Discovery Bay (DB) seems really quiet today. Those who haven’t gone away for the holiday weekend seem to be in a state of self-imposed lockdown because of the threat of this new coronavirus from China, and the weather is pretty dingy, so there’s virtually no-one on the beach this afternoon. Our street of mainly international expats has hardly any New Year decorations like ours but life can be dull so I think it’s worthwhile at least marking festivals. Except Halloween. I don’t like that.

I normally make this Yellow Split Pea soup from Nigella’s Feast book on New Year’s Day 1st January. There’s something about the symbolism of ingesting golden and rosy circles that appeals to me I suppose. But this year I didn’t get around to making it so, in a tiny act of defiance against the current prevailing winds of narrow-minded ethno-nationalism, in the local vibe of multi-cultural fusion, I made this nutritious soup for lunch on this, Lunar New Year’s Day. (Henceforth I’m not going to call it Chinese New Year because that’s not accurate: several other South East Asian countries are celebrating too, this weekend.)

Unusually, I’d advise against making this soup in the Thermomix. I discovered too late that it overheated the motor, so I turned it out  into a good old-fashioned low tech pot. The soup initially turned out more like dhal, which I purport to loathe, but adding a bit of water sorted that out.

Thanks to the South China Morning Post, I’ve also discovered the internet sensation of the Chinese rural idyll, Li Ziqi 李子柒. Her YouTube channel of self-sufficient skills and resourcefulness is mesmerising. She seems to have managed to craft hundreds of extra hours into each day from plants grown in her garden, but I’d urge you to go and have a look at these not least because they’re so beautifully shot.

Wishing you all a very happy Year of the Rat.