Chinese New Year @ Chinatown

Every year during a few weeks before Chinese New Year, most of the people would love to hangout around "Chinatown - 牛车水" area. No matter which country you are from or going to visit, you will definitely see crowds of people gathering in Chinatown area in order to join in the Chinese New Year atmosphere or they will be there either buying or sourcing for New Years goodies and clothing.

Since this year, we are busying with the house renovation @ Pinnacle - Duxton, we have more chances to roam around Chinatown area which is within walking distance to the apartment upon taking MRT.

Along the Temple Street @ Chinatown area, you can see the Chinese New Year Flea Market which starts from 23 January 2010 to 13 February 2010 which is the Eve of Chinese New Year. The Flea Market starts around noon time till late evening where it is much cooling to enjoy the night lighting as well as stroll through those stalls along the stretch where you can sample most of the goodies before buying.

There are stalls selling all kinds of Chinese New Year goodies like:- Pineapple Tarts, Shrimp Rolls, Love Letters, Peanut Puffs, Kueh Balu, Bee Hives and etc. Whichever it is, this is the time where you can get to eat all sort of your favourite New Year goodies till your waist length expanded :p

Other than the above Chinese New Year goodies, here are some of the "Must" have in each household too.... "Mandarin Orange - 橘子/柑" which everyone who goes to house visiting/greetings will accompanied with a pair of this which is a traditional practice among the Chinese. It symbolises "Gold" and all the good wishes for the new year.

"Pomelo - 柚子" is also a common fruit that can be found during Chinese New Year and Mooncake Festival. The mandarin word "柚子" sounds like the word for "to have".

"Bak Kwa - 肉干" is usually minced pork with seasoning/spices that are made into thin square layer and BBQ over Charcoal fire. And the price of this can be higher during Chinese New Year season at around $50 or more per kg for brand like Lim Chee Guan that people will spend hours queuing for their Bak Kwa..

Cakes such as "Sticky Rice Cake - 年糕" have symbolic significance on many levels. Their sweetness symbolizes a rich, sweet life, while the layers symbolize rising abundance for the coming year and lastly the round shape signifies family reunion.

There are also a lot of Auspicious Chinese New Year vegetables that can being seem and found during this period of time. And out of these vegetable, Chinese Leek is the most common type that each household will grab and store at home. They believed that it sounds like "counting - 算" in Teochew dialect.