The (extra) sensory perceptions of Chinese New Year

Auspicious Chinese Words greeting the New Year of the Golden Ox

Every year I greet Chinese New Year with mixed feelings. Over and above the busy hum of Singapore life, there are extra stimuli that assault the senses. Some pleasant and welcome, some otherwise. Let me see - to smell, to hear, to see, to taste, to touch.

On the pleasant olfactory front, my condo is filled with smells of festive food preparation. Breezes through the atrium bring wonderfuls smells from kitchens hard at work - oh.. they must be making stewed pork... mmm.. smells like garlic and ginger browning in a wok... wow, this smells like fish maw soup - yummy! Oooo... is that candied walnuts?Candied Walnuts

When the lifts open onto different floors en-route to my own apartment - I get tempting smells of kueh bangkit.. charcoal braziers and kueh kapit (love letters). Soon my own kitchen will be filled with the mouth watering aroma of sio bak (chinese roast pork).

Chinese Roast Pork (sio bak)

Sometimes, floating tendrils of incense smoke from a flat downstairs will make its way up to mine. It reminds me of my paternal grandmother's house. A smell that I sort of miss is the smell of fireworks - I remember as a child shrieking with delight as I tossed little red ones that explode with a sharp POP! and covering my ears as the thunderous explosions of huge chains of "proper" firecrackers are set off in front of the mansions of the well-to-do and Chinese businesses.

Glutinous Rice - a savoury treat!

Teasing the taste buds are sneaked samples of pineapple tart (every year I eat a few to try and understand the Singaporean obsession with pineapple tarts.. I'm not a fan of pineapple tarts.. melting moments with kueh bangkit, the welcome savoury relief of bak kwa (BBQ pork slices). I love the sticky salty-sweet-smoky-scumptious (I've run out of "s" adjectives now) of this chewy bit of meat. I look forward to the once a year treat of utterly sinful kueh lapis (a multi-layered, buttery, spicy cake) and the chewy morsel or two of nian gao (new year cake). My mother's delicious lor bak gao or chinese turnip cake has always represented chinese new year for me and I hope to cook one as tasty as hers. Chinese New Year must have a myriad delicious memories - many with auspicious names attached - exotic heady taste of braised dried oysters with black moss - otherwise known as hoe see fatt choy, utterly sinful treasures that are unearthed from the huge claypot of poon choy. This wonderful one pot meal is stuffed chockful of decadent seasonal goodies such as baby abalone, fish maw, braised shitake mushrooms, melt-in-your-mouth belly pork, goose web....

Poon Choy - an earthen pot full of treasures

The bin centre of my condo and indeed many housing estates are overflowing - owing to the Chinese (Singaporean?) obsession with all things new for the new year. Such waste. Spring cleaning is fine.. but many of the items thrown out are in perfectly good working order and can be re-used or donated to charity. Thankfully, some do donate and the Salvation Army centre receives truckloads everyday. The sight of these piles of clothes, boxes of (what's inside?) even plasma TVs remind me of what a consumer society we have become. Of course, the eye sees red everywhere. In this instance, an auspicious and happy red. Chinese will decorate the house with red banners with auspicious words and couplets, give ang pows (red packets / envelopes filled with money), dress in red coloured clothes (black would be a traditional no-no).

Roast Duck

Venturing into the shopping centres is quite an expedition. One has to battle crowds eager (desperate?) to stock up on seasonal goodies, clothes. (is there a recession? is the food free?) The ears are assaulted with raucous sounds of new year songs blasting out of speakers at full volume. Added to the din is the background hum of housewives admonishing children not to run too far away, husbands trying desperately to hurry their wives up so they can get to play golf or escape the mayhem, kids laughing as they run in and out and around boxes of mandarin oranges, cookies, pineapple tarts...

Mandarin Oranges (a pile of gold!)

Last but not least... touch - the more formal handshake for distant relatives, the warmth of a bear hug for family and close friends.. sticky hands from F&N Orange and Nian Gao, (sticky sweet glutinous rice flour cake) trying to fish out ang pows from bag to give to young ones.

Nian Gao

Ah. Maybe I do like this season after all, but I'm glad it comes only once a year! Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!!