Welcome to the Year of the TIGER

Week 1 into the Year of the Tiger. 10 years in the making, I am finally able to celebrate Chinese New Year with the family. This year, CNY started on Saturday (CNY Eve) with my grandma up at 4am to start cooking the ducks. Yes, not 1, but 2. She epitomizes the expression "cooking up a storm". After an entire day of cooking (4am-6pm), the family shows up with red packets full of money to give to the children and unmarried adults. We eat in waves because there is literally no room at the table. There is chattering, tv blaring in the background, children screaming, laughing and a general tone of good-naturedness. It's the Reunion Dinner. Rarely is everyone at the house at the same time. Unfortunately this year, we were missing some aunts, uncles and cousins but everyone calls in to wish the family well. It's just how things work.





We're stuffed. There are trays and boxes of goodies all over the house. The fridge is packed full to the brim for the next several days because for once, stores are actually closed. Seriously. Stores in Singapore are NEVER closed.

Chinese New Year Day, people are back for more. We resurrect the steamboat (grandma has made a ginormous pot of broth for the steamboat) and all the goodies. Steamboat is basically Asian fondue except instead of cheese, we have a broth and we cook meat, fish, vegetables, seafood and all sorts of things in said broth and then drink everything as a soup. Oranges are exchanged as a greeting. But just 2. Give 2 oranges to your host, and they'll return the favour. Needless to say, we don't lose, or gain oranges. I suppose technically, we could just keep 2 oranges in the house and just keep swapping them (I'm totally kidding..). Now we have an excess of oranges in the house, but a boost of Vitamin C counteracts all the rich food and pastries we stuff during the holidays.

Monday is another holiday. We have more visitors. I take the opportunity to escape to MacRitchie Reservoir with some buds from church for a 12km hike/walk. Only in Singapore can you go on a hike and see monkeys along the trip. Note: don't feed them. They're mean. After the hike, we emerge at the edge of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, cross the highway (via the overhead bridge) and meander along to a Muslim eating house. Delicious Indian food we eat with our hands - it's so legit! Only in Singapore. Nature park/reservoir in the middle of the city, surrounded by highways, right next to the mall and food. And then it's just a bus ride home for a shower.

On an unrelated, but just as delicious note: We need to talk about Yusheng. I was reminded by how awesome this stuff is.



I never really knew it was a local Singaporean thing. The Chinese love to play with words and meanings and this is a prime example. The following excerpt is taken from our good friend, Wikipedia:
"The Singapore-originated Yusheng had fish served with daikon (white radish), carrots, red pepper (capsicum), turnips, red pickled ginger, sun-dried oranges, daun limau nipis (key lime leaves), Chinese parsley, chilli, jellyfish, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, Chinese shrimp crackers (or fried dried shrimp), five spice powder and other ingredients, laced with a sauce using plum sauce, rice vinegar, kumquat paste and sesame oil, for a total of 27 ingredients.[9][11][12] Originally, the dish used raw mackerel, although in deference to the popular wishes of customers, salmon was later offered as an alternative due to the growing popularity of Salmon. Yusheng is often served as part of a multi-dish dinner, usually as the appetizer due to its symbolism of "good luck" for the new year. Some would consume it on Renri, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, although in practice it may be eaten on any convenient day.
The base ingredients are first served. The leader amongst the dinners or the restaurant server proceeds to add ingredients such as the fish, the crackers and the sauces while saying "auspicious wishes" (吉祥话 or Jíxiáng Huà) as each ingredient is added, typically related to the specific ingredient being added. For example, phrases such as Nian Nian You Yu (年年有余) are uttered as the fish is added, as the word Yu (余), which means "surplus" or "abundance", sounds the same as the Chinese word for fish (yu, 鱼).
All dinners at the table than stand up and on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying various "auspicious wishes" out loud. It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the dinner's growth in fortunes, thus diners are expected to toss enthusiastically."

Yum. Xin Nian Kuai Le!