Soaking In The Festivities at Chinatown

Just last year, I started what I hope to be a tradition of bringing the kids to go soak up the atmosphere at Chinatown in the run-up to Chinese New Year.

It's not actually somewhere which I'm familiar with, Chinatown. My parents were not the sort of frequent the place. Or at least, if they did go, they rarely did bring me along. But I think as I've grown older, I've certainly become more nostalgic about my roots. I find myself more interested in customs and traditions and more keen to participate in them. And when it comes to the Chinese New Year, certainly Chinatown is where it's at.

Be warned: it's crowded and the stalls holders do not take too kindly to kids messing around for too long. That said, the kids still managed to have fun. It certainly helps to go with friends and that's what we did. It was a little crazy with three adults to five children. Tiring, but good fun.

Little adventurers, ready for action!

Having snacks while we checked out the stalls. I packed a little snack bag of chocolate wafer rolls for each of the kids and they chowed them down real quick! I was really tempted to buy a smaller version of one of those lion heads in the background and start my own little lion dance troupe at home...

The 5-year olds!

All 5 kids together, and almost all looking at the camera!

The two littles compare snacks.

Inspecting the 瓜子 and sneaking a few when no one is looking! This girl loves 瓜子!

All busy checking out the wares. This was a nice stall holder who entertained them for quite a while before he got worried that they were going to topple the bags of gunny sacks and all the food in them onto the ground.

Their favourite shop by far -- toys! Esp these Lego-lookalike superhero figurines, which were selling at the great price of $5 for 2. DD's actually seen these before selling for more, so he asked me to buy the whole set, 8 figurines in all. All the boys ended up getting one each too.

The "Decool" Superheroes. In addition to these five, there is Hawkeye, Superman and General Zod. An… interesting mix.

I ended up buying a mishmash of items home: Sparklers for the kids, Taiwanese jellies, the Decool Superheroes, and my favourite Chinese New Year decoration -- a red paper cutting.

Chinatown is also where I got this cute family portrait cutting last year. You pick the figures and they cut the names out on the spot. Amazing. What they cut is actually nicer than what I would write by hand. Hah. I've toted this out again for this year and I love how it immediately adds to the Chinese New Year Mood.

We rounded off the outing with a quick porridge and dim sum dinner at Tak Po. The dim sum wasn't bad but what I really enjoyed was the porridge. I shared a chicken porridge with Meips (foregoing my usual over of century egg porridge) and was surprised at how large the bowl was. There was plenty of chicken too. DD ordered the frogs legs and said it was delish. The prices were reasonable too. For 4 adults and 5 kids, the bill came up to only $60, with drinks all round, including a bottle of beer! We didn't manage to go eat Snow Ice at Mei Heong Yuen Dessert, which incidentally is the only thing that Noey seems to remember from last year's visit. Next time hopefully!