January 28, 2009
新年快乐，万事如意
Chinese New Year's Eve's reunion dinner was spent with my immediate family and my uncle's family. There were 10 of us in total and the only person was my sister who's now living in Sydney. Reunion dinners should be enjoyed with lots of people...the more the merrier, don't you think? Of course, it's hard work for the cooks and my mum laboured all day for the night's lovely dinner. Kudos to the chef!!!
Here's what we had:
Yu Sheng 鱼生
Bean curd spring rolls filled with minced pork, prawns, water chestnuts, spring onions and black fungus
A traditional Cantonese dish to have during CNY is this stew made out of dried oysters, black moss, sea cucumber and Chinese mushrooms. Oysters are known as 蚝 which sounds the same as the word 好 meaning 'all things good and well' in Cantonese, thus it's something auspicious to have during the new year. Black moss is known as 发菜 which sounds the same as 发财 meaning 'to prosper', so it's also another auspicious thing to eat.
Clear soup with bamboo pith, crab meat and bean sprouts
Thai Red Curry with Duck - a dish contributed by my aunt
Chicken Adobo - a Filipino dish made by my grandma's maid
The centre piece was the Abalone with Spinach and Wolfberry. Abalone resemble gold ingots (元宝) used in ancient China and are meant to represent wealth and prosperity in the year ahead.
We were stuffed by the end of it and desserts were the pineapple tarts, almond cookies, love letters and other biscuits that we had at home. Our post-dinner activity was the decorating of the Chinese New Year tree, a type of willow my mum buys from the nursery every year. My cousins and I made lanterns and cranes out of hongbaos and hung them up on the tree. The tiny firecrackers are ones that my mum bought many years ago but still make their appearance every Chinese New Year.
And just because it's the Year of the Ox, I took a little toy from my sister's room and placed it here for good measure. :)
Happy New Year and may the Year of the Ox be a good one for one and all!