Chinese New Year, What to Eat, Where to Go, What to Know, Where to Avoid

Problems
Chinese New Year, so much to see and do? What can you eat, say and do?

Answers
1 Red packets.
2 Pineapple tarts.
3 Chinese New Year Cards or emails.
4 New Year holiday flights and queues.
5 Zodiac Signs.
6 Year of the Rooster.
7 New year weekends and traffic jams.
8 Visits to families.
9 Lo Hei
10 Bak wah.
11 First across the threshold in shops.
12 Pairs of oranges.
13 Toastmasters Table Topics (impromptu speeches).
14 Q and A/ FAQ: What are you doing for CNY?
15 Lion dances.
16 Check club and business meeting changes.
17 UK Tax returns end of January.
18 Learn how to say or reciprocate when wished 'Happy new year, and to recognise the sign on banners in hotels, shopping, malls:
Gong Chi Fa Choy. (Roughly gong she far, choy) depending on whether the well wishers are speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese or H o c k i e n or another dialect.

Details
1 Red packets.
You get red envelopes free from banks, fast food outlets and shops, or you can buy them from stationers. Unmarried relatives are given money (ideally in lucky numbers such as 8 or multiples of eights, not four which is unlucky because it sounds like death). The Mandarin name for these gifts is h o n g b a o. (I have inserted spaces to prevent autocorrect changing the word.)

2 Pineapple tarts.
You can buy these in see through squat jars with screw top bright red lucky colour lids.

3 Chinese New Year Cards or emails.
Find sets in newsagents, like all cards, cheaper the day after.

4 New Year holiday flights and queues.
Book early. Flights are likely to be full over the New Year as people fly home to China, Taiwan, Singapore, or from China, Taiwan and Singapore to their birthplace. Also employees given a long weekend off, even if not celebrating Chinese New Year, will be taking flights.

5 Zodiac Signs:
Rat, tiger, dragon, horse, ox, rabbit, snake, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig.

6 Year of the Rooster.
See red roosters in advertisements and on banners.

7 New year weekends and traffic jams.

8 Visits to families.
Some friends and colleagues will be busy visiting their families.

9 Lo Hei.
Delicious mix of vegetables in rainbow colours, often with smoked salmon added for protein. Watch out that nobody adds shellfish later if you are allergic - get your portion before the shellfish is added.

10 Bak wah.
Preserved pork. Delightful favour, I am told, with sweet as well as savoury. Long queues for customers.

11 First across the threshold in shops.
You might get a bargain if you go into shops early in the day.

12 Pairs of oranges.
Shopkeepers and friends are likely to give you a pair of oranges. Surprisingly they don't have to be new and gorgeous but could be old and tired looking fruit. You return the compliment a few hours or days later.

13 Toastmasters Table Topics (impromptu speeches).
At a Toastmasters Club meeting before Chinese New Year the Toastmaster of the Evening is likely to open a meeting by going clockwise around the room asking each person to say their name, where they are from, and how they will be celebrating Chinese New Year.

14 Q and A/ FAQ:
Anybody from an acquaintance to a lose friend is likely to ask: What are you doing for CNY?

15 Lion dances.
Noisy. Hard to take photos because they jump about so ask them to stand still for a photo after the lion dance. You will see trucks carrying groups of men and the costume, making a noise in the street. Performances may take places outside or inside restaurants and shopping malls.

16 CNY celebrations and cancellations.
Check club and business meeting changes.

17 UK Tax returns end of January.
Many UK people, pensioners (retirees), accountants and business owners will be too busy to do anything except finalise their tax returns.

Stories
An American lady went to a lo hei and her designer top was splashed. She was very upset and claimed compensation.
Possible remedies:
1 Warn guests to wear washable clothes.
2 Warn guests with vulnerable clothes to stand away.
3 Issue plastic aprons with advertising goodwill messages.

Tips
Advise visitors.
Wear washable clothes.
Wear a washable scarf to cover clothes.
Carry tissues or wet wipes.
Know your Chinese birth sign.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Singapore's Must Eat Food: from fish head curry to seasonal delights like pineapple tarts

INDIAN
Local fruits and fruit juices:
Fruits/Durian: Any hawker centre /food court (durian in season)

What to eat?
Chinese: Fish - seafood restaurants on the east coast such as Jumbo (must book).
Choose your fish from the menu and/or from the aquariums around the restaurant.
If you don't like fish, try lemon chicken, or chicken with cashew nuts.

Indian Fish: Fish Head Curry
Fish head curry is a large fish head served in sauce in a casserole dish with a cover.

Vegetable curry as a main or side dish and boiled white rice or fried rice are served on a green banana leaf cut into oblongs like a place mat but serving as a disposable plate. In more basic places the green banana leaf is laid directly onto the table. Here in Muthu's Curry restaurant the banana leaf is on a try.

Where to try it?
M u t h u ' s Curry. (I had to insert spaces. Autocorrect changed the spelling to mouth.)
www.muthuscurry.com

Banana Leaf Apolo,
54 Race Course Road, Singapore 218564.
Tel:6293 8682.
48 Serangoon Road, 01-32 Little India Arcade, Singapore 217959.
Tel:6297 1595.
www.thebananaleafapolo.com

CHINESE
What to eat?
Lo Hei - Chinese New Year national dish for Spring (Chinese New Year)

Durian cakes, crisps or ice creams

Durianmpire has several branches. I went to Bukit Panjang Plaza, near Bukit Panjang MRT train station at the northern end of the Downtown line. In the same area, to the northwest, is a branch at Jurong West Shopping Centre.
Other branches are at Changi airport, terminals 2 and 3 in the departure halls.

Pineapple pastries
Pineapple tarts are tiny but so delicious.

Red Bean paste dumplings (fast food served hot from glass-sided revolving heated dispenser on the counter at a 7-11 or similar newsagent and corner shop)

Red Bean paste sweets

Moon cakes (autumn / harvest/ moon festival) - food courts in shopping malls and department stores, seasonal pop-up shops and kiosks, even ice cream parlours, supermarkets. The cakes may be sold singly, as sets of two or four. Some sets including elaborate gift boxes at prices from about £5-10 for one to £25-£100 for a box of four. The most expensive are in a tin with origami sections or a colourful container with four drawers, with gold ribbons and booklets.

Why so expensive? They are little works of art with embossed designs, bought as gifts to VIPs and business associates.

Although they are only muffin or fist size, they are hugely calorific and rich, and usually cut into four or eight pieces, or smaller slices, served to a group of people.

(See earlier post on moon cakes.)

MALAY
What to eat?
Peranakan food
Where to try it:
(Check local papers or hotel concierge)

Cheap eats:
Any hawker centre or food court in the basement/ground level or top floor or a department store or shopping mall.
Indian: Any clean looking corner shop or restaurant in Little India.

Luxury and Expensive Food:
Glamorous and typically Singaporean:
1 Raffles Hotel
2 Marina Bay Sands (rooftop skyscraper restaurants on T shape skyscraper with triple towers - must book)
3 Revolving restaurant, circular, above skyscraper (keeps changing hands and brands - has been a Westin, Swiss hotel, Compass Rose).

Chicken Rice and Duck Rice
If you prefer to stick to conventional European style food, chicken rice or duck rice are available cheaply in the hawker centres or food courts.

Cheesecake and Rainbow Cake
For a dessert with visual appeal, try rainbow cakes. For the familiar, find New York style cheesecake in the usual worldwide coffee bar chains such as Starbucks, and the local version, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. (See my previous posts on Rainbow cake in Singapore.)

More information from hungrygowhere.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer