It’s come and gone. The Chinese New Year, which lasts for a full two weeks, ends on the 15th day of the lunar new year. This year it was celebrated on the 12th of February.
According to Chinese tradition, this is the Year of the Snake. The first thing I should say is that snake did not feature in any of our CNY meals this (or any other) year. However, when I was growing up the elders in our family did not think to let us off eating anything slimy or slithery. I won’t go into details, but would just say that we were expected to keep up and eat up.
I think the point the elders wanted to make, and it is an excellent point, was that all sorts of foods can and should be eaten according to what you can procure and actually afford. My maternal grandmother and several of my aunties were widowed when they were young and they worked very hard to feed their families. I am so proud of my uncles and aunties, and my cousins who all work equally hard to excel in their respective fields.
As CNY lasts for 15 days, you can stretch your meet-ups with friends and family. More importantly, for those who are still single, there are multiple opportunities to collect the ang pow/ red packet filled with cash.
This year we had three main CNY meals where we made our yee sang. The first one was made by Junior 2 and thus more creative. I made the other two and tried my best, but could not think of any better design. What made this year’s yee sang a bit more colourful was that I managed to get purple and yellow carrots to use in the salad.
Junior 2’s yee sang (top) was the one I followed as I could not come up with anything more creative, and I wanted to avoid making a snake
To keep things simple, I largely kept to the same menu for each of the communal meals: fried fish crackers, yee sang, sesame prawn toasts, radish cake, stir-fried noodles, egg fried rice, chicken in black bean sauce, grilled fish and mapo tofu. There were also pan-fried dumplings and a roast duck.
On the last night of CNY I made 口水雞 which I call my Anniversary Chicken, mapo tofu with mushrooms and lotus root with sesame and soya sauce. This was served with steamed rice and some grilled salmon.
To keep things manageable, I mostly served fruit for dessert, along with a cake that was made a day earlier. For last night’s dinner I made an amarena cherry cheesecake (recipe in the next post).
We had some meals out in between the family dinners. Here are some of the restaurants we went to:
Kitchen W8 in Kensington
Jeremy King’s The Park in Queensway
German Gymnasium in King’s Cross
The Wellington Arms at Baughurst
The Smokehouse in Islington
The Summerhouse in Maida Vale
Sunday lunch at The Smokehouse Islington: roast beef, roast pork, cauliflower cheese, chocolate cheesecake with blood orange sorbet
I am travelling to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. By the time I arrive the CNY decorations would have been taken down and the city will be getting ready for the Muslim fasting month (Ramadan). At the end of the fasting day, some restaurants offer buka puasa (breaking of the fast) buffet dinners. It is a different kind of communal feasting, and I am looking forward to it. Wishing you a final Happy Chinese New Year, and a magnificent year ahead.