19 February 2010
YEAR OF THE TIGER
Chinese New Year is perhaps the most auspicious and important time on the calendar. The celebrations last for fifteen days from the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar until the Lantern Festival 15 days later. It’s time to clean the house, greet friends and feast on special foods that will bring good luck.
In honour of Chinese New Year the NZ Guild of Food Writers (I am the current president) held a traditional New Year Banquet at Grand Harbour restaurant in Auckland’s Viaduct Basin. We planned the dinner to be a cultural learning experience, especially important for us, as predictions are that in six years time every third person residing in Auckland will be of Asian origin and the majority of the group will be Chinese.
Our dinner was an unqualified success. Everyone wore something red, to symbolise the importance of the occasion and to bring luck. Tables were garnished with boxes of sweets and oranges, and as president (supposedly the most important guest) I was given special sweets to bring me the gift of a son in the forthcoming year - I hope it’s a grandson, not a son, and you never know as my son is getting married next week!
Every dish served had special significance and many of the dishes are served specifically for New Year. The twelve course menu was amazing, and a far cry from what most of us would ever order if presented with the wide choice that such large restaurants as Grand Harbour offer to diners.
My favourites were the braised pork tongue slices with dried oysters and black moss, a huge braised crayfish on a bed of tasty e-fu noodles, stir fried scallops in XO Sauce with crispy milk fritters (just wonderful) and a large packet of steamed duck and mushroom rice wrapped in a lotus leaf, which has a small version that I always order as Yum Char lunch. Jenny Yee Collinson, a long time Guild member and expert on Asian cookery explained each dish to us, and half way through the evening a traditional Lion Dance was performed. How the lion manoeuvred through and around the tables, I’m not sure, but all diners presented the dancers with a lucky red packet in appreciation.
Our dinner finished with Chinese New Year dessert cake, sweet, sticky and superb. I think we will be making this an annual event.
(thanks to William Chen for photo)