Chinese New Year 2012

Firstly, Happy New Year to all of you who celebrate the Chinese New Year! The Year of the Dragon should be an auspicious one and hopefully the year 2012 will be more upbeat worldwide than it was last year.

My friend CW was kind enough to invite me to her family's CNY dinner celebration. There were 11 adults and 2 kids and we had dinner at Chan's in Lindfield. I had not been there before but CW and her extended family have been there many times and know the proprietors of the restaurant well.

CW's Mum had pre-ordered the dishes so it was nice to sit back and not have to pore over the menu and decide on what to order. It was a nice and relaxing dinner.

CW had been busy trying out a favourite snack of mine, Bak Kua (in English it is called pork jerky). I really liked her version, the plate of Bak Kua she brought to the table was very popular and there was not a smidgen left. Yummy!

The very yummy Bak Kua!

The dishes that were served were:

Steamed vegetable dumplings - these were quite nice. I liked the intricate design of the dumpling edges.

Steamed vegetable dumplings

Peking duck - I always like having Peking duck. It is so synonymous with Chinese cuisine.

Peking duck

Lobster with noodles - I don't normally have lobster. I am more inclined to crabs but this is Chinese New Year, so nothing wrong at all with having lobster. The Chinese style of cooking lobster does add a lot of flavour to it. There is definitely a lot more meat in a lobster than in a crab.

Lobster with noodles

Then there were 2 dishes served at the same time. The first was a Braised pork hock dish with mushrooms and black moss seaweed and the other was Braised dried oysters with tongue and black moss seaweed. Admittedly I stayed away from the dried oysters and tongue. We all had some of the black moss seaweed (or fa cai in Cantonese) as this is a symbol of prosperity.

Braised pork hock

Braised dried oyster and tongue

Steamed parrot fish - light and fresh. A staple Chinese dish typically served with julliened ginger and spring onions.

Steam parrot fish

Peppered beef - I liked how tender the beef was.

Peppered beef

Fried chicken wings - CW had told me earlier in the evening that one of their most popular dishes was the fried chicken wings. Delicious! It was smoking hot and had lots of flavour. As the saying goes, they were finger licking good!

Fried chicken wings

The main courses ended with a plate of noodles. It is a tradition to have some of the noodles. The noodles represent longevity in life. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture but I think you get the gist!

For dessert, there were a couple of requests for fried ice cream and the rest of us had the sliced oranges with coconut jelly. Nice and refreshing way to end the meal.

Fried ice cream

Sliced oranges with coconut jelly

Thank you CW for inviting me to join your family to celebrate ushering in the new year. You are a good friend.