Having spent my Chinese New Year’s Eve in a foreign country and in a country of not Chinese in origin, like UK, has proven not bad at all. I was in Manchester and was lucky enough to savour the important day with the nicest people in my profession. A colleague thoughtfully brought “yee sang” an auspicious dish of shred carrots, radish, pickles, raw fish (like the dish’s name), crackers and other ingredients that bear the auspicious meaning of the dish. We tossed it as high as possible and shouting merrily of our wishes for the coming Rodent year.
Then we proceeded to have a “reunion” lunch whereas, if we were at home it would be a “reunion” dinner instead. Why lunch? It is mostly due to the adjustment that had to be made in our profession.
Before we reached the Chinese restaurant of our choice, we diverted to a traditional English pub named Shakespeare. My supervisor was kind enough to buy us drinks. She bought me my first stout and I was as convinced how good the taste of the fresh stout is as she described. We chatted a little and began to open up. Everyone gradually loosen up to the effect of the alcohol but one guy felt the sedative effect of it. I felt guilty for telling him that we should gulp it instead of sipping when he complained about the bitter taste. I remember a beer connoisseur once told me that we should sip wine but gulp beer in Istanbul. I supposed stout falls into the beer category.
We continued to have real fun over lunch. What a coincidence that the waiter is from Penang, another fellow Malaysian adding to this group of mainly a Malaysian contingent. There is something unmistakeable about meeting your own fellow countryman/woman. We cheers over Chinese tea and parted when it was time to.
I left with a sense of missing the real thing at home but nonetheless, this was no worse substitute.
