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Celebrating the Year of Tiger in Hawaii
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I have always taken Chinese New Year seriously because I have pure Chinese blood
Celebrating Chinese New Year in U.S. may be difficult because the Chinese New Year’s Day does not always fall on a weekend.
Celebrating Chinese New Year in U.S. may be difficult because the Chinese New Year’s Day does not always fall on a weekend. This is my lucky year for many reasons. First of all, the Chinese New Year is on Sunday. Second, this weekend happens to be a long (three-day) weekend. Third, I managed to submit a proposal just before the weekend. I was ready to party!
I wanted to take full advantage of the long weekend, so I contacted some old and new friends and made arrangements for each of the three days! On Saturday, I met my old friend, Jenny, for lunch. Our sons used to attend Chinese school together. Now both young men are juniors, so we had a lot to chat about SAT and college. For dinner, I didn’t want to cook too much, but I wanted it to be authentic Chinese meal, fit for Chinese New Year’s Eve. I decided to make a dish that can be enjoyed without having additional rice (which would be too ordinary). The dish is called “Pearl meat balls." It can be any kind of meat balls, but roll each ball over pre-soaked mochi (sweet) rice before putting them on a plate. Steam the meat balls for 20-25 minutes, making sure the water was sufficient. (I did smell some burning doing the second batch, because I didn’t add enough water.) Since I don’t like too much meat, my version of meat balls is always half-and-half: half meat and half medium-firm tofu, with finely chopped ginger roots, green onions, pre-soaked dried mushroom and canned water chestnuts. They taste even better with some chill sauces. I know it does not sound much for people living in China, but it was a good effort on my part, from shopping for the ingredients to serving.
Sunday was supposed to be easy, since I made a reservation for three families to have dinner at the Chin’s. We have been celebrating Chinese New Year for many years now. Here is the menu for tonight’s dinner:
1) Crispy chicken (whole)
2) Green tea smoked duck (half)
3) Walnut shrimp without mayonnaise
4) Salt and peppered shrimp
5) Beef with broccoli (keep it for Ali)
6) Sizzling filet of beef with black pepper sauce
7) Chinese broccoli with dry baby fish
8) Ma Po tofu
9) Assorted pan fried crispy noodle
Instead, I worked hard on Sunday, too. I was doing a little cleaning in the kitchen, when the young master gently asked for home-made crepe.
We called it egg-pancake, which was made by my beloved grandma when we were young, using eggs, milk (or water), flour, and sugar (or green onion and salt). The time-consuming part is to prepare the batter. I had not made crepes for a long time, but granted his wish, because it’s a special day.
Tomorrow will be exciting, because I am to meet three other moms for lunch, two of them I never met. As a parent, I realized long ago that I don’t always get to choose my friends any more. There were times that two moms got along very well, but the two kids did not. This time, I am meeting these moms because their sons are my son’s friends. It should be fun!
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-306792-295139.html
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