Happy Chinese New Year: A Certain Hope

We celebrated Chinese New Year with 4 consecutive days of (over)-eating, culminating in a big potluck party in our building where everyone demonstrated, most admirably, their culinary skills. Cherfy and I went on a big shopping spree in the depths of Chinatown (for truly, that's where all the good groceries can be found - not in the touristy bits) and we made char kway tiao and gulau melaka. More accurately, I followed Cherfy's competent instructions as best as I could (I am sous-chef, she is master chef, or, master Cherf - excuse the corniness, it's a festive-holiday affliction). Our dishes turned out great, and Cherfy also baked lots of scrumptious Chinese cookies. She is indeed culinary goddess.

Because three and a half years overseas turns almost everyone into culinary god/ goddess, we also had super yummy Indian curry, Hainanese chicken rice, fried bee hoon, dates wrapped in bacon, and nasi briyani. One of our friends also bought some excellent fried chicken wings. We even managed to buy a lo hei set from a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown, and so we all happily tossed away.

We also had three steamboats going with all kinds of meat, seafood and vegetables. For desserts we had brownies, peppermint cake, our gulau melaka, and delicious cakes from Payard (fancy-pants Upper East Side bakery). We had about 20 people crowded onto our floor - it's a good thing that we live on the mezzanine because the little indoor balcony area just outside our kitchen afforded us with extra space. And because we had so much food, the very next day we had a leftover party. So really, we had prepared exactly double the amount of food that we needed. We all decided that it was a very good sign that we had started out the year with such abundance.

There was much merriment and festivity, but towards the end of the night it was also tinged with a distinct sense of regret and nostalgia. This was to be, for many of us, our last Chinese New Year overseas, our last year away from home. And in any leaving and returning, there is always a bittersweetness in letting go of one place and returning to another. In all the years of flying back and forth between the two sides of the earth this has become a familiar sensation, and yet this time around it is compounded because we are going back for good. Of course I am greatly looking forward to spending time with family and friends after such a long separation, but at the other side of the plane ride is not just another summer holiday, but really, the rest of our lives. We do not only leave New York, we leave behind the last of our carefree student existence.

Hello, real world.

But even though leaving always leaves me feeling a little heavy-hearted, I have a certain hope.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Wishing everyone a very happy
and prosperous Chinese new year.