Chinese New Year: The Food Edition

Our gracious Chinese New Year hostess, Natascha, has given me permission to use some of the photos she took of the wonderful food she prepared. This is by no means an exhaustive list of dishes served at the feast, but they are some of my favorites.

 These chunks of meat were in about 4 inch squares. I was concerned about eating them with my spoon (the only cutlery I brought), but they flaked apart quite easily. We had to share one between a few people, because they were so big. This was labeled "Blessed With Propitious And Peace."

This fried prawn dish was very sweet, and included pineapple and lychee. I couldn't help but compare it to the "Rainbow Shrimp" at Gourmet Garden (my family's Chinese restaurant of choice in Ann Arbor), except it was a lot better, because it wasn't dripping in a thick sauce.

These are our dumplings! It was labeled "Plentiful Treasures."

 I honestly have no idea what this was. It was like a soft, slightly sweet cake/patty. It was labeled "Good Luck For Whole Family."

 These are some incredibly yummy vegetables with krab stick. It was labeled "To Your Long Life."

Again, I am not certain what this was, but it was fishy and delicious.

I really wish that I had access to more photos and information about this food. But, to be honest, not knowing what I was going to get was part of the fun. Each dish was unique in flavor and presentation, and all of them left me wanting more. My course mates and I are still talking about Natascha's excellent culinary skills, weeks later. She truly is fabulous.

Chinese New Year

While my American friends and family were celebrating Pączki Day and Fat Tuesday, I was celebrating Chinese New Year. An international student from Taiwan, also my group therapy co-facilitator, invited my whole course, among others, to attend a workshop that she and her flat mates held in my building’s common room.

We began with a dumpling tutorial:

1. place the pork and chive filling in the center
2. dip your fingers in water and wet the perimeter
3. fold in half and squeeze

This was fun for a second, but turned into a chore as soon as the second batch of meat filled containers were placed on the table. There was a plate with a few plastic wrapped pence, to include in the "lucky" dumplings. This was a nice idea in whimsical theory, but I was terrified that I would end up with a lucky dumpling later and shatter at least one of my teeth. 

Eventually, my course mates and I decided to call it a day on the dumpling front and move on to paper cutting crafts. We began by making red paper designs. These are to hang in the window to scare away the monster, who is afraid of red, so it does not come and eat people (this is what I gathered from the story, anyway). In reality, we made red snowflakes, and hung them on the wall.

However, they were nowhere near as beautiful and intricate as the one made by the hosts prior to the workshop. Here is a prime example of their work:

We then moved on to making paper mobiles of the Chinese character for "Spring", because the New Year symbolizes the beginning of spring. I'm not sure why this was so difficult for me, and I mostly felt like a complete idiot, frequently asking for help. Geometry and exactness are not my strong suits. However, I was thrilled with the end result.

                                             

Next, I tried my hand at calligraphy. We were supposed to also learn the character for Spring... but I asked to learn the character for "dinosaur". Unfortunately, "dragon" was the closest I could get. I thoroughly enjoyed the activity, none the less.

By the time I had finished, it was time for food! 

This was only the first round of food. There were two more table fulls afterward. It was amazing to have real, traditional Chinese food. Everything tasted absolutely incredible. My favorite dishes ended up being ginger vegetables, but the beef soup and barbecue pork were both fabulous. And, of course, I got a dumpling with a coin in it. I suppose part of the luck included my own dental safety.

After dinner, Natascha handed out envelopes filled with "lucky coins" for the new year. My envelope had the symbol for "wealth" on it and had a chocolate "hug" coin inside. That pretty much summed up my experience of the evening. It was a fun, sweet, cultural hug of an event.

Adventures with Anna

Just under 2 weeks ago, the fabulous McGarry couple graced London with their presence. This grand occasion coincided perfectly with my day off, and so Anna and I took to the streets with cries of sisterhood. We took a speedy stroll through Camden, stopping in Costa to pick up our coffee tradition, where we left off in December. The steam from the warm drinks wafted through our gossip and talk of future dance plans.

Outside of South Kensington Station, we stopped at Le Pain Quotidien, to indulge in tea, orange carrot soup, fresh bread with Nutella and an excited conversation about event planning.

Afterward, we wound our way through the wondrous halls of the Victoria and Albert Museum. We admired paintings, stared at stairs, tried on armor, bounced through a room of Buddhas, and marveled at Margot Fonteyn’s Black Swan tutu.

      It was incredibly refreshing to walk through a museum with someone who accepts and enjoys my comparisons of busts to bacon sculptures, and how I bestow praises of fine craftsmanship with phrases like, “That piano’s baller!”          

                             

Weary from our journey around the world and through history, we dragged ourselves to the Hilton. Collapsing onto the bed, with only enough reserved energy to trudge to the downstairs lounge, we refilled our tanks with tea and mini herb sausages with lavender honey.

In the final hour, I sat on the bed, while we had a conversation, sprinkled with talk of hair, makeup and clothes, but primarily consisting of overwhelming content: how I’ve changed over the years and what I have to look forward to. I’ve spent close to ten years growing from being Anna’s student into being her friend as well. She can relate to me in a way that no one else quite can, and I am so lucky to have had a day to spend with her in London, joking around, expanding dreams and soaking in her wisdom.

Living on the Edge

It pains my soul

that I wake up before 7am on weekends.

My heart flutters

when cans of soup are buy one, get one half off.

Frustrated by an endless lust

for food processors and knife sets,

I savor

tiny shreds of parsnip, made by a cheese grater.

I break cups in out of control acts of

vacuuming.

Happiness is a well-timed Skype call.

Motivation is an 8 hour night’s sleep.

Success is an even number of socks to be folded.

I moved to an island to live on the edge

of domestication.