainie – What are you talking about? You’re not single, you have a fiance.
Very, very nice! Thanks for helping me out today Suanie!
Hmmm….looking at the pic, I feel hungry already. Hehe~
Chinese new year……
Funny.
What about persian new year? 57 days later…!
2 days ago a future me came to visit me via a space time portal so I have a memory of him giving me a memory of CNY…..
”
Sigh, Chinese New Year 2009 looks to be a sucky one for me. Family’s away in Aussie, meaning less ang pows. Worse thing ah, no ang pow, where got money? On CNY i enter this restaurant ar also they want to charge me 150RM for steamboat for 2 people so I ask 20RM can la they say cannot. Ended up eating 2RM nasi lemak. Aih, should’ve entered that competition on Suanie’s blog….
”
Yes, true story.
So we had this friend
Who was American
It was the Lunar New Year
And he happened to be here.
Invite him we did, to our reunion dinner,
Delighted he was, like a lottery winner.
My friend Tony was truly amazed,
The spread of food left him in a daze.
Steamed whole fish, prawns and BBQ pork,
Tony dug in heartily with his knife and fork.
But a while later dear Elder Aunt called out,
“Be patient! Be patient! Finish those not!
Try this special dish, it is truly delicious,
We Chinese people, consider it auspicious!”
Tony was curious, “Wow!! more dishes??!”
And placed in front of him was huge bubbling pot,
Of what it was called, Tony knew not.
Elder aunt looked at him, and she gave a nod,
“Try the steamboat, it is filled with treasure”
And Tony saw the look on everyone’s face, the look of pleasure!
“This stuff must be good”, thought Tony,
He scooped into the pot, and WOW! Huge prawns, mussels, fishball and ABALONE!!!
From then on, Tony looked back no more,
He ate and ate and ate, and wished he had a cow’s stomach of four.
My family and I were truly amused,
Over the months, the tale of The Steamboat Loving American we would enthuse,
Tony who had gone home to America
Waxed lyrical about the food in Malaysia
He loved char kuay teow, nasi lemak, roti canai and “biryani glue”
But above all he loved “THE KICKASS CHINESE FONDUE”!!!!!!!!!!!
:d :d :d
Steamboat…stteeeaaaammmbbbbooooaaatttttttttt.
Right. So, as a kid, the most exciting thing about steamboat is the part where you crack the egg and drop it into the soup. At least for me it is. But also as a kid, your parents are least inclined to let you handle eggs. Because you know, the tendency for kids to drop breakable objects are directly proportionate to the breakability of said object.
Case in point:
Sponge – 0 breakability – 0 dropability
Egg – 10000000000 breakability – 10000000000 dropability
So anyway, I had to beg my dad to pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee let me crack the egg. Ten sen face, puppy-dog eyes and an extended pout later, he relents, I was a happy child =D
I gleefully accepted the egg, carefully used my spoon to knock knock on the shell and *crack* Slowly and even more carefully reach over to the ‘boat’ to dorp it in. Alas, this happy child’s hands were too short to reach the ‘boat’. Thus resulting in 3/4 of the egg on the table and another 1/4 on the rim of the ‘boat’. Cis.
Natually, my dad said I wasted the egg blablablablablablabla.
Good news was, the restaurant gave us TWO eggs. Bad news is, one’s wasted so the chances of me cracking the other one was non-existent. Still, I begged my dad once more – the whole pitiful face routine in tow and pumped up. Success! He relented again and I was once more a happy child.
And thennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…(and you have to picture this in slow motion)
The universe decided to realign the planets and my stars were changed. I’m holding my tiny hands out like a cup, so I’m extra careful this time. Something catches my dad’s attention, it was a friend. He turns his head to say hi. I suddenly had an itch on my knee and decided to scratch it. He drops the egg. My cupped hands were not there to catch it. The egg falls to its demise on the ground in a defeaning SPLAT!!
Horrors of horrors!! I was whimpering and about to burst into tears. My dad’s almost done with his conversation. He doesn’t hear the sound of a broken egg. My hands are still cupped but trembling, lips quivering, I’m panicking…I’m gonna get it this time. For sureeeeeeeee die.
But then out of nowhere…an angel appeared! She looked resplendent in her floral apron. She drops another egg into my hands, and motions with her finger to her lips “shhhh”. She winks, then turns to walk away. It was the waitress.
My dad turns to look at me, sees the egg in my hands, smiles and asks “when is my little girl going to make me my egg?”.
Hehe…this time though, I smartened up. I cracked the egg into a bowl first, then got my dad to pour it into the ‘boat’.
The end.
ok…. have to say i have never had steamboat during CNY… bummer….
but i have a story about other things… just not steamboat… double bummer…
Setahun sekali di Tahun Baru Cina,
Kami sekeluarga makan bersama.
Ada yang sibuk, ada yang pergi bercuti,
Yang bercuti tak nak bagi angpau, haih, sampai hati!
Yang istimewa untuk kami budak budak
Bukan biskut, bukan mercun katak.
Yang paling kami suka, STEAMBOAT namanya.
FUH, sedap dan lazat, terliur dibuatnya.
Dalam periuk steamboat ada macam macam,
Udang, ikan, kerang dan ketam.
Yang paling aku suka SOTONG BALL yang chewy,
Perghh, bolehku makan sepuluh, memang yummy!
Sepupu aku memanglah ramai,
Kalau nak dapat sotong ball, kenalah pandai.
Lepas makcikku bubuh dalam periuk sop,
Cepat cepat akan aku “CHOP”.
Selalu jugak aku kena marah,
Sotong ball aku conquer, orang lain takdak.
Kena la bagi jalan, makan yang lain,
Tapi orait la, bagi sotong ball, mercun lebih akan ku bargain.
Itu pengalamanku makan steamboat masa budak,
Sekarang dah besar, balik rumah pun tidak
Apa nak buat, sekarang di luar negara,
Steamboat, angpow, sotong ball, semua tak ada.
Tapi New Year ni akan ku pulang,
Ke Malaysia negara tercinta dan gemilang.
Harap harapnya dapat makan steamboat,
Dapat menang voucher Suanie kot!
I really love to eat any kind of food, but i loved fish product more than other because it has lower fat than any meat product..what do you think?