Blessed…

In 1973, I was in Singapore staying (renting a room illegally) at one of those HDB flats with an elderly couple. The husband worked as a labourer and the wife was a housewife. They had a daughter who was already married and was living with her in-laws…and a son who was hardly ever home. The couple lived a very simple life – eating plain rice and one not-very-appetising looking vegetable dish every day throughout the year. But when Chinese New Year came, they cooked so much food – braised pork leg, five-spice duck, steamed fish, roast chicken and of course, they could not finish all that by themselves. So they kept asking me to join them for their meals and every meal, they would be eating those same dishes…..

For one thing, the Chinese belief is that they must have a lot of food – some, like fish, are exclusively mandatory – so that throughout the coming year, they will be abundantly blessed and will have a lot to eat. I do not strictly prescribe by that superstition, but come Chinese New Year, we will have some special dishes to celebrate and will cook more to share with anyone who happens to come by the house…but just enough to last a day or two.

To start off, we will have the longevity noodles the first thing in the morning in the hope that we will be blessed with very long lives…

I love Foochow mee sua (thread/string noodles) served in chicken soup cooked with ginger and lots of Chinese red wine, so usually I will have quite a substantial amount as you can see in the photo.

This year, we had roast duck…

…and ngor hiang (golden five-spice meat rolls)…

…fried udang galah (giant freshwater prawns)…

…salad (no photo of that) and stir-fried mixed vegetables…

…and being of mixed parentage, we would always have a few of our nyonya/Malaysian specialties. This year, we had chicken curry…

…and homecooked satay beef…

…and nasi minyak (ghee rice)…

My missus did all the cooking. I only cook on ordinary working days with my shortcuts and simplified recipes and kampung-style cooking. She, on the other hand, will go through the trouble of preparing all the added ingredients to make the dishes taste even nicer, not me!

So there you have it – what we had during Chinese New Year….ample to go round, and let’s hope we’ll be blessed with ample good fortune throughout the year as well. Oops! She did not cook any fish! Hahahahahaha!!!