UMSSA (UMich Singapore Students' Association) organized Chinese New Year 2006 Celebration yesterday night at the Trotter Multicultural House. About a hundred and fifty Singaporeans turned up, more than I've ever seen at any other SSA event since coming to UMich. There're about 200 Singaporeans currently studying at UMich, and I believe I haven't met most of them personally. Anyway the SSA did a pretty good job decorating Trotter House, with festive red streamers and hongbaos and lucky couplets, which did contribute a great deal to fostering the Chinese New Year atmosphere and cheer. Tommy even baked egg tarts and there was a table of traditional goodies like shrimp rolls, kueh bangkit, White Rabbit sweets, peanut cookies and the like.

Dinner was a seven-course affair from TK Wu, which is probably the next best deal to authentic Chinese cooking you'll find in Ann Arbor. It wasn't half bad, but I guess most of us were there more for the people rather than the food. Here's a shot of the cold dish, which we found quite amusing: Can someone explain the proliferation of raw leafy vegetables right smack in the middle of the platter? Who's going to eat those?

Anyway the highlight of the meal was probably the mainstay of any Chinese New Year dinner- yu sheng! Okay perhaps it isn't yu sheng in the traditional sense of the word, since everything looks strangely orange in the picture (it WAS strangely orange in reality). It was more of an amalgamation of salmon, carrots, radishes (?), prawn crackers and a sweet-and-sour-concoction (in place of plum sauce, supposedly) courtesy of Wilson. But it was amazingly good considering the odds they were up against- I mean, where in Ann Arbor can you possibly find half the ingredients needed for yu sheng?

And of course we did the lo-hei! After which much of the yu sheng ended up on the table as well as Jeff's shirt.

I didn't stay long, leaving almost immediately after dinner was over. There were Winning Eleven tournaments, mahjong, karaoke competitions and the like after dinner but I'm honestly not into late nights. I much prefer sleeping. Hahaha basically I have like no social life and I'm proud of it okay. Hahaha. Anyway this is a shot of our table! On the left from foreground is: Ted, Jeff, Amy, Wei Siong, and on the right it's: Jian Wei, Wilson, me, Alvin.

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone!