So I am sure that this will come as a shock when you learn how oriental I have and have been behaving of late. If you had witnessed my actions, you'd think an alien from Mars had usurped your poor friend and substituted her for an alien Calista-wannabe.
Recently, I realiase that I have not only taken efforts to speak more Mandarin and Cantonese, but I have also engaged in various traditions surrounding Chinese New Year. For example:
1) I trimmed my own fringe in line with the tradition of having to cut one's hair before new year;
2) made 汤圆 (tang yuan = sweet dumplings); and
3) 大扫除-ed (spring cleaned)
And yes ladies and gentlemen, those are Chinese characters on my blog. *chortles* A new addition to my already multifaceted personality. I've just realised how much I love being Chinese and how proud I am to be one.
My dad is extremely pleased. You have NO idea just how pleased and words are inadequate to describe the intensity of his happiness.
MOVING ON!
This post is not supposed to be about my transformation but about my FANTABULOUS CNY's Eve Dinner party (Invite and new gorgeous friend, Makiko-san, courtesy of Xicheng) and subsequent CNY dinner at Mayflower (good times and good food courtesy of Henry)! <3
Lets get the ball rolling shall we?
CNY EVE DINNER
I ended up at this fabulous via pure luck. I had met Xicheng for breakfast one morning and he was kind enough to invite me along to this dinner which he was having with his friends on the condition that I contributed a dish. Since the menu was full of savouries, I decided to bring a dessert.
The initial plan was to make red bean or green bean soup as it was traditional and easy to make.... But I stopped short of doing so as it dawned on me that 汤圆 was/is a MUST. They are after all, a tradition.
So for the 1st time ever, I made a trip to the Asian supermarket down by St. Thomas and grabbed myself several bags of glutinous rice flour and a can of sweet read bean paste (I would have made the black sesame paste but that was too time consuming). Xi Cheng offered to help.
汤圆 is suprisingly easy to make. All you need is flour and water and a lil' bit of imagination.
The set up. Some water + flour + red bean later....
They look amazing don't they?
We ended up making a WHOLE tray's worth. Like so:
And we only had a dinner for 8!
While we were making the 汤圆, I got to know Makiko-san. She's such an AMAZING person - she's doing her Masters in Music (classical music) in Bristol and will be doing her PhD after her Masters! Not to mention, she's absolutely gorgeous and sweet.
Makiko-san! xxx
After we finished (I totally overestimated the amount of flour needed and have enough left-over to make another 100 more!), we brought the uncooked 汤圆 over to Xicheng's friend's place and was greeted with the following:-
Firstly, a very very talented Chinese painter/Calligrapher. Who happens to be very very happy (as you can tell) and one of the nicest and warmest people I've met.
Asian veggies!
OMG. I miss the cleaver.
Pork. Not a big fan. In fact, not a fan at all! But it was very very fresh as you can see!
Cooking!
Speaking of cooking, I got to see Xicheng in the kitchen! Check it out!
Xicheng: Master chef of the cabbage.
The aroma wafting from the kitchen was incredible and Makiko-san and I were dancing about in the kitchen, pretty much singing/chanting, "It looks delicious" in Japanese.
And boy, was the wait worth it.... Photo spam evidences this. Just take a look!
This was a really interesting dish I've never had it before. But they called it porridge and it comprises of barley, nuts, sweet potato boiled/cooked down.
It was a great dinner and finally, when it got to dessert, I made 2 versions - (1) soup based and (2) peanut/sesame/sugar based..... Basically, wet and dry versions.
Didn't get a shot of the soup as I left it in the massive pot, but I did get this shot:
It looked good and I hope it tasted good! (I didn't have any)
Oh oh!!! Not to forget, Makiko-san graciously shared a bottle of New Year's sake with us! And it was so pretty - it had gold flakes in them!
Pretty - it had gold flakes in them!
So this was my Chinese New Year's Eve and it was great!
Now onto....
CNY DINNER @ MAYFLOWER
Henry told me that Mayflower served Chinese food that closely resembles home.... And boy was he right on that! The food was really delicious albeit a tad too salty for my liking.... Then again, I don't eat rice and so that could be why. The rice may mitigate the saltiness.
Nevertheless, we had a large group of about 20 people! And we started of with fortune cookies (oh how I love them).
I don't know if this suggests something, but I did get this fortune twice in a row.
Me like.
Was not 3rd time lucky though....
TOTALLY diggin' this one!
My favourite dish for the night had to be the prawns - I miss chunky prawns and it has been a while since I had seafood.
(Oh seafood.... <3)>
And then we had red bean soup for dessert!
Which, unfortunately, made it into my tummy before I got a shot! Hahahha!
A group shot:
Big group. Much fun. Awesomeness.
Best Chinese New Year I've had - lack of red packets notwithstanding! =D
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