Chinese New Year celebrations in the Western world and in Eastern and Southeastern Asia are as different as day and night. Especially in this area where only a relatively small chinese community exists. No CNY goodies, no ang baos (phew!), no public holidays, no relative visitings, no gambling sessions and most of all, nobody rushes to shop for new clothes. Even so, I am not put off by the nonchalant surrounding me. I resovled to have my CNY celebrations in little possible ways. I, therefore, planned a menu for our reunion dinner with Mr and Mrs R Senior. And the mandarin oranges on our coffee table are as far as we can get in terms of decorations to mark the new year. I have never cared much for those unattractive red and gold deco anyways.
Two days of slogging away in the kitchen, marinating, hacking, simmering, I pulled off the feat of serving my hungry guests on time. Something which I never appreciated when my mum does the exact same thing for us each year. Being the lazy pig and undutiful daughter that I am, the furthest I went to help her was setting the table and washing up after. I have never taken an interest in learning her cooking skills and have never given a serious thought of the hard work she puts in so we can have our yummy and sumptuous reunion dinners all these years. Baad baad girl. I deserve a spanking.
Well, it is never too late to repent. At least on the learning to cook part. Guided by my mum's tips, my guests and Mr R were able to relish Braised Duck, Ngoh Hiang, Chilli Prawns, Roast Pork, Bak Kut Teh (okay, this is not very CNY) and Stir-Fried Snow Peas. It may sound simple and not much a big deal but trust me, the work one goes through to churn them out is exhausting. By the time we drank our coffee, I was totally beat. Though I don't regret it one bit. I am pleased and proud that I carry on some part of this tradition. You can call me a true cheena at heart.
No relative visitings tomorrow. However, not contended with staying at home on Chu Yi (the first day of CNY) , I am hooking up with a Singaporean friend in the city to... to... to buy new clothes for the new year, what else!
新年快乐!!!
4 comments:
Well done, cheena at heart, at least the spirit of the cheenas was with you.. and in case you have forgotten that this is your year, RAT!! May the year of the invincible rat with filled with abundance for you and your loved ones!! dong cheng dong cheng!!
the one and only, hamster, wa ha ha
Thank you! Luckily I'm aware somehow that this is the RAT year. OUR year, friend! Long life, the RAT! :)
A Happy and Prosperous New Year to you!
Yours,
The Owl
hey girl, salute you for whipping so many dishes! I didn´t even do anything loh. Actually, I think its nice to have a reunion dinner, but somehow the idea didn´t cross my mind. Maybe next year we can do a reunion dinner together! You can make yr braised duck and I make chicken rice? hahahah.... =) how did you get the chinese characters anyways?
Sure, we can! The more the merrier! But chicken rice is not very CNY leh... ;)
I have the NJStar program so I simply copied and pasted it here.
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