Swapping the turkey for Chinese takeaways

A couple of years ago, I shared three Christmas survival tips. Tip number 2 was about making Christmas your own and allowing family members to celebrate in their own way. I remembered this tip when my Dad announced that this year, we would drop all tradition and get Chinese takeaways for Christmas Eve lunch. My head was saying, “WTF?!” but instead I agreed and said, “Great idea!”

In his mind, Christmas is always an exhausting day spent in the hot kitchen cooking loads of food, which is gobbled up in 10 minutes, with the remaining afternoon spent behind the kitchen sink washing dishes. He was having none of that this year! The decision had been made. Place your order, we’re buying lunch from Tong Lok!

Tong Lok menuTong Lok Chinese restaurant menu

KK was horrified and kept wondering if this was a joke. With strong German genes, Christmas Eve is very important to him. Gammon with mustard, roast potatoes followed up with rich fruit cake smothered in marzipan. Having to choose his lunch off a Tong Lok menu was not what he imagined!Front entrance to Tong Lok Chinese restaurantsoya sauce bottles

We arrived at my Dad’s place around 11 am and exchanged gifts, then headed out to the famed Derrick Avenue in Bruma. Tong Lok is not in the main drag, but rather tucked away outside the beautiful archway to Chinatown. The food didn’t take more than 25 minutes and we were already headed back home, with my Mini filled with the smells of sticky chicken and sweet and sour sauce. My mouth couldn’t stop watering!sticky chicken vegetable spring roll

The portions from Tong Lok are ginormous and as we chuckled reading our fortune cookie predictions out loud to one another, it was great to sit around the table relaxing. When we looked, it was after 3 pm and KK and I headed home.

It was everything Christmas is supposed to be about. Family, good food, laughter and spending quality time with people you love. Dad, you were right! What a great idea (and hopefully new family tradition?).

KK did get to make his gammon later that night. It was just the two of us. gammon christmas decorations

What a perfect Christmas Eve!  XXX