did some last minute food-stocking in cold storage sengkang where the queues were alarmingly long. (dad: aiyoh so troublesome, why don't we go to delifrance at 8 and buy half-price breads for dinner instead? me: bread?! but we're supposed to be tossing yusheng! what do you want to do, juggle breadrolls?) my mater was most cross to find that only one pack of pregrated green radish strips was left, and that it looked rather dry and withered, which meant we had to grate our own. our yusheng didn't have raw fish, out of consideration of my pa's weak stomach. we substituted pomelo and chinese pear.

saw mountains of waxed meats piled on a counter. my dad pointed to the waxed duck and said, poor duck. he did look very miserable, hanging on a hook, sickly and yellow and his nostrils were flared and grotesque. serves him right for being caught, i said unfeelingly, and went to look for taiwanese pong kam. i think they're the best - puff-skined, but smooth, none of that horrible warty ones. this year i keep seeing traditional teochew kams and chinese lu gan but it was a while before i found the pongkams. twenty-two dollars for a box of 20! but after cny they'll be five dollars a box, i should think. maybe i should nip down to chinatown at the end of the week and get new year cookies on the cheap to bring back to cambridge.