It is late- very late- this post about the Chinese New Year of 2026, but that be how life is when you have things here and there and you don't get to look at all your pictures until months have passed (and you can breathe a bit better)
I wish I could say that the CNY of 2026 was incredibly good with lots of fun and lots of food, but that would have to be another celebration, perhaps, hopefully the CNY of 2027, because the CNY of this year leaned more towards the discernment, and the calculator.
That's not to say that we didn't have fun or didn't enjoy anything.
It was just, well, leaner, more conservative, less frivolous, less flamboyant.
There are very few years that I go to Chinatown and walk out empty handed.
This year, however, yes, it was so.
This was a year, shall we say, that I had to seriously, seriously consider whether to get them pineapple tarts or not, and, I have to unfortunately say, we didn't. We didn't get them.
The absence of our favorite pineapple tarts from the neighborhood bakery at Hong Lim has to be one of my greatest sighs for CNY this year. No doubt, we convinced ourselves that we didn't get a jar because we were never able to finish, but still, it marks for one of my most significant regrets this year.
It wasn't just the pineapple tarts.
There was heavy absence of our usual snacks and tidbits too.
You know, there was a season in my life when I'd have two types of pineapple tarts, one of pea cookies or other kinds of cookies, a box of love letters even, and some random sweets.
I've not bought those random cookies nor those random pineapple tarts since 2023. That was the year I stopped. There was no one to buy them for me, and no one I would buy them for.
But this year went completely in the opposite direction.
We didn't get any of those things.
That's not to say we didn't have anything.
Nope, we had a carton of mandarin oranges.
Got them on the eve of the eve of CNY from the supermarket downstairs.
Thank God they were sweet.
Thank God too they lasted pretty long (after I dropped them in the chiller) and I managed to freeze two boxes too.
What's odd is that I don't have a picture of the oranges.
I don't know why.
What I do have, however, is this.
A bowl of preserved fruits that I made for myself.
See, somewhere along the way I got tired of not having any sweetmeats in the house so I made myself a box, cutting up dried mangoes, and shaking out dried goji berries, both of which we had brought back from Thailand.
Keeping resources can sometimes be a good thing.
Especially when you're not wanting to buy new preserved fruits yet don't want to miss out on them at the same time.
By the time this bowl appeared I think CNY had more or less begun.
I can't remember whether or not we had had our CNY Eve meal, but, if I'm not wrong, we had had gone to Koggi and had had the K-BBQ complete with fresh kimchi, charcoal-grilled pork belly, and macaroni salad.
We had had too a bowl of tangyuan.
Sesame filling, in ginger soup.
To be honest, even though I seem to have grumbled a lot, it is a very special feeling looking at all these pictures, looking at all these food.
I am thankful for the Thin Sliced Pork Belly.
I am thankful for the chance to have a celebration meal.
And I am thankful to have a companion enjoy it together with me.
There's nothing more special than to have someone with you who enjoys eating the same things as you.
Like our favorite foods here at Oriental Food in Bugis where on the first day of CNY we had a plate of sweet sour pork, a plate of Pumpkin with Salted Egg Sauce, and a couple of skewers.
Sometimes it is the little things that you cherish.
The ability to have a whole plate of your favorite foods.
The ability to taste and try, new foods, or foods that you like.
The joy of going to a place and having someone to share these with you.
I guess it's insolent and ungrateful of me to say that I wish I could have had more this CNY of 2026 when, after all, I had all of these, plus a Murtabak and a special pastry of nian gao wrapped in prata crepe and grilled.
And I didn't eat them alone.
I had someone to eat with.
I had someone who enjoyed the same foods I did.
And I had someone who too understood my wish to have more, because I don't compromise like that.