Monday, February 19, 2007

Five things I miss most about Chinese New Year

While Chun See reminisces and muses about the five things he would not miss about Chinese New Year (CNY), I thought the sentimental fool in me would do just the opposite. Here are the five things I miss most about the CNY of yesteryear.

  • My childhood home at Club Street.
    This is the Headquarters. All my relatives - uncles and aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews would gather at this "checkpoint" on the first day of the New Year. It was obvious why we called our home at Club Street the HQ - simply because the matriarch of our extended family, my paternal grandmother lived there. Everyone one, young and old, would come to pay her respect (and get angpow) on the first day of the New Year. She passed on in the late 80s, and for a while, there was no HQ for gathering. Subsequently, my first aunt's home at Holland Drive was assigned the new HQ. But she too passed on several years ago. Today, the new HQ is at one of my cousin's house at King's Road, also somewhere near Holland Drive.

  • My pajamas
    Call me silly, but when I was a young boy, I used to love wearing pajamas to bed (now no lah, juz a pair of shorts and bare-chested). On the eve of CNY, my mum would made us kids wear new pajamas she bought from the market. Oh, I'm sure you know those pajamas. It's those stripe-pattern pajamas with pull-strings pants normally worn by Ah Peks. But because we were kids, mum usually got us the elastic-band type. What's the significance of wearing new pajamas on the eve? I dun think kids these days, especially the boys, wear pajamas. My boys certainly don't.

  • Gambling
    Yes, believe it or not, we kids were allowed to gamble during CNY, not with peanuts or sweets, mind you. We gambled using real money from our angpow. But the stakes, in this instance, are really peanuts - each round only could bet no more than 10 cents. But we have supervision from our parents, who told us that we could only play the cards (another phrase for gambling, heheh) on CNY. They must have imparted us the right value lor. Why? None of us kids turned into gambling addicts, my 4-D and lottery "addiction" aside. Hehehehe...

  • Angpow
    Of course, children are the happiest creatures on earth comes CNY. They can indulge in all the cookies, sweets and soft-drink all day, and mums would not bat an eye-lid. What's more, they get lots and lots of angpow or red pockets. When I was a kid, the angpow my siblings and I collected could hit at least $200 each. We would compare and see which one of us got the highest amount. Now, I dun get angpow anymore, which is fine. But what is not so fine is that I now must GIVE angpow to every kid who crosses my path, even total strangers whom I meet at my relative's house. Not fair one. LOL.

  • Firecrackers
    When the gahmen banned firecrackers, somehow, much of the spirit of CNY also disappeared along with the ban. One of my aunts who stayed in the same building at Club Street hawked firecrackers, so I sort of have free "supply" of firecrackers to play with on CNY. One of the favorite pastimes of us kids then were to quietly sneaked up behind an unsuspecting neighborhood kid with a "rocket" fire-crackers, lit it up, and startled the kid out of his pants when the firecracker "erupted" with a loud bang, leaving some of them in tears. Yes, we were a bunch of sadists, but hey, we were juz kids... LOL
Well, so much for the CNY memories. Yesterday, the first day of CNY, was a flurry of visitations. One of our stops was at the Slim Lady's grandma's at Yishun where we stopped for lunch. I've noticed, year after year, that granny always indulges us with nothing but meat on her dinning table. Can someone tell me what's the significance of eating meat on CNY?


Oh, and here's a shot of my mum's popiah. Sorry if I'm beginning to sound like a broken record on my entries on popiah. I know I've blogged about my mum's popiah in a number of entries already - here, there and everywhere. But I'm really a sucker on this dish! Yum!

Victor, come my house lah. Doesn't the popiah look yummy? Dun say I neber invite you hor.

LOL.

Category: Yesteryear

14 comments:

eastcoastlife said...

Wah! you got $200 for ang-pow money! Mine didn't even reach $30. My relatives very cheapskate wan la, only give the youngest child, to share among us 3 kids.

When I was very much younger, we would get to eat chicken meat or duck meat only during CNY, a luxury for the poor then.

I think it is the same for your wife's grandma. Having meat on this auspicious day also means that you would have meat to eat throughout the whole year. An indication of prosperity. Of course that was a wish which it didn't materialise for many years for my family.

I love eating popiah too and I'm serving it today for my Open House to my students. Will invite you for it one day so you can try the difference.

Anonymous said...

hello mr sim! haha guess hu m i?? my name starts with g and ends with a s.hehheh.you noe me de lah.oh, sry i didnt try ur popiah yesterday..
ah.happy CNY again(:
okok..i shall be known as dookie! :D

Chris Sim said...

Dookie
Of course I know who you are girl. Dun take uncle for a fool hor. My advice to you is to read selectively. Certain post not suitable for underaged girl arh, rated PG. Hee. Why neber link me your blog?

Jayne
I think some dialects group (won't mention here sekali kena flame) give very little angpow one. But ok lah, you're rich now mah. Hehehe.. Really? U gonna invite me to sample your popiah arh? when? when?? (so exciting!)

Victor said...

Wah so much meat! You got to be careful, Chris. Not that you can't afford it financially but you cannot not afford it... aiyah, you know what I mean lah.

Anonymous said...

hehe.. happy new year.

The new year isnt that good for me actually.. got scoldings, scolded people, etc etc... sigh.

the popiah looks very nice =)

Lam Chun See said...

Hi Chris. I think u know that I was being misleading as usual in my blog title. When you say you miss something, you actually mean you miss the experience. So Victor and I both don't miss ice balls becos it's nothing but ice and sugar sysrup. But for us kids, it was real shiok.

This new year very quiet for me becos my wife went back to Ipoh to see her ailing mother. But we had lots of goodies from my neighbour; including the xuan-pan-zhi (abacus seed) and popiah and the Penang type 'cup' popiah - cannot remember the name.

Chris Sim said...

Chun See
I think the popiah cup is called Kueh Pie Ti. You sure have friendly and generous neigbhours ....

Etel
Oh dear. Hope you're feeling much better now ..... if not, can always call your GD to bring you go for a spin in his car. *wink*

Victor
What you mean? Don't speak in code can or not? I eat lots of meat, but see the other pix of the popiah? It's all veggie. So, my meal for the day is very balanced.

Victor said...

Balanced? Don't kid yourself, kid. Only one popiah but so many bowls and plates of meat. How balanced can that be?

iml said...

Happy Lunar new year!!! Yum yum, I simply love popiah. Have not tasted a real good one here in singapore yet though (hint!hint!)

tigerfish said...

For the first time, I had homemade popiah when I returned to SG last week. Now I see your popiah pix again, I am hungry and craving it again. When are all of you popiah makers (you, ECL etc) inviting me for some homemade popiah ? :D

Wow, how come so much meat ? Maybe it signifies abundance ? cos in the yesteryear...only the rich can afford to "jiak bak"..the poor only can eat "rough vegetable and plain rice" ?

Details: said...

That's a lot of food on the table! WoW!

I used to get about S$1000 odd in my ang bao but it gradually decreasing as I age. Now at 32, I be happy if I can get a S$100 ang bao.

I think someone should write a review about the popiah of your mom's and then share with it the rest of the readers here. Dial-a-popiah business? :)

Chris Sim said...

Hi Paddy
Thanks for dropping by. Woa, S$1000? Lucky you... $100 also not too bad wat. Enjoy while it lasts buddy.
Maybe you can do the honour of writing a preview of my mum's popiah? If I do it, I may be excused of being "kelong". Hahaha...

Details: said...

Hee.. those were the days when granduncle placed that S$100 unfold in that ang bao. It is good to be the elderest in the family line especially when very young at age.

I would love to review but I am a vegetarian so no go :)

Chris Sim said...

The popiah are all veggie leh.