Reunion Dinner

Singapore - What is Reunion Dinner? At Chinese New Year, a reunion dinner is held on New Year's Eve where members of the immediate family get together for celebration. It is customary for the married sons will go back to their parents home to celebrate the Reunion Dinner.

My friend, Yudi - an Indonesian Chinese living in Jakarta will be driving back to his father home in Palembang for reunion dinner - that is about 12-14 hrs drive. Wow! what patience he has...

Around this time in China, it will be the biggest migration of people the world has ever seen -around more than 10 million people are going back home for their reunion dinner. Because of this year's bad winter storm in China, many travellers are stranded at train and bus stations. This happen to be China's worst winter storms in 50 years. At Guangzhou station alone, more than 200,000 travellers are stranded with no hope in sight of making the audous journey back home for the reunion dinner.

In Singapore, 2007 has been a good and prosperous year - people are having bigger bonuses and are willing to splurge on their Chinese New Year reunion dinner. This year most expensive reunion dinner at $5,888 a table offered by Hua Ting restuarant in Orchard Hotel.

This nine-course meal will be prepared by the Hotel's award winning master chef Chan Kwok and boasts of top-grade ingredients in its dishes.

• Live Australian lobster "lo hei" yu sheng
• Roasted golden suckling pig
• Double-boiled supreme hai fu shark's fin in shark bone cartilage soup
• Sauteed sea whelk with seasoned greens and preserved olive in golden cup
• Braised Australian dried abalone (10 heads) with top grade fish maw and fa cai
• Steamed live Pacific mouse groupa or live double-headed wrasse so mei in superior soya sauce
• Braised noodle with fresh scallop in XO sauce
• Double-boiled bird's nest with rock sugar
• Chinese petit four
• Costing: Singapore dollars 5,888 for one table

It cost so much, maybe the Chef has to sacrifice his reunion dinner to spend it with the dinners...

Lo Hei - toss up yusheng!

Singapore/Malaysia - Arguably Singapore and Malaysia invention of tossing and mixing up the yusheng (raw fish salad). You will toss the dish as high as possible which shouting "Lo Hei" and other auspicius phrases at the same time.

It is a Singapore's urban legend that four "Heavenly Chef" of Singapore restaurant - Chef Sin Leong, Chef Hooi Kok Wai, late Chef Tham Yui Kai and late Chef Lau Yoki Pui created the Lo Hei which is now enjoyed and a must have for many families in Singpore and Malaysi during the Chinese New Year. The 4 Chefs met each other and became friends at the old Cathay Restaurant and introduce the dish in 1963.

Lo Hei yusheng was traditionally eaten on the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, which is known a "ren ri" or every man's birthday. But nowadys, it is eaten throughout 16 days (including the eve). When I was in Kuala Lumpur, we had Lo Hei - 2 weeks before Chinese New Year.

Here are some ingredients that do into yusheng, and their significance:

• Raw fish: Represents increasing abundance
• Peanut crumbs: Represents a household filled with gold and silver
• Peanuts: Represents eternal youth
• Plum sauce: Represents a sweet life ahead
• Crackers: Represents the entire floor paved with gold
• Lemon (or Lime): Represents fruitful year
• Oil: Represents a smooth year glistening with wealth

Chinese New Year Trivia

Singapore - some Chinese New Year Trivia for those who are clueless about this festival that is widely celebrated in Asia....

1. Why must the amount in cahs in the Hong Bao be even-numbered?
2. Why must we stay up on the eve of Chinese Year Year?
3. Why do we wear red-coloured clothes on Chinese New Year?
4. Why is the Chinese Character fu placed upside down?
5. Why are mandarin oranges exchanged during Chinese New Year?



Answers:
1. There's a Chinese saying that "good things come in pairs". Odd-numbered amounts are generally associated with money given at funerals.
2. It is believed that the later children stay up on the eve of Chinese New Year, the longer their parents will live.
3. According to a legend, there is a New Year monster called Nian. Because, the monster fears the colour red, it became tradition for the Chinese to wear red to frighten it away.
4. Turning something upside down is known as "dao" in Mandarin, which sounds similiar to the Chinese word for "arrive". Turning the word upside down means that blessings will arrive.
5. The Mandarin word for mandarin organes is ju, which sounds like ji, meaning good luck. Another version is that oranges are called kam in Cantonese, which sounds like the Cantonese word for gold.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is China's equivalent of America's Thanksgiving holiday - this could be recognized as one of China's happiest holiday besides of course the Chinese New Year! Like Thanksgiving, it is a time when people reunite with their families and get together, be with loved ones and celebrate the year's harvest. In China, people come together and enjoy a feast of mooncakes.

Like many Chinese tradition, this one stems from ancient legend. A long time ago, 10 suns circled the earth. One day, all 10 suns appeared in the sky together and the heat caused a great drought. A famous archer named Hou Yi came to the rescue, shooting down nine of the suns and earning himself vast acclaim. The Emperor awarded him a beautiful wife, as well as an immortality pill. One day while Hou Yi was out, his wife ate the pill. She became a fairy and floated to the moon, leaving a heartbroken husband at home on Earth. The gods noticed the couple's deep love and sympathized, allowing them to meet on the 15th day of every eighth moon.

The other legend has it that Chinese patriots used mooncakes to overthrow the tyrannical Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) by embedding messages outlining the planned rebellion in the seemingly sweet delicacy and smuggling them to their allies.

In Singapore, it is a tradition celebrated by all ethnic Chinese. The mooncakes will be sold around 1st day of the 8th lunar month - so for this year, it will be 1st September onwards. We buy mooncakes as gifts to families and sometimes to business partners. Though, it is not a public holiday we still enjoy the pleasure of eating mooncakes. It is usually celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.


In Singapore and Malaysia, it is also called the Lantern Festival - At night, children accompanied by their parents will take out their laterns of different shapes and sizes, and walk around their neighbourhood and parks and just have fun. For some people who prefer to be with their loved ones and family, they will spent a romantic night together in their house garden or beaches or parks to enjoy looking at the sky with the brightest moon of the year.

Racial Harmony Day

My son said "why don't you write about Racial Harmony Day?"....

Background: Racial Harmony Day is celebrated annually on 21 July in Singapore. The event is to commemorate the 1964 Race Riots, which took place on 21 July 1964. Racial Harmony Day also represents a day for schools to reflect on, and celebrate Singapore's success as a racially harmonious nation and society built on a rich diversity of culture and heritage. In schools all across the nation on that day, students are encouraged to be dressed in their traditional costumes such as the Cheongsam and the Baju Kurung. Traditional delicacies are also featured in the celebrations. Traditional games such as Kutih-kutih and zero point are played in schools, where inter-class competitions are sometimes organised.

Schools are also encouraged to recite a declaration on religious harmony during the celebrations.
We, the people in Singapore, declare that religious harmony is vital for peace, progress and prosperity in our multi-racial and multi-religious Nation.
We resolve to strengthen religious harmony through mutual tolerance, confidence, respect, and understanding.
We shall always
Recognise the secular nature of our State,
Promote cohesion within our society,
Respect each other's freedom of religion,
Grow our common space while respecting our diversity,
Foster inter-religious communications,
and thereby ensure that religion will not be abused to create conflict and disharmony in Singapore

My son wrote "We had a School fun fair. It sold different kinds of food. And people that had traditional costumes wore them to school. Racial Harmony is important to our country because if Singapore has only one religion you would not have different kinds of food, and games, languages and different friends. "

We may take our racial integration for granted, but there are some points that not many communities in the world can claim to know of:-

1. We have at least tasted traditional cuisine from each of the other racial group and even grown up to love some.
2. If asked, we could tell a tourist where to eat the best Indian, Chinese and Malay food and probably could even order the foods in the respective native language.
3. We know where to find at least one place of worship from each religion and know how to respect them.
4. We know the difference between Hari Raya Haji adn Hari Raya Puasa, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Thaipusam.
5. From each language, we will definitely know at least one word, not counting curse words.
6. Most of us have tasted bandung, chin chow and lassi and drink them on a regular basis.
7. We have all visited Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Melayu at least once and probably could tell you what we love about the area.
8. Elder strangers are 'uncle' or 'aunty' regardless of race as a form of respect.
9. Our circle of friends and colleaques will definitely have someone of another race and we probably know that our Hindu friends do not eat beef, our Muslim friends cannot eat pork and some of our Buddhist friends are vegetarian.
10. We share our food and all know the meaning of makan.

It is about tolerance for one's race and religion....maybe it will one day be a World Wide observance..

Dragon Boat Festival

Singapore - Bak Chang is here finally. "Bak Chang" is the hokkien name for rice dumplings. The Mandarin name is called "Zong Zi" - this is also the only time when my mum-in-law makes hundreds of Bak Chang and give to our family in couple of tens.

When I was in KL, I tried some rice dumplings from "YY Famous dumplings" @ Mid Valley Megamall - very tasty about RM4-5 each. They have Cantonese Chang, Nonya Chang, Hakka Chang, Chicken Chang and Golden Chang. I tried they Hakka Chang, Golden Chang and Chicken Chang.

Now a days, you can buy Bak Chang every day, not only during Duan Wu Jie. My regular 'kuek' or cake stall sells Nonya chang (sweet and no soy sauce is used in the preparation so the skin is whiter) or Cantonese chang (salty with chestnut).




Tradition
Bak Chang or Zong Zi is traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival (Duan Wu Jie) which falls on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the Chinese calendar (approximately early- to mid-June), commemorating the death of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom of Chu who lived during the Warring States period. Known for his patriotism, Qu Yuan tried unsuccessfully to warn his king and countrymen against the expansionism of their Qin neighbors. When the Qin Dynasty general Bai Qi took Yingdu, the Chu capital, in 278 BC, Qu Yuan's grief was so intense that he drowned himself in the Miluo river after penning the Lament for Ying. According to legend, rice dumplings were thrown into the river to prevent fish from eating the poet's body.

The fifth month is normally a month with a great deal of rainfall that threatens to ruin young crops. In traditional China, the Double Fifth was a day of misfortune: the fifth month was considered an evil month and the fifth day of the month was particularly evil. On this day, the mystical river dragons, who had sovereignty over water, needed to be placated so that the dragons would bless the community with an optimal amount of rainfall. Rituals surrounding the theme of dragon were then developed.




Dragon Boat Races
Originating in Southern China over 2000 years ago, dragon boat racing started gathering interest in the western world in the 1970s. Today, it is both a recreational and a highly competitive sport enjoyed by people of all ages in over 50 countries or territories around the world. Dragon boat racing is increasingly popular as a component in corporate team building retreats and charitable fundraising events, particularly for promoting breast cancer awareness.

Current races
Penang - International Dragon Boat Festival 2007 (28th Anniversary) - 8-10 June 2007
Singapore - 30th June - 1st July 2007 - 10am to 6pm - Bedok Reservoir

Supersitions in the Year of the Pig

2007 - Year of the 'Golden Pig' for having babies

HONG KONG - Supersitious Hong Kong people believe that the Year of the 'Golden' Pig will be the best year to having babies so hospitals are getting ready for a bumper year of surging babies. Hong Kong government might decide to do away with the incentive for procreation and leave the 'Golden Pig' to do it's job.

Furthermore, it is not only the Year to give birth but also Hong Kongers are consulting Feng Shui masters to seek the best days to have babies. Parents want a good birth date to ensure their children are healthy and have a good life.

Why the rush? The Golden Pig come around every 60 years, so for anyone thinking of having it better do it this year than wait another 60 years - I was just kidding.. Feng Shui masters claimed that the 2007 "Year of the Golden Pig" will be the best for giving birth in 600 years!

The Chinese astrology is divides time into 12 recurring year-long blocks, with each year represented by a different animal: the pig is the last in the Zodiac sequence that begins with the rat, followed by the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster and dog. For all cat lovers - the cat did not make cause it was fooled by the rat...

Each year will have different characteristics, according to the representative animal symbol.

Feng Shui masters believe that the Pig symbolises birth, according to Chinese tradition, so the Year of the Pig is especially good for having babies, and Pigs represent wealth and fortune.

Luck Runs out for Wild Boars

VIETNAM - The Year of the Pig brings only disaster to families of pigs roaming the forests of Vietnam, as supersition holds that eating them means prosperity in the year ahead. In this year of the pig, dishes featuring wild pork have become eagerly sought-after.

It is not always possible to have wild boar meat all the time as eateries have to order meat from hunters. Those hunters go into the forest to try to find wild boars. At first, the hunters will kill mature boars only, but as the demand rises they will shoot even piglets and pregnant wild boars.

Wild pork can be cooked as many tempting dishes, so Vietnamese become interested in pork that has the special flavour of game. Also, some Vietnamese like the fresh blood from a wild boars, so hunters try to capture wild boars alive. This brings them a better return. Despite the high demand and prices, Vietnamese elbowed one another out of the way to buy the meat.

I think medically it is very unsafe to eat raw pig's blood and meat and will make you very sick with a disease called yersiniosis. This is caused by the bacteria, Yersinia enterocolitica.

When the demand keeps increasing, the supply also goes up and now there is a growing fear that wild pigs will disappear from Vietnam's forests. Though, there are some places that wild boars are bred and raised like domesticated pig, the number of wild boars is not enough to meet the demand.

Lunar New Year Celebrations around Asia

This is the time of the year where most of Asia celebrates the Lunar New Year holidays. Officially, Lunar New Year begins on 18th February and that's the 1st day of the Year of the Pig. My good friend, Phill likes to call it the Year of the Boar, this is his special year too. Those born in the year of the Pig are highly regarded for their chilvary and pureness of heart, and often make friends for life.

The Lunar New Year is the most significant festival for ethnic Chinese around the world, wherever they come from. It is a very jubilant occasion mainly because it is the time when people take a break from work to get together with family and friends.

Chinese New Year is also the time of the the largest human migration, when overseas Chinese all around the world travel home to have reunion dinners with their families on Chinese New Year's eve. Well, for me it is a 45-minutes drive to my parents house around the East Coast of Singapore. In Chinese tradition, sons will return home together with their families to have reunion with the parents.

In Singapore, we celebrate the Chinese New Year and two websites that might be of interest to you - Visit Singapore and Chingay 2007.

This year the Lunar New Year starts on 18th February. A statutory holiday is added on the following work day when the New Year falls on a weekend.Countries with sizeable chinese population celebrate as a public holiday:

China - the 1st seven days

Taiwan - the 1st five days

Hong Kong - the 1st three days

Macau - the 1st three days
Singapore - the 1st 2 days

Malaysia - the 1st 2 days

Indonesia - the 1st day

Brunei - the 1st day

Other countries:
The Vietnamese, Koreans and Mongolians also celebrate their Lunar New Year on the same day as the Chinese calendar.

The Vietnamese New Year is called Tết, and is a three-days holiday.
Korea celebrates the 1st 3 days of the Lunar New Year (called Seol-nal).
Mongolia also celebrates the 1st three days of the Lunar New Year (called Tsagaan Sar).

Celebrating Valentine's Day around Asia

14th February is Valentine's Day. It is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other; sending Valentine's cards, candy, or donations to charities, often anonymously. It is very common to present flowers on Valentine's Day. This westerned celebration of love is now very common around Asia.

Every February across the country, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this particular day?

The history of Valentine's Day and its patron saint is shouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long since been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains both christian and ancient Roman tradition.

IN SINGAPORE - Making Dollars and Sense on Valentine's Day

Singapore is known for its love for the Valentine's Day celebrations because for the hospitality business there are lots of money to be made on this day. Heavy advertising and aggressive promotions are seen on newspapers, televisions and radio. And this starts weeks before Valentine's Day for Singaporeans eager not to miss a booking at hotels and restaurants.

Valentine's Day is a big event in Singapore and you can expect shows, musical carnivals, performances that are held throughout the city in bars, clubs and hotels. Also, Valentine's day is probably the most popular day for young couples to get married. Hotels and restaurants are fully book on Valentine's Day - prices on Valentine's day are more expensive. But competition amongst them is still very keen and so themed evenings are getting increasingly popular. While Valentine's Day may be one of the busiest days in the calendar for restaurants, the rush tends to come at the last minute.

More Valentine's news from Singapore:
Dating bootcamp gears Singaporean men up for Valentine's Day


IN JAPAN - A Chocolate Valentine

Japanese women who crave chocolate but not its calories are discovering they don't have to put it in their mouths – this Valentine's Day, they can slather it on their bodies or wear it instead.

Women in Japan are expected to give chocolate to boyfriends and husbands for Valentine's Day, with the men reciprocating a month later, but this year it seems that some Japanese women are ditching tradition and pampering themselves.

At the upscale Tokyo Prince Hotel, women are being offered an overnight package that includes a 75-minute chocolate massage costing up to 50,000 yen, at Japan 's growing ranks of single and financially secure women. The hotel is promoting cocoa as good for the skin, hoping to soothe fears that a love of chocolate leads to an expanding waistline by using it in less conventional ways. Apart from experiencing chocolate on the skin, women can also show their chocolate mania as an original fashion statement. And though the hotel isn't exactly spelling it out, chocolate's link with romance can be traced back a few thousand years to when the ancient Aztecs associated it with their goddess of fertility.

Chocolate contains a variety of substances, some of which, like caffeine, are addictive and others that have positive health benefits such as reducing coughing. The presence in chocolate of the feel-good chemicals serotonin and phenethylamine, mild sexual stimulants, have led to the romantic lore that chocolate is an aphrodisiac and so giving and receiving chocolate has become an inextricable part of the modern courtship ritual.

In a country where plastic replicas of food displayed outside restaurants have become an art form, department store Takashimaya is offering a limited number of tiaras with diamond-shaped figures made to resemble chocolate. Unfortunately, the tiara cannot be eaten as the chocolate figures include plastic. And the price – at 71,400 yen (590 dollars) – may be equally difficult to digest.

More Valentine's news from Japan

Valentine's day....Japanese Way

IN KOREA - A Candy Valentine

The traditional gift of candy takes place in Korea on February 14, but only from females to males. There is another special day for males to give gifts to females and this is celebrated on March 14. March 14 in Korea is known as "White Day." On "White Day," many young men confess their love for the first time to their sweethearts.

For those young people who have no particular romantic partners, the Koreans have set aside yet another date...April 14, also known as "Black Day." On that date, such individuals get together and partake of Ja Jang Myun noodles, which are black in color, hence the name of the day.

REST OF ASIA - Valentine's day is taking a back seat....

Because of the proximity of this year Valentine's day to Lunar New Year, many people are snubbing this Western romantic day to prepare for the Lunar New Year, which is just 4 days away.

More Valentine's news around Asia

China's rich spend big to celebrate Valentine's day

Straight from the Heart - Malaysia

More Filipinas say it’s okay to text ‘I love you’