It’s almost Chinese New Year again and I’ve been pretty busy.
A large part of my time is spent preparing for the holiday. Spring cleaning, clearing debts and party planning. Part of it is spent working. Things are coming to a head with the imminent holiday season and there’s load of assignments to complete.
And then, some of it is spent shopping. Actually. lots of it is spent shopping.
I spent a couple of hours at Fairprice today. Their Finest line of stores has a surprising variety of good quality ingredients available that should whet the appetite of anyone who actually likes food. I even managed to cover most of the items on my somewhat esoteric shopping list.
First stop, grabbing oranges for the new year. There were quite a few varieties of mandarin oranges available, mostly from Taiwan or Swatow, the traditional producers of the mandarins. Naturally, I was able to taste the oranges before I made up my mind, and I diligently tried every single offering. I even sampled some of the mikans from Japan, but they were pretty disappointing compared to my final choice: the Taiwan Ponkan.
The Taiwanese fruits were sweet without being cloying, had a good, pulpy texture and a pleasantly bright appearance. Of course, in this all too sane world, the price matched the high quality. That didn’t deter me though; I bought a box with no hesitation.
Next stop: the Chinese dried goods section. As you can see, there’s quite a variety of herbs, spices and preserved vegetables and fish available to satisfy all Chinese culinary cravings. It was somewhat inexplicable that I couldn’t find what I was looking for: a simple cinnamon stick; I wound up getting that at another supermarket.
Next stop: Bak Kwa from Bee Cheng Hiang, which was conveniently located next door. Very thoughtful of them. Nothing out of the blue this year for sale. Just good old fashioned Bak Kwa in 5 or 6 choices of meat cuts and shapes. I opted for the traditional pork Bak Kwa, smoked over a charcoal grill till it’s nice and smoky.
All in all a pretty good shopping trip.
So what does all this have to do with getting into the highest spirits? I’m keeping it a mystery for now, but perhaps I can whet your appetite:
Stay tuned for more!
