Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
The Chinese Qing Ming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, is a special occasion when families pay their respects to departed loved ones at their gravesites. The date changes every year according to the Chinese lunar calendar. In 2014, Qing Ming Festival fell on 5 April. Traditionally, families may visit and pray anytime within 10 days before or after the actual day to avoid heavy congestion at cemeteries and temples.
The wedding tea ceremony is one of the most important events in a Chinese wedding. My mum insisted that we include one because we didn’t get married in a traditional Singaporean Chinese way. Mr C and I got married in Bath, and it was a small wedding with only close family and friends.
When I told some of our friends that we would be having a tea ceremony after the registration, no one really understood what that meant. As a result of the confusion, two of our friends went home after the registration and missed the wedding dinner. It can sometimes be difficult to explain why we have a Chinese tea ceremony on the wedding day, which is why I decided to write this post.
Last week, I wrote a blog post about Chinese superstitions when entering a hotel room. This week, I would like to share some gift ideas you should avoid buying for your Chinese friends or loved ones.
Understanding another person’s culture is not always easy, but learning through interaction, travel, or reading can help us better appreciate one another and live together more respectfully and harmoniously.
Last February, my mum and sister flew to the UK to visit us. While they were here, we went on a road trip to Scotland. You can read more about our Scotland trip with Barny here.
We stayed at Premier Inn throughout our holiday in various locations. Our final stop was Edinburgh, where we happened to have rooms opposite my sister’s. I noticed that she followed her usual hotel routine: she knocked on the door and said, “We’ll be sharing the room with you for two nights, thank you.”
This brought back memories from my younger days, when I was told that I must follow this routine. I had completely forgotten about it! Well… not entirely. I don’t knock on the door, but each time I enter a hotel room, I quietly inform ‘them’ that we will be sharing ‘their’ space.
Mr C doesn’t believe in these Chinese superstitions. He thinks I’m completely crazy for doing this!
I’ve had two unpleasant ghost experiences while staying in hotels with him in Italy and Japan, so he’s used to my “crazy” habits by now. That said, I don’t practise these superstitions as much as I used to, especially since my children have started questioning my rather bizarre behaviour.
Earlier this week, my mum and sister flew over to the UK to visit us. We took them on a road trip to visit Scotland. My sister is a proper Singaporean Chinese who can’t live without noodles or rice. So we went out to eat Chinese food for most of our meals on our trip. I came across an old fashion dumpling restaurant in Edinburgh and they have these paper wrappers for the chopstick. It has been a long time since I have seen these wrappers in restaurants. It triggered memories of how my Japanese friend taught me to make an Origami Chopstick stand. This is to keep the tip of the chopstick clean if the restaurant didn’t provide chopstick stands.
I only managed to get a single wrapper as my children kept stealing the wrappers to play with it. In the following pictures, the wrapper is quite creased. If I ever get hold of an original wrapper, I will take a better picture. So for now, please bear with it.
1. Stand
Fold the wrapper from one of the ends inwards to a length of 3 cm. Keep folding inwards for the rest of the length of the wrapper. Fold in half along down the length. Pinch in the sides to make it stand.
Sadly tomorrow is the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations and this is also my last post for the Chinese New Year theme. Hope you all have fun reading my blog posts from making Chinese New Year lantern crafts to foods!
Today, I would like to take you on a journey to see Chinese New Year goodies found in Singapore Chinatown. Living there for over 20 years and going to Chinatown in Outram Park is one of my highlights and recommendations to soak in the new year atmosphere.
Since I moved to the UK, I miss the opportunity to shop for the full range of Chinese New Year goodies. Some of these goodies can be found in UK Chinese supermarkets though so take a closer look if you get chance!
Mandarin oranges play a major part in our Chinese New Year. It’s to do with way we pronounce the word, it sounds like fortune. Chinese people love to say only good words on Chinese New Year as it will bring them all the luck and fortune for the coming new year.
This time of year is one of the best times to travel to Asian countries, especially Singapore. Not only can you escape the bitter winter cold in the UK, but you will also get to enjoy the wide variety of food, colourful decorations and festive celebrations during Chinese New Year. As a proud Singaporean, I would love to share some of our delicious Chinese New Year goodies. Most of these treats are specially produced once a year to celebrate the festive season, making them even more special and eagerly anticipated.
This year, Chinese New Year falls on 31 January 2014 and welcomes the Year of the Horse. In the Chinese zodiac, there is a repeating 12-year cycle, with each year represented by a different animal. The Horse is believed to symbolise energy, determination, strength, and freedom. In a future post, I will share more about the history and traditions behind the Chinese zodiac and how the different animals were chosen.
Fresh Gourmet is the biggest provider of salad toppings, especially croutons, in the US and have brought their delicious products exclusively to UK Tesco stores to inspire us Brits to become more creative with our salads. The range includes three crunchy croutons flavours – Cheese and Garlic, Basil Pesto and Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper – along with Crispy Onions and is ideal for people who like a salad in the summer but need that added texture to jazz up the dish.
