Chinese Food during Chinese New Year (The Truth W/O)Feb 15 '02 Write an essay on this topic.
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This review is part of kuuleimomi's and copernicus' Truth writeoff (these two also happen to be Liverpool fans.....), which is aimed to tell more to the people out there who may not know much about various people's cultures, so in this review, I will attempt to tell you more about the Chinese culture and how food is an integral part to the Chinese New Year celebrations here in Hong Kong. N.B. Before I start, I will only put translations next to some dishes, since I do not know all the names of the dishes in Cantonese (the other main language in Hong Kong, along with English). In Hong Kong, the biggest festival is the Chinese New Year, which usually takes place between January and February and lasts 15 days (the first 3 days are considered holidays, while the last day is considered to be "everyone's birthday, although this day is not an official holiday). Some people may know that this is the time where Chinese clean their houses until it is sparkling clean, while others might know that children get red packets from their aunts, grandparents, family friends and yes, parents. Oh, the streets are also covered in lots of decoration (think Christmas in the U.S.) and there are also a billion and one commercials telling people to have a great and prosperous New Year. Despite all this, I feel that one of the most important things about Chinese New Year is the food. The food that is specially made for the Lunar New Year (another name for Chinese New Year) is vitally important for the New Year, since the New Year is a chance where people enjoy huge feasts, socialize and pig out (seriously)! During a typical Chinese New Year lunch/dinner, there are a variety of different dishes, most notably, a dish known as nin gou. This is a Chinese version of pasta (no, this does not mean coated in meat sauce with the parmesan cheese on top!), and this "pasta" is drenched in soy sauce and mixed with other ingredients such as bamboo shoots, cabbage, pork and Chinese straw mushrooms. This is also probably the most mouthwatering dish available, and if you do come to Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year celebrations, make sure you get yourself to a restaurant that serves this! Another dish that is popular during this season is abalone with cabbage drenched in oyster sauce. Abalone is very expensive, and that is why most people only eat it at this time (at some restaurants, it can cost up to HK$1000, which is about US$130). When abalone is cooked, it is usually very chewy and tough, and the oyster sauce really helps add the flavor to the abalone and cabbage, and it makes this dish a truly appetizing one (despite the fact it might be frustrating trying to eat the abalone). This is also the time when people eat Shanghai crab (sorry, don't know the Cantonese term for this). These are steamed and once their steamed, you can eat it. There tends to be more meat inside male crabs rather than female crabs, and these are extremely filling and taste delicious just on its own without any sauce or seasoning (hell, I don't even like seafood!). Other dishes during Chinese New Year lunches/dinners include ju youk (stewed pork), goose giblets, jellyfish and soup with egg dumplings and vermicelli (the soup can be considered a 2nd course, since this usually comes in the middle of a meal). Now, you may be wondering, if there is so much during these big lunches and dinners, what is there for dessert? Surely a big feast is not complete with desserts! For dessert, people almost always have a dessert soup called tong yuen, which is a red bean dumpling soup with sticky rice. This can be served at breakfast as well, particularly on the first day, since drinking this for breakfast on this day is supposed to bring luck and make sure that you have a long life. Although I personally do not like it, most of you out there would probably enjoy drinking this soup for dessert. Chinese New Year is also known for its snacks. When people come to your house, you are usually expected to offer them little snacks you keep inside a container. You can generally put whatever candies and nuts you want, but pistachio nuts, watermelon seeds, Sugus sweets (chewy candy with flavors ranging from orange to pineapple to blackcurrant) and chocolates tend to be the most popular sweets in these containers. Some people even cook snacks for people. Basically, there are two types of snacks: nin gou (a different type of nin gou from the one mentioned above) and lo baat go. The "nin gou" here is extremely different from the one mentioned above. Although it is "New Year cake" when translated from Cantonese, it is a type of turnip cake that comes in two different flavors. One of them is white, and this means it is the regular nin gou, while the other one is a coconut/brown sugar flavored cake, and I prefer the latter to the previous (in other words, I like the brown one better than the white one). These are fried and coated in egg, which gives the "nin gou" a bit more flavor, and makes it all the more yummy (yes, lame word, I know). Lo baat gou is another type of New Year cake, which is made up of a pasty mix containing shrimp and Chinese sausage (which has a distinct bitter to sweet taste), and this is fried in oil. Despite the taste, this snack is addictive, and is extremely tasty! These two "snacks" can also be eaten during breakfast. And that's about it for this review. This is the type of food most will usually come across during Chinese New Year meals (especially in Hong Kong). I have actually just finished celebrating the first 3 days of the New Year, and I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed eating like a pig the last 3 days, and I'd advise all you people to come down here and try some of this food! Thanks for reading my review. Oh, and before I forget, here are the other participants of the Truth writeoff hosted by kuuleimomi (who, by the way, represented Russia) and copernicus (representing Australia). LamboLucifer of Germany hvojr of the USA, who represents Finland misstaegu of Korea JAME23 of Canada hadassahchana of Canada mattygroves of England ben-david of New Zealand MagnumForce of Canada nscanuck of Canada paulyoungotti of England shadow8 of the USA, who represents Hong Kong/China Divine_Cheese of England MariaEkaterina of Bulgaria/Korea Daniel_Rf of Portugal monssfisch of England/Japan amysmum of Scotland beasmith of Scotland cartman_2k of Norway Macondo of Spain/England cr01 of Wales elsa70 of Italy proxam of Scotland Petra of Germany aaliyahgirluk of the UK murpho of Ireland/the Netherlands ALawston of England smile2k1 of England CarolaLind of Sweden DavidMac of Canada mridula of India ezzuk of Denmark All the participants would also like to thank the following Americans: ed_grover, megugrrrl, girlboxer5, and TheUnknown285, for supplying the names of many of these "foreigners", and allowing us to take part in this writeoff. I have been proud to represent Hong Kong during this writeoff, and now, I am signing out.... So long.....  |
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