Enter the Tiger…and Cupid

Grrr….. the tiger is all the rage here. Feb. 14 is the big day – the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year and 2010 is the year of the tiger, an animal that is both feared and admired. Tiger traits: courage, power, and passion. Of course it’s also Valentine’s Day!
As is generally known, there are 12 animal signs in the Chinese zodiac. You’re a tiger if you’re born in 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 and 2010. We have a daughter who’s a tiger!
Just as Christmastime is very busy in the U.S. here it’s the Lunar New Year. There’s a frenzy of buying and selling. Instead of presents, children and unmarried people get red packets filled with cash from their elders. Special New Year foods including cakes and sweets are available in shops and many cheerful red banners and decorations are sold by roadside vendors.
Temples are also busy places at this time, as people visit to ask for favors from the gods – good luck, good health, prosperity, success in a new business and such. We toured the Wong Tai Sin Temple one afternoon. This happens to be one of the most popular temples in this city and all the three main religions in China – Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism are practiced here. We particularly enjoyed the quiet gardens in the back, far from the madding crowd. The temple is very colorful – bright red pillars, yellow and green roofs with intricate carvings and lovely green lattice work. There’s a unique wall sculpture featuring nine dragons that we simply had to capture on camera. The dragon of course is very revered in Chinese tradition. During the Year of the Dragon, birth rates often spike! Everyone wants a dragon baby!

It’s almost time for me to start preparing dinner in our very small kitchen, which only has two burners and no oven. Even our closet is larger than the kitchen! We bought a couple of new pots and things to do some cooking ourselves. Tonight, I’ll make Chinese green vegetables and tofu in a light sauce and a spicy chicken to go with it. We’ll eat it with plain rice. Thankfully, there’s a rice cooker here.
My plans to formally learn some Chinese vegetarian cooking are fast fading. Too long a train ride to do this and also there’s the language barrier. I’m told there are classes in English – but I’m busy enough and may or may not pursue this. We shop for food at the supermarket but also very much enjoy shopping for fresh vegetables in the “wet market”—stalls that sell fresh produce and live seafood. This may not be for everyone. The smells and sights can be quite overpowering! The produce is very plentiful – the usual suspects like apples, Asian pears, oranges and more exotic varieties like custard apples, star fruit, dragon fruit, local guavas etc look very attractive piled up. But there’s also delicacies like “100” year preserved eggs (actually preserved for 100 days), live crustaceans squirming and thrashing about. My favorite is the vegetable stands – lovely oyster mushrooms, greens of all shades, bitter gourds, slim cucumbers, fat carrots, etc. etc. The stallholders have fun with us – and are very obliging. They often throw in extra sprigs of spring onion or such with our purchases. It’s hard to go wrong with such wonderful ingredients. I’ve been making up recipes and you’ll have to ask Bob how they taste! He has been cooking too and always does it well.
Till the next time, Kong Si Fatt Choy (HAPPY NEW YEAR) AND HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!