Here are a few of our highlights…..
Bringing in the New Year with tea for the “elders”. Everybody’s laughing because they’re all spewing out as many “New Years Wishes” as they can possibly remember.
New Years Eve dinner, after a long day in NYC – Soy Sauce Chicken, Choy Sum, Broccoli with Garlic and “Siu Yuhk” (pork with crispy skin). These were all purchased in Chinatown. All we had to do when we got home was cook some rice, and cook up the Choy Sum. Oh, and long noodles on Sunday afternoon for Long Life. (Yes, it's top ramen. And yes, my mother in law was a little disappointed that that's all she could find in my pantry to cook for 8 hungry people for lunch. *sigh* It's hard to stock pantries for TWO different cooking styles - American and Chinese. I had plenty of stuff for PB&J!)
Nothing sour on the first day of New Year! A tray of assorted sweets – candies, coconut and sugared Winter Melon. Aren’t those little kitty packages cute?? There are two white lemon jelly balls inside. Oh, and then sesame balls filled with lotus paste. Yum, yum, yum!
Aaaand…..my favorite part of any Chinese New Year, the Feast! Ours was on Sunday night. MaMa cooked up some ribs and onions and turned them over to me to finish. BBQ sauce and molasses, y’all. Gotta be true to my roots. MaMa and her sister in law hit the kitchen, and turned out the rest of the dishes – pan fried Yau Baan fish steaks, steamed lettuce with oyster sauce, Braised Pig Tongue, Asparagus with Goji Berries, Pan Steamed chicken (with yummy ginger and scallion dipping sauce) and, of course, RICE.
No meal is complete without…the little boy that can’t wait to start! Poor guy - he saw us cooking for two hours, and was getting a leeeeelte impatient to dig in. Heh. That's my boy!
I only learned this year that the reason we have lettuce during CNY is because they are "siu choy" and we all need some ha ha's in the new year! :)
ReplyDeleteYum! And glad to hear you brought a little "southern" into the mix.
ReplyDeleteAhhhhhhh....!
ReplyDeleteMan, so envious :)
What a feast.
Yum yum YUM! And it's pretty sad that the Top Ramen looks just as mouth-watering to me as all the rest. ;)
ReplyDeleteThe lettuce thing...it's traditional to eat lettuce because of money, right? Or something like that? I remember when we were in Hong Kong for CNY, the streets were littered with lettuce leaves that people had been feeding to the lions. ;)
i SOOO want some of that food. ;)
ReplyDeleteHi Aunt LOLO--I had fun looking through your posts. Such a cute family and your food pics are making me hungry. Esp. those sesame balls!
ReplyDelete