The normal tradition is to go to Jean's Aunt's house but this year was different since Rose was recovering from a mastectomy and had just suffered through a first round of chemo. She and her husband, Tio Tio, are all smiles here but earlier in the week she spent a handful of unhappy days in the hospital after a bad reaction to the chemo. We went out to a local "coffee shop" for dinner.
Madame Tan, Jean's mom, sat next to her sister. She is not known to smile much and gets teased as much as I do for giving "black face" which is the Asian equivalent of appearing grumpy. She says what I say, but in Singlish "it's my face, what." I would phrase it "I was born with this face."
Nani, their longtime maid from Indonesia came along. She is Muslim so she constantly asks "got pork or not?" To which I blindly answer, "no. no pork" even if I'm not quite sure.
Sijia, Jean's cousin, who recently spent 2 weeks with us in NY.
Yiquan, the other cousin who came to NY and Joanne, Jean's sister.
The two sisters.
The first of many Yusheng, otherwise known as Lo Hei. It's a Teochew tradition during Chinese New Year to eat this. Strips of raw fish are added to shredded vegetables, and mixed with vegetable oil and spices. Then, everyone gathers around with chopsticks and flings it into the air, letting it drop to the plate and continuing, all the while shouting Huat Ah. After 60 seconds, each grabs a portion and eats. This is known to be good for luck and is a practice that is done by the Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia. It's unheard of in the Chinese mainland.
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