CNY Dinner on Fat Tuesday
>> Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Definitely appropriate. It was Chinese New Year, V-Day and Mardi Gras dinner all rolled into one. I'm talking about this:
Last weekend was crazily hectic that we had to forego the Chinese New Year reunion dinner, which is the biggest meal of the year for most Chinese households. It's a very important get-together whereby family members, both near and far commune once a year to share a meal, pretty much like how families come together for Thanksgiving or Christmas Stateside. Unfortunately, we had to miss ours. Sacrilegious!
I remember the reunion dinners we had at my grandparents', then in the latter years at my parents'. Whilst most Chinese families have hotpot, my family had always opted to prepare elaborate reunion meals with very traditional Cantonese dishes - recipes handed down by my late maternal great-grandmother and my paternal grandparents with new additions from my parents. These are not the typical dishes you'd order at a Chinese restaurant here, some could even be downright bizarre - think Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Food - black sea cucumber or hairy black seaweed anyone?? Nonetheless, they are special dishes I grew up eating during our reunion meals - rather rare and somewhat pricey ingredients, complex but tasty flavors and definitely colorful. It would take mum almost an entire day to prepare the reunion meal (with help) so I knew I had to cut down on the number of dishes since I don't have help nor a whole day! In the end, I hope I did it justice. This is probably the fourth year I'm cooking the CNY reunion meal the way my mum did back home; it's going to be my household tradition from this time forth.
Fried Fish Maw - it doesn't look like much here.....but let its crispy-crunchy goodness soak into the chicken-mushroom soup........hmmmm........lost for words......
FISH MAW SOUP WITH BLACK SEA CUCUMBER
BRAISED SHITAKES and CHINESE SEAWEED GRANDMA'S and MUM'S SPECIAL RIBS
STIR-FRIED JICAMA with SHITAKE MUSHROOMS MIXED VEGETABLES (with my favorite mini corns!)
And you can't start feasting until you've had some good 'ol libation: Jen's Lychee-Blood Orange Martini.
*Clockwise from bottom: stir-fried mixed vegetables, stir-fried jicama and shitake mushrooms, fish maw soup, slow-braised chicken with special sauce (sauce shown on bottom left), Grandma-and-Mum's Special Ribs and center: slow-braised shitake mushrooms with Chinese Seaweed*
Last weekend was crazily hectic that we had to forego the Chinese New Year reunion dinner, which is the biggest meal of the year for most Chinese households. It's a very important get-together whereby family members, both near and far commune once a year to share a meal, pretty much like how families come together for Thanksgiving or Christmas Stateside. Unfortunately, we had to miss ours. Sacrilegious!
I remember the reunion dinners we had at my grandparents', then in the latter years at my parents'. Whilst most Chinese families have hotpot, my family had always opted to prepare elaborate reunion meals with very traditional Cantonese dishes - recipes handed down by my late maternal great-grandmother and my paternal grandparents with new additions from my parents. These are not the typical dishes you'd order at a Chinese restaurant here, some could even be downright bizarre - think Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Food - black sea cucumber or hairy black seaweed anyone?? Nonetheless, they are special dishes I grew up eating during our reunion meals - rather rare and somewhat pricey ingredients, complex but tasty flavors and definitely colorful. It would take mum almost an entire day to prepare the reunion meal (with help) so I knew I had to cut down on the number of dishes since I don't have help nor a whole day! In the end, I hope I did it justice. This is probably the fourth year I'm cooking the CNY reunion meal the way my mum did back home; it's going to be my household tradition from this time forth.
Fried Fish Maw - it doesn't look like much here.....but let its crispy-crunchy goodness soak into the chicken-mushroom soup........hmmmm........lost for words......
FISH MAW SOUP WITH BLACK SEA CUCUMBER
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BRAISED SHITAKES and CHINESE SEAWEED GRANDMA'S and MUM'S SPECIAL RIBS
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San Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year) Everyone!!
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