Year of the Horse

[liuzhou]

As I write, we are about two hours away from The Year of the Horse 🐴.

 

All day, people have been chopping, mixing, cooking and preparing for the Family Reunion dinner, tonight. This elaborate feast is usually home made but an occasional bought-in dish is acceptable.

 

Here in Guangxi, this is the usual mix of Cantonese dihes such as white cut chicken and.spicy hot Hunan food. One dish that always returns is a Zhuang style "overturned bowl" - fried and stemed pork belly and taro.

 

I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

 

Any plans to celebrate in any culinary way?

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 02:08 PM by liuzhou (log)

[Darienne]

We used to be invited along with many others to celebrate the Chinese New Year by a Caucasian friend who was married to a Chinese man and who has sadly passed away.   It was always a time for much joy and amazing food.  There was so much food and so many different dishes.  

[liuzhou]

18 minutes ago, Darienne said:

There was so much food and so many different dishes.  

 

Tje rule of thumb for all meals is for there to one dish to match the mumber of diners plus a minimum of one for the table. This can go much higher at CNY.

[liuzhou]

 

 

And just like that, the horses have galloped in!

Edited yesterday at 04:00 PM by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

When do the hordes of tourists gallop home?

[liuzhou]

 

 

17 minutes ago, KennethT said:

When do the hordes of tourists gallop home?

 

Most business and government offices etc resume on the 24th, but schools and colleges not until March 4th.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

Years ago, I went to Hong Kong at New Year’s time with a friend of mine who was born in Shanghai but grew up there.  It was a wonderfully festive time to be there.  The restaurants were packed with even bigger than usual family groups.  Everyone seemed to be relaxed and in a good mood. A lot of places were closed the first few days but gradually started opening up again, though everyone seemed to be in party mode, coming into the office late, sharing food gifts, etc. 

The timing of the trip was because a friend of my friend was a travel agent who was arranging travel for her high school class reunion.  They chose that time as many classmates who still lived in Hong Kong had time off and it was a good time to visit for those who had moved away. My friend and I were able to take advantage of the group rates for airfare and hotel but otherwise did our own thing: she mostly visited with family and friends, I mostly used my book of walking tours to wander about on my own, meeting up for afternoon tea or dinner with whatever group of her family and friends were passing through. 
My friend was also a coworker and I happened to be her boss or, as I described it, her talent manager. Whenever she introduced me as her boss, I was embarrassingly catered to as some sort of esteemed person!  
I wouldn’t otherwise have picked that time of year but it ended up being very enjoyable trip.