This Chinese New Year, local TV personality Chef Bob is checking in on his favourite neighbour and exemplifying the spirit of racial harmony.
They are of different ethnic backgrounds (Chef Bob is Malay while his neighbour is Chinese) but this hasn’t stopped them from enjoying each other’s festive celebrations.
Just like in previous years, Chef Bob prepared an assortment of goodies this Chinese New Year for his neighbour.
Or as he refers to her, “nenek Cina” which means Chinese grandma in Malay.
Last Saturday (Jan 21), the bubbly chef shared a 58-second TikTok clip of him passing these gifts to her.
One would typically associate Chinese New Year with food items like oranges or abalone.
But this year, Chef Bob packed unexpected food items like sambal, chicken rice chilli and canned jackfruit curry.
“Something red because red symbolise good luck,” he said.
Chef Bob was aware of nenek Cina’s dietary restrictions and made sure to avoid having any beef in the food items he was giving her.
At her door, he wished her a happy new year, in full Mandarin.
This brought a giggle from nenek Cina.
“Wah thank you. Give me so many things,” she responded in Malay.
He asked if she needed anything else. This had her smiling even wider as she waved her hands to kindly reject his offer.
“No, no. enough, enough.”
In another act of kindness, Chef Bob made extra room in the common corridor between their homes for nenek Cina to perform her prayers.
She had earlier placed an altar there and he quietly moved his shoe rack away to ensure she had enough space to do so.
In the comments section, netizens were heartened to see the smiles shared between the neighbours.
Nenek Cina has also made efforts to prepare gifts for Chef Bob and his family during their festive celebrations.
For Hari Raya Aidilfitri in 2021, she passed him and his family a plastic vase and flower set, a golden cat ornament and a green packet.
Let’s see what the next festive occasion has in store for this neighbourly duo.