Chinese New Year - The Savory

Onwards, my friends, with the Chinese New Year celebrations! Today, I would like to introduce you to our dinner table.

Hello, gorgeous.

This is a chicken. He doesn't look very happy, does he? He came to us from a meat shop in Chinatown. So very, very tasty. Here's a fun tidbit - in China, employees used to live with the shop owners, above the shops. This, obviously, was quite a financial burden on the owners. At the New Years dinner, the owner would serve a chicken...and surreptitiously position the dish so that the chicken head was pointing towards a specific person. That person then knew that he would shortly thereafter find himself unemployed!

This one....well, this one is tasty. Oh, so very tasty. You'll have to trust me on this one. Hm? What is it? Well...umm...braised pig tongue. Yes, this dish is just so tasty! Moving on...

Om nom nom. This is called Choi Sum and it was just about the best choi sum I've ever had! The stalks were crisp and sweet, not a trace of bitter. Mama prepares hers with oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic and sugar.

Oh, and this...oh, this dish is just lovely! This is MaMa's homemade Cha Siu (Chinese BBQ pork). These are boneless pork ribs, marinated in a mix of cha siu sauce, hoisin, honey, oyster sauce, sesame oil...and a million Special Herbs and Spices. (My recipe is similar, based on hers actually...but no two recipes are the same!)

Again...om nom nom! These are the "fixins" for the soup we had that night - Pork bones and lotus root. You'd better believe I was oh so excited when Suk Poh pulled this lotus root out of her shopping bags!

Chinese soups are prepared with sturdy ingredients that are simmered together for hours until the broth is a rich, dark color, full of the nutrients and colors of its "fixins". The soup is drunk at the beginning, and end, of the meal. The fixins are fished out and served with the main portion of the meal, over rice. (A traditional meal begins with a bowl of soup. When the soup has been drunk, the same bowl is then filled with rice. The dishes you see above are called "sung". You serve yourself a few bites at a time, interspersed with bites of rice, until you are full. Then it's time to wash it all down with more soup! Lo Gung's family hardly ever drinks anything during dinner - just the soup. If there is no soup, they will chase the meal down with a mug of tea-temperature water.)

Lotus root is a funny thing - you boil it whole. When it is tender, you slice it up. Between each slice there will be sort of stringy hairy...strings. These represent the ties that connect each generation of your family.

Besides that, it's just ridiculously tasty.

Oh this...this is like a gourmet version of pork rinds. That is pork, fire roasted until the skin is crispy and delicious. Oh, Siu Yuhk, how I love thee!

That brings us to the end of our savory goodies. Stay tuned - the Chinese save up all their Sweet points for New Years! Can this white girl get a "woohoo!"