PREPARING FESTIVE MEALS
Meanwhile at Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital's two nursing homes, a team of chefs carefully curated a festive menu of traditional dishes for residents.
Its compound along Serangoon Road currently has around 690 residents, with about nine in 10 residents expected to remain in care over the festive period.
Menu planning started months in advance to ensure residents who remain in care can still enjoy a festive treat.
These dishes include lion’s head meatballs and golden pear peach gum dessert, prepared to be suitable for the elderly.
Ms Jenny Lee, manager of food services at Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, said they blend scallops into the meatballs so that residents can enjoy the taste of seafood, adding that this is done only during Chinese New Year.
It is her belief that residents should feel just as included as everyone else celebrating outside.
“I feel whatever we are enjoying outside, the residents should have, they should be eating, especially for festive seasons,” said Ms Lee, with 2026 marking her third year of doing so.
She added that while families are having reunion dinners, residents are having the same experience with dishes specially prepared for the occasion.
Such efforts are well appreciated by many seniors.
“The food contains prawns, the flavour is good,” said one resident. “There's soy sauce, there's also sesame oil. I've never eaten this before here.”
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