Chinese New Year 2006

[Pontormo]

Thank you for the tip about pineapples, Sailor Boi! I don't see any on the menu, but maybe there is fruit for dessert & it's simply not listed on the take-out pamphlet* I have.

Now, of course, you've inspired me to get to the restaurant early since it's right in between two very good Asian grocery stores.

Otherwise, there is also paper, yes.

*Should I have said "brochure"? On the D.C. forum, Gastro888 has already told me that eating a whole fish is lucky.

Edited January 27, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Gastro888]

Thank you for the tip about pineapples, Sailor Boi!  I don't see any on the menu, but maybe there is fruit for dessert & it's simply not listed on the take-out pamphlet* I have...

←

You must! must! must! have neen goh - Chinese New Year cake. Buy some from one of the markets and have them fry it up for you. And NO bittermelon.

[Gastro888]

Hi Gastro, I've read so much about you from the CNY 2005 thread, that was a funny thread....and you've finally met up with herbacidal.

←

Thanks! Oh goodness. That thing's still around. Ai ya!

I also met Karen as well, she and her husband were so nice and friendly!

I definitely need to visit Philly again. Love that gelato.

As for the lai see, it's just nice to have the good luck wishes. The amount of money in the lai see is inversely proportional to your age. HA!

Did you really think I was being serious that lai sees are the reason I'm not getting married anytime soon? YOU BETCHA!

(Wait, but you do get to wear the pretty cheongsam like Karen did...ah, phooey, gimme the dress and the cake, forget the rest!)

[aznsailorboi]

Hi Gastro, I've read so much about you from the CNY 2005 thread, that was a funny thread....and you've finally met up with herbacidal.

←

Thanks! Oh goodness. That thing's still around. Ai ya!

I also met Karen as well, she and her husband were so nice and friendly!

I definitely need to visit Philly again. Love that gelato.

As for the lai see, it's just nice to have the good luck wishes. The amount of money in the lai see is inversely proportional to your age. HA!

Did you really think I was being serious that lai sees are the reason I'm not getting married anytime soon? YOU BETCHA!

(Wait, but you do get to wear the pretty cheongsam like Karen did...ah, phooey, gimme the dress and the cake, forget the rest!)

←

I have to agree with you on the angpao/laisee theory, although my siblings and I were told not to spend the money, my mom says its all for good luck. But you get quite a collection of them from aunts and uncles, sums up to at least a couple of hundred...c'mon would you really let a couple of hundred bucks rot in a red envelope and keep it as a good luck charm??? the only ones we keep are the ones from mom and dad.....its been 12 dollars since I can remember how to count money.... until present time sailorboi I never got a raise .

......I'd wear a cheongsam. BUT ONLY IF THERE'S ANGPAO/LAISEE INVOLVED!!!!!! BWAHAHHAHHAHHAH

[Ben Hong]

That CNY 2005 thread reminds me that someone still owes the group a picture of herself in that famous cheongsam. C'mon, ya got 30 hours left of this year.

[jo-mel]

  We got a great tour of Philly's Chinatown with him and also went to this wonderful gelato shop for some awesome desserts after a rather interesting (re: service and food were subpar) dinner at a local BYOB.  Nice kid!

←

Sounds like eating in NYC's Chinatown ---- have a great dinner, then cross the street into Little Italy for a fab dessert!

[jo-mel]

I forgot to take my Kitchen God poster down and burn it! (I've been busy and distracted) Do you think it could do a two year stint without bringing the wrath of the Jade Emperor down on me?

岁岁平安

[Pan]

  We got a great tour of Philly's Chinatown with him and also went to this wonderful gelato shop for some awesome desserts after a rather interesting (re: service and food were subpar) dinner at a local BYOB.  Nice kid!

←

Sounds like eating in NYC's Chinatown ---- have a great dinner, then cross the street into Little Italy for a fab dessert!

←

If you know great dessert places in Little Italy, please post about them in the New York forum. I don't know of any.

[Tepee]

Just had reunion lunch in my parent's home, with all siblings/spouses and nephews and nieces present. It was a steamboat/hotpot lunch, a more healthful alternative, with lo hei/yee sang as the starter, and almond agar-agar served with canned lychees for dessert.

Next, reunion potluck dinner at MIL's. Hubby's making shark's fin soup.

新年快乐

恭喜发财

身体健康

吉祥如意

Jo, the Jade Emperor will surely cast his benevolent face upon you for you are definitely more chinese than many of us. Peace be with you, too.

Edited January 28, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Shalmanese]

X-Posted from Dinner Thread

Whew, Australia day was 2 days ago and now it's Chinese New Year, I'm being stuffed with good food. These are all the work of my mother, I was merely a lowly sous chef in this production (sorry about quality of pics):

We ate outside on the (by now) infamous household balcony, looking out at the sunset

Started off with a Pumpkin soup which was my sole individual contribution:

Theres also a Cucumber & garlic salad on the table there as well.

Stir fried Chinese Bean thingie, I don't know what the english name for it is.

Capsicum, Brocolli & Beef stir fry

Coca-Cola Chicken, one of those sounds-so-bad-but-tastes-so-good dishes

Braised Sirloin with Potatos

Fried Prawns on a bed of snow peas

steamed whole fish.

And lots...

and lots...

and lots...

of dumplings (two types, pork & celery and pork & pickled cabbage).

Also not pictured was some stir fried chinese greens and some white rice.

Still have dessert to serve (just some fruit & sorbet) and then there is the live satellite feed from China for the CNY Show. I'm going to sit that one out, I can't stand watching it.

Hope everyone else is having a happy new year!

Edited January 28, 2006 by Shalmanese (log)

[Dejah]

Shalmanese,

Not only am I envious of the food you enjoyed, I am salivating over the scene from your balcony!

新年快乐

(curtesy of Teepee )

We will go to a large potluck party with our university Chinese students association tonight. On Sunday, we'll have supper with our kids. Haven't got the menu pinned down yet, but there won't be any shark fin soup.

At Po-Po's, she will have foo jook soup with dried oysters at the "altar", so that may well appear at our table. If she were younger, there would have been bird's nest or shark fin soup. I have live crabs, lotus root, ginko nuts, snow peas, black moss, siu jook, chicken all sitting in the fridge. It's just a matter of doing, I suppose! Grandson wants his bean thread, so "Ants on the Hill" will be for longevity!

[rlr222]

Greetings from New York! I want to wish all the eGulleters here a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year! Enjoy your good eating wherever you are.

As it turned out, we had our Chinese New Year meal early at Sentosa, a Malaysian restaurant in Flushing, NY. Fellow egulleter Pan knows this restaurant and reviewed it previously. I really like certain dishes at this restaurant ( a little more expensive than some of the Chinese restaurants we go to, but worth it). We had the roti canai and roti telur (both with delicious curry chicken and potato dipping sauce). The crispy style pancake in the roti canai dish was absolutely scrumptious, crispy but light and fluffy tasting. Appetizer also included satay chicken and beef (which others ate before I could try them).

The main courses included the famous hainanese chicken (chicken had very smooth texture), volcano spare rib in silver foil (foil lit with small fire at the table as a finishing touch), deep fried chilean sea bass, and a primarily "vegetable" dish with the restaurant's own cooked tofu, mushrooms and chicken pieces. We also ordered pad thai, pinapple fried rice (which was somewhat spicy with very small pieces of pineapple, bigger pieces of shrimp and squid but beautifuly served in the actual pineapple outer cover), along with white rice and an "oil" - yau - rice. I also had very authentic and strong iced Malaysian coffee and the coconut pudding. The coconut pudding (served in a real coconut shell) is extraordinary (with the very authentic taste of tropical coconut, albeit sweetened).

Yum! This is a quality restaurant with many excellent dishes.

Now I do not have to feel so deprived or to think about the Chinese food in Vancouver. I believe some of the really good Asian/ Chinese food are not in NY Chinatown but in outlying areas like Flushing. Good thing since I am closer to Flushing.

Anyway, Have a great lunar New Year with your loved ones!

RLR

Edited January 28, 2006 by rlr222 (log)

[Ben Hong]

I have been invited to the Malaysian/Singapore Student Society at the local university for a buffet tonight. I want to see if they can cook as well as Teepee.

[Pan]

RLR, I can't resist asking whether Sentosa made the food properly chili-laden for you or watered it down. Gong Xi Fa Cai, everyone!

[Kent Wang]

Made about 300 jiaozi (dumplings) with a handful of friends. We ate about 200 of them.

[Tepee]

I have been invited to the Malaysian/Singapore  Student Society at the local university for a buffet tonight. I want to see if they can cook as well as Teepee.

←

My dear Ben-sook...so kind as usual....but you can't SEE how well a person can cook. You have to TASTE the cooking....HINT, HINT. Have you been working on your plans at all?

Had a fully vegetarian lunch at my parent's home today. Will post the pix later.

[rlr222]

Pan, I am afraid I am not the best person to respond to your question. My family members generally like their food mild. They are either used to Cantonese flavors or American food, so a little spiciness is enough for my family. In fact, my mother, my husband, and my son complained about the spiciness of the curry sauce and the pineapple fried rice. I thought they tasted OK/good (Pineapple fried rice) to great (curry chicken and potato dipping sauce).

Since you have lived in Malaysia, you must have a stronger stomach for spicy food. It seems to me Sentosa would be more than obliging in adding whatever amount of spice you want. But you probably have to ask (since they may have to cater to tastes like my family's). I really like the food. I am not sure how much Chinese influence there is. I suspect quite a bit since there are dishes I know of from Cantonese cuisine, like pork with taro or with dried vegetable. However, there is definitely a Malaysian bent to many dishes that I consider it an Asian culinary adventure that deviates from the typical Cantonese I grew up with. I consider this place a treat and I am planning to bring some friends there soon.

Edited January 29, 2006 by rlr222 (log)

[Adam Balic]

Happy New Year!

Inspired by the excellent sounding 'Eight Treasure Stuffed Chicken' posted by aznsailorboi, I made this dish for Chinese NY (Noodles for lunch and melon cake and fresh pineapple for dessert, so I think we covered a few bases).

Well, I was in a real hurry today and it was only the two of us, but the dish was excellent, my wife really really liked it very much. The chicken itself was incredibly tender (still trying to work out the process responsible for this) and the rice was wonderful (although, next time I will not pre-cook it for so long). Of the treasures I prefered the lotus seeds as they were nice and crunchy (what is the significance of 12 BTW?).

Not the greatest presentation, but hey, it was only the two of us.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Adam Balic (log)

[aznsailorboi]

Adam- That sure is yummy! and the chicken looked exactly how it should look like perfect! The 12 lotus seeds represents the 12 months of fertility. If you notice most of the seed types that are placed in there are in pairs or even numbers, just another lucky detail to add to the dish, hey if it doesnt hurt to put that amount then do it. LOL

all of my dishes are still cooking and its 5:30 PM already i got 3 more hours before the guests arrive. soo i'll keep u guys posted.

[Pan]

Asking for the food to be made spicy at Sentosa produced no result for me last time (or, to be precise, dishes that seemed to have absolutely no chili in them whatsoever), so I haven't been back. Malaysian restaurants in New York and most of the Malaysian restaurants in the US are really Chinese-Malaysian restaurants that serve food that for the most part is often cooked by Chinese restaurants in Malaysia and eaten by Chinese Malaysians. And that includes non-Chinese dishes like Kangkung Belacan and Roti Canai.

[Dejah]

Dishwasher is running, I am here enjoying a cuppa tea feeling kinda drowsy from eating too much!

Supper tonight with our kids: foo juk/ oyster/pork soup, spring rolls, deep fried wontons, salt'n'pepper shrimp and deep fried shrimp in panko crumbs, BBQ duck, siu yook, steamed salty chicken with head and feet on (grossed out grandson! ), Buddha's Delight, fun see with lapcheong and hairy melon, jasmin rice, red bean/lotus nut/almond dessert soup, Mah-li goh, orange and pineapple slices...Lots of leftovers, so 3/4s went home with the kids.

Tomorrow, we are all going out to a local restaurant, Kum Lung for their CNY buffet - pretty much the same as what we had tonight. The owners are close family friends, so they would never let us pay. The lucky money for their 4 kids usually cost us more than the tab!

After supper, we will go to my Mom's to "bye neen" and hung baos. Grandson's been practising his greeting and bowing.

[hzrt8w]

新年快乐

恭喜发财

身体健康

吉祥如意

←

Same to you, TP. I think out of the four:

身体健康 (good health)

is the most important. May I also wish you all:

龍馬精神

狗年行運

[hzrt8w]

That CNY 2005 thread reminds me that someone still owes the group a picture of herself in that famous cheongsam. C'mon, ya got 30 hours left of this year.

←

Yeah. I remember this well too. The excuse of being distracted... Should be well prepared at this year's CNY dinner...

[hzrt8w]

I forgot to take my Kitchen God poster down and burn it!  (I've been busy and distracted) Do you think it could do a two year stint without bringing the wrath of the Jade Emperor down on me?

岁岁平安

←

How do we say farewell to the old guard and welcome the new? Should we cook the chicken and feed it to the dog???

How about next year? Cook the dog and feed it to the pig???

Edited January 30, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[hzrt8w]

[...]steamed salty chicken with head and feet on (grossed out grandson! ),

←

That's one thing about Chinese whole chicken dish: We gotta keep the head on. The head symbolizes "the beginning". And the tail symbolizes "the end". We must "have a good beginning and have a good ending". Gotta buy a chicken with the head and the tail...