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This lunar new year eve, I am usually home in Singapore.
I am seven years old, and I wake up to the smell of roasted chilli, poached chicken, and cabbage soup.
There’s a bustle in the kitchen. My grandpa is stirring a pot, making his signature chilli paste that we all won’t eat our food without. My grandma is fussing over the roast duck, soy sauce chicken and whole fish and prawns.
I walk into the kitchen, in search of a snack. No matter how busy they are, they always have time to feed me.
Have some hae jor, beancurd rolls stuffed with pork, shrimp and chestnuts. Have a bit of everything.
My grandma calls me her ‘little baby mouse’, because I eat so slowly and carefully.
I watch TV until my cousins arrive. I put on my good clothes (but I have to be forced to do it). I greet everyone: first in Teochew, then Mandarin, then English.
Happy new year! Happy new year! Happy new year!
Eat, rub my tummy, smell everything, laugh and poke my grandpa’s tummy. I do that every day, but especially on lunar new year, he is especially jovial and happy. I tell him he looks like a fat Buddha, and he laughs.
If you hold your chopsticks that way, ah girl, you are going to move very far away from home. Very far away from me.
How right he was.
@skinnylatte We should all be so lucky to aspire to be that happy fat Buddha who feeds the people we love.
Thanks for sharing. 
@mayintoronto seconded. This was so beautifully written @skinnylatte, thanks for sharing!
This was such a lovely post. Straight from the heart. Thank you for sharing 
@skinnylatte This is a beautiful post in a sea of sadness. Our loved ones feeding us as little mice is a cherished thread that connects us all. Happy New Year to you!
TIL about Teochew. Happy New Chinese Lunar Year!
@skinnylatte Who could have said that a bunch of letters could make me feel so warm and cozy this morning?
Thank you.
@skinnylatte what a lovely memory, thank you for sharing
@skinnylatte hae jor 
my grand aunt makes amazing teochew style ngoh hiang with lots of water chestnuts every CNY, and this year I have an inexplicable craving for 佛跳墙
新年快乐，心想事成！
@skinnylatte This is such a lovely image. Thank you for sharing!
@skinnylatte thank you for sharing this gem, as I’m too very far away from home. Kiong hee…kiong hee!
@skinnylatte I don't know you at all but can I use your post in a presentation I'm doing about writing (for seniors)? I'm trying to impress on them that their memories are important for many reasons. It's a mixed Japanese/Chinese audience here in Toronto. Non-profit, I am a volunteer and the charity is non-profit. If I could use your post, that would be wonderful. Thank you either way,
@Brian_Mahoney you may also find this interesting (I wrote this one a decade and a bit ago)
https://popagandhi.com/posts/a-drinkable-history-of-my-family/
@skinnylatte I'm reading it now. It's wonderful. I don't think the world forgot ah gong. He lives on in your writing. So will you. Thanks for sharing that. I have a catch in my throat for some reason.