Chinese New Year Feasts With Paul And David

Two days before the Chinese New Year, David was in my car heading for my hometown again.

This time, I also invited Paul.

Both of them were much more excited than I to celebrate this annual event as they knew they were going to spend their holidays in Batu Pahat playing computer games which I allowed with limits.

They were curious to witness my non-Christian family members kneeling down and praying with joss sticks in front of my ancestors' altar. I reassured them that Mum had kindly set aside for us dishes which were not sacrificed to idols. Because of their presence, my family removed some of the stereotypes from their mind. They realized that Indians were not necessarily Hindus. And these two Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys who were brought up by Fei Gin preferred soy sauce stewed pork to curry mutton!

At the reunion lunch, they were given soup plates to eat rice. Paul requested a pair of chopsticks. David also wanted to try to pick up pieces of meat with the Chinese ustensils.

Even though we ate the leftover dishes during the following meals, these two CCH children must be enjoying the taste, variety and quantity of the food that after every meal, they needed toothpicks to dig out detritus from their teeth...

In the first evening of the Chinese New Year, my former secondary school friends asked me out for a gathering. Some of them were at Ah Mark's house which was near the Malay stall where we would have tea later. When I arrived there with my two "sons", a few of them were gambling with pokers, which I would not like the two teenagers to watch, let alone participate.

Ah Mark's brother and sister-in-law were just going to have their dinner. After I had introduced my two "sons", they generously invited us to join them for the steamboat buffet. Despite the fact that we had just had our dinner an hour earlier, these two boys happily accepted the treat and sat at the dining table filled with abundant ingredients. I only took a bowl of dessert next to my "sons" who were busy choosing their favorite items to send to the simmering pot and then to their mouth.

Now you know who were actually having Chinese New Year feasts in Batu Pahat!