The past one week has been a happy one for me. In the short span of time, I attended two birthday parties; one was held in the evening while the other took place in the afternoon.
One of the parties, which took place at a eatery in a commercial complex in Kuching City, was hosted by my daughter-in-law in honour of my forthcoming birthday and also the birthday of my son.
When my best friend learnt about the party, she asked me: “Why are they celebrating your birthday so early?”
“Because they are not free on the actual day itself,” I told her.
I am a simple person. I do not expect people to remember my birthday. My son had reminded me to keep myself free last Thursday for a date with his wife. I did not expect a birthday treat from my daughter-in-law. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised when she took my son and I to feast on Japanese food.
“I learn that you love sushi. That’s why I bringing you here,” she said to me as we sat side by side in the eatery. The queue that evening was long and we had to stand outside the eatery for almost an hour before being shown to our table.
“Oh, yes, I love sushi. I also love Korean food,” I told the sweet lass.
“Do you love Korean food because you are watching many Korean dramas?,” she asked me. “Yes,” I replied honestly.
The food and the ambience that night were good. It is a birthday treat I will remember for a long, long time.
The birthday treat was also for my son who is celebrating his birthday ten days earlier.
After the dinner, the three of us – my son, my daughter-in-law and I – walked around a bit and explored some of the clothing shops before we ended up at a popular cake cum food outlet. There, my son and his wife ordered two big slices of delicious-looking cakes and cups of coffee to go with them.
A candle each was placed on top of each slice of cake. My son and I made our own separate wishes before blowing them out. All three of us shared the slices of cakes before calling it a night.
I thought the cake slices made good birthday cakes. What is important is not the size of the cake but the candles, the wishes we make and the thought behind the cake and coffee treat.
In the past, my family used to buy cakes weighing at least half a kilogramme each for birthdays. After the birthday parties, the cakes would sit in the fridge for days until someone dropped by the house and helped to finish them.
Two days after the birthday treat at the eatery in the commercial complex in Kuching City, I decided to cook a simple birthday lunch for my son at home. When I consulted him, my son asked me to buy a roasted chicken from CCK Fresh Mart instead of the usual fast food restaurant we frequented. We served the chicken with a chilli sauce that we made personally based on a family recipe.
What is a birthday party without noodles? To the Chinese, noodles represent long life. So I also fried yellow noodles that day.
Besides that, we had rice and chicken with bean curd stick soup. We drank Coca Cola to wash everything down. On hand to share the birthday joy were my younger sister,who was visiting me, and my mother.
Before that, I made a trip to a nearby well known bakery to buy a small slice of cake topped with cream for RM4.90. I bought three candles and paid 10 sen for each.
My son was happy with the cake. “Yes, don’t waste money unnecessarily,” he said approvingly. When it was time to light the cake, he just put one candle on the cake.
After lunch, I rushed to boil five eggs. It is a tradition among Chinese families to serve hard boiled eggs which have been dyed red on a birthday. I had forgotten about the eggs until reminded by my younger sister.
Some of my friends laughed when I showed them pictures of the cakes at the birthday dinner and birthday lunch. “The trend is towards small pieces of cakes,” one of them said with a smile.
As I grow older, I find that I am not so bothered about what other people think. Never mind, if they think I am stingy. If I want to save money and the environment, I save them.
Personally, I think we should just eat enough to fill our stomach. We should not waste money buying too much food that we cannot finish. Why should we spend a lot of money to buy a big cake that we cannot finish?
Minister of Local Government and Housing, Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian has, in fact, advised all of us to find new ways to manage and reduce our food wastage.
He made the call when officiating the launching of the EatUp – A Community Give Back Programme at E-Mart, Batu Kawa in Kuching City recently.
Sim said the people must reduce their food intake or food portion in order to reduce food wastage.
Speaking at the same event, President of WormingUp, Jeff Wee Hung Yee, said the aim of his organisation was to minimise wastes and landfills.
He said about half of wastes produced in housing areas, industrial areas and council areas consisted of food wastes.
According to Wee, about 15,000 tonnes of food wastes are produced by Malaysians daily.”What we want to try to do is to reduce food wastes and minimise the environmental impacts,” he added.
Good food for thought, my friends.
