Lunar New Year: The year of the tiger is here and I got to ring it in with my family over a few special meals. For one meal, my aunt taught us how to make the most flavourful savoury sticky rice. We also experimented with making a version of the sweet rice dumplings using purple sweet potato. What a beautiful natural colour! And since it has been a curiosity of mine to try a special Hakka celebration dish called “poon choi”, my family generously obliged since I’m back so rarely. It’s basically a giant basin dish filled with layers of vegetables, seafood and meat covered with a rich broth. We finally tried it this year, and I got a delicious taste of my ethnic roots. We later broke out a hand carved set of mahjong. Good thing we played just for fun cause my cousins got me good.
At a different meal, my sister beautifully prepared a giant red snapper that my brother-in-law went across town especially to get. Meanwhile I had fun making a baked version of leen goh (new year cake) with plump goji berries for that pop of red. In addition to all of us sporting some kind of red clothing, my nieces were gifted with adorable hand sewn tiger (lion) sweaters. We couldn't resist snapping numerous photos to commemorate the occasion.
This was a LNY for the memory book.
