Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Year of the Horse everyone!

Susan Levitt says the following about this year: “The Wood Horse year is a time of fast victories, unexpected adventure, and surprising romance. It is an excellent year for travel, and the more far away and off the beaten path the better. Energy is high and production is rewarded.”IMG_20140201_153649

We have some high excitement and big plans for this year so we put a little extra ooomph into our Chinese New Year dinner.  Thought I should share the highlights with all of you.

Typically for a Chinese New Year dinner one eats “lucky” foods.  Or foods who’s names sound lucky.  Like this pile of delicious citrus.  “Gut” is Chinese for Mandarin Orange and its name sounds like the word for good fortune…  the bigger the “gut” the bigger the fortune.

We also made an Oyster and Tofu spicy soup. Oyster in Chinese is “Ho See” which sounds like “good deeds”.  And the ubiquitous steamed fresh fish.  The word for fish sounds like the word for riches or abundance.  Finally we made hours worth of lovingly hand crafted dumplings.  These Jiaozi are traditionally eaten over the New Year more for the shape than for the name.  The shape represents the new moon – as the Chinese traditionally follow a lunar calender the New Year always falls on a new moon.

Please enjoy these pictures.  If you have any questions or want recipes let me know in the comments. Wishing you all health, wealth and happiness! 🙂 Mara

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