Belated Special: A Spicy Dinner at Chinatown during Chinese New Year!

Festivity and food! For those who weren't aware, back in February Chinese around the whole celebrated the year of the Goat! Every year during the weeks running up to Chinese New Year day itself and the days after night stalls are set up around and in Chinatown. I love visiting the area during the times of festivity as you can find lots of delicious traditional and modern goodies, snacks, fruits and other interesting items.

For those interested, see here for my Chinese New Year day and reunion dinner! This time of year is typically the one time that extended family may come together for a meal and to spend time. For me, besides the yearly big family gathering, I headed off into Chinatown to get some proper real chinese food from China! Spicy, salty, oily southern chinese cusine is what my boyfriend and I are after!

Also I've finally made a (facebook page for this blog!) Do check it out, like and follow the page as I'll be posting new reviews and using it to hold giveaways! 

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Belated Special: A Spicy Dinner at Old Chengdu Restaurant in Chinatown during Chinese New Year 2015!

Aqua blue eyes with teal eyeliner!

Aqua blue eyes with teal eyeliner! Using Sleek, Sephora and 4U2!

A warm neutral cheek and a warm nude lip!

This look is super fun, easy to wear and blue really works well with dark brown eyes!

The trick to a blue looks is a good base, blue if you have one and then applying shadows in layers and blending a lot!

Products used: Cyber Colors skin balancing compact in 02 Natural, ZA perfect fit two way powder, Biore Aqua whitening watery cream, Bourjois 123 Perfect foundation in 52, Revlon matte (for brows), Maybelline color tattoo, Maybelline the Rocket Volum' Express mascara, Kiss Me Heroine long & curl super waterproof mascara, Lady Oscar eyeliner, Urban Decay 24/7 eyeshadow pencil, Peripera waterproof gel eyeliner, Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupte in 3 Ultimate Beige

Sleek's i-divine Candy eyeshadow palette!

I also used two more eyeshadows, one light teal from Sephora and a dark shimmery navy from 4U2!

My blue eye look was paired with this gorgeous teal reflective sequin top I got from Forever 21!

All the buildings around and in the Chinatown area are decorated beautifully with red lanterns, lights and mini orange plants before and during Chinese New Years!

On an already existing road separator, this year there was a huge stationary lantern display of goats (to celebrate the year of the goat! Look at all those big lanterns across the street! Love them!

This display changes every year in accordance to the zodiac animal for the year!

Chinatown is one of the areas in Singapore where these older style shop house buildings are found with the wooden window shutters and arches on the ground floor.

Look at how pretty the old chinese coin shaped lanterns are! Can't believe people used to string up their coins to bring them around!

One of the most popular brands of BBQ pork jerky Bee Cheng Hiang, the line to wait to buy the traditional square bak kwa was about 20 people long!

People waiting to buy their bundle of bak kwa! It's a sweet/savory/salty compressed pork or chicken jerky that's sold by weight. It's not traditionally chinese but is something common in Singapore/Malaysia!

Plenty of stalls selling fruit like different types of mandarin oranges, pomelos and other citrus fruits that are popular and have symbolic meaning during this festive period for Chinese.

The crowd everywhere you walk during China New Year in Chinatown! Several street are shut down for temporary shop stalls to set up, selling fruits, candies, decorations and other goods!

Pomelos for sale! So many gorgeous looking ones! Also popular are gourds, pineapples and other melon type fruits!

A stall selling only shiny decorative ribbons, lanterns, fans and signage!

One of the side streets that wasn't as crowded since it was still open for cars to pass! I always love the criss crossing lanterns!

Another shop selling nothing for decorative chinese paraphernalia! Everything from plush toys, fake oranges, colorful paper cut outs, tassels, bells and more!

We ate at the Old Chengdu Restaurant which is just one of many restaurants/cafes in and around Chinatown that sell regional, ethnic and very authentic food from China. Please understand that Chinese food from China versus 'Chinese food' you may order from a generic chinese place is very different. Chinese food from China also is also not the same as typical chinese dishes you'd find amongst Singaporean chinese food.

The Old Chengdu Restaurant is a proper restuarant outlet whereas many outlets selling similar dishes are just cafes. Prices here are slightly higher as it's located right in the heart of chinatown where many tourist visit.

For starters we had the most delicious mixed beef organ appetizer! Made up of beef tripe, stomach, meat and other spare innards, it's marinated in a spicy, sour, oily, mouth numbing sauce with contains ingredients like black vinegar, szchuan peppers, chilli oil, sesame oil, coriander and crushed peanuts.

My boyfriend and I love this type of dish. The textures from the innards, the spicy, oily, salty flavor of the sauce and the slightly mouth numbing effect from the Szechuan pepper that makes your mouth seem like you licked some menthol!

Crispy fried spicy chicken! Half a chicken, fried till the skin is super crisp, covered in a mixture of stir fried onions, peppers, spring onion, cumin and chilli oil!

The chicken had nice crispy bits of meat, the meat itself wasn't very tasty and slightly dry in some areas but that moist chilli fried vegetable topping made every mouthful delicious!

Beef fried rice! Super tasty, almost a tad too salt but super fragrant!

A serving of the fried rice with the cumin onion stir fry from the fried chicken!

The face my boyfriend gave me after a comment from me about him not giving me a proper photo face! This is before his big hair cut!

My gorgeous smiley boy. We have made it a point since Chinese New Year (Feburary) to visit Chinatown once or twice a month to try different eateries and to get our spicy organ fix!

Delicious spicy chinese dishes from Old Chengdu Restaurant in Chinatown!

Once again, I've finally started my facebook page for my beloved beauty blog! Do check my page out, like and follow for blog updates and future giveaways!

 (Please visit my new Facebook Page here)

Are you a lover of spicy chinese food like we are?

Do you like eating organs?

Let me know!

Feel free to comment!

Thank you!