The Chinese New Year of 2021 seemed to be one of those celebrations that quietly came into the season, and then, without much fanfare, quietly made her way out again.
It wasn't that you didn't feel like celebrating.
It was more like you didn't know how much you ought to celebrate- what with social distancing, rule restrictions, and everything else in the mix.
Generally it felt more subdued- even in the heartlands- and whilst it might have been thought appropriate, still, many probably quietly wished for the clang and cymbal of past Chinese New Years.
Mine, too, was on the quiet side.
But that's how it has been for a while now.
Still I always try to do something different- however big, however small- and this year was no different.
One of the things I did was to go down to Chinatown.
Never mind the fact that there was no bazaar.
(Well, actually there were- the cookie people, the flower people, the decor people, and the melon seeds people had rented a couple of stalls here and there all around the place, and the waxed meat people I heard had hidden themselves discreetly somewhere)
Our dinner was also at Chinatown.
At this casual Thai-Chinese eatery place called Soi 47- at the back of Temple Street- where we decided we'd not have our usual orders and instead have a pot of green curry beef, fried spring rolls, fish maw soup and a whole steamed fish- because it was the end of one year and the beginning of the next.
There were no crowds to deal with, no queue numbers to take, no hassling with other hungry diners nor with overworked service staff trying their best to accommodate everyone under the restrictions.
(It isn't that I eschew formal restaurant settings- I have had my fair share of them and I know my etiquette well- but these be times where competition is rife, and if I can enjoy myself with a happy, casual, fun meal, even during an annual occasion as this, why, so be it.)
It was the same attitude which we carried the next couple of days during the holidays.
There was a (specially requested for) mookata at one of our favorite places along Selegie Road because it had been some time since we had had it, I kind of missed it, and I didn't think they would inflate the price.
There was a single-pot hotpot buffet at this place in Bugis Junction which was a newly opened one and we thought it quite interesting and reasonable to try.
At the mookata, besides the meats for grilling, we decided to have more crayfish and scallops than prawns. We also decided to have more lettuce and seaweed in the soup together with the cheese tofu, the enoki mushrooms and the sweet corn.
And at the hotpot buffet we decided we would have two different kinds of soup- one tonkotsu, one chicken with collagen, trays of vegetables- I wanted to have lots of mushrooms and yams- and trays and trays of beef.
Of course, CNY 2021 was not all about food- and food alone.
Aside from the festive meals we had, aside from the wonderful plate of siew mais which I munched on happily at home, the plate of lo hei which we managed to have on the last day of Chinese New Year, there were also long bus rides that I went on my own, because I was not going to not celebrate Chinese New Year without doing something I used to do, and which I still hope to one day do.
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