Eve of CNY dinner was at the girls’ grand uncle’s house as usual. After a ‘big meat big fish’ dinner (in Cantonese, it literally means a lavish dinner consisting of mainly meat and fish), which is customary of the Chinese, we had the usual ang pow giving and photography session.
Below – Cass receiving an ang pow from her favorite grand uncle.
On the first day of CNY, it is by custom meat-free for half a day.
My first assignment of the day was to tie knots on dried golden needle vegetables — a bowl full of ’em!
Golden needle vegetable is just one of the key ingredients in the ‘chai choy’ (Chinese vegetarian dish), traditionally eaten on the first day of Chinese New Year. It is not vegetable but is the edible species of a flower’s bud. It is called ‘gum jum choi’ (written as 金針菜 in Chinese), literally golden needle vegetable.
Below – the mil’s ‘chai choy’. She woke up very early today to prep the ingredients. This dish is labour-intensive with lots of washing, chopping and of course frying it. After prepping this, she went for her usual morning swim. After her swim, she fried a big pot of ‘chai choy’, which would last us for 3 meals on the first day of CNY. We all had our brunch at 10:30am, which is a tradition of the family.
I’d like to wish all my Chinese readers and those celebrating this festival “Koong Hei Fatt Choy”, good health, good wealth and an abundance continuous flow of happiness all year round!
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