CNY Day 1

CNY Day 1

I kept my mouth shut mostly during this year's visit. I tried to avoid filling my mouth with too much food because goodies are not good for health. Irony, isn't it?

I kept quiet because there was nothing much to say. While many relatives are hoping that I'll get married, I'm happy being single and swinging. Never mind my availability but why the heck do I want to get a cow to own a farmhouse? The house can wait, I suppose.

So, CNY day 1 came and went.

Breakfast was at 1 am at Jln Kayu. The prata was a gross disappointment. So was the Indian rojak. The teh-O ice was cloyingly sweet. Yucks.

Breakfast part 2 was at 10.30 am, a bowl of rice vermicilli (sp?) for longevity. These days, medical advances let you live long enough. Longer than you should, I think. But the quality of life is glaringly absent. Live a shitty life for a super extended period, FOR WHAT?

I think mankind is again let down by mad scientists, whose sole purpose in their lives is to prolong our agonies. No?

Came back after visiting 5 families and proceeded to cook some dinner.

Washed and cut some chinese cabbages and dumped in some ham into the dutch oven to cook. Turned on the hot plate and VIOLA! The plate is dead. Uh oh... Never mind. After fiddling and twiddling with the multiplug, playing musical chairs for the plug sockets etc, I decided to declare TOD for the hotplate. Hm...

And so, I depended on my trusty microwave to radiate my vegetables and ham to food heaven. After about 20 minutes of microwave radiation, my instincts told me that they are good for part 2.

Took out the casserole and tasted a little of the stock in the dish. Cabbage tends to give out a lot of water. Bland. So I decided to use a piece of fermented bean curd to spice things up a little.

Honestly, I have been in constant regret ever since I bought that bottle of fermented beancurd because I find it too salty and too bitter. But I did not think it good karma to throw away. So I have been mixing it with porridge or adding it to whatever dish I can use it in to finish it.

Took it out of the fridge. It slipped through my fingers and fell to the floor! I heard a sickening "platt!". Well done! Luo di kai hua. (The flower blossoms as it its the floor - a Chinese saying to deflect inauspicious stuff. When something drops on the floor, it tends to spray out upon contact. We use kai hua to liken the blasting to the blooming of a flower.)

Picked up the big pieces, took up the glass bottle and saw that the lid is cracked. Oh, perfect excuse to throw the entire bottle away. Sure beats having to swallow a sliver of glass by mistake.

So I cleaned up the place with water. Chinese customs dictate that we cannot sweep on day 1. So I used a wet cloth and mopped the place up.

Cooked up dinner, ate and watched some TV. Then I went to bed.