Happy Chinese New Year 2013

Happy Chinesssse New Year! It's the year of the snake this year. People born in the year of the snake is said to be insightful, wise and influential. To me, the snake is another animal in the Chinese zodiac that can be eaten. Of the 12 animals - dragon, rabbit, tiger, horse, goat, ox, dog, rat, monkey, pig, rooster and snake, 11 of the animals have landed on the Chinese dinner table as one form or another. If the Dragon was not a mythical creature, it would have been on the table too. Maybe that is why it is considered the luckiest of the zodiac sign...

This CNY eve, I had the opportunity to help out in preparing the quintessential Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner. The Reunion Dinner is definitely one of the biggest occasions in the Chinese culture and is the sole cause of the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from the cities in China in Jan/Feb each year.

On Saturday, I helped Gaz's mom prepare and cook 8 dishes and 1 soup. Our day started from 12 and lasted till 8pm at night! It felt like running a marathon, except that when you cross the finish line in a marathon you usually get a free bottle of water and a medal. I guess having 8 dishes and a soup to sit down to at the end of all that work is as good as, but by the time all the cooking was done, the appetite's gone.


On the table was braised mushrooms, dried oyster and black moss, steamed fish, and white cut chicken (steamed chicken with spring onion and grated ginger), oyster sauce lettuce in addition to prawns with capsicum, beef with brocolli, a delicious pot of soup plus a take away order of roast pork. Gaz's cousin also brought a home made tiramisu, which was was very delicious.

No, there is no snake on the menu.

 And add two very tired persons at the table to the tally..

Photo courtesy of D