Chinese New Year is tomorrow and I am busy getting our home and family ready for the celebration this weekend.  I just finished my least favorite but very important preparation task, a thorough cleaning of our home to symbolize sweeping out or “cleansing” any misfortune or lingering bad luck from the current year.  Because it is such a thorough cleaning, I tend to start right after the American New Year, drag my heels a little, and finish right on Chinese New Year’s Eve.

Guidelines to Chinese New Year Cleaning

• Avoid sweeping during Chinese New Year season, Chinese New Year’s Eve to 15 days after Chinese New Year, especially the first three days because any upcoming good luck would be swept away.  If you absolutely must sweep, collect the dust in the corner to keep any good luck inside the house.
• Trash old and unused items.  This includes dated magazines and paper, clothing, toys, and expired food in your pantry.  Clean out the closets and garage.
• Clean sheets and towels.
• Repair or replace anything broken.  Everything from a squeaky door to a burnt lightbulb.  You don’t want anything weighing down any positive energy.

How I do My Chinese New Year Cleaning

• I use a vacuum and a microfiber mop to clean the floor.  Using a broom to sweep isn’t efficient for me and never feels quite as clean as a vacuum.  I usually clean the floor on New Year’s Eve and then do my best to hold off until after the first three days of New Year to clean again.  With two little ones always spilling and tracking dirt from outside, it can be very challenging.
• This is a thorough cleaning  so I make sure I go behind furniture, inside light fixtures, and around crown molding.  This is a great time to catch up on my backlog of podcasts and audiobooks.
• I try my best to organize, recycle, dispose of things as they come into our home.  Because the girls get toys all the time and need new wardrobes each season because they grow so fast, I put away and give away these things on a regular basis.  For the Chinese New Year cleaning, I focus on closets, the pantry, and junk drawers.
• Of course we all clean our sheets and towels on a regular basis.  This time of year, I do it all within a day or two.
• Anything important like a refrigerator, lightbulb, or television,would be fixed soon after it was broken.  Anything not very important like an alarm clock or play jewelry would probably find it’s way into a junk draw or closet and would be thrown away because it clearly is not a necessity.  I try my best to reserve this time to fix or replace things that don’t fall into either of these groups.  This year I replaced all our bed pillows because they were stained and the ends were tattered.

Did I miss anything?

Happy Cleaning,
The Dumpling Mama xo

source: Huffington Post 

We just had our Chinese New Year Eve reunion dinner to celebrate all of our accomplishments and close out the year.  It was a little early but with everyone’s schedules and my grandmother having a table available at her favorite restaurant, this was how we accommodated everyone.  Traditionally, children are suppose to return to their families.  I’m very fortunate to live close to my parents and grandparents so we are always able to celebrate reunion dinner together.

Reunion Dinner Symbolic Foods

Almost every dish eaten during reunion dinner has symbolic meaning or a name that sounds like the Chinese character for fortune, happiness, longevity, and prosperity.

• Specialty soup to represent one of the New Year themes, for example, bird’s nest soup for youthfulness and long life or shark’s fin soup for prosperity.
• Fish and poultry dishes are served whole with head and tail.  Using a knife is considered unlucky because it could sever the good fortune of an entire family.  Green vegetables are also served uncut.
• Green vegetables symbolize the freshness of “evergreen” and store good fortune in their roots.
• Uncut noodles to symbolize longevity and life.
• The meal usually contains eight dishes because “eight” (八, ba)  sounds like “prosper” (发, fa).
• An abundance of food is at dinner to ensure leftovers and symbolize an excess of good fortune in the new year.  The fish in particular is never completely eaten because it symbolizes prosperity.  Traditionally, no cooking is done on New Year’s Day so the leftovers from reunion dinner came in very handy.

Here is how my family celebrates reunion dinner.

My grandmother hosted reunion dinner at her favorite restaurant, Delight 28.  This restaurant has changed names throughout the years but the food has stayed delicious.  My grandfather also use to be an owner of a restaurant next store so coming to this location has a lot of history.

First, my mom hands out red envelopes to all of the serving staff to ensure the food in our reunion dinner will be extra delicious.

Growing up my mom or grandmother would cook this dinner but now it’s been easier to go out.  We’ll hang out with each other before and after dinner, and a few minutes before our reservation, we’ll walk over to the restaurant, eat a great dinner and not have to clean up.  Glorious!

This year my sister and her husband, Mike, were able to come in from Boston to join us for reunion dinner.  My Baby is still working on her posed smile.

We drank a fish stomach soup.  Fish stomach, or fish maw, is said to improve complexion, fertility and blood circulation.

Snails in black bean sauce.  My grandfather taught me to eat and love these.

Sizzling steak.

Bird’s nest.  This was the best looking dish at our meal.

Crispy skin chicken (complete with head and tail) with oyster chips on top.

For my family, this dinner is traditional because we come together and eat symbolic foods for fortune, happiness, and prosperity.  While we honor our culture, we also acknowledge our family in the world today and do things that are less traditional like choosing taste preference over symbolism.  Instead of ordering a whole fish complete with head and tail, we ordered a family favorite, black bean, ginger, scallion fish.

Once the food started to come out, there wasn’t much conversation, just a lot of chop stick clicking.

Honey walnut shrimp. This is a favorite dish of my Uncle Donald (my mom’s brother), Aunt May (his wife), and Cousin Jennie (their daughter).  In this dish, the shrimp are usually coated with mayonnaise but we always ask for it on the side which I’ve heard taste much better (I’m unfortunately allergic to shrimp).

One of our long life noodle dishes was stir-fried cellophane or glass noodles.  We don’t usually order this dish in the restaurant but we might start because it was amazingly good.  It was my favorite dish of the whole meal.

Peking pork chop.  This restaurant does it the best.

Buddhist delight wraps.

Of course, lobster!  Complete with head and tail.

Lots of leafy green vegetables.  This was just one of the four vegetable dishes.

Our second long life noodle dish, mushroom noodles.

Then there was a break for some silly time.  My girls love Cousin Jennie.  She has new, cool, brown hair.

For dessert, we had oranges.

They were so sweet the girls just wanted more and more.

Finally, the sweet red bean soup.  My Baby could drink everyone’s bowl if we let her.

One other less-traditional aspect of our dinner is we have way more then eight dishes.  There were probably closer to eighteen (haha!).  There were fourteen of us at dinner so eight dishes would not be enough to feed my hungry family.

Wow, just writing this makes me full all over again from eating all of the food.  Do you have any favorite dishes from Chinese New Year Eve reunion dinner?

Cheers to all our accomplishments this year,
Chrissy xo

I grew up in upstate New York, about three hours north of NYC, with my parents and siblings. The rest of my family lived in NYC so we were always visiting for holidays, birthdays, summer or when we had time off from school. We, of course, would come down to celebrate Chinese New Year with our family, and go home with a car full of chickens, fish, vegetables, fruit, candies, calendars, and decorations. We would spend the next week or so eating all of the traditional Chinese New Year foods. I distinctly remember the bags of oranges, tangerines, and the huge pomelo. There were always multiple bags and each of the bags were completely filled. My mom would give some of the oranges and tangerines away, the tangerines with stems would be placed on top of the TV and stove, and the rest we ate for what seemed like forever. The amazing thing is my grandmother through her 70’s (she is now in her 80’s) would somehow carry these heavy bags of fruits from the market to her home for us.

Chinese Word Symbolism (the reason why you see these fruits everywhere during Chinese New Year)

• Oranges (橘, ju) is similar to the Chinese word for lucky (or gold/wealth) (聚, ju).
• Tangerines (桔, ju) is similar to the Chinese word for luck (吉, ji).
• Pomelo (油字, you zi), the largest citrus fruit that tastes like a grapefruit, symbolizes abundance because it’s Chinese character sounds like “to have” (有, you).

What I Do

• About 2 weeks before Chinese New Year I buy:
  1.  a pomelo
  2. at least 12 oranges
  3. at least 12 tangerines
  4. tangerines with stems (few days before New Year’s Day). I buy a pair for each place I want to put them. For example, I want to put them on top of the TV and the stove, so I buy 4.  Note: try to buy the ones with the healthiest looking leaves.  If you don’t, by the time New Year’s day comes, your leaves will be dried out (like mine pictured above).

• I arrange oranges, tangerine and the pomelo in a fruit bowl. Oranges and tangerines on the bottom, pomelo on top.
• We try to eat oranges and tangerines everyday until days or a week after Chinese New Year (to keep the Chinese New Year luck going as long as possible). I buy more if I run out.
• Whenever we visit with friends and family, I try to give oranges and tangerines.

Rules to Keep in Mind

• DO buy tangerines with leaves because the leaves represent longevity. Use them for home decoration and gifts.
• DO serve oranges and tangerines at the end of a meal because their sweetness represents luck.
• DO bring oranges and tangerines as gifts when visiting family and friends.  The bright orange color symbolizes gold, luck, and wealth.
• DON’T serve or give 4 oranges or tangerines because the number 4 (四, si) sounds like the word for death (死, si).  Avoid giving any number with a 4 in it, like 14 or 40.  Give 2, 6, 8, 9 because these are all lucky numbers.
• DO use decorations with oranges and tangerines as a symbol of good luck.

What do you do with your lucky fruits?

The Dumpling Mama xo

We just got back from a wedding in New Orleans.  My Grouchy Husband has a lot of family in New Orleans and Cousin Linda’s son, Daniel, got married.  Uncle Frank and Aunt Sue are Linda’s parents.  They love to cook and eat, and have always treated me like family even before I was dating my Grouchy Husband.  When my Grouchy Husband and I lived in New Orleans during college, we would regularly visit them and they would always ask, “Are you hungry?”.  It didn’t matter what state our hunger was in, out of respect, we always said yes.  Everything they cook is so delicious and in their amazing kitchen or outdoor grill they would feed us.  And on the very rare occasion they didn’t have food in the house, they would take us out to eat.  While in New Orleans for the wedding, we ate multiple times in their home.  I ate raw oysters, fried oysters, soft shell crab, fish, gumbo, roast beef, all of my favorites.  The smoked drum fish was unbelievable.

Asking “Are you hungry?”, is a way for Chinese people, especially elders, to show their care and consideration.  Acknowledging their offer, eating their food and joining them for a meal is a show of respect, and a way to reciprocate your care and consideration.  Many of these elders came from small villages in China where food was not abundant.  Providing food to eat would make someone happy by taking care of their health and overall well-being.

I’ve been asked this question not necessarily during a meal time, sometimes not a single pot was on the stove, sometimes not even near a kitchen.  It doesn’t matter if I just finished a 10-course Chinese banquet meal, the respectful response is always “yes”.  The Chinese culture is not known for its verbal expression so I’m happy to show that I care by eating. Easy enough even though it might not always be easy to work off my hips (but that’s a story for another day).

Uncle Frank and Aunt Sue have always been so good to me.  They have always asked if I was hungry, fed me while I was in college and are still feeding me today.  I look forward to spending time with them and eating their food. I love that I have found a way to show how much I care for them.

Always Hungry,
The Dumpling Mama xo

Chopsticks are the most important utensil in my kitchen.  I use them to eat, to cook, to stir my tea, to hold up the lid of my pots when I make bone broth, to do everything.  You can buy very expensive and elaborate chopsticks but I prefer them plain and wooden.  I love when the ends start to get really dark from frequent use.

History

• Chinese people have been using chopsticks for over 5,000 years.  First, as a cooking utensil, then for eating.
• Around 400 BC there was a population boom across China that severely impacted resources. Cooks were forced to chop food into smaller pieces so it would cook faster and use less fuel.  This was a perfect size for tweezer like chop sticks to pick up food.
• In 1878, Japan created disposable chopsticks, typically made of wood or bamboo. You can find them today in Asian sit-down and take-out restaurants.
• The chinese characters for chopsticks are, 筷子, pronounced kaui zi, translated as small piece-picker-uppers, or quick fellows, or fast sticks.

What Chopsticks are Made of

• Common materials are bamboo, wood, plastic.
• Wealthy ate with chopsticks made of ivory (before the worldwide ban), jade, coral, brass, agate (silica found in volcanic rock).
• Most privileged ate with chopsticks made of silver. The emperors of China preferred silver chopsticks because it was said they would turn black when they touched poison. This went untested because all emperors had royal food tasters who would first eat the food.  We now know that silver has no reaction to poisons like arsenic or cyanide but can change color if it comes in contact with garlic, onions, or rotten eggs.
• More ornate chopsticks can have carved or printed dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, lions, or Chinese zodiac animals at the top.

Interesting Facts

• The use of knives became obsolete with the growing use of chopsticks to pick up smaller food pieces and the non-violent teachings from the philosopher, Confucius.  He thought the sharp point of a knife evoked violence and warfare, killing the happy mood during meals.   It is believed this is why Chinese chopsticks are blunt on the ends.
• Chinese chopsticks are rounded, more blunt-tipped, less decorated, and longer then the Japanese chopsticks.  One reason is the Japanese dine on individual small dishes served right in front of them.  The Chinese eat family style and have to reach for food up to an arms length away.  The Japanese consider chopsticks an art form admired for their beauty and utility.  The Chinese value chopsticks as a utility first.

Chinese superstitions

• The position a girl holds her chopsticks can show how far she will have to travel to find her husband.  If a girls holds her chopsticks at the top, her future husband will live far away.  If she holds them close to the bottom, she may marry the boy next store.
• Dropping chopsticks will bring bad luck.

Chopstick Etiquette

• If you are dining with family or very close friends, it is acceptable to serve yourself or others with your chopsticks.  Elders should always be served first and the best pieces of food as a sign of respect and love.
• If you are dining with acquaintances or new friends, use serving chopsticks and spoons for serving.  If there are no serving utensils, your chopsticks can be used upside down for serving.
• DO hold your rice bowl close to your mouth and use chopsticks to push rice and food into your mouth.
• DO rest your chopsticks next to your bowl if you are taking a rest from eating.
• DO rest your chopsticks on top of your bowl if you are finished eating.
• DO wait for elders to pick up their chopsticks before picking up your own.
• DO teach your children how to use chopsticks correctly.  It reflects badly on the parents when they do this incorrectly because it is the parent’s responsibility to teach the child.
• DON’T stand chopsticks up in a rice bowl.  This resembles incense sticks at a funeral.
• DON’T spear food with your chopsticks.
• DON’T use your chopsticks to search through a platter of food to find something in particular.  This is sometimes called grave digging.

Did I miss anything?

Chrissy xo