shiokadelicious!

Growing Blessings and Fortune

Shen Cai Hao Shi Fa Cai [Dried Oysters and Black Moss with Chinese Lettuce]. This is a Chinese New Year dish with a very auspicious sounding name. “Hao shi” (dried oyster) sounds like “good things”; “fa cai” (desert black moss) sounds like “to prosper or strike a fortune”; and “shen cai” (lettuce) sounds like “to grow wealth/fortune”. And so you have a dish that is not only scrumptiously tasty, but also one which can “grow blessings and fortune” in your life. Hey, how much better can it get?

This is a dish that requires a lot of preparation work. None of it difficult. Just many different steps to get through. Each taste component has to be separately prepared, before they are all brought together into a symphonic display of flavors. The result is well worth the effort.

Taking the spotlight in the dish is of course the hao shi (dried oyster) and fa cai (black moss).

Chinese cuisine regularly likes to make use of dried seafood, such as dried fish (eg bian yu / bian hu), dried shrimp (hae bee), dried scallops (konpoy) and dried abalone. These are often preferred over their fresh counterparts for their rich concentrated flavor and intense aromas. Just a little can go a long way.

Certain types of dried seafood are used mainly as accents in a dish – enriching and intensifying the overall taste. All it takes is a few pieces of dried fish sprinkled on a plate of stir-fried vegetables to change the nuances of the dish. Chopped dried scallops, when added to simple fried noodles or to plain white congee, gives the dish a whole new level of flavor intensity and complexity. At other times, the dried seafood is the key player and defines the dish. Nonya rice dumplings (zhong zhi) would not taste the same if made with fresh shrimps rather than hae bee.

Other types of dried seafood are so prized that they become stars in their own right, and are much sought after by gourmets. Take the abalone. In Chinese cuisine, the dried versions can command up to hundreds of dollars for just one piece of the delicacy, whilst the fresh version may go for a fraction of the price. This dried shellfish often requires no accompaniment. It is lovingly braised for many hours, and served whole, on its own. The flavors are rapturously intense, rich and aromatic. Each mouthful to be slowly savored and enjoyed.

The dried oyster, while often considered the poor cousin of the dried abalone, is another highly prized taste sensation. Its highly concentrated and intense flavors could be an acquired taste for some, but once one comes to appreciate its unique taste, the tastebuds sing with the varying notes of flavors and textures as they explode on the palate. As with the abalone, the dried oyster’s auspicious sounding name also adds much to its cachet. Both these seafood delicacies can be found not only on New Year menus, but also at special celebratory occasions.

To prepare the oysters: first they have to be rinsed, then soaked briefly (maybe 10-20 minutes) in warm water. As dried oysters (as well with dried scallops) are usually soaked in brine before being sun-dried, the rinsing and soaking will help remove the excess saltiness. Next, pour some Chinese rice wine over the drained dried oysters and steam for approximately 30 minutes. This helps to soften them.

Fa cai or black moss is another much-loved delicacy in Chinese cuisine. Many people think that this moss comes from the sea. In actual fact, it is a wild-growing desert moss, mainly harvested from the arid plains of Mongolia and North Central China. In recent years, its supply has been restricted by legislation, as over-harvesting has resulted in severe sand-storm problems for Beijing and large parts of North and North-East China.

Black moss, in of itself, is bland, taking instead all its flavors from surrounding ingredients and seasonings. It is appreciated for its unique texture (and appearance, looking as it does almost like human hair!).

To prepare the black moss: rinse the moss under running water, to remove sand particles that may still be trapped in the moss. Drain and gently squeeze out the excess water. In a hot wok, sauté a few slices of ginger in a little hot oil. Add the black moss. Do not attempt to sauté or stir-fry the moss. It will break into an unrecognizable mound of black mess! Simply flip the slab of moss from side to side. Add some Chinese rice wine, light soy sauce and a little water. Very quickly cook the moss. It is important not to over-cook it, as it will become too mushy and lose that unique, slightly crunchy texture.

Remove from the wok, and strain, gently pressing out the oil and water with the back of a spoon. If there is still sand particles in the moss, rinse it under running water again at this stage, and gently squeeze out the excess water. (The oil used in the sauteeing helps to "bring out" the sand particles, if any). The moss is now soaked in some chicken broth/stock, seasoned with a little Chinese rice wine and light soy sauce, and set aside to allow it to absorb the flavors of the marinade.

The other ingredients in the dish also have to be similarly prepared individually before the final assembly.

To prepare the mushrooms: using dried Chinese mushrooms that have been rinsed and de-stemmed (is that a word?), add the mushrooms to a pot of boiling water which has had a little cooking oil and sugar added to it. Simmer and cook on low heat for at least 45 minutes to an hour, until tender.

Choose nine pieces of nicely shaped, large-sized mushrooms and set aside for the final assembly. Marinade these with a bit of light soy sauce, oyster sauce and rice wine, and set aside.

The rest of the mushrooms can be kept in the freezer for several weeks. In fact, we often prep large batches of mushrooms and have them conveniently on standby. When the need arises, just defrost a few pieces for adding to various recipes. They’re great for using in fried noodles, vegetable stir-fries, steamed tofu, steamed fish, chawan mushi and many, many other dishes.

Another variation of prepping the mushrooms would be to pre-season the mushrooms. Add the rice wine, light soy sauce and oyster sauce together with the sugar and oil into the boiling water, before adding the mushrooms. Once drained well, the flavored mushrooms can again be frozen for later use. But I digress…

To prepare the chicken: cut two pieces of de-boned chicken thighs into 16 bite-sized pieces (i.e. 8 pieces per thigh). Marinade with a little light soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, sugar, pepper, cornflour and the tiniest dash of sesame oil. The last has very strong flavors and only the teeniest amount is needed, otherwise its aromas overwhelms the chicken meat. The cornflour helps make the meat very smooth and succulent.

And now the dish is ready to be assembled. If possible, use a deep bowl so that the final presentation will have a nice high-domed effect.

To assemble: place a small slice of red carrot at the bottom of the bowl (this provides a nice dash of color in the final presentation). We used 9 pieces of dried oysters and 9 pieces of mushrooms for nice symbolism, as “nine” in Chinese sounds like “forever”. Next, arrange the oysters vertically around the bottom of the bowl, almost like the petals of a blooming flower. The mushrooms are added next, ringing the bowl just above the oysters. The center of the bowl is then filled with the black moss (which would have soaked up most of the chicken broth marinade). Finally, top with the raw marinated chicken pieces. The meat is placed at the top for a couple of reasons: 1) this is the only raw ingredient in the dish, and will cook easier at the top, 2) as the chicken cooks, its juices will trickle down to the other ingredients further down in the bowl, providing additional fragrant sweetness and flavors.

Usually, this dish is cooked with pork belly meat or roast pork (siew yuk or sio bak). We used chicken simply because we didn’t have any of the pork at home and were too lazy to go out and get some.

The bowl is covered with a plate.

Over the plate, a piece of tin foil is used to “seal” the bowl to ensure no water gets into the food during the steaming process.

The dish is steamed on medium heat for about half an hour. The bowl was too “tall” to fit into the steamer, so we just used a small pot with a little water and a metal stand in it. This works fine.

While the dish is steaming, quickly stir-fry the Chinese lettuce in a little hot oil, and season with some light soy sauce.

When the oyster dish is cooked, remove the tin foil, and before removing the plate “cover” pour out the juices that would have formed during the cooking process. This is set aside for making the gravy.

Voila! All cooked.

Carefully… very carefully, turn the bowl onto a serving plate. Lift to reveal a nicely shaped dome.

To prepare the sauce: in a pan, heat the excess juices that were removed from the cooked dish earlier. Add some chicken broth/stock, a little bit of sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, and add a little cornflour solution to thicken the gravy. Remove from the heat once it comes to a boil again. Pour sauce over the oyster dome.

For the final touch, place the sautéed Chinese lettuce around the oyster dome. And it’s good to go.

I personally think this is a rather elegant presentation. The oysters and mushrooms form a beautiful pattern, and when the dome is opened up, it reveals a “surprising” center of luscious black moss.

Each diner gets a myriad of tastes, flavors and textures. There’s the rich, intense aromas and denseness of the oysters, contrasting with and complemented by the light crispiness and crunchiness of the lettuce; the soft, slightly chewy moistness of the moss and the flavorful tenderness of the chicken thigh meat. Each component so different, and yet coming together so beautifully.

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute and display any of the images and text contained in this article.

The First Full Moon

The 15th day of the first lunar month (today), which is also the first full moon of the lunar year, marks the last day of the Lunar New Year festivities. Known as “Yuan Xiao” in Mandarin, it is so named because the first lunar month is called the “yuan-month” and the ancient term for “night” is “xiao”. Additionally, “yuan” also symbolizes “fulfillment” or “completion”, coming from the term “yuan man”. It’s Hokkien name “Chap Goh Mei” literally translates as “the 15th night”. On this day, the family gathers for another reunion dinner as a sign of unity and harmony, and to celebrate the closing of a fulfilling New Year celebration. At this dinner, the glutinous rice balls that were eaten on Dong Zhi (winter solstice festival) are eaten again. This time, however, they are served “dry”, coated with ground peanuts, rather than in soup. They are now called “yuan xiao” rather than “tang yuan” (the name used only when they are served in soup). More on this later.

The 15th day of the first lunar month is also known as the Lantern Festival. While this tradition has almost entirely died out in Chinese communities outside of China, it is still a major celebration on the mainland itself, and in Hong Kong and Taiwan. A main part of the festivities is the display of thousands of large, very intricate and colorful lanterns and the gathering together of the entire community to view and appreciate the lanterns, and to try and solve the riddles that are written on them. In a festive carnival atmosphere and against a backdrop of fireworks, concerts and other stage shows are also held, and games and food stalls set up. It continues the theme of the (extended) family united in a joyful celebration.

There is yet another name associated with the 15th day of the first lunar month. An association which seems to have sprung up from the ancient celebrations of the Lantern Festival. Chinese Valentines Day.

One simple day on the lunar calendar, and yet so much significance is attached to it.

The Legends
There are many different beliefs about the origins of the Lantern Festival.

One legend describes it as a time to worship Tai Yi, the God of Heaven in ancient times. The belief was that the God of Heaven controlled the destiny of the human world. He had sixteen dragons at his beck and call and he decided when to inflict drought, storms, famine and pestilence upon human beings. And so, beginning with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unite China, all subsequent emperors ordered splendid ceremonies each year. The emperor would ask Tai Yi to bring favorable weather and good health to him and his people.

Another legend associates the Lantern Festival with Taoism. Tian Guan is the Taoist god responsible for good fortune. His birthday falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month. It is said that Tian Guan likes all types of entertainment. So followers prepare various kinds of activities during which they pray for good fortune.

In yet another legend, it is said that the Jade Emperor in Heaven was so angered at a town for killing his favorite goose, he decided to destroy it with a storm of fire. However, a good-hearted fairy heard of this act of vengeance, and warned the people of the town to light lanterns throughout the town on the appointed day. The townsfolk did as they were told, and from the Heavens, it looked as if the village was ablaze. Satisfied that his goose had already been avenged, the Jade Emperor decided not to destroy the town. From that day on, people celebrated the anniversary of their deliverance by carrying lanterns of different shapes and colors through the streets on the first full moon of the year, providing a spectacular backdrop for lion dances, dragon dances and fireworks.

In modern times, the Lantern Festival is celebrated with the display of giant sized lanterns, concerts, carnivals and fireworks. As people go round to admire and appreciate the beautifully made and decorated lanterns, they also attempt to solve the riddles (cai mi yu) which are written on each lantern.

Matchmaking
Through the ages, the celebration of the Lantern Festival evolved and took on another purpose and meaning. In the olden days, young men and women were forbidden from mingling freely. There was of course no such thing as “dating”. It was only during the Lantern Festival, as families in the entire community came out to admire and enjoy the lanterns that the young people had a chance to mingle and to try to find a suitable partner. There were many tales of eyes meeting across lanterns, an “accidentally” dropped handkerchief that was picked up “coincidentally” by the equally smitten young man. And so, many a match was made on the night of the lanterns!

And so it is that Yuan Xiao Jie also came to be known as Chinese Valentines Day.

Regional Variations
I read an interesting nugget in the papers the other day. Apparently, in Penang, Malaysia, they have a rather unique way of celebrating Yuan Xiao Jie. There, it is not lanterns but mandarin oranges that play the match-maker. On Chap Goh Mei, unmarried Chinese girls throw oranges into the sea of river, in the hope of snaring good husbands. I understand that this practice is still carried out to this day.

Many regions of China also seem to have their own interesting and unique local twists to the celebration of Yuan Xiao and the Lantern Festival. Apparently, in Quan Zhou, China, lanterns are used to predict offspring. It is customary for newly married couples to return to the woman’s parental home on the second day of the New Year, bearing gifts. [By Chinese custom, a married woman is not allowed to visit her parents on the first day of the New Year. It is only on the second day “kai nian” that a woman returns to her parental home with her husband and children to visit her parents.] When the couple takes leave from the woman’s parents’ home, they are presented with two lotus lanterns, one white and one red. On the night of the Lantern Festival, the young couple hangs the lanterns beside their bed, and light a candle in each. The first candle to burn out will indicate the gender of their first child. Should the candle in the white lantern burn out first, the baby will be a boy. If it is the red lantern that extinguishes first, they will be blessed with a baby girl.

Yuan Xiao

Besides beautiful lanterns, love and romance, another important part of the Lantern Festival or Yuan Xiao Jie is the eating of small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour. As I mentioned before, these glutinous rice balls symbolize unity and harmony within the family.

It is interesting how the same food takes on a new name and a slightly different meaning depending on when it is eaten. On winter solstice (dong zhi), these rice balls are called “tang yuan” and are served up in a sweet ginger soup. “Tang” (meaning soup in Mandarin), sounds like “tuan” (meaning reunion), and “yuan” (meaning round) signifies “yuan man” (completeness, fulfillment). This is very appropriate, as in the olden days, Dong Zhi marked the gathering of all family members from near and far under one roof, after perhaps a year apart. These dumplings symbolized a family reunited once more.

Come Yuan Xiao Jie or the 15th and last day of the Lunar New Year celebrations, these glutinous rice balls take on the name “yuan xiao”, which sounds like “a fulfilled completion and a bringing to a close”. After eating the “dry” dumplings, coated with ground peanuts (yes, that is what the little packet of ground peanuts included in each pack of frozen tang yuan is meant for), family members once again depart for faraway towns, cities or countries to work and live. It marks the closing of New Year celebrations and is a send-off of sorts, with wishes of abundant blessings in the coming year. It may be another year hence, on the next Dong Zhi, that family members will have the opportunity to get together again.

Another dish that makes its final appearance of the year on Yuan Xiao is loh hei. Chap Goh Mei marks the last day when this dish will be eaten, until the next Lunar New Year. A final toss for wishes of good fortune and abundant blessings.

Tonight, we tried my Thai-style loh hei again, with a mixture of char siew and roast duck, and lots more pomelo. Yum! I tried out a new plating design – concentric circles signifying family unity and harmony. Oh, and I also tweaked the dressing again. Please see update on the previous post for the new quantities.

And so from me to all Chinese, Happy Yuan Xiao Jie! May all your wishes of love, harmony and happiness come true this year!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute and display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Going Thai

Whenever a recipe or dish doesn’t turn out quite the way I had expected or wanted, it bothers me. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect everything I cook, bake or make to turn out perfect each and every time. It certainly doesn’t happen that way. And it probably doesn’t even happen to the best of chefs all the time either. It’s just that each time a dish “doesn’t work”, I am troubled by a nagging need to try the dish/recipe again and again, using different ingredients, modifying the methods, adjusting quantities… just trying to figure out how to make it taste good.

So it was with the char siew (bbq pork) loh hei that my mum and I had spontaneously thrown together the other day, and which didn’t work very well at all. Back then, I had pronounced that char siew was unworkable in loh hei. I had categorically stated that BBQ pork should not be used in this New Year salad. However, having had time to think about it, I couldn’t see why it couldn’t and shouldn’t work.

I wanted to try it out again. Surely, char siew could make a tasty addition to a salad, and why not a loh hei salad. I became determined to find the right combination of ingredients that would work. Today I tried it out…

I decided to go Thai-style with this version. Instinctively, I felt the dressing or sauce needed to be different from the standard loh hei plum sauce. It should be lighter and more refreshing on the palate with a spicy punch to counter-balance the denser texture of the meat.

I had a vague idea of the taste sensation I was looking for, but I didn’t make any firm decisions about what to put into the gravy until I was actually putting the dressing together. I thought maybe I would just go with what felt right at that moment. Sometimes, this works marvelously, and produces a sublime result.

Unfortunately, as usual, I was not jotting down the ingredients and their quantities as I went along (I am trying to change this habit, truly). I added some of this, some of that… then added more of this again… So, regretfully, this is what I can recall from memory… 3 tablespoons Thai sweet chilli sauce, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar, 3 tablespoons my mum’s plum sauce dressing, pinch of salt. (I used a dinner spoon for the rough measurements).

[Update (6/2/04): I tweaked the dressing a little bit... 3 tbsps Thai sweet chilli sauce, 3 tbsps vinegar, 1 1/2 tbsps sugar, 3 tbsps mum's plum sauce dressing]

I strained out all the chilli seeds from the chilli sauce before adding the chilli sauce to the mixture, as I was rather concerned that the abundant seeds would affect the balance of textures in the salad.

The Thai-style dressing (on left of picture) had a nicely piquant flavor, balanced out by some tanginess and some sweetness, with the plum sauce giving it “body”. It also had a lighter viscosity compared to our regular plum sauce dressing (right of picture). Just a note: the sauce will taste overly spicy/hot and overly sour when tasted on its own, but it will be fine once tossed in with the large quantity of vegetables and condiments.

Other changes that I made:
• Bought char siew from our regular roast pork/duck man, now that his stall has re-opened once again after the Lunar New Year break. His char siew is so much more tender and moist than the one we bought last week. To be fair, the stall we bought from last week was probably using frozen-then-thawed pork to make the char siew, instead of fresh pork, due to the CNY holidays.

• Coated the char siew strips with the Thai-style dressing then strained them before plating them. This gave them an extra layer of moistness and flavor.

• Added sweet pomelo pulp to the salad (not sure if you can make it out from the picture – the ring of off-white pulp around the white radish). Fortunately, I was able to get a fairly sweet and juicy pomelo yesterday. I don’t think a pomelo with bitter overtones would have worked in the salad.

• Included some chopped coriander (at 9 and 3 o’ clock in the top picture).

There was only the five of us at dinner tonight, and we tossed up a fairly large salad – enough for at least 10 people! And the verdict of my “guinea pigs” a.k.a. my family? Well, the entire very large salad was completely devoured. In fact, it was declared that this dressing actually tasted better in some ways than our regular plum sauce dressing. And it was requested that this dressing be used again in our final loh hei of the year tomorrow night at the “yuan xiao” reunion dinner. Wow! *blush* I was pleased as punch, but if truth be told, I think we were just getting a little tired of the regular loh hei, having had it now at least seven times in the last 2 weeks. This dressing simply made for a refreshing change of taste.

I still think this Thai-style version of loh hei can be improved. These are what I would like to experiment with a little further:
• Add more pomelo – didn’t think there was enough of it tonight. I had only used two small wedges of the fruit.

• Use less coriander, and chop it up more finely so that it gets distributed better throughout the salad and gives a more subtle aroma and flavor.

• Maybe substitute Thai-lime juice (or even calamansi juice) for the vinegar.

• Strain the chilli sauce of the chilli seeds, but then add back some of the seeds to give added heat without disrupting the texture balance too much. And maybe add more of the chilli sauce.

• Perhaps add more of the plum sauce mixture too.

I am also contemplating trying this with roast duck breast meat tomorrow night, instead of the char siew… hmmm… I shall dream about it tonight, and see how I feel tomorrow.

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute and display any of the images and text contained in this article.

My First Birthday of the Year

I had my first “birthday” of the year on Wednesday (28 January), as did the rest of Mankind. And so, I’m one year older… five months before I would normally consider myself another year older. *

This is the most commonly known “meaning” of the seventh day of the Lunar New Year or “Ren Ri”. However, behind this special day of the Lunar Calendar also lies a more obscure legend. Yes, as with every Chinese festival, there is a little folklore to explain the reason for the occasion. The legend of Ren Ri has many versions. One story tells of an ancient hero called Pan Gu, who created the world whilst Goddess Nu Wa shaped the six species of livestock from mud during the first six days that Earth was created. On the seventh day, she molded humans out of mud according to her own appearance. And thus, Ren Ri is celebrated - to commemorate the day mankind was created.

Some say that by Buddhist and maybe Hokkien tradition, no animal should be slaughtered for food on Ren Ri. Instead, it is customary for the Hokkiens to cook and eat a dish made up of seven types of vegetables. This practice of the Hokkiens has now filtered through to the general Chinese culture, and many non-Hokkien families also serve up such a dish on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.

I’m not sure what the exact significance of using seven different vegetables is. In fact, up until a few years ago, it was not a tradition that was practiced in my family. Until, that is, my mum had a conversation with the owner of the vegetable stall we regularly patronize at the wet market. This friendly, very chatty, middle aged lady is very often the dispenser of many a nugget of culinary wisdom. It was she who persuaded my mum that it was an absolute must to fry up a plate of mixed green leafy vegetables for “chor chaat” (7th day of CNY). Why? She did not say. But oh, she was quick to emphasize, this culinary practice was not to be transgressed. But we are not Hokkiens. Doesn’t matter. And so, a new “tradition” was added to our family’s portfolio of CNY practices.

One of course has a large amount of freedom in deciding which seven vegetables to use in your stir-fry. There are only a couple of general parameters to be observed. The vegetables have to be green, and they have to be “leafy”. Therefore, no beans or legumes. And according to our knowledgeable vegetable lady, the only vegetable that is a “must” to include in the dish is the long, leafy one at the bottom of the picture. Neither my mum nor I are quite sure what that vegetable is exactly. It could be Chinese mustard leaf, imported from China. The vegetable lady simply included it in my mum’s vegetable bundle with the kind reminder: “this one, must include one, don’t forget”. It tastes rather “grassy” with bitter overtones. Not quite my cup of tea, frankly speaking. But there you have it… another one of the many Chinese New Year rules which are observed by so many, but the origins and real meaning of which have long been forgotten.

Left to our own devices as to which other six vegetables to include in the dish, my mum and I finally settled on the above. From the uppermost top left hand corner, going clockwise: baby round-head xiao bai cai; kai lan; Chinese lettuce; curly leaf Chinese cabbage; Chinese leeks; and cai xin with small flowers. All one needs is a few stalks of each vegetable, and they sauté up into a large plate of mixed veggie. We kept it simple – just sautéed with garlic and shallots, and seasoned with light soy sauce.

I think this year may be the last year we will be doing this practice. The family does not find it particularly meaningful, as we don’t know the “real” significance behind the custom. And more importantly, no matter how one cooks this dish, it is very, very difficult to get a jumble of seven different tastes, aromas and textures to come together in a way that is close to being elegantly balanced and tasty. It’s very different from cooking a mixed vegetable dish made up of distinctly different vegetables – eg broccoli, cauliflower, baby sweet corn, carrots, shitake mushrooms etc. Mixing various green leafy vegetables together is a whole different ball game. There’s no differentiation of color for one. And the tastes and textures are different, yet not different enough to complement and/or contrast each other. None of the family enjoys this dish. Almost every year most of the dish gets tipped away at the end of the evening. And we find that such a shameful waste. So, that’s it. No more next year.

One Ren Ri custom that my family and almost all Singaporeans have taken to like fish to water is the tossing and eating of yu sheng. This is the original day for loh hei. I wrote about the historical roots of this custom in a previous post. Now, this is one very yummy tradition which I like!

Another food tradition with historical roots is the eating of either mee sua (Hokkien) / mian sian (Mandarin) / rice noodles or any other type of noodles. This is a very common dish which is served up at birthdays, and so also makes it appearance on Ren Ri (Mankind’s birthday). Noodles represent longevity. And noodles cooked for a birthday celebration are never cut or severed in any way. That is considered “bad luck”. Even when serving up the dish, and when eating it, the strands of noodles are never shortened with a fork or chopstick. So, it takes deft hands to neatly serve up bowls of the noodles with the long strands intact and without creating a mess on the table!

Longevity noodles can be served in many different styles. Very often it is sautéed (fried). Sometimes it is served “dry tossed” or “konlo”, as we did this past Ren Ri. This is the family’s version of konlo mee sua. The recipe will be posted in the next few days.

My mum also made “hao shi fa cai” on Ren Ri. This is another dish that is almost a “must” for Chinese New Year, because of its abundant auspicious symbolism. “Hao shi” (dried oysters) sounds like “good tidings or blessings”. “Fa cai” (black desert moss) sounds like “to prosper or to strike a fortune”. These two ingredients are almost always served with “shen cai” (Chinese lettuce) because the latter sounds like “to grow wealth”.

This dish involves many preparation steps and is pretty time consuming. Normally, my mum makes this on New Year’s Eve for the Reunion Dinner. We didn’t manage to get round to it this year, so it made its appearance on our table on Ren Ri instead.

My mum does a very elegant version of this dish (if I may say so myself), and I will post the preparation and recipe in a couple of days.

Happy belated “birthday” everyone!

* [Here’s a little interesting aside: by the Chinese calendar, a baby is considered one year old at the time of birth, as opposed to zero years old by “Western” traditions, and so, a person’s “Chinese age” is always one year older than his/her age by Gregorian calculations].

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute and display any of the images and text contained in this article.

For Achievement, Prosperity, Progeny and Longevity

Can one ever over-do a good thing? It is already the 13th day of the Lunar New Year, and yet Singaporeans are still feasting away. I had dinner with my family a couple of nights ago at Yunnan Garden, and it was packed to the brim with festive diners. It was a frenzied scene of festive feasting and tossing of loh hei! There is no let up… there can be no slacking now… this is the final dash… the finishing line is in sight… we shall eat and eat and eat until… “yuan xiao” or “chap goh mei” (the last or 15th day of the New Year) this coming Thursday. Only then, will we allow reality to seep in again. In the cold harsh light of the morning of Friday 6 February 2004, we will suddenly see our newly expanded waist-lines, our recently trimmed and slimmed-down wallets and our bullish cholesterol and blood-pressure charts. Until then, heck, what’s the worry? Let’s eat!

I have just realized I have not posted about any of the New Year food I have eaten, except for the loh hei. So, please indulge me if you will, as we take a short trip back in time…

It was the 21 January 2004… and it was the eve of the arrival of the Year of the Monkey. The whole family had gathered for the most important dinner of the year… the New Year’s Eve Reunion Dinner…

*screeching of brakes* *hit the rewind button*

Oops… I completely forgot to take pictures of the Reunion Dinner food. Nope, not even a single picture. There was just too much excitement going on.

There were the usual suspects at the dinner… loh hei (for prosperity and abundance); fried whole pomfret (for abundance) [why almost always fried (in this family at least)? Because it keeps better, and we always have to ensure that there is leftover fish to be carried over into New Year’s Day. Steamed fish just tastes completely off once kept overnight]; prawns (for happiness); duck; fu jook (dried bean curd sticks – because apparently the sound of its name is auspicious); and veggies of course.

I later found out that there was a nice bit of synchronicity going on as well. We had intended to do chilli crayfish. But we “needed” the requisite prawn dish at the dinner, so we ended up making chilli prawns. Ariel and her family also cooked chilli prawns from the recipe I posted previously for their Reunion Dinner. I like this sort of symbiosis.

There was plenty of food, to ensure there were a lot of leftovers. Usually, no major cooking is done on the first day of the New Year. At most, fresh ingredients will be added to the food from the previous night’s dinner to create new dishes.

* * * * * *

New Year’s breakfast, for my family, traditionally includes food symbolizing progeny, prosperity, achievement and longevity… correspondingly represented by (clockwise from top left hand corner) hong zhao gui yen cha (red dates and dried longan “tea”); fa gao (steamed rice flour cake); pan-fried nian gao; shou tao (longevity buns).

According to my mum, the hong zhao gui yen cha is a “tea” that is usually drunk at happy and auspicious celebrations, and therefore, she and my grandmother before her have a tradition of serving up this drink on the morning of the first day of the New Year – to mark a joyous start to the year. When drunk at other celebratory occasions, like weddings, the tea also symbolizes the early arrival (hong zhao/red dates) of offspring, and sons (long yen/longan) in particular.

The tea is made by simply boiling dried red dates and dried longans in water. A few pieces of candied winter melon provide some sweetness. My mum adds a South East Asian touch by throwing in a bundle of pandan leaves for extra fragrance and aroma. After 30-40 minutes of cooking, the tea is strained and served.

Fa gao can probably be considered the original “cake” in Chinese culinary culture. The Chinese do not have a tradition of baked goods. Through history, breads and buns are either steamed (mantou; yun shi juen / “silver thread rolls”; bao) or deep fried (mantou; yun shi juen; you tiao / dough sticks). We also do not have a tradition of using either yeast or baking powder. Eggs were also not used in making “cakes” and pastries. “Cakes” in ancient times were made by steaming a batter of rice flour, water and sugar – fa gao. It was only under Western influence that we had cakes made with eggs and these were called “ji dan gao” or “dan gao” (egg “cake”) to differentiate it from the normal (traditional) Chinese “cakes” (gao). And the traditional Chinese versions of ji dan gao are somewhat different too from the Western cake.

We had originally intended to get the “new age” miniature version of fa gao in pretty pastel shades , but ended up with the traditional large brown-colored one instead.

Nian gao is another traditional Chinese steamed “cake”, made using glutinous rice flour instead of rice flour. A batter of just water, sugar and glutinous rice flour is steamed to a rich caramel-brown perfection. Traditionally, the nian gao is eaten "fresh" on New Year's Day. It is simply sliced and served, with no accompaniments. Only towards the end of the festive period, is the nian gao served fried in various forms. Why? Well, there was no refrigeration in ancient times, and so by the time the two-week New Year festival draws to a close, in all likelihood, the nian gao would have started to go stale or even moldy! So frying them was a way to "refresh" the nian gao and make them edible. Nowadays, people find the taste of "pure" nian gao rather "flat", and so even freshly made nian gao are served up fried.

Pan-fried nian gao with egg is a Foochow tradition, I think. The Hakkas have a savory version, using a different type of nian gao from the traditional brown-colored soft, sticky, sweet version eaten during CNY. The nian gao is sautéed with minced meat. The Hokkiens, if I’m not wrong, serve a battered version during CNY. Very thin slices of nian gao are sandwiched between a very thin slice of sweet potato on one side and a very thin slice of yam on the other. This “sandwich” is then dipped in a sweetish batter, and deep-fried in a lot of oil! Oh so sinful, but so incredibly tasty!

My favorite is still the egg version. Thin slices of the nian gao (the thinner the better) are simply dipped in lightly beaten egg, and pan-fried in minimal oil. If the nian gao slices are thin enough, they will produce soft, very malleable, slightly chewy, slightly sticky pieces of sweetness that are balanced by a little egg and slightly crispy edges. Yum!

The trick to cutting freshly made (and thus very, very soft and sticky) nian gao is to use a long piece of thread (those used in sewing) to cut through the sticky dough. Using a knife will simply result in a sticky, messy pile of goo – much like play-dough! However, once the nian gao has been refrigerated, it hardens, making it very easy to slice with a sharp knife.

The “shou tao” (longevity peach) shaped buns are a must-have at the birthdays of the elderly, to symbolize long life and good health. It is also served at other auspicious and celebratory occasions like New Year. These are fluffy steamed buns with a lian yong (lotus seed paste) filling. Nowadays these buns are all factory-made and come in uniform shapes and color (very bright color!). Homemade ones used to have a more “down-to-earth” feel, as the “peaches” are shaped by hand. However, the colors back then were definitely no less bright!

And so an auspicious start to the year… with wishes for blessings, success, abundance and a long life!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute and display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Lucky 88?

Some of you may be getting bored of all my CNY postings… but please indulge me for a few more days… I’m still in the holiday mood

It was the annual LNY Chingay parade on Saturday night. We missed it. But from the looks of the pictures in the papers, it was one happy, fun, boisterous and very happenin’ carnival party. (Quite different from the almost regal/formal CNY parade that made its way down the Champs Elysee on the 2nd day of the New Year, and which I found very impressive). I felt prompted to dig up some CNY photos that were still buried in my flash card.

It was the second day of the Lunar New Year, and there were 88 southern belles prancing in the rain. The place? Our beloved twin “durians” – The Esplanade, Theatres on the Bay. The occasion? “Kai nian” (the “year opening” which is marked on the 2nd day of CNY) and the launch of the Hua Yi (Chinese culture) festival.

The star attractions were the 88 lions. It had promised to be a 45-minute long thrill of lion stunts and acrobatics. But no one counted on the arrival of a big party-pooper who made sure her presence was felt. Yep! Mother Nature decided to shower all with abundant blessings. And so what was to have been a 45-minute long party turned into a 15-minute wash out.

The lions were clearly grumpy at being in the rain. They shook their heads and wriggled their backsides half-heartedly before rain-soaked children, some of whom have waited for at least an hour in the rain. They were decidedly un-amused at being hemmed into a small area by large crowds, being drenched, and…

… being made to eat A LOT of mandarin oranges! Someone obviously thought the lions can’t get enough of mandarin oranges. And had laid out what looked like at least 100 mandarin oranges, formed into the two Chinese characters “hua yi”. So the poor lions… they eyed the mandarins warily for the longest time before grudgingly lying down in the rain and tried to “eat” up all those mandarins! In the end, they required a lot of human help to get through all the fruits. After which, they promptly (all 88 of them) marched off and left a very disappointed crowd in their wake!

Yes, even lions have moods!

* * * * * *

Ever since I was a child, I have always loved watching lion dances. I like the big, furry Northern lions for their majesty and regal presence. But I especially love their more energetic, boisterous Southern cousins. Oh! The wonder of watching their antics as they clamber here, there and everywhere, munching on lettuce and mandarin oranges, creating auspicious characters with their food. I love their playfulness and vivacity. Chinese New Year just would not be Chinese New Year without the heart-thumping drum beats, the clanging cymbals and the prancing lions. Oh, and let’s not forget the bright pink-faced, oversized-head figure with the fan… whatzhisname… the mischievous one.

Hey, isn’t there supposed to be an annual lion dance competition, which is always held at Ngee Ann City’s Civic Square? When is it happening this year? Or is it happening this year?

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute and display any of the images and text contained in this article.

The Loh Hei Chronicles

Someone asked for pics of the roast duck loh hei. So, here is a tongue-in-cheek mini-chronology of my loh hei "adventures" so far this year…

Okay, think along the lines of the song “the 12 days of Christmas”… and here we go…

On the Eve of New Year’s, my family gave to me…

…roast duck loh hei.

Another person asked the auspicious significance behind “duck”. I don’t think there is any. No one really makes duck loh hei – at least not that we have come across. This is exclusively a Renee’s mum invention. Hey, this is a privilege, ya know? I’m sharing a “family secret” And a very yummy “secret” at that. Well, it is now longer a secret.

It just so happened that a few years back, we were having fish loh hei yu shang almost everyday throughout the New Year period, sometimes even twice a day, and we were so sick of the taste, that my mum just decided: “okay, let’s try something totally different… how about roasted duck breast meat”. And lo and behold, a new loh hei was born. Duck meat just seems to work very well.

Oh, come to think of it… one can accord auspicious symbolism to “duck”. Back in the early-mid 90s, a lot of homes displayed small table sculptures of wooden, crystal or natural stone ducks, as it was taken to mean “luck” (get it? “duck”… “luck”…). Also, ducks swim in water, and water signifies wealth and money. So there you have it… duck is auspicious!

On the first day of New Year’s, my family gave to everyone… salmon loh hei (see previous 2 posts for pics of salmon loh hei).

On the third day of New Year’s, I gave to some friends who gathered in my home… more salmon loh hei.

On the fifth day of New Year’s, my family gave to ourselves…

…char siew (bbq pork) loh hei.

This was an “accident”. We weren’t planning to have loh hei that day. But we had tapowed home (bought takeaway) char siew for lunch, and had bought too much of the bbq pork. What to do with all the leftovers? Then, a moment of inspiration… let’s try char siew loh hei! So, my mum and I whipped out the radishes and carrots… and started grating and wringing.

Another “lit light bulb” moment… hey, there are still some roasted cashew nuts leftover from CNY baking… wonder what that will taste like in the loh hei… so, that went in too. (9 o’ clock in the picture).

End result? Sorry, folks. It doesn’t work. For some reason, char siew just doesn’t work in loh hei. The texture and taste of the meat just doesn’t gel with the rest of the salad. We didn’t like it. And I don’t recommend putting whole nuts into loh hei. That doesn’t work either. It completely disrupts the balance of textures in the salad.

Oh well, now we know. Stick with roast duck!

On the seventh day of New Year’s, we celebrated our collective birthday by giving to ourselves… more duck loh hei!

And now, on the ninth day of New Year’s… erm… I’m still waiting for my next loh hei session…

Maybe a vegetarian loh hei… I’ve never actually had a vegetarian loh hei, and am not sure what restaurants use in place of the fish/seafood. I think putting mock duck or mock abalone (made from wheat gluten and sold in cans) might be interesting. Or for a healthier version (the mock abalone/duck has to be deep fried first before using), maybe the flavored tau kwa (firm pressed bean curd) sold in the supermarkets. They come in flavors like teriyaki and five spice. These would be simple to use… just cut into strips and serve. Hmmm… now, that’s an idea…

Akan datang…

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Loh Dou Fung Shang Shui Hei! – Part II

Preparing lo hei yu shang at home is quite a lot of work, but oh, so fun! And in my humble opinion, so much tastier than the restaurant version, simply because we can tailor the dish to exactly how we like it to taste.

The Groundwork
This is my family’s version of loh hei. It differs very slightly from the versions served in restaurants. We have omitted and/or substituted some of the side ingredients (which I will point out as we go along). Our presentation of the dish and the “procedure” for tossing the salad has also been modified very slightly.

The pickled and preserved vegetable condiments, candied dried fruit peels, crunchy deep fried dough crisps, ground peanuts and sesame seeds are all bought ready-prepared. We buy them in “bulk” sizes, enough for around 10 large servings of loh hei. However, they are also available in “gift packs” of individual servings, and these sometimes come with pre-shredded radish and carrots, and even the raw fish.

These colorful preserved/pickled vegetables are supposed to be ready to use straight out of the tub, but we like to “dry” them out more, to enhance their texture. Using a muslin cloth bag, we squeeze out all possible moisture from these condiments. Once this is done, they can be refrigerated and will keep for several weeks.

The fresh vegetables – i.e. the shredded radishes and carrot, are prepared only on the day the loh hei is to be served.

Once the white radish, green radish and red carrots have been peeled and chopped into large chunks, they are kept soaked in cold water prior to being shredded.

(It is possible to substitute the green radish with cucumber. However, the latter will provide less color appeal due to the lighter color of its flesh, and the texture and moisture level – and thus the “crunch” – will be different too).

A mandolin makes short work of the shredding process. This can be bloody work, quite literally. So, mind those knuckles and fingers! The plastic “protector” (not sure what that is called actually) is absolutely wonderful. It secures the vegetable, and also ensures that most of the vegetable gets shredded (minus additional flavorings of human skin and blood! ), leaving only the thinnest slice of vegetable that can’t be used up.

Personally, I prefer the vegetable strips to be as thin as possible. Too coarse, and somehow the salad doesn’t look quite as elegant and the “mouth-feel” of the vegetables changes. Minimal pressure is applied when “grating” the vegetables to ensure long slim strands. But avoid getting the strands too thin and wispy though, as they are liable to break into a zillion tiny pieces when the time comes to “squeeze” them.

The vegetables are grated into a bowl of water.

Once shredded, the vegetables are given a rinse through, under running water (to remove any potential sappiness) and then drained well. Avoid keeping the shredded vegetables soaked in water, as this tends to cause them to break into tiny pieces during the “drying” process.

Now, this is the part when male assistance and strength is useful and desirable. Or at least, it is for me anyway, in order to get sufficient “dryness” and thus crunchiness and crispiness into the vegetables.

Again, using a muslin cloth bag, small batches of the shredded vegetables are “wrung out” (yes, much like wringing out a wet towel) to remove as much of their juices as possible (without breaking the strands). It is very important to get them as dry as possible. We find this step really determines the final texture, bite and thus taste of the salad.

An interesting aside: restaurants, because they have to prepare tens of kilos of these shredded vegetables each day, use a washing machine (yes, the type we use to do our laundry in) to spin out all the vegetable juices. Otherwise, it would take hours and hours, not to mention many raw palms, to manually wring out that amount of shredded radish!

Once done, the vegetables will feel “dry” to the touch, and have a certain “crispiness” to them. They should be kept chilled in the refrigerator until they are to be used.

The fish to be used in the salad (in this case, smoked salmon) also needs to be cut into smallish bite-sized pieces or strips, and then chilled until use.

The Partners in Crime

There are five other “side ingredients” that are only added to the plated salad in the presence of the guests. These are the ground peanuts (left foreground), toasted sesame seeds (left middle), pok cui or deep fried dough crackers (top left hand corner). The amount to be used depends upon the size of the salad (i.e. the amount of shredded radishes and carrot). In fact, the quantities of all other ingredients, namely the fish and the preserved/pickled condiments, also depend upon the quantity of shredded vegetables (and the number of people to be served). The aim is to achieve a nice balance of taste, color and texture between all the various ingredients, and this comes from a combination of instinct and trial-and-error.

The shredded radishes and carrot provide a fresh crunch, the various pickled/preserved vegetables give the salad sweetness, the different gingers add aroma, the dried orange peel gives fragrance and sweetness, the candied winter melon also adds sweetness, the peanuts add beautiful fragrance and aroma, as does the sesame seeds, while the pok chui adds delicious crunchiness and crispiness. Everything should be in balance. The salad should not be overly sweet nor overly tangy. It should not be bland (from too little of the pickled and preserved condiments). There should be enough fish so that one can taste the distinctive flavors of the seafood, and yet it should not be so abundant that it overpowers everything else. No single individual flavor should stand out. Everything melds into this harmonious, yet incredibly complex taste sensation, with many layers of different flavors and aromas. So simple, and yet so rich in complexity.

The colors are important too. With a little experience, one can usually judge how much of the pickled and preserved stuff as well as the dried peel to place on the platter. Once the salad has been tossed, there should be a nice balance of red, green, yellow, orange etc running through the entire salad. Of course, in an informal setting, it is still not too late at this point to add any ingredient that seems somewhat lacking and simply mix it into the already tossed salad. Just let your eyes and tongue be the guides.

The oil and the plum sauce dressing (right of picture) are also only added to the salad at the table. Instead of using plain uncooked peanut oil (as in the restaurants), we prefer to use garlic oil. This is just some finely chopped garlic quickly sautéed in a little peanut or vegetable oil, and then allowed to cool to room temperature again. I think this adds so much more flavor to the salad then just plain oil. And the taste of the oil changes – it softens and has less “edge” after being quickly heated through and sautéed. Only a tiny amount of oil is needed for a large salad for 10-12 persons – maybe 1½ to 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil only. I find the much larger amounts used in restaurant versions makes the salad rather cloying on the palate, which limits the amount of loh hei one can handle at any one seating.

We use my mum’s own plum sauce dressing concoction. It’s an extremely simple recipe. Bottled plum paste (we prefer the Woh Hup brand – after tasting many brands, we find this one nicely balanced, neither overly sweet nor overly sour, as some of the other brands can be – plus, it is free of MSG, colorings and preservatives) is placed in a saucepan and heated on low heat. When it comes out of the jar, it is a very thick paste, but as the plum paste warms up, its consistency lightens and liquefies somewhat. The taste and texture of the plum paste evolves and changes once it is heated and cooked through.

Stir gently to get a smooth silky, somewhat thick sauce. Add a little light soy sauce, sugar, a pinch of salt and white ground pepper to taste. The seasonings are added very much according to personal preference. My mum doesn’t have any accurate measurements for this unfortunately. As usual, she uses the “agak-agak” (estimation by feel and taste) method. If I was to hazard a guess, I would say perhaps around one teaspoon of sugar, same amount of light soy sauce, maybe around 1/8 teaspoon of salt and just a dash of pepper for a 400g jar of the plum paste. For most of our cooking, we like to use both salt and light soy sauce, as they each have a different type of “saltiness”, and it just gives an added dimension of flavor to the dish.

One can definitely play around with the sauce and find something that suits personal preferences. It also depends very much on the brand of plum paste used. The amount of sugar or light soy sauce added will depend on what needs to be balanced out in the original paste.

Bring the sauce to a boil. Remove from the heat as soon as it starts to boil. We don’t want to over-cook the sauce, which changes the plum sauce's consistency completely. But it is important to bring it to a boil though. This sauce can be kept at room temperature in a jar (even in the tropical heat) for 2-3 days, provided it has been allowed to come to a boil before being cooled.

The sauces used in restaurants are slightly different from the one we use. Each restaurant will have its own unique sauce recipe. Some of them might add a fruit jam of some kind for added sweetness. Or some simply add sugar. This can sometimes be a little overpowering, as a lot of the condiments – pickled vegetables, preserved vegetables, dried fruit peel, and candied winter melon – are already very sweet in of themselves. Other versions may have white vinegar added to the sauce. This gives the dressing a “harder” edge and can sometimes be overly sour and vinegary for the salad. I think a better way to add tanginess would be with fresh lime juice, if the preference is indeed for more zest and tang. A lot of restaurants simply use straight (uncooked) plum paste/sauce with no other added flavorings.

This year, we also tried out Kwong Cheong Thye’s proprietary “Raw Fish Sauce” (see very first picture of this post) which they had specially introduced as a “time-saver” for home-preparation of the loh hei salad. However, the family still prefers my mum’s recipe.

In addition to the above five side ingredients, restaurants also usually have four others: ground pepper, cinnamon powder, five spice powder and lime juice. We add the first into the sauce itself instead of serving it up separately. By allowing it to heat through with the dressing, the flavors meld together better and has a “softer” more cohesive taste. We omit the next two as our family finds them rather jarring in the overall taste combination of the salad. A lot of people do like the addition of the cinnamon and five spice. For us, to date, in the last 10 years that we have been serving up loh hei at home, none of our guests have missed these condiments, and everyone has raved about the flavors of the final salad. So, it’s a personal choice whether to add these two aromatics.

For those concerned about losing out on the auspicious connotations… there is no tradition of symbolism associated with cinnamon or five spice powder. However, because these flavorings are among those served up by the restaurants, they have come up with lucky-sounding sayings to go with these condiments. Ah! The wheels of big business!

We only add the lime juice if we are using raw fish in the salad, otherwise we omit that too. Yes, not even when using smoked salmon. We use it to lightly "cure" the raw fish, otherwise we feel that the lime juice, even in small amounts, tend to tip the flavor balance too much into the tangy quadrant. Plus, it doesn’t really work with things other than fish, such as duck or abalone. Again, it is down to personal taste preferences whether to add it or not.

The Presentation
The salad is ready to be plated. There are dozens of ways to plate this. I’ve seen some really imaginative ones, some really elegant ones, some very rustic, down-to-earth ones, and some very casual ones too. So, it’s just you, your own imagination and the desired effect you are trying to achieve.

This is my preferred plating…

We use a large white platter 18” in diameter to serve the salad in. (I’m still looking for my ideal 24” or even 30” wide platter ) I like some height to the salad, so I usually pile the white radish, red carrot and green radish neatly into a graduated “tower”. This also shows off the vibrant color combination of the three different vegetables to good effect. Usually, we serve the salad with the fish already plated, as opposed to adding it to the platter in front of the guests, as happens in restaurants. I just think it adds so much to the visual appeal of the salad to have the fish beautifully ringing the shredded vegetables, instead of being somewhat unceremoniously dumped on top of the vegetables in the presence of the guests. This is another reason why, if entertaining, I like to use smoked salmon rather than other types of fish, for its gorgeous rich color. White colored fish and other seafood (lobster, geoduck or even abalone) do not create quite the same visual impact.

I also sometimes like to create two mounds of each of the pickled/preserved condiments across the plate from each other (depending on how many people I’m trying to feed, and how big the salad is). This allows for a more even and thorough mixing of the ingredients into the salad. Sometimes, amidst the madness and chaos that reigns during any loh hei session, the ingredients do not get thoroughly mixed in, and so some diners end up with whole mouthfuls of red ginger for example, whilst others don’t get to taste any.

(For descriptions of the various pickled and preserved vegetable condiments, please refer to Part I).

The 5 side ingredients are placed in small bowls, ready to be added to the platter just before the tossing.

(Oh, by the way, the above picture shows a portion big enough to serve between 10-14 people, depending on how big a serving each person gets. This may help as a gauge as to how much of each ingredient to use).

The Fun Begins…
The tossing of yu sheng in restaurants is a rather ritualized procedure. As the server adds the various ingredients to the dish, auspicious sayings are uttered. While these sayings may vary slightly from restaurant to restaurant, the essence of the phrases remains the same: wishes and hopes for prosperity and abundance in the year ahead.

The original sayings are in Cantonese, although most restaurants in Singapore have servers who do the honors in Mandarin instead.

* The version below is edited and modified from an article by Solomon Lim that appeared in The Straits Times on 18 January 2004, and is based on the Swissotel Merchant Court Hotel’s version.

As the dish is placed on the table, the server says: “gong xi fa cai, wan shi ru yi” (congratulations and may you be prosperous, may everything go according to your wishes).

While squeezing the lime over the fish: “da ji da li” (good luck and blessings).

While placing the fish over the shredded carrot and radish: “nian nian you yu” (may you have an abundance of wealth every year).

While sprinkling the pepper on the dish: “hong yun dang tou” (may you have good luck at your doorstep).

While sprinkling the cinnamon powder: “qing chun chang zu” (may you be forever young).

While pouring the peanut oil: “rong hua fu gui” (may you enjoy prosperity).

While pouring the plum sauce: “tian tian mi mi” (may sweetness enter your life).

When adding the pok chui crackers: “man di huang jin” (may gold fall at your feet).

The salad is then tossed by all diners using chopsticks.

Now, Renee’s family’s version…

Generally, we leave the saying of all the auspicious sayings to the actual tossing.

First though, a few pointers. Loh hei is best done standing, around a round table if possible. Loh hei can (and usually does) get rather messy. It is not uncommon for the entire dining table to be splayed with flying vegetables! Yes, people do get caught up in the overwhelming excitement of the tossing and saying of auspicious wishes… So be prepared.

When all the guests are gathered around the table, we add the toasted sesame seeds and the ground peanuts, sprinkled around the shredded vegetables.

Next, the pok chui are sprinkled on top.

The garlic oil is drizzled over the shredded radish. We prefer to drizzle the oil on the shredded vegetables. I know it doesn’t seem like it should make much of a difference, but it does seem to. Somehow, having most of the oil coat the shredded vegetables during the toss seem to work better. But that’s just our opinion.

Finally, the plum sauce is drizzled over the vegetables and the other ingredients. (Again, the amount of plum sauce used depends on the size of the salad. The aim is to get a salad that is neither too “wet” nor too dry. The salad should just hold together without any perceptible appearance of the sauce, if that makes sense. Experience helps in determining how much sauce to use. Or simply add more sauce during the tossing process if the salad is turning out too dry. I think it is better to add less to start with if unsure, as it is easier to add than to remove. A too “wet” salad will feel too cloying on the palate.)

And then… the frenzy begins. Everyone, armed with a pair of chopsticks, starts tossing the salad with gusto (sometimes too much gusto!) The higher the salad is tossed, the better, as it symbolizes growth, progress and going to great heights.
It is a fairly common sight to see people in restaurants or at functions (especially at large raucous gatherings) toss the salad outwards rather than upwards, splaying the vegetables right across the table. This is considered “not good” as it signifies the throwing away and the “wasting” of the good luck, prosperity and abundance that is being tossed up! For the same reason, the entire salad must be eaten up, with none left over. So make sure to divide up and serve the entire salad.

While tossing the salad, everyone utters auspicious wishes or sayings. It’s pretty much free for all. Each person contributes whatever comes to mind. It can be all said at the same time. It really doesn’t matter. It makes for a noisy, boisterous, happy and tremendously fun occasion.

Some of the sayings that can be uttered (in either Cantonese or Mandarin):
• Loh hei! Loh hei! Lou dou fung shang shui hei! (toss, toss, toss till the wind grows and the waters rise)
• Xin nian kuai le (happy new year)
• Shen ti jian kang (good health to all)
• Xin xiang shi chen (may your heart’s desires be realized)
• Yi fan feng soon (may all things be smooth sailing in the year to come)
• Nian nian you yu (may there be abundance every year)
• Ma dao chen gong (may all endeavors be successfully completed – literal translation: when the horse arrives, the work is accomplished)
• Bu bu gao shen (growth and success at every step)
• Shen yi xin rong (may business boom and grow)
• Shi ye jing bu (may your career advance – i.e. promotions)
• Hua kai fu gui (abundant blessings and prosperity)
• Hong yun dang tou (may you have good luck at your doorstep)
• Da ji da li (good luck and blessings)
And so on…

This is the final, very, very delicious result! Now, this is what I call a truly shiok experience!

Here’s to tossing up a great and wondrous year ahead!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Loh Dou Fung Shang Shui Hei! – Part I

Loh! Loh! Loh dou fung shang shui hei! (Toss, toss, toss till the wind grows and the water rises! i.e. tossing up good luck, fortune and prosperity). This is the chant which is echoed across South East Asia throughout the 15 days of the Lunar New Year celebrations, as plate after plate of this colorful fish salad, known as “yu sheng” (Mandarin) or “yu shang” (Cantonese), is tossed and devoured with delight.

This dish has its beginnings in Singapore, with historical roots in Southern China. And it has now made its mark around the globe, and is loved and enjoyed by not just the Chinese, but by other Asians and Caucasians as well.

The Story Goes…
The dish “yu sheng” in its current, colorful form, with all the intendent auspicious symbolisms, was created by four Singaporean master chefs Hooi Kok Wai, Lau Yoke Pui, Sin Leong and Than Mui Kai, in the mid-1960s.

However, its roots stretch far back to the small coastal villages of Guangzhou province in Southern China. Its origins are found in a simple village practice of the poor Chinese fishermen of the past. To celebrate the seventh day of the CNY or ren ri (Humanity’s birthday), these ancient fishermen had a tradition of feasting on the one commodity they had in abundance – fish (“yu”) – which was also synonymous with abundance and prosperity due to the sound of the word “yu”. As these fishermen spent long periods out at sea, the fish was simply sliced and eaten raw, the simplest and freshest way – no cooking required.

This cultural practice was then brought to Singapore by our migrant founding fathers, a large majority of whom hailed from the Southern provinces of China. However, given the different living conditions here, the fish was no longer eaten raw, but instead evolved into fish porridge (yu shang zhuk or raw fish porridge) served at roadside stalls. The thin slices of raw fish would be added to piping hot white rice porridge, the heat of which would quickly cook the fish slices through.

In the mid-1960s, the four master chefs were inspired to create a unique CNY dish using the strips of raw fish from the porridge. They combined the raw slices of local fish known as ikan parang with a mélange of vegetables, both fresh and pickled – ranging from shredded carrots and radish, to pickled and candied ginger, cucumber, winter melon and even jellyfish. All tossed and mixed together with a plum sauce dressing. The colors were bright, cheerful and enticing. The symbolisms were auspicious. The taste was a tantalizing tangy sweetness.

And Now…
In the almost 40 years since, the dish has evolved further. But the essence remains the same. The base ingredients are: 1) fish, 2) shredded white radish, green radish and red carrot, 3) 9 varieties of pickled and/or candied vegetables.

(Starting from the red mound in the upper left hand corner, and going counter-clockwise): 1) red pickled ginger, 2) preserved vegetable strips, 3) green preserved cucumber strips, 4) preserved melon strips, 5) yellow ginger, 6) purple preserved vegetable strips, 7) candied winter melon, 8) diced dried Mandarin orange peel, 9) pickled leek.

(Center mound): Shredded white radish, shredded red carrots and shredded green radish. The serving portions of these three vegetables descend in this order, with the green radish being present in the smallest amount among the three, as the latter is the least “naturally sweet” of the three vegetables, and oftentimes has a touch of “sappiness” to it. The white radish is naturally crispy, crunchy and sweet, as is the red carrot, which is somewhat “harder” in texture. I personally prefer to have the last two in almost equal portions or with the red carrot just a tad less than the white radish. With all three combined, there is an interesting mix of different textures and tones of sweetness.

To all this is added deep fried, crispy dough crackers (“pok chui”), ground peanuts and roasted sesame seeds. Everything is then tossed together with a little peanut oil and the plum sauce dressing.

In recent years, in order to entice jaded Singaporean tastebuds, restaurant chefs have also started using alternatives to the traditional raw ikan parang (wolf herring I think) fish slices. Raw salmon, raw tuna, raw mackerel or smoked salmon yu sheng have been around for many years. Now there is lobster, abalone or even geoduck yu sheng. Yes, there is sometimes no longer any “yu” (fish) in “yu sheng” That's why I prefer calling the dish "loh hei" rather than "yu shang" or "yu sheng".

The last one or two years have also seen new flavors in the dressings used – Thai-style sweet, sour, spicy dressing; mala (Szechuan “numbing” hot spicy peppercorn) dressing; Peranakan-style dressing; Japanese-style dressing and so on. Traditionalists among Singapore foodies balk at such twisting of the yu sheng taste. However, they are others who welcome the change. Personally, I’m all for using different fish and seafood, and even meat, in the salad, but I still prefer the cleaner and “purer” taste of the “traditional” plum sauce dressing.

Another change that has gone largely un-noticed is that when it first started, this loh hei yu shang dish was only served on the 7th Day of the Lunar New Year or ren ri (humanity’s birthday) – in keeping with the ancient traditions of the village fishermen of long ago. It was served along with noodles (symbolizing longevity). However, nowadays, it is eaten throughout the 15 days of the Lunar New Year celebrations, and very often, even before the New Year, as enterprising restaurant owners cash in on the popularity of the dish.

My family makes all our loh hei at home, and one variation that we like is using shredded roast duck breast meat instead of the usual raw salmon or smoked salmon. Sometimes we end up eating loh hei as many as 8-10 times in the space of 15 days, and the thought of more salmon or fish loh hei simply does not appeal anymore. And so a duck alternative makes a welcome change for the tastebuds. The denser texture of the meat gives a stronger bite to the salad, and the smoky aromatic flavors of the roast duck adds a distinctive twist to the dish.

I find that fish, seafood or meats with stronger flavors work better in the loh hei, as they add an additional layer of flavor to the intricate and richly complex taste matrix of the salad. Naturally bland seafood or fish that take their flavors from surrounding ingredients seem to work less well – eg abalone, lobster sashimi etc. So my personal preference is to use things like smoked salmon or smoked tuna, and roast duck.

Tossing Around the World
Close to 40-years on, this Guangzhou-inspired, Singapore-created salad can now be found in parts of the world as far-flung as New Zealand, the UK and the US. It now makes its appearance on the CNY menus of Singaporean/Malaysian and some Chinese restaurants in major cities like New York, London, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as in countless homes in towns and cities across the Western hemisphere. And here, more innovation has taken place. With lo hei ingredients not readily available at grocery stores in these countries, creative home chefs have come up with various alternatives for “pok chui” ranging from using deep fried wantan wrappers to using cornflakes!

Our next door neighbour, Malaysia, has also taken heartily to this dish. This is now a ubiquitous addition to CNY menus for almost all Chinese restaurants and eating houses there, and is served in the run-up to and during the full 15 days of the Lunar New Year. However, the Malaysian version is uniquely Malaysian, and looks and tastes rather different from the Singaporean version.

Pre-packed loh hei ingredients are now also now imported from Singapore and readily sold in supermarkets in predominantly Malay/Muslim countries like Indonesia and Brunei.

Strangely enough, lo hei has yet to take root in Hong Kong. Most restaurants there do not feature this CNY dish, although it is well-known that many Hongkongers, including many celebrities, love this dish, and have been known to have relatives or friends cart back packs of the dish’s ingredients from Singapore.

The dish is also slowly making its way back to the place of its historical birth. Certain hotels in major Chinese cities like Shanghai now serve this dish, although it has yet to establish a firm presence in the local restaurants. However, given the Chinese penchant for all things associated with “prosperity” and “good fortune” the tide in mainland China is surely changing. And so, this Chinese migrant dish is finally going home…

Tomorrow, how to make and toss loh hei yu sheng…

* The above is based on information taken from an article by Solomon Lim that appeared in The Straits Times on 18 January 2004.

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Zhu Xin Nian

Wishing everyone… Happy Lunar New Year! (click on greeting, turn up the volume and enjoy!)

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

New Year’s Eve

I know it’s New Year’s Eve today, because…

…my mum has hung up the bunch of Chinese leeks (suan). Every year, on the day before the start of the brand new year, nine stalks of Chinese leeks are tied together with red ribbon and a hong bao, and hung in the kitchen.

They are not hung before New Year’s Eve, as the leeks dry out and wilt fairly quickly, and it is not considered auspicious to have dried and wilted things in the house during the 15 days of the Lunar New Year celebrations. By hanging them at the last moment, they can usually last through the 15 days, before being taken down.

Since dawn the house has been a hive of activity. Chaos reigns! Last minute spring cleaning is still underway. Preparations for the most important dinner of the Lunar calendar has started since early morning… cutting, dicing, grinding, mincing… Yep, this is the big annual cook-out. It’s messy, it’s chaotic… it’s fun! Everyone gets in on the act, each with their designated duties… often unspoken, but simply understood. Almost poetry in motion.

There will be loh hei (but of course), fish, prawns, chicken, lamb, vegetables and soup… it will be a feast. I can barely wait!

Yay! It’s New Year’s Eve!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Raising The Red Lantern

After days of being covered in dust and surrounded by a chaotic mess of clutter, my festive spirit was starting to sag and was in danger of fizzling out. The upcoming New Year was beginning to lose a little of its shine. But, even as we rushed to try to complete the spring cleaning before Wednesday, we also started putting up the New Year decorations (yes, I know, we are extremely late this year). And with the added red and gold sparks in the house, the New Year cheer started to return.

There was a time, a few years ago, when I was still at that age when being “hip and cool” was so important, every year I would baulk and protest against the putting up of what I considered to be “cheena” (very Chinese) and infinitely “uncool” Chinese New Year decorations in the home. Everything was in bright ang pow red and kitschy gold. Yikes! But now, I love having these decorations up. They are what mark out this special celebratory period as being different from every day, normal life. Besides, I think chinoiserie is actually quite hip today.

Every year, we put up red lanterns at the entrance patio, together with a large string of cardboard firecrackers. (While Singapore saw its first fire crackers in Chinatown two weeks ago, after almost 30 years of absence, they are still not allowed in private homes). Traditionally, the letting of firecrackers was to chase away “evil spirits” and welcome new luck into the New Year. The hanging of red decorations at the doorway of your home always signify, for the Chinese, that the household is in celebration of some happy occasion. Therefore, when there is an impending marriage in the family for example, a piece of red cloth will also be draped across the doorway. It marks the declaration of a happy and auspicious occasion.

During CNY, it is also common to display pots of kumquats (small mandarin oranges) near the main door of the home. (By the way, the pots of pink flowers seen on the right are “fu gui hua” (flowers of blessings).

It is also customary to hang a matching pair of auspicious couplets (dui lian) on either side of the door. Strictly speaking, traditional Chinese custom also requires a third couplet to be hung across the top of the door, in addition to the pair at the sides of the door. However, in modern times, this is a relaxed “rule” which is largely ignored.

Couplets are chosen carefully for their auspicious meanings and both sayings should “match” each other.

Reading from right couplet first: tian zhen sui ye ren zhen shou - as the Heavens gain in age, so Man gains in longevity.
Left couplet: chun man chien kun fu man men – as Spring (i.e. Life) fills the Heavens and Earth (the Universe), so blessings fill the home. (Here, the word “men” or door is used to mean the home or hearth).
And so the couplets welcome the New Year and Springtime with the hope of abundant blessings, health and a long life in the coming year.

Another custom is to decorate all or most of the plants in the home with red decorations, be they red ribbons, red hanging decorations or even decorations fashioned out of ang pow (red packet) paper. This gives all the living things in the home an aura of “xi qi yang yang” – celebratory, festive cheer.

The golden orange color of the kumquats signifies prosperity and wealth, and this is a popular Chinese New Year gift given to friends, family and also business associates. They represent your wishes of abundance for those you care about.

We received this plant a few days ago from a family friend, and it too has had red ribbons added to its luscious branches. The fruits are still a little green, so hopefully they will ripen in time for New Year’s Day.

Here are fishes (“yu” signifying abundance) made from ang pow paper, hung on some plants in the entrance patio. Some years we alternate and hang ang pows instead (with real money inside too!). Usually empty ang pows are not used. Token sums of money are put in all the red packets used for decorative purposes.

Even the curly fu gui zhu (prosperity bamboo) has received red ribbon buntings and 2 big fishes that have also been fashioned from ang pow paper!

These fu gui zhu are the larger versions of the potted and layered one I spoke about in my previous post on CNY decorations.

Ah! This is a perennial favorite of a lot of people. “Ying niu” or pussy willow. There is something very appealing about the small, white and fuzzy buds of this plant. Again, auspicious hanging decorations are hung on its branches. For me, this always sort of represents the Chinese New Year version of the Christmas tree! We usually tie red fuzzy wired ribbons and hang gold decorations of “jin bao” gold nuggets, firecrackers, auspicious Chinese characters and so on. (click on close-up below).

When placed in a pot of water, these cut branches can last for a very long time. In fact, they will start to sprout leaves (which is a good sign, heralding the arrival of Spring). (click on close-up below).

[I do apologize for the poor quality of the photos of the pussy willow. My small pocket-sized camera refuses to shoot indoors without a flash, and the flash simply reflected off all the gold decorations and white buds to create blurred images ]

Placing auspicious pictures and sayings on the walls of the home is also popular and common during CNY.

This pair of Chinese New Year dolls have “gong xi fa cai” (congratulations, and may prosperity be with you) and “wan shi ru yi” (may all things go according to your wishes) written on the “jin bao” that they are carrying, and they are placed so that they greet guests with well wishes as they arrive to visit us during CNY.

One can also put up decorations with auspicious New Year wishes. These do not have to match, and can be anything that the homeowners find appealing and/or appropriate.

My mum chose these two for this year. The top one says: chu lu ping an - wishes for safe journeys when one travels. (Our family members travel often for work and business). The bottom one says: xin xiang shi chen – may your heart’s desires be realized.

Here’s another one…

A picture of two mandarin oranges, and using the sound of the name of the oranges, it is written “da ji da li”, meaning abundant blessings and luck.

And so with splashes of red and gold throughout the home, it is indeed beginning to look and feel a lot like Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

New Year Goodies Galore!!

Woo hoo!! Look what I got! Received these today… these are the exquisitely made, very dainty Japanese confectionery that I posted about the other day. Kawaii! (Cute!) (As the Japanese would say ) Actually, I made a mistake. The other day, I said they were made from Konnyaku jelly, but after eating them today, I realized they are not Konnyaku. They are various Japanese confectionery – some are made from jelly (the 2 square pieces and the white flower), some have a white bean paste filling with a mooncake-like pastry (the 2 round yellow-brown ones), some are mochi-like with red bean paste filling (round pink one), some have hard, very sweet sugar centers (pink flower), and some are just very, very sweet (center yellow round one).

Each of the designs is so exquisitely rendered. Almost too pretty to eat. I say almost… Quite a few other designs had already landed in our stomachs before I even remembered about taking pictures. I really wanted the tiny tangerine designs that I spotted the other day, but apparently they have long been sold out. Oh well! Still…

What a nice, sweet start to the weekend. I was planning to go down early next week to grab some for the New Year, but I guess my raves about them didn’t go unnoticed . How sweet! (figuratively and literally).

This weekend has turned out to be one filled with several pleasant surprises… It is always such a warm feeling when one thinks about/wishes for something, then forgets about it, thinking it not that important, when out of the blue, without you expecting it, the wish is fulfilled.

I had been slightly disappointed about how my cornflake cookies had turned out, and was discussing with my mum how I could go about modifying the recipe again. Apparently, my mum had mentioned to my aunt (who makes these cookies by the thousands - and I mean thousands – each year), and not only did my aunt promise to forward me her recipe (which should be coming soon), but she also sent me a big jar of the cornflake cookies she made! All the way from Brunei too! Yep! Delivered by plane. Isn’t she just the sweetest?

Every year she spends hours and hours, days and days, weeks and weeks before CNY baking cookies. She started out making them for family, then friends started placing orders with her… and now she has a full fledged CNY cottage industry going, with a repertoire of some 10-15 different types of cookies! Her cornflake ones are still one of my favorites. She painstakingly forms little rosettes with the cornflakes on each cookie (as opposed to the usual more rough-and-ready method of rolling the balls of dough in crushed cornflakes). This takes HOURS! Everything is still completely made by hand. And the cookies are in nice small one-bite sized pieces. Yum!

She also sent me these…

I love these! Kueh mur (sp?). This is actually a Malay cookie. I have not seen it in Singapore, not even during Hari Raya. Perhaps it is an East Malaysia/Brunei thing?

These are basically icing sugar-coated cookies with a very tender, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture. The recipe is simple enough, but the key to the success of making this cookie lies in the “frying” of the flour before making the dough. The flour has to be “stir-fried” (without oil) in a wok until it is extremely light and “loose”. This is a time-consuming process (perhaps 45mins to 1 hour? Depending on how much flour you have), and requires a great deal of bicep/arm strength! If the flour is not sufficiently “light”, the resulting cookie will be very dense and when eaten, will be this sticky, thick powdery goo in the mouth. Not pleasant! When done right, the entire cookie simply melts away in the mouth, leaving a wonderful sweet taste. Shiok! It is not easy to find a well-made kueh mur.

By the way, these kueh mur cookies are made into small bite-sized balls, which can be popped whole into the mouth. I just realized that from the picture, these things look like humungous golf-ball sized giants! LoL.

This was also part of the gift package that came from Brunei. This is a yearly fixture in our annual “CNY goodies” box sent from Brunei. Kueh Kapit (literal translation from Malay: Cupid cookie), otherwise known as love letters or egg rolls. The roots of this CNY staple are found in the Malay and Peranakan cultures. This is a fragile thin, crepe-like, but very crispy cookie, rolled into a cigar-shape.

The Malay/Peranakan version differs from the Chinese rendition in that the former has a touch of coconut milk/cream added to the batter, which gives the cookie incredible aroma, fragrance and a richer, more complex taste.

This is another very time-consuming, labor-intensive festive cookie to make. It takes hours of sitting in front of hot iron griddles, cooking each individual piece of cookie dough. Clock watching is of the essence. It takes mere minutes for the thin cookie to cook. If you remove the cookie several seconds too early, it may result in a too light-colored cookie. A few seconds too long, and the cookie will be too dark. It takes a lot of practice and experience to get each cookie looking very similar in color to each other.

One also sacrifices the skin on the tips of your fingers when making this cookie. When the batter comes off the griddle, it is still soft. But it hardens very quickly, and so before it does, when it is still piping hot, the cookie has to be very quickly rolled into the cigar shape – by hand!

What makes a good kueh kapit? The biscuit must be as thin as possible yet still strong enough not to break too easily. It must be tender but not too fragile. It must be light and crispy without being hard. It must be golden brown – not burnt but not too pale. It must be just right. Tall order, no? It is a labor of love, and oh so delicious! Great on its own, even better with ice cream!

Every year, we get ours from an elderly Malay woman who has been making these for decades!

All of a sudden, the New Year gifts have been pouring in over the last couple of days.

More pineapple tarts. These are hand-made by a friend. Another labor of love.

Hmmm… I think we have a little too many pineapple tarts now… 5 types! Oh boy! My poor waistline!

Oh, and would you believe, we received 4 big nian gaos from various friends. If you add the two we had already bought, that makes for a lot of nian gaos this New Year! Haha! I can see us having nian gao pan-fried with egg for breakfast for quite some time to come!

We also received these…

They look like pork bak kwa, they feel like pork bak kwa, but they taste quite different from the regular pork bak kwa. These are chicken bak kwa, a supposedly slightly healthier version of the pork bak kwa (BBQ sweet meats), but I doubt so, given the amount of grease and oil this version also comes swimming in. And personally, calorie for calorie, fat gram for fat gram, I would go for the one and the original… the pork bak kwa. But this version is great to have to serve to Muslim friends.

When eating bak kwa, I always pick the pieces that have more of the chao tar (burnt, crispy) edges. Ooh! I love those crispy bits! Yummy!!!

My mum also bought more New Year goodies today.

These are the true traditional Chinese almond cookies. They are very dense, dry, powdery cookies – quite hard, not crunchy nor crispy. When placed in the mouth, they sort of melt into a powdery, thick mixture. Not my cup of tea unfortunately. I always feel like I’m imbibing mouthfuls of powder! Come to think of it, I haven’t come across someone who actually likes eating these, and yet a lot of households buy them every year. I'm not even sure what the tradition is behind these almond biscuits. Nowadays of course they come neatly packaged in individual packs, displayed in an elegant gift box, as opposed to the traditional tin can of old, into which dozens of the cookies are stacked, one on top of the other.

Fa gao (steamed cakes). They are basically light, fluffy, airy steamed cakes made from flour, sugar and water. During CNY, they symbolize prosperity and wealth, as “fa” sounds like the Chinese word “to prosper”. My mum would normally buy a large one that is shared by the family during breakfast on the first day of the New Year. Today, she came home from the market with these – mini fa gao in pretty pastel shades, as opposed to the usual brown or white. She wanted to try them out before the New Year to see how they tasted before deciding what to get for New Year’s Day. I think they look rather pretty and elegant. I like!

We will be making keropok (deep fried prawn crackers) over the next few days. These are dried crackers made from minced prawns. When deep fried, they expand around 4-5 times in size, and become a white, crispy and light cracker. These keropok are still sometimes served with roast chicken in some Chinese restaurants.

Our family remains partial to the famous Brunei keropok – thin, very crispy with a full-bodied prawn flavor. When the keropok is made too thick, the deep-fried cracker will be hard and dense, instead of being light and crispy.

While we are on the subject of famous Brunei food products, there was also a HUGE block of belacan (fermented shrimp paste) included in the “gift pack” we received today. I’m not well-versed in the subtleties of different belacans, and cannot tell the difference between run-of-the-mill and out-of-this-world belacans, but so many people have waxed lyrical about the Brunei-made belacan. I know that two former Presidents of Singapore as well as many Singaporean cabinet ministers order this stuff in bulk. Only recently, the family of a minister visited Brunei, and carted back tens of kilos of this stuff!

Belacan is truly pungent. Neighbors many doors away will always be able to tell which family is having belacan in the next meal! But it is so very delicious when added to a variety of dishes. The shrimp paste is usually combined with chilli paste to form sambal belacan, which can then be used in vegetable stir-fries, fish or meat dishes and so on.

Wow! A food-filled weekend indeed!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Making a List and Checking It Twice

The list of things to buy for CNY seems endless. Every now and then we would remember something we have missed and add it to the list, which just seems to grow longer, never shorter. Well, slowly but surely, we are making our way down the list.

Let’s see... how are we doing so far?

A Lazy Susan filled with New Year goodies is a definite must. Alternatively called a Ba Bao (Eight Treasures) or Happiness or Togetherness Tray, this was traditionally a selection of 8 different candied dried fruits. Nowadays, the Ba Bao Tray can be made up of just about anything – various nuts, different crisps and crackers, a selection of cookies, or a range of chocolates or candies. One can also have a savory Ba Bao Tray, filled with eight different cooked dishes, like prawns (signifying laughter), abalone (for abundance), fa cai hao si (for prosperity) and so on.

Every household will have at least a few selections of different nuts and melon seeds for CNY. These are our family’s favorites (clockwise from top left):
• pistachio nuts (“kai xin guo” meaning “fruit of happiness”) – I love pistachios. I would prefer them unsalted, but they all seem to come ready salted which means they can only be consume in small quantities in each sitting.
• regular white pumpkin seeds (“gua zhi” symbolizing many descendants and offspring). These are the only melon seeds I ever manage to crack with any amount of elegance and decorum!
• peanuts (“chang shou guo” for longevity). These ones are a new flavor… Farmer brand garlic-flavored peanuts. We were curious enough to buy a pack to try. Verdict? Not bad, but I think, for the sake of those near me, I would rather stick to the regular flavored ones for New Year’s Day.
• green tea-flavored pumpkin seeds
• regular Shandong groundnuts. Shandong in China is famous for producing supposedly some of the best peanuts in the world – crunchy and fragrant. Shandong groundnuts also tend to be larger in size than regular peanuts. As far back as I can remember, we always buy the Hand Brand of groundnuts – you know, the one that, as children we called the “very good” brand because of it’s iconic logo of a “thumbs up”. We broke with tradition this year, and tried out the Camel brand of Shandong groundnuts.

As mentioned before in a previous post, candied fruits are also highly significant during CNY. The center of the tray shows honeyed red dates and dried longans. These two are always placed together and are termed “hong zhao gui yen”, expressing a wish for the early arrival (represented by the red dates) of many sons (represented by the longans).

For some families, perhaps particularly the Cantonese, a tea, brewed from dried red dates and dried longans, is drunk on the first day of the New Year. However, the dried red dates and dried longans used for brewing the tea are slightly different from the ones shown above. These regular dried red dates can also be used in cooking soups. Our family quite often use these dried red dates to sweeten soups when we do not want to use meat to make the soup base. Instead of using the more expensive golden dried longan (as in the picture above), regular chopped dried longans can be used to brew the tea.

This tea is also drunk by newly weds on the day of their wedding, to symbolize fertility and many descendants.

These are absolute musts in our home during CNY. I simply LOVE these. Candied lotus roots and candied lotus seeds. It’s still 5 days to New Year, and we are already munching through our second batch of these! Lotus roots are supposed to symbolize family harmony, togetherness and unity. Lotus seeds again symbolize a long line of descendants. But I just love the taste of these. I don’t know why.

Oh yeah, I have also made some honey roasted cashew nuts. I usually prefer to do them at home if I have the time, as the store-bought ones are almost inevitably deep fried. I would dry-roast them in the oven – much healthier that way, and they still come up crunchy and fragrant.

As cashews take anywhere between 20-30 minutes to cook (depending on your oven), I usually pop the raw cashews into the oven for approximately 7-10 minutes before coating them with the honey and returning them to the oven, so that the honey doesn’t have time to burn. For every 500g of raw cashews, I normally use approximately ½ cup of honey mixed with a scant 2 tablespoons of water (to lighten the consistency of the honey). I try to get a thick liquid that is not so sticky that it is hard to mix into the nuts and yet not too watery.

Once the cashews have had a brief spell in the oven, I toss them with the honey and return them to the foil-lined baking sheet, making sure to spread the nuts out so that they don’t stick together too much as they bake. Sometimes I also toss them with some raw sesame seeds together with the honey, or I will add pre-toasted sesame seeds a few minutes before the nuts are ready.

I like making honeyed walnuts this way too. I love the commercially available ones, another favorite for CNY, but they are deep fried in a lot of oil. The home-made ones are just healthier and just as tasty.

These are always at the very top of our shopping list for every Lunar New Year. Ingredients for the loh hei yu shang! The whole family loves loh hei yu shang, and during the course of the 15 days of CNY, we might have this dish oh maybe 7-8 times even. This dish is a definite must at any New Year gathering or party. It is also “traditional” to have this dish on New Year’s Eve, the first day of New Year, the 7th day of New Year and usually on the last day too. Business people will toss up this dish with business partners or associates at business lunches and/or dinners during the New Year period.

Loh hei is basically a very large salad made up of shredded green radish, white radish and red carrots, accompanied by 9 different types of syrup-soaked or candied vegetables and dried fruits, such as candied ginger and candied kumquat peel. (The 7 tubs and 4 smaller packs in the picture). The star of the salad is raw fish, smoked salmon or abalone. Ground roasted peanuts and roasted sesame seeds (top left hand corner) are also added, together with a liberal sprinkling of deep fried crispy dough pieces (top right hand corner). A plum-sauce based dressing is poured on, some lime juice is added and the salad is tossed by all present. The higher the salad is tossed, the better it is.

The name “Loh Hei Yu Shang” means to generate opportunities, openings, great wealth and prosperity. “Loh” in Cantonese means to “churn” or create (business) opportunities. “Hei” means to “rise”. “Yu” (the fish or abalone) signifies abundance. “Shang” is to grow.

As the salad is being tossed, auspicious sayings are said aloud – such as “loh, loh, loh dou fung shang shui hei” i.e. toss, toss, toss till the wind grows and the water rises, meaning good luck and fortune will grow and increase. The higher the salad is tossed the more the prosperity will grow.

Every year we would buy the ingredients (minus the radishes and fish) from Kwong Cheong Thye (63, Geylang Lor 27). For the last 10 years or more, we have been making this dish at home to share with family and friends, as previously we had found the versions served at restaurants to be overly-sweet, and overly-priced too. I don’t know what the current market price is for this dish – maybe ranging between S$38-88? Depending on the size of the serving and the type of fish/seafood used. We buy the ingredients in bulk (good for around 7-8 large servings, as pictured above) and it comes to under S$60. We also then get a choice as to what we would like to use in the loh hei… smoked salmon, raw fish, or even roast duck. Yes, roast duck. We like this version, even though it is a departure from the fish and its intendent meaning of abundance. It makes for a very nice change of taste from the usual fish and abalone.

My mum normally makes her own concoction for the dressing. A recipe she has honed through the years. This year, she spotted Kwong Cheong Thye’s newly launched “yu shang sauce”. We haven’t tried it yet, so not sure how that will taste like.

[Oh! Before I forget. The loh hei ingredients are also available, from supermarkets, in pre-packed single servings at around S$16.80 for a large serving (I think).
Also, we buy additional “pok chui” (the crispy fried dough) from Farrer Road market. I actually prefer these ones to the Kwong Cheong Thye ones. The crunch and crispiness are different.]

I am so looking forward to having my first loh hei of the year soon.

Remember me talking about the auspicious pineapple and fish shaped chocolates I first saw at the Chinatown festive market? Well, I finally got myself some. This is such an ingenious marketing ploy, but I love it.

We also bought some “jin bao” gold nuggets chocolates with “fu lu shou” stuck on them. Fu Lu Shou are the 3 men in the statues one sometime see displayed in some Chinese homes. They represent prosperity/fortune, status and longevity.

Of course, two things that are at the top of any Lunar New Year shopping list… nian gao (glutinous rice New Year cake) and mandarin oranges.

We prefer the nian gao that has been steamed wrapped in lotus leaf. The large majority of nian gao nowadays come wrapped in plastic wrapping. I think the lotus leaf does make a difference to the aroma of the nian gao.

The mandarin oranges in the picture are Lukan mandarins from China. Those from Taiwan are called Ponkan. I think they are fairly similar to each other, although more often than not, we have found Lukan to be generally juicier.

There is actually also another seasonal orange which is available only around the CNY period – the Chinese “liu ding”. This is an orange rather than a mandarin orange. It is very juicy and very sweet. We like this a lot. However, it has never gained wide-spread popularity and has always been over-shadowed by its more famous cousin, the mandarin orange. There is also a hard-skinned variety of mandarin orange, the name of which eludes me at the moment. Again, this is not as popular as the soft-skinned Lukan or Ponkan.

My mum bought these from the market last week. They are so cute! Tiny mandarin oranges – or more accurately, kumquat. These are on average only about 1½” to 2” in diameter, and they are so, so sweet! Very, very juicy too! (And only S$4.00 per kilo, at the market - possibly slightly more at the supermarkets). I actually prefer these over the Lukan. But the Lukans are the ones to use for “bai nian” purposes – i.e. for exchanging with friends and family to wish them “Happy New Year”.

Yes, the refrigerator and pantry are starting to look decidedly full… everything is looking very red and golden… it’s looking like a delicious New Year!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

You Say Cookies, I Say Biscuits

The one time in the year that I completely over-indulge in cookies (or biscuits as they are called in this part of the world) is during the Lunar New Year. It used to be that all the CNY cookies were (or had to be) hand-made at home. And there-in lie a lot of the magic and appeal of CNY cookies - memories of weeks and weeks of baking by my mum and aunts in the run-up to the New Year. In those days, the biscuits had a down-to-earth, almost rustic appeal to them… cornflake cookies, rice crispy cookies, even milo cookies. My love for CNY cookies (for some reason, these cookies are not made nor sold outside of CNY) is very much colored by my recollections of the colors and images of nut-grinding with a mortar and pestle, mixing the batter, rolling the dough into tiny balls… the smells of the baking cookies… and that moment when we, the kids, are finally allowed to taste the fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies. Heaven!

Each family would have their own recipes, or variations of a popular recipe, each with its own unique taste. The fun was in trying all the different varieties as we went from home to home, visiting family and friends over the 2 weeks of CNY.

Nowadays, most families buy their cookies ready-made. The choices available are mind-boggling, and there are some really tasty options out there. We usually aim for a combination of both ready-made and home-made.

“Chinese cookies” are rather different in texture and taste-balance from “Western cookies”. I find that the Americans tend to prefer their cookies with a soft, chewy texture, whilst the English/Europeans prefer a crispier/crunchier texture. Chinese cookies tend to be “soong” in texture. I have thought for hours on an accurate translation for this word, and have come up with nothing. There doesn’t seem to be an English equivalent of this word. The closest I can come is that it is a crispy yet soft, tender and melt-in-your-mouth texture, and still this would not really approximate to the real meaning of “soong”. (Anyone knows a better translation of this word? Please help!)

Unlike “Western” cookies, Chinese biscuits, even sweet biscuits, all tend to have a slight savory overtone – it’s a finely balanced combination of saltiness and sweetness. So one can actually eat tons of the stuff without feeling “jelak” (getting sick of it).

Every year we usually have a range of at least 12-14 types. This year, we made a very late start on the Lunar New Year shopping (ban nian huo). So, what is in our biscuit collection so far this year?

(Above picture, from left):
Almond Nut Crunchy (by Bengawan Solo, Singapore). Very fragrant, crispy and “soong”. I like the addition of Nestum in the cookie batter. I think it adds a little extra to the texture and aroma of the cookies.
Peanut Cookies (by Glory, Singapore). A firm favorite of my mum every year. I personally find it a just a tiny tad too much on the salty side. However, it has great texture, and a beautiful smell of peanuts.
Pistachio Pumpkin Cookies (by Johor-based Lavender Confectionery). This is one of their new flavors this year, and makes a nice change. I can’t really taste the pumpkin, but the tiny bits of chopped pistachio makes for a very nice crunch. [On a side note: I also like Lavender’s Vegetarian Almond Cookies (no eggs). I am tempted to buy this…]
Walnut Cookies (by Tarts n Pastries, Singapore). I like this. Very tender, melt-in-the-mouth, “soong” texture.

I had grand ambitions of baking most of the cookies for CNY this year. However, as always, things pile up (work, social commitments, spring cleaning, family obligations and on and on), and time slips by… and nothing gets done. I’ve only managed two varieties (one of which I made into two sizes and shapes).

The cornflake cookie is a “must” in this family. It is hardly available commercially. The only bakery offering it, that I’ve seen, is Bengawan Solo, and I don’t particularly fancy that version. Previously, my mum would bake them. For the past few years, an aunt has been making them and giving them to us for CNY. This year, yours truly was supposed to make them. And boy! has that been a journey!

As I was about to make the cookies, I discovered I had misplaced the recipe my mum had given me many years ago, and which I had since then tweaked and adjusted to my satisfaction. The recipe just couldn’t be found, and it was too late to be asking my mum for the recipe. So, I ended up surfing the Internet, but cornflake cookie recipes were few and far between. I finally settled on this one. For some reason, the cookies came out American-style: chewy. That was not what I was looking for. Feeling very frustrated that I had “wasted” an entire evening (it was close to 2am by then), I gave up, and decided to start afresh the next day.

I got the original recipe off my mum again, but I just could not remember what I had adjusted and how. It has been a good 6-7 years since I last made this recipe! Well, to cut a long story short, the cookies are very crunchy and crispy, but they are not “soong”, and that is what I really want. They taste great, just not the perfect texture I am looking for.

I also made some choco-almond cookies based on a recipe from cooks.com. I substituted the shortening with butter, and added toasted almond flakes to the batter. Half the dough was shaped into a fairly slim roll, and cut into bite-sized pieces. The other half was rolled out and cut with a cookie-cutter to form heart-shaped cookies. These are also slightly soft/chewy – perhaps because of the butter/shortening substitution? They pass the taste-test, but not quite what I was looking for texture-wise.

Pineapple tarts. The GREAT love of Singaporeans and Malaysians for CNY. There have been so many Google and Yahoo searches for “pineapple tarts” to my site! I can’t tell you.

There are basically two types of pineapple tarts – the open-faced one and the “closed” variety. The latter being an innovation on the former. The pastry used in both types is very different from each other. The open-faced tart has a crispier/crunchier, flakey pastry dough, whilst the enclosed tart is made with a very soft, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth pastry. The taste and “bite” of the two variations are completely different. The latter usually has the addition of cream and milk powder in the pastry batter.

The taste-test for the open-faced pastry is that it should be crispy without being hard. It has to have a tender crumb. For the “closed” tart, the challenge is to produce a pastry that is very, very soft and crumbly almost, and yet will hold together and keep its shape.

The filling of both types of tarts is the same – a sweet, very slightly spiced, pineapple paste made by cooking down fresh pineapple with sugar and a touch of cloves. This is an extremely time-consuming and tedious part of the preparation. It takes more than 1 hour of continuous stirring at the stove before the pineapple paste is ready. Only for those who want an intense bicep workout!

When the “closed” pineapple tarts first made their appearance over a decade (?) ago, they were made elaborately into the shape of pineapples. Nowadays, most confectionaries/bakeries make them into simple log or round shapes.

Our favorite for this type of pineapple tart is the version made by Smiling Orchid. Each tart is still hand-made, and the crust is deliciously soft and melt-in-your-mouth, with a nice buttery and creamy taste. The filling is also neither too tart nor too sweet. However, this year, we were too late in placing orders, and the order list has closed. So we are doing without Smiling Orchid pineapple tarts this year. We have bought several other versions, and nothing quite compares. The ones from Indonesia (center in picture) are not too bad. Not much to look at, but pretty good taste wise. The ones on the right were given by a friend. If I’m not wrong, they are from Ho Kee Pau in Geylang. The filling is on the tart side, which some people prefer. The crust is not particularly soft nor crumbly.

We have also ordered some of these pineapple tarts from a friend of a friend, and will be picking those up this weekend.

I personally have a slight preference for the open-faced tart over the closed version. I find them less rich. We normally buy the ones by Glory (above left). After trying many, many versions, I still like theirs.

Well, the “treasure trove” of cookies is slowly but surely growing! With just one more week to go, I’m sure more will be added before New Year Day rolls around. I’m not done with my Lunar New Year shopping yet! We have also placed orders for some cashew nut cookies and more peanut cookies from another friend of a friend. Yes, more and more people seem to be baking cookies at home for sale. It must be a lucrative venture. And inevitably, there will be more and more requests from friends to buy from friends of friends of friends… It will become harder and harder to turn down such requests. Sigh! But hey, I love CNY cookies!

Happy cookie-ing!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Who Needs an Excuse for a Food Bazaar Anyway?

Definitely not the Singaporeans. But hey, the Lunar New Year is as good a reason as any.

The Takashimaya Food Hall is, in my opinion, one of the best departmental store food halls in Singapore – somewhat reminiscent of the Harrods Food Hall of London, and the Saks Food Hall of New York. And each time there is an upcoming festival (which in multi-racial and multi-cultural Singapore, is a very regular occurrence), Takashimaya holds a bazaar in the basement atrium of Ngee Ann City. Each bazaar will have dozens and dozens of food stalls offering food that is related to the upcoming festival, as well as other well-loved Singaporean favorites.

On Sunday night, we decided we would be courageous and brave the weekend hoards in Orchard Road and head on down to the Takashimaya CNY bazaar.

I had finally admitted to myself that the likelihood of me getting much CNY baking done was now very slim. Oh sure, I had ambitious plans to bake at least 8-10 different types of cookies. I had it all worked out (or so I thought)… a batch of 150-200 cookies of each recipe would probably take me maybe 3-4 hours, so 8-10 recipes spread over 8-10 evenings wasn’t going to be difficult. Ah, but you see, I forgot some important elements to the equation… like, running my business (ah yes, work? what’s that? ), family and social obligations, and the zillion other things that need to be done before CNY.

By last weekend, I had only managed two batches of cookies, and only after much distress at that (but that’s another story for another post). Looking at my schedule for the next week and a half, it didn’t look like much baking was going to get done. So, if we were going to have any CNY cookies at all for the celebrations, they were going to have to be bought ready-made. And that’s fine. There are a lot of great tasting cookies out there. It’s just that home-made cookies are just that much more special, and they don’t taste as “homogenous” as store-bought ones.

The Takashimaya CNY bazaar is always a great place to shop for CNY cookies. It brings together, under one roof, a large number of the top quality bakeries in Singapore. I would estimate that of the perhaps 65-75 stalls there, easily over 80% were selling CNY cookies and other CNY food. With each booth offering samplings of their products, we could taste the full range of options before deciding which to buy. And hey, for foodies, this is pretty close to food ecstasy – just wandering from stall to stall, munching on a whole hoard of food samples which every outlet thrusts very eagerly at you. Each stall has probably at least 12-15 different types of items on sale, with many stalls offering a lot more than that. Multiply that by 60+ stalls, and the numbers are staggering!

There were quite a few new flavors and innovations this year, which was exciting. I also spotted a number of new operators/bakeries that I have not seen before. We ended up buying 6-7 different varieties – some new, others old favorites. Pictures and descriptions coming up shortly.

Apart from the cookies, there were of course the usual CNY “musts”, such as bak kwa (BBQ sweet meats).

These are thin slices of pork with a sweet marinade that are grilled over a charcoal fire. Very delicious, but also very unhealthy. Not only do they have high levels of preservatives, nitrites and what have you, but they are also not very artery-friendly. These are available all year round, at yet, during CNY, Singaporeans seem to go into a frenzy for this meaty snack. We are prepared to literally stand in line for 1 - 1½ hours (and even longer as New Year’s Day draws closer) at the really popular and famous stores, just to get our hands on a pack of these delectables. This despite festive prices being at least 30-50% above normal prices.

The really good bak kwas are those that are thinly sliced with tender, moist meat and crispy slightly burnt edges. Shiok!

These also come in beef or chicken varieties. And the other day, I saw an ad in the papers for crocodile meat bak kwa! Uh… okay…

This I enjoyed… crispy bak kwa pastry (on the left). This could have been around before, but this was my first encounter with it, and it tasted really good! A piece of bak kwa sandwiched between 2 pieces of very crispy, flaky and incredibly fragrant pastry, topped liberally with sesame seeds. Sinful, but oh so good!

(The pastry on the right is the normal BBQ pork pastry or char siew sou).

These are the modern versions of the traditional glutinous rice New Year cake I mentioned in my previous posting. They are still made from steamed glutinous rice, but are shaped into the highly auspicious symbols of Koi fish, and colored in red, orange or white, rather than the traditional brown.

They are very pretty indeed, and make great gifts. However, personally, I still prefer the taste and texture of the traditional nian gao. The latter is softer, and has a richer caramel flavor.

This year there seems to be a whole range of new flavors and new textures for the nian gao. I spotted water chestnut nian gao, yam, pumpkin and many more new and fancy flavors. Some of them are not even made from glutinous rice anymore. Some were more pudding-like – lighter in texture than the traditional rice cakes. I liked a couple of them. A very refreshing change, but I wouldn’t really consider them nian gao (although of course the PR machines of all these bakeries are working overtime marketing these as great new nian gao options). To me, nian gao has to be nian gao (if you know what I mean), which means it has to be made from glutinous rice and steamed. All other variations are well, just interpretations, and are new desserts or new CNY goodies, and can’t really be called “nian gao”.

This is one of the new variety of “nian gao” that has been around for a couple of years. It is made from the Japanese Konnyaku jelly.

Each year, I am so tempted to buy this. I like eating Konnyaku. And I think these New Year Konnyaku Koi fishes are so pretty. Each year, I end up not buying them. Why? They require refrigeration. I would spot them in advance of New Year, make a mental note to come back just before New Year to get them so that they would be “fresh”. And each year, as New Year draws close, our fridges inevitably bulge to bursting point with all the other foodstuffs required for preparing the Reunion Dinner and the subsequent New Year parties. I would then think: I really can’t find space to store the Konnyaku Koi. Every year, the same mental process, every year, the same end-result: no Konnyaku Koi. Heh! Maybe this year will be different… I’m going to have my Konnyaku Koi.

Still on the subject of Konnyaku… I spotted these at another stall. Oh, oh, oh… they are exquisite!

Konnyaku jelly made into the daintiest and prettiest designs I’ve seen. Almost too pretty to eat. They were incredibly refined, and looked absolutely scrumptious. The designs ranged from delicate flowers to cute white bunnies.

From auspicious tangerines to cute little birds.

Some came beautifully arranged in gift boxes. Now, these I am definitely getting some of these for the New Year!

At yet another Japanese booth, these caught our eyes. The stall featured a full range of different nuts and crackers brought in directly from Japan. Lots of new and interesting flavors to try out. However, this one, the “Bamboo Charcoal Peanuts” had us chuckling away as we read the accompanying info sheet . Yes, I tried some (not that I needed them, mind you ), and they tasted pretty good. Nothing like what their name suggests they may taste like. Crunchy, slightly salty and with none of the bitterness I was expecting from the charcoal. Looks aside (you have to admit, don’t they look a little like the opposite of the problem they are touted to relief? ), these would make a great snack with beer and wine actually.

I enjoyed these… steamed rice flour puddings with a molten gula melaka (palm sugar) center. Yum! The preparation process is fascinating to watch, and a crowd pleaser, judging from the small huddle that is constantly gathered around the booth.

Small bamboo cylinders (with a small metal plate at the bottom – bottom right hand corner of picture) are filled with what looked like rice flour crumbs (very light, soft, flakey, almost powdery). A “tunnel” is created in the center, and filled with gula melaka.

These are placed on a steamer and cooked for maybe 3-4 minutes. The small holes in the metal plate of the bamboo cylinder facilitate the cooking of the “cake”. The tubular plugs you see are for closing off the steam outlets when there are no “cakes” being cooked, to prevent the loss of steam and the reduction in cooking temperature.

After just a few minutes, the cooked rice cakes are removed from the bamboo cylinders, and served with shredded coconut.

The molten sugar center is fabulous! It’s tongue-burningly hot (yes, I learnt the hard way, at the expense of hundreds of thousands of tongue cells!). The flavors and textures are interesting… the rather bland, soft, fluffy rice cake, with the rich, sweet and delicious molten gula melaka center (gula melaka has a very unique flavor, completely different from any other brown sugars or cane sugars), and accompanied by fragrant, slightly crunchy shredded coconut. It works really well!

Oh! Here’s another close up pic of the “bing tang hulu” or candied hawthorn fruits I mentioned in my previous post. Hawthorn fruits are actually used in Chinese medicine to aid digestion, relieve gastric and heartburn, and to help alleviate high cholesterol.

These traditional Chinese pastries are not very CNY-ish at all, but are my (and my family’s) perennial favorites.

(Top row, from left): Savory Five Spice Century Egg Pastry; Sweet Lotus Seed (lian yong) Pastry; Sweet Red Bean Paste Pastry (tau sar piah); (sorry, can’t remember the last one, and unable to read the signage from the photo).

Traditionally, the pastry is made from lard. However, in health-conscious times, these pastries are now almost always made with vegetable oil. They are still very crispy and flakey, and very yummy!

The traditional fillings of these Chinese pastries are either sweet or savory green bean paste, followed by sweet red bean paste and lotus seed paste fillings. Very recent (last few years) innovations are flavors like Five Spice etc. I personally find the newest “interpretations” rather odd tasting, and still prefer the traditional tastes.

(Top row, from left): Curry Puffs; Traditional Chinese Cakes with or without Red Bean Paste filling.

My parents remember very fondly and always have a soft spot for these traditional “egg cakes”. In the old days, when the migrant community of South East Asia was still very poor, and eggs were a very rare and luxurious indulgence, these cakes were a real treat. Although the egg content was not very high in these cakes, it was considered “high class” food (according to my dad). Back then, they would cost maybe $0.05 - $0.10 cents each, which, in those days, was a large sum of money and it was only on very special occasions that my grandparents would allow these cakes to be bought!

(Top row, from left): Egg Tarts; Curry Puffs again.
(Bottom row, from left): Char Siew Sou (BBQ pork pastry), Baked Char Siew Bun (similar to the char siew sou, just differently shaped).

Egg tarts normally come in two varieties of pastries – crispy shortcrust pastry (pictured above) or flakey puff pastry (also known as Hong Kong-style egg tart).

Curry puffs are deep fried pastry “pockets” which are usually filled with spicy meat and/or potato mixture. The most common filling would be minced beef with potatoes and sometimes carrots and other vegetables. I’m not too partial to these deep fried dumplings, however curry puffs aficionados tell me that the best of curry puffs must have a long list of qualities like a super crispy crust that does not go soft and soggy after a couple of hours and that is not overly greasy; a crust that is both crispy yet flakey at the same time; a filling that has a nice balance of spices and is generous with ingredients… and on and on…

It was a definitely a night for stuffing myself with food. So, what else did I have?

A couple (oh, okay, a few… quite a few) pieces of otak otak.

Spicy fish paste wrapped in banana leaves and grilled. These ones were grilled on a smoke-free electric grill, so the taste was rather different from the usual charcoal-grilled ones. But I can never resist an otak when I see one… Highly addictive!

Apart from the traditional fish paste, they now come made from squid, prawns and other seafood.

These otak otak are great when used as a sandwich filling too!

What a night! Yes, I was a glutton! Yes, we were packed like sardines at the bazaar, with human traffic slowed to almost an inch-by-inch crawl. But it was fun, and it was delicious!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Waxing Lyrical Over the Lunar New Year

Every year, I never fail to be completely transfixed and amazed by this sight – rows and rows of waxed meats (“lap mei” in Cantonese or “la wei” in Mandarin) as far as the eye can see. An entire wall of all sorts of waxed meats – all glossy, shiny, almost plasticky.

I’ve seen this perhaps hundreds of times, and yet, every year when I visit the CNY bazaar, I inevitably stop and stare, transfixed. A part of me is almost repulsed at the thought of eating something that looks so “fake”, and yet I am, at the same time, so irresistibly drawn, unable to look away nor walk away. The meats look so perfect…

Such waxed meats are another food item that many families must include in their Reunion Dinner on New Year’s Eve or sometime during the Lunar New Year period. This is especially true for the Cantonese.

As mentioned in my previous post, the tradition of eating such waxed meats arose from pure necessity. However, nowadays, people are still drawn nostalgically to the tastes and smells of these preserved, wind-dried meats. Admittedly, these meats impart incredible flavors and aromas to the dishes that they are cooked in.

Perhaps the most famous of these dishes is the Cantonese “lap mei fun” – a must for most families in Hongkong, Guangzhou and Southern China. This is rice cooked with various waxed meats like waxed duck (lap yup), waxed sausages (lap cheong), waxed pork (lap yuk), together with Chinese mushrooms, garlic, ginger, and flavored with sesame oil, soy sauce and either Chinese huatiao wine or rice wine. Different families will have their own preferred combination of ingredients. The waxed meats are steamed separately first, usually with additional ginger and wine, before being cooked with the rice. A final sprinkling of crispy deep fried shallots is often added before serving, to give a very aromatic and delicious crunch. This is a very rich dish, with intense flavors and a beautiful mix of different textures and taste sensations. The fat content and strong flavors of the preserved meats adds a smoothness and richness to the fluffy but bland white rice. For most people, this has become a “once-a-year” dish, and so while it is not the healthiest of dishes, it is relished with glee and full enjoyment.

Another version would be “sar po lap mei fun” or claypot waxed meat rice. I personally prefer the waxed meats cooked with steamed glutinous rice which is wrapped in lotus leaf. The sticky, chewy texture of the glutinous rice adds a different dimension, and the lotus leaf imparts a wonderful aroma to the rice. Different ingredients can be added to create different tasting versions of the rice – Chinese chestnuts can be added, or even fresh chicken pieces for example.

These waxed meats can also be steamed with ginger and wine and served on their own, or steamed with Chinese leeks (“suan”). They can also be added as a component ingredient in other dishes too. As a child, I was completely addicted to lap cheong (Chinese sausages). I remember I would refuse to eat dinner unless there was lap cheong on the table. As long as there was lap cheong in a dish, I would devour it! And I’m talking everyday, seven days a week, for quite a number of years! So, it would be lap cheong fried with egg (sort of a cross between lap cheong omelette and lap cheong scrambled eggs), lap cheong with vegetables, lap cheong with just about anything. Then, just as suddenly, one day, I just completely stopped eating it. I refused to touch it. Then as a young adult, for many years, I even refused to eat any form of pork! Thankfully, I’m now back to eating everything in moderation.

The original traditional preserved meats were made by wind-drying the meats before applying a layer of wax over the meats to prolong their shelf life even further. The “best wind” for this is considered to be the Northern wind (bei feng) in the North-East regions of China. It is said to dry the meats thoroughly without causing them to ferment, and the dry, cold wind also imparts the unique flavors that is associated with wind-dried meats. Of course, in modern times, to meet commercial demand, the large majority of these meats are in all likelihood dried in industrial ovens in large food factories.

These meats come in dozens of different varieties and flavors. For example, the Chinese sausages can be made from pork, duck, goose, duck liver, goose liver and so on, and in recent times, to cater to the more health-conscious consumer, they are now also made from chicken. There is a range of flavors to choose from – depending on the type of wine and seasonings used to marinade the meats. The prices range accordingly too, with the priciest being those that have been soaked in XO Cognac.

Here are some the different types of waxed, dried, preserved meats that are on offer at the CNY festive market:

Waxed duck (lap yup) and waxed pork (lap yuk).

Waxed pork belly (lap yuk) and preserved minced pork slices (these are similar to the ones used to make “bak gwa” or BBQ sweet meats).

Check this out… a waxed whole leg of ham!

And yes, even waxed fish!

Don’t they just look incredible? And they are indeed all actual, real, edible food!

On a lighter and more refreshing taste note, there are also mountains of pomelos on offer during this time of year…

They are piled up high, and even hung from the scaffolding. (And yes, that’s the stall-owner tucking into a late dinner of noodles )

These are the green variety from Malaysia. The ones from Ipoh are especially sweet and juicy, and very much loved by my family. When we can get hold of them, we usually buy half a dozen of them! They go really quickly in this household! I love pomelos either on their own or made into a Thai-style salad, with chicken, beef or just vegetables. Yum!

We also spotted these yellow pomelos from China that night. They are “Shatian pomelos” – a region of China that is supposed to be famous for producing very sweet and juicy pomelos. We had never seen this variety before – it has bright lemon-yellow skin, with a rather exaggerated “bump” at its head. The fragrance of this fruit is a lot more intense than the normal green Malaysian variety. Hard to describe… almost citrusy yet with very sweet overtones.

The stall owner, a lady from mainland China did a very good job of selling the pomelos to the men. She insisted that these fruits were as sweet as honey and dripping with juiciness. So, we ended up buying one, for S$6 (bargained down from S$7) for a small fruit. We opened it as soon as we got home…

click on image for larger view

Sad to say, it was a disappointment. Yes, the fragrance was nice and intense. Yes, it was fairly sweet (but no way near honey-sweetness). However, it was completely devoid of juice! Oh well, at least we tried something new.

These mini pumpkins are also a favorite to have in the home during CNY, for its auspicious connotations. Pumpkin is known as “jin gua” in Mandarin, and “jin” means gold.

Another supposedly auspicious fruit. Actually it is more of a vegetable. This is the “hulu” gourd. In ancient times, for want of a better or easier alternative, these gourds were dried and used as containers for wine. Ancient texts and drawings very often refer to this “hulu” shaped wine vessel. I presume the “good luck” symbolism comes from its use as a container for wine, as in those days only the wealthy could afford wine and thus have a need for such vessels. These gourds are not edible and are used for display purposes only.

There are also various other interesting food items on sale at the bazaar that are not necessarily strictly associated with the Lunar New Year…

These are hawthorn fruits soaked in heavy syrup – “bing tang hu lu”. The hawthorn fruit is seasonal, making its appearance round about the time of the Spring Festival, and is only available from China. It is a rather tangy/sour fruit, and so is soaked in heavy syrup to balance out the flavors. This is very much eaten as a sort of candy. For the kungfu or Chinese martial arts movie buffs out there, these sticks of fruit are the exact ones that are very often seen in these period Chinese dramas. A favored ancient candy snack.

This is totally unrelated to CNY, but I am including it because I like these a lot. These are eggs hard boiled in a rich herbal soup made up of various Chinese herbal medicines, which help to boost your immune system, fortify your blood and make you “strong”. Personally, I do not believe that the small amounts of herbs infused into the egg would make much of a difference. Chinese medicine usually has to be consumed by the bitter bowl-fuls over an extended period for it to have any significant effect. However, these eggs are yummy. A very unique taste experience!

That night, I couldn’t resist having one of these eggs, even on a very full stomach following dinner.

We never got around the whole market that evening. Our visit was prematurely terminated by rain. I’m hoping to make it back down there again sometime this week. We didn’t manage to get our bak gwa (roasted sweet meats) – a definite must during CNY – that evening. The line was seriously looong… and we didn’t relish a one hour wait (minimum). I am also hankering after some of those rather cute pineapple and fish chocolates.

We’ve also almost eaten up some of the CNY food that we bought that night! Heh! Time to re-stock again before the actual New Year

Ah… the CNY shopping picks up pace now… only 10 more days to go! Urrgh! And still so much to do. The spring cleaning… the decorating of the home… the shopping for CNY goodies… the baking…

10 more days to go…

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Whispering Sweet Nothings in Heaven’s Ear

As a young girl, I was fascinated by this story… the legend of the Kitchen God.

The traditional Chinese believe that a Kitchen God watches over the kitchen of every home. Now, this deity does not judge one’s culinary skills, but rather he oversees the moral conduct of the household. Throughout the year, the Kitchen God surveys and monitors the family's virtues and vices from his position on a kitchen wall or mantle. Usually, the Kitchen God is not an actual statue but rather a paper depiction of a lavishly bedecked figure.

According to the legend, one week before the Spring Festival begins (New Year’s Day), the Kitchen God returns to Heaven to report on the family's behavior during the previous year. It is believed that a negative report means that the family will suffer from bad luck during the year to come. Therefore, it became a tradition for families to bring to the Kitchen God, prior to his departure, an offering of a sticky, sweet cake, in the hope that only sweet words about the family in his charge will be spoken at his audience with the Jade Emperor (in Chinese mythology the Jade Emperor is the ruler of heaven). Another variation to the story has it that the sweet cakes offered to the Kitchen God will “seal” his mouth, as it would be so full of the sticky cake that he would be unable to say anything at all!

After the offering has been made, the image of the Kitchen God is burnt as a symbolic act of departure, to send it on its way back to Heaven. And so from the 23rd of the last lunar month, the Kitchen God is absent from his “throne” in the kitchen. During this time, the kitchen is thoroughly cleaned in preparation for his return on New Year’s Eve, when a new image of the Kitchen God is “enshrined” for the New Year.

This is the legend behind the eating of the New Year Cake or “nian gao” – a very sweet, sticky steamed rice cake made from glutinous rice flour, water and sugar. The tradition of eating these cakes naturally emerged from the tradition of making the offering to the Kitchen God. After the offering has been made, the cakes are eaten by the family so as not to let them go to waste.

In modern times, the “nian gao” has come to symbolize “nian nian gao sheng” or growth and advancement every year. It is now believed that eating the rice cakes symbolize a year of progress ahead. For children or those still in education, a year of good grades and academic success. For working adults, a year of professional or business success and achievement. For each individual, a year of personal growth and expansion.

Although our family, being a Christian family, has never had a Kitchen God “altar” in our kitchen and I never saw an image of the Kitchen God, I was nevertheless fascinated by this story as a young child. To this day, each time I eat “nian gao” I inevitably think of this legend, and the purpose of these sweet cakes. Actually, as a young child, my parents provided a new twist to the story. I was told that after I eat the sweet nian gao, I have to say only nice things to and about other people!

So it is customary for just about every family to buy at least one nian gao for CNY. At the festive market, trays and trays of these sweet rice cakes are on display. (They of course can also be easily bought from every wet market, hyper-market and neighborhood provision shop). They come in all kinds of sizes. I spotted the huge one at the festive night market the other night (above picture). It must have been between 18-24” in diameter. The cardboard signage next to it says it weighs a hefty 20 kilos, and it comes with an equally hefty price tag!

The nian gao in the above picture are the traditionally shaped and colored ones (the color being from the caramelisation of the sugar). In recent years, restaurants and hotels have “reinvented” the nian gao, and they now come in auspicious shapes (such as Koi fish) and colors (orange, gold) to better signify prosperity, wealth and abundance in the coming year. Some of these “modern” nian gao even come with pure gold leaf adornments.

To the left of the large nian gao in the picture, you can also see a small “fa gao”. This is also sometimes called “ma lai gao” or Malay cake. It is also a steam caked made from just wheatflour, sugar and water – no oil or eggs. It can come in different colors, like brown, white, pink or yellow. The eating of this cake during CNY is a recent tradition, and originates from South East Asia. The auspicious symbolism of this cake is derived from the sound of its name. Its name “fa gao” describes the fluffy texture of the cake, and at the same time the word “fa” sounds like the word “to prosper”.

During CNY, one avoids serving and eating sour and bitter foods, as this is taken to have the meaning of encountering unpleasant or bitter experiences in the new year. Thus, sour fruits and drinks like grapefruits and soursop, lemonade and lime juices respectively are never served to guests, nor are ingredients like bitter gourd used in CNY cooking. Instead, the house is filled with all things sweet and pleasant, to augur well for the year ahead. It is a tradition to have an octagonal tray of various “sweets” in the home during CNY. This is the “ba bao pen” or Eight Treasures Tray. This selection of sweets can consist of just about any variety of sweets the family prefers. There are sweets galore at the festive market. All types of candied fruits and vegetables are on offer.

Clockwise from top left: candied green papaya, candied ginger, candied papaya, candied coconut strips (this is taken to signify abundant progeny and descendants – the significance is taken from the sound of the words for “coconut”, “ye zhi”, with the word “zhi” sounding like the word for sons or offspring – this is very much a South East Asian tradition, as coconuts are abundant in this part of the world), candied sweet potato, candied winter melon.

Clockwise from top left: candied sweet lime (favored for its golden color and sound of its name, both of which resemble gold, wealth and abundance), candied carrot (auspicious color), candied lotus seeds (“lian zhi” – again, the name sounds like “lots of descendants and offsprings), candied lotus roots (these signify family unity and harmony), candied water chestnut, candied coconut pieces (for long line of descendants). My personal favorites are the lotus roots and seeds. I like the chewiness of the roots and the soft crunch of the seeds, balanced with the sugar. I have to admit to indulging heavily in these each year during CNY! I like the water chestnut too, but it is SERIOUSLY sweet, and can only be taken in very small doses!

Dried fruits are also favored during CNY…

Top left: dried red dates (“hong zhao” – the second word in its name signifies “all things come early”, i.e. the early realization of goals, wishes and desires). Bottom left: dried tangerines (again, the name “kum” and color signify wealth and prosperity).

A favorite with many people… dried persimmons. The dried fruits are given a dusting of flour to help keep it fresh and prolong the shelf life. These dried fruits are quite different from the Western versions of dried fruits – these are almost like soft, chewy sweets even though they are fruits that have been dried whole.

All these candied goodies only make their appearance during CNY, and so for many people, this is an excuse to indulge heartily in them! (I speak from experience! Heh!)

Next to these sweet offerings are another definite “must-have” for each family - melon seeds. These “gua zhi” symbolize “gua di mian mian” or to have many descendants and offsprings.

Traditionally, these came only in black melon seeds (hei gua zhi), red melon seeds (hong gua zhi) or white pumpkin seeds (bai gua zhi).

In the last couple of years, new and fancy “new-age” flavors and colors have emerged.

Bright pink rose-flavored pumpkin seeds.

Lavender (zhi luo lan) -flavored and green-tea flavored pumpkin seeds.

A favored activity during CNY is to sit with family and friends and munch on these melon seeds. They are addictive! Once one gets into a rhythm of cracking the seeds, peeling back the husk and removing the fragrant inner seed, it is hard to stop! One just keeps going and going, sometimes for hours on end, as one chats away with family and friends! The entire cracking, peeling and removing of the inner seed is done entirely with the two front teeth and the lips only. No hands required! The pointed end of the melon seed is cracked open with the front tooth. The same tooth is used to delicately peel back the two sides of the opened up husk, to reveal the white inner seed. The front teeth are then used to gently secure the inner seed and ease it from the husk. All this is done very elegantly and discretely, leaving only a pile of perfectly opened up “v-shaped” empty husks on the table! It takes skill and a lot of practice!

Nowadays, to accompany the traditional candied fruits and sweets, many homes also have on offer various chocolates and candies in auspicious shapes and designs. This is quite obviously an incredibly lucrative brain-child of retailers. This stall really packs them in. The crowd (when I was there) was several persons deep. I could barely get a nose in on the action (and thus the very blurred picture as I tried to squeeze my camera through! Haha!)

What’s being offered is chocolates shaped into “lucky” designs (not sure if you can make it out from the picture) like Koi fish, gold fish, pineapples (“wang lai” in Chinese sounding like “wealth arrives”) and so on. These are not cheap… they are going for around S$1 per piece of chocolate, and these are just low-grade commercial quality chocolates, which without the fancy CNY designs would sell for only maybe S$0.10 - 0.20 per piece! More often than not, these chocolates do not get eaten. Very few people like their taste, but people snap them up anyway, and display them in their homes for the symbolism behind their designs.

This is from another stall, also selling “lucky chocolates”. The designs in this stall are a little smaller, and thus the crowd around this stall was correspondingly smaller too! These smaller pineapples and gold ingots are priced at S$0.60 per piece.

Again, more of the “new-age” flavored pumpkin seeds next to the chocolates.

This stall-owner is selling the more traditional or some might say “old-fashioned” candies and chocolates, which unfortunately, nobody seems to be interested in anymore.

Ah… the sweet traditions of CNY, both ancient and modern…

And so this is my wish for the New Year of the Monkey: may every mind think sweet and kind thoughts, every mouth speak sweet and kind words, every heart be filled with the sweetness of love, compassion and peace, every life be filled with sweet success, achievement and fulfillment, and every home be filled with sweet warmth and togetherness!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

A Sea of Red and Gold

After dinner on Monday, the whole family took a 10-minute leisurely stroll from Amoy Street down to the Chinese New Year Festive Market at Smith Street and the 5 streets around it. This annual CNY market is THE place to go to get into the spirit of the “Spring Festival”. People come from across the island – grandparents, young families, couples, professionals still in their work clothes, toddlers, babes in arms – they all come to shop, to browse, to eat, and to simply soak up the festive air.

During the run-up to Chinese New Year, this small pocket of Singapore is like no place else in the country. While the rest of the nation continues to hum to its usual clock-work efficiency, this place is sizzling with chaotic excitement. Festive goodies pile up in every direction… smells of sweet meats being roasted waft into the air… stall-owners shout out to the waves of passer-bys, enticing them to stop and savor the goodies they have on offer… a crush of human bodies, many laden with bundles and bags of precious CNY treasures, surges through the narrow streets. This is a side of Singapore not normally seen. This is the side of Singapore I love!

Even on a week-night, the market was bustling and the atmosphere electrifying…

First though, a disclaimer… the photos in this post and the next 2 posts are very much “rough-and-ready”. In the surging crowds, all I could do was point and shoot. Framing shots? Forget it. Camera angles? I wish. Adjust exposure? Get real. The goal was to shoot before I was pushed along again by the crowds or to snap the picture before 5 other human bodies crashed into me! So, it means that you will, unfortunately, see some blurred shots, the backs of heads, and maybe even a couple of rear-ends . My apologies in advance. I’ve kept these shots as I hope they can still capture and convey at least some of the excitement, energy and “buzz” of the festive market.

It is not just the Chinese who throng the market. Indians, Malays and Caucasians flock to share in the festive mood...

This year’s market is supposed to be the largest to date, with almost 500 different stalls plying all manner of festive goodies. It runs through 5-6 streets in the heart of Chinatown. In the narrow streets, between the rows of restored traditional shop-houses, make-shift stalls have been set up.

Decorating the home is a very important part of preparing for CNY. For the Chinese, red is the most auspicious of colors. Red symbolizes joy, happiness, prosperity, abundance, blessings and all manner of celebratory good tidings. Gold also holds a premium position. It was, in ancient times, the Imperial color, worn only by the Emperor, and no one else. And so naturally, in anticipation of the Spring Festival, the most important celebration in the Chinese calendar, homes are filled with all things red and gold.

Many stalls in the market are selling different decorations for the home, ranging from auspicious couplets to be hung on the walls, little red and gold decorations to be hung on pussy willows or other plants, to small decorative table displays with auspicious symbolisms, and red and gold cushion covers for the sofas.

It is a sea of red and gold…

Decorations in all shapes and sizes are piled high on display tables, hung on the walls and hung from the ceiling. Each bright red item screaming out for attention around me, above me. It is dizzying to be in the presence of so much red!

These decorations range from cardboard “plaques” of auspicious words (such as the most right round “plaque” with the black rim, which has the word “fu”, meaning blessings/prosperity), to decorative paper dragons (top right hand corner), and bright red lanterns (uppermost right hand corner).

Some decorations are for displaying on tables or cabinets. Each stall owner has dozens and dozens, some have hundreds, of different designs to choose from. (This stall owner is almost completely obscured by a screen of dangling decorations!)

These can be hung on walls, doors or plants.

And yet more red and gold decorations! Notice all the auspicious symbols used in all the designs. The fish (second from left) signifies abundance. Note too that single numbers are not used. The symbol is of a pair of fish. The golden ears of corn (third from left) and the huge “jin bao” (gold nuggets) of course symbolize riches, wealth and prosperity.

Hanging matching couplets is also very important for most homes, and these are usually hung on either side of a doorway. They may of course also be hung by themselves on a wall. These auspicious sayings always come in pairs (never on their own), and for some (the Hokkiens I think), they may add a third saying which runs across the top of the paired couplet. A good knowlege of Chinese couplets is needed to be able to select the appropriate pairings!

More wall hangings! (There was so much gold that they were reflecting off my flash like crazy!) Again, all the pictures are of happy, fortunate symbols.

Here’s a close-up (albeit not a very clear one)…

On the right, a sea of swimming Koi fish are depicted. Kois are a very popular symbol of wealth and prosperity, water ("shui") is another symbol of wealth, and swimming/movement signifies progress and advancement. On the left, young celestial children are seen playing with a huge pot of gold.

Another very important thing to have in the home in large quantities is fresh flowers or green plants. They are the perfect symbol of the arrival of Spring, of life and vitality.

These flowers are especially popular in Singapore. I have no idea what they are called, even though I see them every year. I asked the lady minding the stall, and she didn’t know too! But these flowers come in vibrant red or yellow, and are rather fragile and vulnerable to Singapore’s hot and humid weather. They require quite a lot of loving tender care, and very often, don’t last very long after the 15 days of New Year.

[Update (28/01/04): Just found out today that these blooms are called Celosia. Erm... that's the botanical name I would imagine. Still no idea what they are called informally. And I'm sure there must be some auspicious sounding name that makes them appropriate for CNY.]

This is one of the most recognized and most popular symbols of CNY. The kumquat bush (it’s not quite big enough to be called a tree). “Kum” (Mandarin orange) sounds like the word for “gold” in Cantonese. The bright orange coloring also evokes auspicious connotations. This is a “must” in a lot of homes. They are placed at the door to symbolize the arriving of wealth at your doorstep.

Pots and pots of kumquat awaiting new homes. It’s a beautiful sight… this field of bright orange.

These are the smaller variety of kumquats, where each fruit is about maybe 3-3.5 cm in diameter. There are some varieties where the fruit are the size of a human fist. The latter normally cost a lot more than the former.

These are again temperate plants, imported from China and Taiwan, and require a lot of care to survive our much warmer climes.

This is another “must-have” for many people…

This is a fairly recent custom adopted by Singaporeans (and now Malaysians too) from the Taiwanese. It is probably only in the last 7-8 years that this “tradition” has been practiced. These are very poetically called “fu gui zhu” or “prosperity bamboo”. These are evergreen bamboos, and are very different from the common bamboo that is associated with making chopsticks and furniture! Outside of CNY, these same green bamboos are known as “guan yin zhu” (Goddess of Mercy bamboo).

These pots are essentially many, many small stalks of “fu gui zhu” bound together into several tiers. They come in many sizes, with different number of tiers of bamboo. There is always an odd number of tiers, never even. The above picture shows one of the larger ones – 9 tiers and probably about 12-14 inches in diameter. The larger and taller the assembly, the more expensive it is.

When this tradition first started, these “fu gui zhu” were eye-poppingly expensive, especially in the run-up to CNY. Outside of CNY, they may sell for only S$2-3 a pot (for a very small one). The same pot, just prior to CNY, will easily sell for S$18 or S$28. The larger pots will fetch prices in the hundreds, and previously, in the thousands! This year, the prices seem a lot lower than in previous years. One can get a very good-sized one for less than S$100.

You will find that during CNY, prices are awash with “8s”. Everything is priced with an eight! $8, $28, $88, $388, $888, $1888… You get the picture . And sometimes “3s” and “2s” will be thrown in for good measure – three in Chinese sounds like “to live”, “to grow” or “life”, and two sounds like “easy” or “smooth”.

Yet another “must-have”… the pussy willow. (Yes, I know… all the shots are out of focus. It was crowded at these stalls! I’ll post clearer pictures once the pussy willow in my home is up and ready.) These stalls are always one of the more popular ones. Almost everyone, regardless of whether they buy anything else in the market, will more often than not, be seen toting a bundle of pussy willows.

Why pussy willows? I’m not sure. It’s a seasonal plant – only seen at the end of Winter/beginning of Spring. Once the brown husk covering each “blossom” is removed, a soft, fluffy, cottony white bud is revealed. With each bud uncovered, it becomes a tree of shiny white “blossoms”. Very pretty. And usually, each family will hang many small red and gold decorations and tie red ribbons onto the branches. This is very much the Chinese version of a Christmas tree!

And so that was a quick tour of just some of the more important items for the decoration of the home in anticipation of CNY.

* * * * * * * * *

Despite giving many stalls a cursory “look-see” only, we were only maybe about two thirds through the market before it started to drizzle fairly heavily, and we had to make a quick scurry back to our car at Amoy Street.

It was a magical night. I was dizzy with trying to do half a dozen things all at once. My senses were wild with trying to absorb all the sights, smells and tastes. I was browsing and discussing with my mum what to buy, and which stall to buy it from. I was busy tasting all the tasty morsels offered to me by the stall-owners. At the same time, I was trying to remember to take pictures, to find a clear opening without human bodies to get my shot, and to hold a steady hand and not get pushed or shoved whilst trying to take the picture. What a night! But it was so much fun! I was on a high from the festive sizzle. I LOVE Chinese New Year!

There’s more to come… after we’ve made sure the home is well-decorated, what’s next? Food, glorious food… of course…

[The market is on everyday until New Year’s Eve, 21 January 2004. It is open until 12 midnight on week-nights and 1am on weekends]

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

Even More Monkeying Around

I forgot about these…

When cooking CNY dishes, the Chinese usually make sure to include certain ingredients in the festive fare. Again, a lot of the significance and auspicious connotations of these ingredients come usually from the sound of their names.

• Soon (young bamboo shoots) signifies “shi shi soon li” (or “all things flow smoothly) – a wish that the path ahead for the coming year will be a smooth one, free of major obstacles. Young bamboo shoots are also prized as they are a seasonal delicacy – available only at the end of Winter/beginning of Spring.

• Prawns always make an appearance in at least one of the dishes at any CNY meal. The word for prawns in Chinese (“har” in Cantonese, “xia” in Mandarin) sounds like the noise of laughter and the word for “to laugh” (“xiao”) respectively. They symbolize the wish to "xiao xi xi" all year round - for the year to be filled with joy and happiness.

• And when serving chicken during CNY, the whole bird is served, in the same way a whole fish (with head and tail intact) must be served (as mentioned in the earlier post). The poultry can be served cut into manageable pieces, but the head should be present. And for the truly traditional Chinese, it is even better if the rear-end is present on the plate too! This may sound horrifying to the Western mind, but it is a representation that there will be no half measures nor “bits and pieces” during CNY, or as the Cantonese would say “mg sum mg sei” (neither here nor there). For the fish especially, the presence of the tail is important, signifying smooth and successful completion and fruition of all endeavors (especially those of the monetary kind).

Earlier this afternoon, I was chatting with a girlfriend and we were discussing the quirky little modern customs that we seem to have come up with in association with CNY. And we recalled something that made us both chuckle. I’m not sure if this is a Singaporean thing or not… but each year a lot of Singaporean women would buy a brand new set of bright hong bao red underwear to be worn on the first day of the CNY, believing this will help raise their personal levels of good luck and good fortune in the coming year. But ironically, many would wear these brightly- and auspiciously-colored undergarments under dark, somber, sometimes even black, outer wear! Go figure. Well, regardless of the efficacy of this practice in affecting personal fortune, I’m sure it will raise the temperature by several notches in the bedroom!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

More Monkey Business

Since my previous posting on CNY traditions, I’ve had a number of email queries as to why I left out certain CNY foods.

No, I have not forgotten about them. Just that when I was typing that post, I couldn’t for the world of me remember the reasons why we ate those foods. I just knew we always had them at CNY. But why?? Well, since then, I’ve managed to clarify a couple of them with my mum. Others are still a blank. So maybe someone can help out?

Here are a few more CNY food “must-haves”…

• La wei (waxed meats). These originated from ancient times when there was no refrigeration or other easy means of preserving meats. CNY or Spring Festival would be celebrated at the end of winter, a season where fresh meats was scarce. And for the Chinese, no celebration or festivity is ever complete without dishes and dishes of meat and fish. As the saying goes, there must be “da yu da rou” at a celebratory meal – literally translated as “big fish, big meat”. So, it was customary, back then, to wax and preserve meats in the summer months, when fresh meat was abundant, and then to serve them during the CNY celebrations. This tradition of eating these preserved meats has continued despite the advent of refrigeration, and the year-round supply of fresh produce. Why? Well, these waxed meats taste really good when cooked with rice in a claypot (in Cantonese: lap mei fun). However, a word of caution… these waxed meats come with copious amounts of preservatives, nitrites and other potentially carcinogenic stuff. So, moderation is the key. Plus, check the country of manufacture. Fortunately, those sold in Singapore are tested by the Agricultural Ministry and certified safe.

• Bak kwa (Hokkien for BBQ sweet pork slices). Hard to describe what these are without pictures. I guess they can be considered as the Chinese version of beef jerky? Only less chewy, and sweeter. These are so, so loved by young and old alike. Great with beer too! People are willing to stand in line, for hours (seriously) just to buy a packet of these from the famous shops. Nowadays, bak kwa is available throughout the year. Yet, there is something special about eating them during CNY. So, never mind the long lines and the highly inflated prices (sometimes up to 100% more expensive than normal times), these are a “must” for CNY. The history of these sweet meats is probably the same as for the waxed meats above, with the latter being of North Asian origins and the former of South East Asian roots. The same cautionary note also applies.

• Kueh sapit (love letters or egg rolls). Paper thin wafer-like cookies made into cigar-shaped rolls. These originated in South East Asia, and were imported from the Malay culture. They were served by our Malay counterparts during Hari Raya (Malay New Year), and we Chinese loved the taste so much, we adopted them into our own food culture! Egg rolls can now be found in North Asia too (China, Hongkong, Taiwan), but they taste different (and look slightly different too). The South East Asian variety, more often than not, has a touch of coconut milk added to the batter, for added aroma, fragrance and taste. How to judge a really well-made kueh sapit? The biscuit must be as thin as possible yet still strong enough not to break too easily. It must be crispy without being hard. It must be golden brown – not burnt but not too pale. It must be just right. These are great on their own, but super dupa with ice cream! : )

There are tons more food items… I’ll never be able to cover them all…

Perhaps pictures will tell the story best… We visited the Chinatown CNY street market last night. (Yes, we did! And it was oh so fun!) I have yet to have a chance to go through the 100+ photos I ended up snapping, so these will be coming up in batches over the next few days. So please bear with me…

Oooh… I’m feeling it… I am beginning to feel all festive and happy! Chinese New Year is coming!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, distribute or display any of the images and text contained in this article.

The Monkey Is Already At The Door!!

I went into a mild panic after reading Wena’s post on CNY (that’s Chinese New Year, in case you are wondering) preparations. It suddenly hit me that CNY is only a mere 17 days away!! Ai-yai-yai yai-yai!! We haven’t even begun preparations yet. And there is always so much to do before CNY.

Yes, I of course I already knew CNY was around the corner. (I just didn’t realize how close around the corner it was.) The retailers made sure we didn’t forget that there is another festival coming up. Within days of Christmas, stores were already telling us to quit jingling bells and rocking around the Christmas tree. Their tunes changed and the relentless messages now sung from their speakers were: “gong xi, ah, gong xi, da jia fa da cai” (wishes to you, wishes to you, everyone will prosper – literal translation) and “guo xin nian, zhu xin nian, xin nian dao, nian nian nian, zhu da jia guo ge da fei nian”. Christmas carols have been replaced by CNY songs – in every shop, shopping mall, supermarket…

Walking through Cold Storage the other day, I was struck by the irony of it all. Unsold Christmas goodies (candies, chocolates, Christmas baking and cooking ingredients, even fruit cakes and stollen) jostled for space on the supermarket shelf with freshly delivered CNY cookies, waxed meats etc. The Christmas goodies looked forlorn and dejected. Their shine and appeal have faded. The harried shopper gave them nary a glance. Instead their next door neighbor, the sweet, fragrant pineapple tart was now the star of the show. Yet, undaunted, the Christmas goods cried out for attention as loud as they could, trying to draw attention to their severely marked down, incredibly attractive prices. Oh yes, they were determined indeed to find a new home for themselves before their expiry dates loomed. Alas! To no avail. Their time had come and gone. It was now the turn of the strings of lap cheongs (dried Chinese sausages), the cans of abalone, the trays of peanut cookies, the crates of Chinese mandarins to shine, to regal in all the attention…

I am just so amazed at the shopping capacities of Singaporeans. I would have thought everyone would be all shopped out by now, after weeks and weeks of Christmas shopping. But no, the queues are still there… long, long lines to get into the carpark, longer lines still to pay for the purchases… the jostling continues… ai-yai-yai!

Yet, what is CNY really about? I mean, the “real” traditions that make CNY, well, CNY. Okay folks, make yourself a cuppa, sit back, relax… this could be a long read. And sorry, no pictures to break the monotony – not yet, anyways. Those will follow as and when the events happen. In the meantime, here are just a few (and I mean a few) of the dozens and dozens of traditions that make up CNY. Practices may vary from family to family, from dialect group to dialect group, and sometimes from country to country (eg there are sometimes significant differences between the practices of the Chinese in mainland China and in North Asia, and those of the so-called “overseas Chinese” of South East Asia).

Before New Year
Home
• Let’s start with the home. Spring cleaning starts weeks before CNY. Literally everything is cleaned. The curtains are taken down and brought to the cleaners. Professional cleaners are called in to clean the carpets. Cupboards are cleared of unwanted clutter. Refrigerators are cleaned out and tidied up. Everything in the household gets a clean, sparkling, shiny start to the brand new year! : )
• Even the cars are washed and waxed either the day before New Year’s Eve or on New Year’s Eve itself.
• For some families, it is important to start the new year with new things – new curtains, new bedsheets etc.
• CNY decorations go up. Red is the over-riding theme. Red symbolizes celebration, vitality, happiness, joy, prosperity and abundance. And so red ribbons are tied onto plants, hong baos (red packets) are hung or made into auspicious symbols like dragons, fish and lanterns.
• Dui lians (pairs of auspicious sayings) are hung at the door. I guess this is similar to the Western equivalent of hanging a Christmas wreath on the door. These always appear in pairs, never alone.
• Lots and lots of fresh potted plants and flowers are bought and placed in the house, to signify the arrival of spring and new life.
• Ying niu (pussy willows) are a firm favorite, and are usually decorated with gold and red decorations, much like a Chinese version of the Christmas tree.
• Tao hua (plum blossoms) also herald spring, and have the added significance of bringing love and romance (for those in the family that are yet unmarried).
• Ju zhi (kumquat plants) are also a “must”. They signify gold, prosperity and abundance.
• A recent tradition, imported from the Taiwanese I believe, is the displaying of “fu gui zhu” (prosperity bamboo) in the home. These are sold as pots of tiered green bamboos. There is always only an odd number of tiers – 3, 5 and so on – never an even number. The more tiers there is, it is believed, the greater the prosperity, or so the superstition goes. It is best to buy these plants early if you are keen. The closer it gets to New Year, the higher the prices go. More prosperity for the shop owners! Haha!
• One tradition my mum practices is to tie a bunch of 9 stalks of Chinese leeks with a red ribbon and hang it in the kitchen until after the 15 days of New Year. It means “chang chang jiu jiu you de suan”. Chinese leeks are called “suan” which sounds the same as the word “to count”. So it signifies, monetary prudence, and also that there will be plenty of money to count throughout the year!
• I’m sure there are many more traditions related to the home, but they elude me for the moment…

Personal
• For the person, there too are many preparations to be done.
• It used to be that new clothes are a must. I remember as a kid, we had new everything… new pyjamas, new shoes, new socks, all the way down to new underwear! And everything was in auspicious colors of red, pink or maroon! Nowadays of course, one sees people in black and dark somber colors when visiting relatives. This is still much frowned upon by the elders, but the younger generation feels “fashion” or trends are more important. Personally? Well, I believe that colors do give off “energies” and affect moods. Oranges and yellows stimulate appetite, blues calm etc. So, I think it would be of no harm, and would certainly lift spirits to be dressed in bright cheerful hues for New Year.
• Like the home, the person should start the New Year “tidied up”, fresh and sparkling. So, haircuts should be had before the New Year. Many women will visit their hairdressers on New Year’s Eve to have their hair styled before ushering in the New Year.

Food
There are many foods that are “musts” during Chinese New Year, as they are deemed to convey auspicious significance. Usually these auspicious meanings come from the sound of their names. These appear in no particular order… or rather in the order that my brain is remembering them : D
• Pineapple tarts are a definite favorite. Pineapple or “wang lai” in Hokkien sounds like “prosperity arrives”. So, not only are these little pastry morsels incredibly delicious (and addictive), they also supposedly symbolize the arrival of great wealth in the New Year.
• “Nian gao” or New Year cake. These steamed cakes are made from glutinous rice flour, sugar and water. They signify “nian nian gao shen” or progress and growth every year. They are eaten on the first day of the New Year to symbolize advancement in your career, be it in your educational career if you are a student, or in your professional career or business. By the way, here’s something interesting. These sticky, sweet cakes are so soft and sticky that they cannot be cut with a knife, and are usually cut with a piece of string. More on this later…
• Pomelo or “you zhi”. Sounds like and means “wishes come true” and that one has everything one wishes for.
• Mandarin oranges or “kum” in Cantonese, literally sounds like the word “gold”, and is therefore self-explanatory. In fact, I know of one of my mum’s Cantonese friends who would, every year, on New Year’s Eve, after everyone has gone to bed, scatter mandarins all over the living room floor, so that upon waking on New Year’s day, the whole family would go into the living room and “zhap kum” or "pick up gold". : D Great symbolism for the New Year don’t you think?
• “Suan” or Chinese leeks. As described above. These are seasonal vegetables, and are only available around Chinese New Year every year.
• Abalone or “bao yu”. Another firm favorite, especially with businessmen. The sound of its name carries the symbolism of “guaranteed abundance”.
• Dried oysters or “hao si”. The name sounds like the saying: good tidings and blessings, or good business in the coming year.
• “Fa cai”. This is a black, hair-like desert moss. “Fa” in Chinese means to prosper or to grow rich. This moss is usually cooked with the dried oysters above to form the dish called “hao si fa choy”, signifying an abundant and blessed year ahead.
• “Shen cai” or Chinese lettuce (not the rounded lettuce of the West, but the elongated ones… the ones we always feed the lions of lion dances : ) ) are also a “must” ingredient in New Year dishes. “Shen” means to grow or advance.
• Fish is another dish that is bound to make its appearance at tables in many families. The word for fish, “yu” sounds like the word for “abundance”. And a whole fish (with head and tail) is always served. No fillets or half fishes! This is to ensure that things are seen through to full completion and fruition in the New Year. No half measures!
• Pistachio nuts are called “kai xin guo” in Chinese, meaning “fruit of happiness”.
• Ground nuts (peanuts with shells) are also called “chang shou guo” or “longevity fruits” in Chinese.
• “Gua zhi” or melon seeds. Their meaning: “gua di nian nian” or “to have a long line of descendants”. There are many varieties. Originally there were only the black, red and white ones. But they now come in all kinds of spandangled new-age flavors like green tea, sambal, rose and what have you. Can you believe, to this day, I have never succeeded in cracking open one of these (the white varieties excepted) with my teeth without breaking the inside edible seed? Mine always end up coming out in tiny little bits and pieces. Hahaha!
• Kueh lapis. This is a South East Asian tradition, with Indonesian (I think) origins. A rich spiced butter cake made up of thin layers of cake. Very delicious but extremely time-consuming to make. My mum used to bake this every year, then she gave up. Making just one cake involves up to 1 ½ - 2 1/2 hours of sitting in front of the hot oven. One cannot even get up to go to the bathroom in that time, or you risk coming back to a burnt layer of cake, and have to start all over again. Each thin (approximately 1.5mm thick) layer of cake is painstakingly layered on and baked individually. That’s why purchasing ready-made versions of this cake is very expensive. Oh, almost forgot… the significance of the cake is “bu bu gao shen” or steady advancement/progress, on account of the many layers of the cake.
• “Ba bao pen” or Eight Treasures Tray (or sometimes called the Togetherness Tray) is a common sight in most homes. Traditionally, this is an octagonal tray of eight types of sweets and candies, signifying a sweet year ahead. Nowadays, there are Eight Treasures Tray of all types of foods, from nuts, to crisps and crackers.
• Oh, oh, oh… how can I forget… the most popular dish of all… “Loh Hei Yu Shang” (meaning to generate opportunities, openings, great wealth and prosperity). “Loh” in Cantonese means to “churn” or create (business) opportunities. Sorry, that’s the closest I can get. There just aren’t literal translations or even vaguely close equivalents in English. “Hei” means to “rise”. “Yu” as said before, means abundance. “Shang” is to grow. This is a salad of raw fish slices, grated white radish, grated green radish, grated red carrots, various sweet and vinegared condiments like ginger etc, sesame seeds, chopped peanuts, deep fried dough crackers and a plum sauce dressing. This dish originated from West Malaysia and Singapore, with roots in Southern China. But has now been fervently adopted by the Hongkongers, Taiwanese and just about all Chinese communities around the world. I love the version my mum makes. In fact that is the only version I usually eat. Maybe I’m so used to the balance of flavors in her version, that I don’t particularly enjoy the ones that are served in restaurants. For many people, “loh hei” is a must throughout the 15 days of Chinese New Year. More on this dish when we make our first one of the year ; )

There are many, many more food items… but it will take me the whole night and more…

The New Year Celebrations
The actual New Year celebrations are also filled with traditional “practices”.

New Year’s Eve:
• All cleaning and washing must be done before midnight. No sweeping of floors, washing of clothes etc are allowed on the first day of New Year. This is to avoid sweeping away all the new luck.
• Extra food is cooked on New Year’s Eve to ensure that there are some leftovers for the next day – to symbolize that that will be abundant food going from one year into the next.
• Young children are encouraged to stay up as late as possible on the Eve, to signify that their parents and elders will have a long life.
• On the stroke of midnight, parents will present their unmarried children with hong baos (red packets) containing money. The Cantonese call these packets “lai see” or blessings.

1st Day Of New Year
• In my family, after greeting our parents, we sit down to a breakfast of “nian gao” and “hong zhao gui yen cha”. We usually cut the “nian gao” or glutinous rice New Year cake into very thin slices and pan-fry them with egg. Not sure which dialect this tradition of frying the nian gao with eggs comes from. Foochow maybe? The true tradition would be to eat the nian gao fresh, on its own on the first day of New Year. This cake is then kept for the 15 days of the New Year. Given that there were no refrigeration in the olden days, by the time the 15th day rolled around, the cake would have gone moldy, and so it would be fried to make it edible again. Nowadays, we fry them on the first day, simply because they taste much nicer when fried with eggs! : )
• “Hong zhao gui yen cha” is a “tea” made from boiling red dates, dried longans and sugared winter melons (tang dong gua). It signifies good fortune and abundant blessings for the whole year.
• For a lot of families, I think especially the Hokkien ones, no fresh meat is cooked on the first day of New Year. This came from the tradition of not killing of animals on the first day of the year. This is another reason why a lot of meat and fish are cooked on New Year’s Eve, and the leftovers are eaten on the first day.

2nd Day
• This is traditionally known as “kai nian” or in literal translation “year opening”. This is when the stoves of the home are fired up (for the first time in the new year), and the women cook up a storm. After the quiet celebrations with family on the 1st day, the home is now opened up to all friends and relatives who come and visit and partake of food.
• We used to have an “open house” on the 2nd day of New Year, every year. And my mum and our domestic helper would cook for 100+ people! Just the two of them! Cooking everything from scratch! Imagine that!! (This was in the days before I could cook). They had to cook something like 15-20 different dishes! It was an industrial sized operation to be sure! We haven’t done this in many, many years. My mum, as she moved on in years, found it too tiring, and I, to this day, find it absolutely too daunting. So, now it is just small gatherings of close friends and family. In those days in Singapore, it was almost impossible to find a Chinese caterer who was prepared to cater on the 2nd day of New Year. And if you could find one, the prices would be sky-high with the quality of food correspondingly a faint shadow of their normal standards. We tried it one year, and most of the food was left untouched by our guests. They wanted my mum’s cooking. But we were no longer prepared to spend 18 hours straight in the kitchen cutting, dicing, cooking, washing etc. Imagine us decked out in our new clothes, hair carefully coiffed but staying in the kitchen all day without a moment’s rest. We didn’t even get to mingle with the guests. They came, they ate and they left. In the end we decided it was a rather meaningless way to spend New Year.

7th Day
• This is also known as “humanity’s birthday”. Everyone turns a year older on this day.
• The Hokkiens have a tradition of cooking a dish made up of 7 different types of vegetables on this day.

9th Day
• I think this is the day the Hokkiens make offerings and pray to the “Sky God” or “Tien Gong”. Oh dear, I could be wrong on this. Have to check with Hokkien friends on this one.

15th Day
• Last day of the “official” New Year celebratory period. The family gathers for another family reunion dinner before everyone departs again back to their jobs etc…
• We eat dry tang yuan (known as “yuan xiao”) on this day.
• This is also known as Chinese Valentines day. In ancient times, this was the only day of the year that males and females were allowed to meet freely and select a prospective spouse. Another name for this day would be the “lantern festival” as in the olden days men and women would meet and play “solve the riddles” games with lanterns, and that’s how they pair up. Anyone know the real tradition of the lantern games?

Other general traditions:
• When visiting relatives and friends, one always bring and offer to the host a pair of Mandarin oranges. This symbolizes the giving of good fortune and blessings to your friends and relatives. Never offer odd numbers, and avoid offering four (which sounds like “to die” or “death”) oranges too.
• Married people are expected to give hong baos or lai sees to unmarried singles and to all children. (Haha… that’s why traditionally, couples would “rush” to have their first child soon after getting married so that when CNY rolls around, they won’t only be doing all the giving, but will also be “receiving” through their child).
• All inauspicious sayings, words and arguments are to be avoided. And if indeed something “inauspicious” happens, for example, like a plate or cup is dropped and broken, an auspicious saying is immediately uttered – eg “luo di kai hua”, meaning “fall to the ground and bloom as flowers”, and so the shattered plate and cup is used to symbolize a beautiful thing rather than an inauspicious event.

Oh boy! This has been a mega long post. I could go on and on, but I won’t. (Yes, I heard that sigh of relief) : ) After typing out all that, I'm all in the mood for CNY already! : D

I’m hoping to go down to the Chinatown Chinese New Year street market (which started on Saturday night) soon, to do some new year shopping… hopefully I will have some pictures to show too. It’s supposed to be one of the biggest markets yet – with almost 500 stalls. Yippee! I always really start feeling the CNY spirit when I head on down to this street market.

Yes, I complain about CNY being so close to Christmas and the Gregorian New Year this year. But hey, the goat wasn’t a very nice visitor this year. Created a right upheaval nation-wide and across the globe did he. (Actually, if truth be told, the goat has been good to me this year, no complaints from me). But I guess a lot of people are ready to welcome in the monkey. And yes, he is at the door already! Let’s roll out the red carpet…

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