At the Spring Festival, people around China have their own ways of spending their most treasured time in a whole year. However, regretfully, I cannot make a return to China this year and get around with my whole family. So I decided to spend time visit some friends in Boston for a gathering and it was a really great time because we cooked together.
The pictures showing below are part of the dishes I made for the home-cooking Spring Festival meal. And I would love to have a brief introduction to each of them.
The first is the dumpling, of course, the symbol of Spring Festival. The interesting I want to stress here is that China has divided into two parts where are northern and southern. Actually, the traditions of eating dumplings are only for northerners because southerners eat different kinds of main dishes during this Festival. Since I was from the north, Beijing, we made dumplings for the festival.
Second is the salted duck eggs with the shrimp. It actually has a better name in Chinese 金沙虾球, however, it is hard to explain or translate this name to English. The dish is mainly two parts: salted duck eggs’ yolks and the shrimp with starch and broccoli. I will not discuss the taste but it is sure in heaven even I surprised myself.
There is also a tradition that dishes in the Spring Festival must contain fish, shrimp, many kinds of seafood and meats. So except the shrimp, I also cooked a fish and some wines for my friends. The wines in China is really different from in the U.S because people never fried or baked one, rather they cook them with frying technique using cola and peanut oil. This technique makes more aromas of flavorings of the wines but not with unhealthy ones.
The last is the beef which is called 金汤肥牛, it is the symbol of beef dishes in China. With Flammulina velutipes, the fungi, the taste of the beef is more like a soup that between hot and sweet. The making process is relatively long and complex but the taste is definitely worthed it.
No matter how many dishes or how good it takes for a favor, the whole point of the festival is a reunion and sitting crumbly with families in a big table. Although this year I did not get any families or relatives, I and my friends had a great time spending the first lunar new year together with joy and love.