Chinese New Year
Last weekend was the first time in a long long time I have spent Chinese New Year in an Asian country. Although Singapore has some distinctly different traditions from China, it's still pretty cool to be in the middle of all the festivities. For a couple of weeks now the streets and shopping centers have been decorated red lanterns and auspicious characters. Chinatown is positively OVERFLOWING with people. Happily, the yummy goodies are just as abundant =D.
Some very Singaporean New Year treats:
PINEAPPLE TARTS
SHRIMP ROLLS (yummier than the name suggests)
and of course MANDARIN ORANGES (aka your ticket to Ang Paos aka Hong Baos aka Red Packets aka mooching money off of others)
A lot of the big shopping malls set up stalls in the basement during the days leading up to CNY so everyone can stock up on the goodies. Pictures of the madness at Takashimaya, a big mall by my apartment.
CHINATOWN DURING THE FESTIVITIES
STREET DECORATIONS (I almost got ran over taking this pictures)
DECORATIONS AT ORCHARD ROAD IN PREPARATION FOR CHINGAY, THE CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE
Before the New Year, everyone is supposed to clean their houses from top to bottom to essentially get rid of the old and welcome in the new. Being the lazy bum that I am (and luckily having very little personal possessions with me at the current moment), I folded what remained of my laundry, fluffed up the sofa cushions, and called it a day.
Saturday, night before New Years, everyone gets together with their family and has "Tuan Nian Fan" or the "Reunion Dinner." One of my coworkers took pity on me and invited me to her house for dinner! It was very sweet of her. Her daught who was four showed off her various new dresses which all seem to possess some sort of Disney princess theme. Guess we all go through that phase no matter where we live.
One of the best part of CNY is that I got Monday and Tuesday off! Monday night I went with a friend and her friends to see the new Andy Lau movie, Protege. I suppose you can say that it's a cautionary tale of the evils of heroine and drug trafficking. But I was somewhat disturbed at how intensely the movie detailed where poppies are grown, how they are harvested, how one finds and negotiates deals with the growers and then subsequently "washes clean" the money. There's also a sequence on making heroine that looked like something from the DIY channel. All you need is a blender and a cake pan! Honestly!
Afterwards we all piled into cars and went over the Clarke Quay, one of a couple night spots in the city. Like Boat and Robertson Quay, it's by the water and very pretty. Some pretty cool looking clubs, one of them called Clinic. The whole place looks like a hospital and they serve you drinks in syringes.
I met up with my friend Rebecca on Tuesday for sushi and then went to open house at the Istana, otherwise known as the home of Singapore's President. The open up his palatial garden/home a couple times each year for certain holidays. Singaporeans get in free. But foreigners (such as I) have to pay $1 =( Not very neighborly, you don't see Washington DC giving Americans a discount.
After "queuing" for abou a half hour, we finally got in. The house is basically an enormous garden. We got about halfway up the ginormous driveway and turn around, mostly because we were about to pass out from the heat.
THE GATE
JAPANESE GARDEN
NO SWIMMING!
TRANSLATION: ONWARD, SINGAPORE
And to wrap up the post
Yes, I did eat it. And yes, it was delish. =)
Some very Singaporean New Year treats:
PINEAPPLE TARTS
SHRIMP ROLLS (yummier than the name suggests)
and of course MANDARIN ORANGES (aka your ticket to Ang Paos aka Hong Baos aka Red Packets aka mooching money off of others)
A lot of the big shopping malls set up stalls in the basement during the days leading up to CNY so everyone can stock up on the goodies. Pictures of the madness at Takashimaya, a big mall by my apartment.
CHINATOWN DURING THE FESTIVITIES
STREET DECORATIONS (I almost got ran over taking this pictures)
DECORATIONS AT ORCHARD ROAD IN PREPARATION FOR CHINGAY, THE CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE
Before the New Year, everyone is supposed to clean their houses from top to bottom to essentially get rid of the old and welcome in the new. Being the lazy bum that I am (and luckily having very little personal possessions with me at the current moment), I folded what remained of my laundry, fluffed up the sofa cushions, and called it a day.
Saturday, night before New Years, everyone gets together with their family and has "Tuan Nian Fan" or the "Reunion Dinner." One of my coworkers took pity on me and invited me to her house for dinner! It was very sweet of her. Her daught who was four showed off her various new dresses which all seem to possess some sort of Disney princess theme. Guess we all go through that phase no matter where we live.
One of the best part of CNY is that I got Monday and Tuesday off! Monday night I went with a friend and her friends to see the new Andy Lau movie, Protege. I suppose you can say that it's a cautionary tale of the evils of heroine and drug trafficking. But I was somewhat disturbed at how intensely the movie detailed where poppies are grown, how they are harvested, how one finds and negotiates deals with the growers and then subsequently "washes clean" the money. There's also a sequence on making heroine that looked like something from the DIY channel. All you need is a blender and a cake pan! Honestly!
Afterwards we all piled into cars and went over the Clarke Quay, one of a couple night spots in the city. Like Boat and Robertson Quay, it's by the water and very pretty. Some pretty cool looking clubs, one of them called Clinic. The whole place looks like a hospital and they serve you drinks in syringes.
I met up with my friend Rebecca on Tuesday for sushi and then went to open house at the Istana, otherwise known as the home of Singapore's President. The open up his palatial garden/home a couple times each year for certain holidays. Singaporeans get in free. But foreigners (such as I) have to pay $1 =( Not very neighborly, you don't see Washington DC giving Americans a discount.
After "queuing" for abou a half hour, we finally got in. The house is basically an enormous garden. We got about halfway up the ginormous driveway and turn around, mostly because we were about to pass out from the heat.
THE GATE
JAPANESE GARDEN
NO SWIMMING!
TRANSLATION: ONWARD, SINGAPORE
And to wrap up the post
Yes, I did eat it. And yes, it was delish. =)