Happy Ox Year!
A very Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!! When it was ox year, 12 years ago, I was excited to claim that it was “my year”! The 12-year cycle went through rather swiftly, I’d say. Looking back these years, I’ve gone through different stages of life, traveled to different places, tasted different flavours of food, and enjoyed different excitements in life. I’m looking forward to a great year ahead of me; to explore what life has in store for me and savour the goodness of life in the years to come!
So, back to the topic. How did I celebrate Chinese New Year of year 2009? I had my “reunion dinner” two days before the first day of New Year with six other friends. It was a decent size group. We had fun preparing food together and enjoying the feast!
Appetizers: Chinese dumplings and steamed buns with pork filling.
Main course (from top left, clockwise): BBQ pork (a.k.a. char siew), roast chicken, sushi, and Shanghai choy with shiitake mushrooms.
Desserts: Tang yuan (glutinous rice balls in sweet broth) with barley, and cheesecake.
The meal went really well. I was glad to have my friends over to my place for the special occasion. If we get to have a fun meal for the special occasion, why not do it together? It’s worth the time and effort preparing for the feast (four of the dishes). I ended up spending an equivalent amount of hours in kitchen that day, as I was in bed the night before ;) The remaining hours? I had some fun of course!
Rest + Work + Fun = 24 hours. What a nice equation of the day!
* Stay tuned for some yummy Chinese New Year recipes!
