My local friends are comprised of a varied mix of ethnic
backgrounds which makes life, and more importantly food, so much more
interesting. We try to gather and
celebrate each other’s cultures when we can, and it’s a fun and great way to
expose our children to international experiences through food, friends and
fun. A huge part of any culture after
all is its food. And so this past
weekend we had an early celebration for Chinese New Year hosted by some friends
who love food and wine as much as I.
It all began with an email chain about the frigid cold weather, noodles and hot pots,
which led to us reminiscing about our post-Sandy dinner to celebrate the return
of electricity, which somehow led to (I believe I was the instigator) planning
a Chinese New Year party. Date and time
decided, we now had to come up with a menu and dole out the responsibilities,
and in the process wound up planning a dumpling throwdown.
My contribution to the evening was Korean pork-kimchi
dumpling pancakes with a spicy dipping sauce.
Yes, I know that is not Chinese but my hosts allowed it and the recipe
sounded delicious. Besides, there was a
contest to win and I wanted to bring both flavor and presentation to the table
even if I didn’t have time to make my own dumpling skins. The other dumpling contributors made steamed
salmon & spinach dumplings and Chinese shumai.
 |
| Dumpling Pancake in the making |
 |
| Korean Pork-Kimchi Dumpling Pancake |
 |
| Steamed Salmon Dumplings |
 |
| Yifu Noodles & Ba Won Ji |
It was such a fun evening with so much food. We had tofu skin two ways and small tofu
appetizers for the vegetarians. There
were yifu noodles and fried rice, homemade spring rolls, baby bok choy with
mushrooms, Chinese meatballs, delicacies like beef tendon and pig’s ears – a standard
at any Chinese celebration, Shanghai style soup, Chicken in a delicious gravy (Ba
won ji) and my favorite - steamed whole branzino garnished with ginger,
scallions, and cilantro in the most flavorful & rich broth. I could have eaten an entire fish if I hadn’t
already been full from all the other delicious food. We appropriately ended the meal with Chinese
desserts - eight treasures rice and coconut nian gao.
 |
| Homemade Spring Rolls |
 |
Tofu Skin - two ways
|
 |
| Braised Baby Bok Choy |
 |
| Baby Bok Choy & Mushrooms |
 |
| Individual Tofu Appetizers |
 |
| Tendon & Ears & Other goodies |
 |
| Amazing Steamed whole Branzino |
 |
| Ba Won Ji - Chicken with ginger & scallions |
Sadly I had to leave the celebration early to attend another
party that was previously committed to, but was very thankful to the
hosts for moving this New Year celebration to an earlier time so that I could
partake in this amazing experience of culinary & cultural deliciousness.
Anyone hungry yet???
Happy Chinese New Year to you all!!!
新年好
No comments:
Post a Comment