it's the year of the dragon

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

or as they would say it in korean :  

새해 복 많이 받으세요! 

(i'm trying to learn korean, so i am gonna try to include it wherever i can! haha)

it's the year of the dragon this year!

it's times like these that i miss home and sadly it almost doesn't quite feel like lunar new year here just for the simple reason that it isn't celebrated here in the US except for maybe in chinatown and argyle. my friends invited me for lunch yesterday, which at first, i almost didn't want to go because of the cold winter day but i thought it might be nice to have hang out with friends on cny eve. 

my family sent me a cny card!

i cooked my own cny eve dinner and it had to be a good number of dishes (just due to personal superstition and beliefs) so i made three dishes (it was either that or 6,7,8,9 which might be too much for one person to consume). 

the number 3 (三, pinyin: sān, jyutping: saam) sounds similar to the character for "birth" (生, pinyin: shēng, jyutping: saang), and is considered a lucky number

-wikipedia

so it had to be my mom's traditional shrimp dish and i decided on a fish which symbolizes "abundance". i was ecstatic when i found silver promphet fish which i've always remember having for every cny dinner and i made it as close as i could to what my mom's made in the past. third was a chicken dish, similar to what my mom would make but put a personal spin to it (by taking some elements from my dad's special soup which its recipe has been handed down through generations - that he only makes for cny) 

it wasn't the nine dishes that my parents cooked for their reunion dinner (my mom called and i asked how many dishes they made this year and it was their usual 9) but it was good enough. hehe :) if you are interested, 9 symbolizes harmony or longevity.

 

anywho, i will be sharing the chicken and the shrimp recipe sometime in the near future so keep checking whenever you can :)

i wish everyone a healthy, prosperous chinese new year! i hope for a great year ahead.  

gong hei fatt choy !!^^

(angpau, please! hehe)

<3 you all :)

p.s. my mom called me last night and this was part of our phone conversation.. apparently my sister sent me a card which i am still anticipating for because.....
mom : oh, your sisters sent you a cny card. 
me: oh really? that's really nice of them,
mom: your second sister also enclosed two slices of 'bakgua'. she hopes that might entice you to come home. 
me: umm...
my mom: she said that you would probably eat small pieces over a longer period of time and savor it since there isn't much of it. *laughs*
me: -.- unfortunately, that is probably true...
*if you are wondering what 'bakgua' is.. it's chinese salty-sweet dried meat product akin to jerky... i have to admit that my sisters know me too well sometimes >.< <3 you sis!