Funny to note most festivals have to go hand in hand with food. Besides the two word start with the letter “f”, too much of either one will make one fat too (another “f” word). The most recent festival here was the Lunar New Year. (I refrain from calling it Chinese New Year since these days it is not just the Chinese who celebrate it). As long I can remember, LNY has been going hand in hand with food, starting with the eve of the New Year. One looks forward to auspicious dishes and not forgetting, auspicious goes hand in hand with expensive too. Such dishes are abalone with sea cucumber, fish maw, lotus root soup, oyster and dark moss, wax meat, pomfret fish, prawns and lettuce..just to name a few.
There has been always ample food to go around the table. Tradition would have dictates that one should not finish all the food on the table but leave some for the next year. So bits of fish, prawn, rice, etc are leftover to be carried over the following year. This signifies that food will still be available when the new year comes.
What is it with this tradition that we have to eat leftover food from previous night’s dinner on the first day of new year? We wear new clothes, have new bed sheets, and new furnishing but we eat leftover food? Funny that when visiting relatives, besides the staple of biscuits and snacks being serve, we were serve leftover food too when invited for lunch.
Life has blessed us with ample food and somehow festivals were created to enjoy food and some kind of celebration was called for so we can eat more.
It comes to a point when leftover food is too stale to eat anymore, and down the garbage it goes. What a waste. If such were to go into the garbage bin, why then prepare so much of food? It pains the heart to see and to know this could have been saved.
Well…times are not getting better. Maybe it takes a “slap” to wake up and see that one day, we should eat moderately.
There has been always ample food to go around the table. Tradition would have dictates that one should not finish all the food on the table but leave some for the next year. So bits of fish, prawn, rice, etc are leftover to be carried over the following year. This signifies that food will still be available when the new year comes.
What is it with this tradition that we have to eat leftover food from previous night’s dinner on the first day of new year? We wear new clothes, have new bed sheets, and new furnishing but we eat leftover food? Funny that when visiting relatives, besides the staple of biscuits and snacks being serve, we were serve leftover food too when invited for lunch.
Life has blessed us with ample food and somehow festivals were created to enjoy food and some kind of celebration was called for so we can eat more.
It comes to a point when leftover food is too stale to eat anymore, and down the garbage it goes. What a waste. If such were to go into the garbage bin, why then prepare so much of food? It pains the heart to see and to know this could have been saved.
Well…times are not getting better. Maybe it takes a “slap” to wake up and see that one day, we should eat moderately.
