CNY

Chinese New Year is at hand again. The realisation hit home when an innocent trip to the supermarket “for a few minutes” took over an hour. Confronted with all the usual New Year “must-haves”, I spent a lot more than originally planned (not just in time, either), but since it was for a festive occasion, no hard feelings.

I’m not against rice, oranges and dried mushrooms, or my family’s special pressure-cooked beef recipe, but this New Year, there are a few traditions that I’m not going to observe.

Firstly, no new clothes. The fresh togs made sense in the old days, when people only got new clothes once a year, but nowadays, we get new clothes anytime, and since I don’t need any more clothes at present, I won’t buy any. It makes sense to save a bit, too, given that the price of food is going up, so the other New Year shopping costs more.

Secondly, I’m not going to bother with the turning on the lights to welcome in the New Year – waste of electricity.

No need to get new ang pow packets from anyone – I still have from last year, though, in order to fill them, I queued at the bank for 40 minutes for new notes (I did some other banking business as well, of course, so as not to waste the trip).

I’m not buying any New Year tidbits like pineapple tarts or kuey bangkit – friends and family often give, and if I buy some as well, it will be too much. And if no one gives, I’ll live with it. After all, there are lots of chocolates and stuff in the house if anyone comes to visit, though my brothers have agreed that, to put less stress on Mum, we’ll accept guests at my oldest brother’s place.

That takes care of the “no”s. There are other New Year traditions that I support. I’ll be paying off my bills before the end of the year, we’ll be eating the reunion dinner together – again at my brother’s place, in order to lessen stress.

The house is being cleaned, though some of the stuff is not being thrown away – it’s good to have a clean house, and I now have things to pass on to others who might want them, instead of throwing them.

I’ll also be cooking some hou see fatt choy, because everyone in the family likes it.

Here’s the recipe. Like all traditional recipes, there is no set amount of ingredients. Just add more of whatever you like.

Dried Mushrooms
Fatt Choy (Nostoc flagelliforme)
Hou See (dried oysters)
1 -2 pieces Dried scallops or other shellfish (optional)
Oyster sauce
A couple of cloves Garlic, finely diced

Method:
Pour some boiling water over the mushrooms. Do this twice and let them soak for 15 minutes after the second wash. Reserve the water – which is why you wash twice – the first time to get rid of grit and dirt.

Pour some boiling water over the hou see to wash them. Do this twice and soak the second time. Reserve the water.

Do the same for your dried scallops or shellfish if you have any.

Pour some water over the fatt choy and let stand.

Fry the garlic for a couple of minutes in a saucepan or a pot. Add the oysters.
Cut the stems off the mushrooms and cut the bigger mushrooms in 2 to make them bite-sized.

Add the mushrooms.

Add the water. Leave to simmer until oysters are soft.

Add the fatt choy. The stuff soaks up water, so don’t feel shy about adding some boiling water if it dries up.

Add oyster sauce to taste.

Wants vs Needs

It’s a new year, and newspapers and magazines are filling column space with suggestions for meaningful resolutions, tips on how to keep our resolutions, and explanations on why we fail to do so.

I’m not a big fan of new-year resolutions because I think if we see something in ourselves that we want to change or improve, why wait for a new year? So the process of self-improvement goes on throughout the year.

However, I’ve been puzzling over the question of wants versus needs for a couple of months now, so the timing seems good to tackle that popular save money resolution: “I’m only going to buy things I need, rather than things I want.”

Sounds good.

The question is, what constitutes a bona fide need? At base, it means simple food and drink, a few pieces of clothing and maybe some shelter.

This doesn’t quite cut it in Singapore, where we factor in transport, work clothes, and morale boosters as well. Who is going to argue against having cheerful surroundings for mental well-being, or recreation? Here is where the going gets murky, and where I got stuck late in 2010.

I went to a talk at the photo festival and met a photographer who had just upgraded his camera, which was already one model up from mine. I made him an offer, and got myself a used camera which was better than mine, so well-kept it was like new, and which came with extra batteries, a bag, and a storage card. All for $400.

However, that good deal was followed a by a sale which offered a $900 tripod for $355 – which required a tripod head for $316 (it was another sale, but I don’t know the markdown).

I was still reeling from the expenditure when my brother, who’d gone to KL, phoned to ask if I wanted a set of extension tubes (for macro photography) for RM600. Since I have a ringgit account, I thought, gulp, why not?

One can say that, as an enthusiastic amateur photographer, all these things are terribly useful. In fact, when a friend got access to a lovely spot from which to see the New Year fireworks, he told us not to bother to bring our cameras if we didn’t take along a tripod as well.

However, it was a huge outlay in such a short period of time, and prompted the musing over wants and needs.

Since I hardly make any money out of photography (the grand total from dSLR photography stands at $115), it can’t be justified, but once you get a dSLR, surely it doesn’t make sense not to get anything other than the dinky kit lens that comes with the body?

And what about deciding not to buy any books, CD or clothes this year? On the surface, it sounds fine –I’ve got lots of music to listen to, books to read and clothes to wear. But if there’s a warehouse sale... Certainly, it’s a good place to look for useful stuff, at good prices.

I suppose one sign of something being a need is when it is used – if you need it, you use it. So I plan to use whatever I buy this year, or give it away as a present.
A friend just suggested I try to earn twice as much as the cost of the item when I buy something that falls into the grey zone. Not a bad idea, and just in time for the new year, too...