Food Palettes of the (Chinese Lunar Holidays)

Wikipedia.. (Chinese New Year, a.k.a. Spring Festival (Simplified Chinese: 春节; Traditional Chinese: 春節; pinyin: Chūn jié) or the Lunar New Year (Simplified Chinese: 农历新年; Traditional Chinese: 農曆新年; pinyin: Nóng lì xīn nián), is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. The festival proper begins on the first day of the first lunar month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival (Simplified Chinese: 元宵节; Traditional Chinese: 元宵節; pinyin: yuánxiāojié). Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chúxì (除夕). Chu literally means "change" and xi means "Eve".)
It is unclear when the beginning of the year was celebrated before the Qin Dynasty. It is possible that the beginning of the year began with month 1 during the Xia Dynasty, month 12 during the Shang Dynasty, and month 11 during the Zhou Dynasty in China[citation needed]. We know that intercalary months, used to keep the lunar calendar synchronized with the sun, were added after month 12 during both the Shang Dynasty (according to surviving oracle bones) and the Zhou Dynasty (according to Sima Qian). The first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang changed the beginning of the year to month 10 in 221 BC. Whether the New Year was celebrated at the beginning of month 10, of month 1, or both is unknown. In 104 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established month 1 as the beginning of the year, where it remains."

The official start of festive celebrations is marked by the Reunion Dinner, which is held on New Year's Eve where members of the family, near or far, get together for celebration. By tradition the dinner prepared is out of the ordinary and by standard sumptuous enough to please the god's. It is believed that the god's on the eve of New Year come down to visit, thus the reason one prepares a numbers of dishes to please the god's...the more pleased you make the god's the better chances one gets the luck and prosperity in the year.

This is the best part I love about the Lunar festive holidays "FOOD" & not to forget ANG PAO...on the menu you have soup, fish, and vegetables as a staple that one prepares for the dinner...ahhhhh here is one color of my favorites..the mixed fish ball sea cucumber and abalone soup.. take a close look at the picture see the chunks of sea cucumber? .... oohhh lalala..just mouth watering...and thats only one of the dishes ;) now am starting to get hungry. ...undescribably...all i can just say "heavenly" it's true! is tradition states that the food to be preapared for Lunar New Year should be fit for the god's....then it really is heavenly...oh this was prapared by my brother in law..."The Archangel Sir Michael"....if he is the archangel ? then who am I? heheheheh guess again.....hint! ....I got horns and a tail....;) "HELL BOY" ! WRONG!!!! guess again. Better i just not say....

Wonder what this is?..... its raw Sea Cucumber...just about to cut..used for the soup.

Next we have "Ching Tng" (tzing tu-ng) what is it?...sorry the picture may not be too clear..but let me just decribe to you this mouth watering dessert..the soup is made out of raw sugar nectar...then added with dried Longans, Lotus nuts, Gingko seeds, and dried Persimon which is then simmered in the raw sugar nectar till it is soft...then some agar shreds are added for the final touch..(another master piece of "Archangel") ....simply irresistible..fantastic. Robert Palmer ;) Awesome!!! guess..... ok Shark's Fin soup...i hope i don't get to offend the Greenpeace fellows or other naturalists...I myself i'm an "Eco-conservationalist" ....but like i said no devil is perfect ...who can resist shark's fin soup?...let not be a hypocrit here...if there is shark's fin soup around..i would eat it..specially when its free...hay good food gone to waste is not right...i hope the naturalists dont bash my site with all the ~!@@#$%*(^&)** yah know what i mean...
No Offence meant! so chill

Ahhhhhhhhh lovely...stir fry mixed vegetables...Chinese new year's eve dinner can never be without asparagus, broccoli, (it is a must to have vegetable on the menu perse'....not to all Chinese by the way..but it is common to Singaporeans...) this stir fry dish as you can see the baby corn, plump scallops and prawns is a real delight...btw the more types of veggies mixed the better...(significance of prosperity)

There is one traditional dish that is usually cooked although it is not seen here..but just want to mention it for some info interest..it is an elaborate vevetarian dish called Buddha's delight ...(Traditional Chinese: 羅漢齋; Simplified Chinese: 罗汉斋; pinyin: luóhàn zhāi), comprising 18 ingredients, is sometimes served by Chinese families on the eve and the first day of the New Year. A type of black hair-like moss, pronounced "fat choy" in Cantonese, is also featured in Buddha's delight and other dishes, since its name sounds similar to "prosperity.". Hakkas usually serve kiu nyuk (扣肉) and ngiong tiu fu.
.....and one must not miss to serve prawns..well probably i guess thats why prawns are usually always a staple in the dinner menu...is due to its bright red or orangy color...which is significant to gold or wealth in Chinese tradition.

this particular prawn dish is simple and the labor artwork of "Storm"....hmmmm must be thinkin the X'MEN huh...WRONG again...lol, ok as i was saying it is a simple dish of prawn which was cooked with butter and garlic... "Gambas al ajo" (spanish)

here is a scene of the dinning table starting to fill up with all the food being prepared for the New Year's Eve reunion dinner, it is tradition that one prepares a minimum of seven dishes for the dinner, yes thats right 7, the more one can prepare the better...and this goes on to even the 3rd day of the new year...each day a different set of dishes....you may think that it is a waste....No it is not...it is only once in a year that you can have as much left over's you can....Chinese culture believe that (remainder food) surplus..as the Chinese phrase 年年有餘 (nián nián yǒu yú), which means "may there be surpluses every year", sounds the same as "may there be fish every year."

another tradition on CNY is the baking of homemade pastries...it is with proud joy that one makes specially baked goodies as a token of give away gifts to family and friends....when given home baked goodies during the festive season...it is a gesture to convey that you are family or a very close family friend...the goodies you see were baked by "Storm"...they are pineapple tartlets..simlessly magnificent...my info serves that "Storm" baked over a thousand of this tartlets....the first 500 was in practice mode until perfection came naturally ;) ....personally the giving of home baked goodies gives the feeling of being an aficionado...it does not apply only to the festive CNY but i must say that it applies to all occasions...that when given something homemade or by the labor of love it makes you feel important and special....

here are more goodies to see...ahhh but this are the commercial goodies that you can buy every CNY.... speaking of which...."what do you do when you don't have the time to do all this baking due to your daily buzz of life?" share you a hideous secret... hehe well if you can't do the baking personally best and fastest way to personalize your give away goodies is to buy and repack them into personalized containers ;) LOL ...but be sure when you do this...make sure you know what you are doing and know the ingredients by heart so not to get caught .... be pretty sure that you yourself know how to cook at all or you "peng san" when they start saying how nice the goodies your make and say how long did it take you to bake ;) ......well i just do that when i get to forget about someone on my list ....that the 911 operandi to save the day.....well you can do that also to your boss ......hahahahaha make your boss feel special even you actually want to puke at the sight of him...oh oh strike that out..anyway like at the end of the day it always is the thought that counts..right ;)....

I wish i could just continue on about the food colors and traditions of Chinese New Year...but i guess there is just so much to cover about it...the best is for one to experience straight hand what this festive celebration is all about..for one to understand its true meaning..until then GONG XI FA CAI.........