Chinese New Year

'On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies.' (Wikipedia, 'Chinese New Year', 2010)

Focus on the word 'feast' in this Wikipedia entry for 'Chinese New Year' in Wikipedia. This is exactly what my 6th floor Churchill House Kitchen had last night. Today is the Chinese New Year, the most important of traditional Chinese holidays. It is also referred to as the 'Lunar New Year' because it is based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. The importance of this holiday was reflected in the magnitude that it was celebrated at Richmond place yesterday and today. The kitchens all throughout Res are plastered in a vast array of flashy bright red and yellow paper decorations, coupled with endless steamers full of dumplings and dishes of sweet meats.

Geng, a Chinese Phd student living across the hall from me suggested that the hall celebrate Chinese New Year together (I think Geng was beginning to worry about the fact that he has never seen me use the stove or oven to prepare a meal...the sad truth is that the microwave, Tesco roast chickens, and take-out Beetlejuice and Kilmanjaro are my usual meal options). There are 3 other Chinese students on the hall, so they offered to cook while Becks, Jess, and I offered our services to provide an American dessert. The food was incredible. Ling made homeade turkey dumplings. I was offered to roll out a few, but remembering back to my tortilla making abilities (or rather lack thereof) in Guatemala two years ago, I politely declined, stating that I was doing everyone a favor by just watching...! Geng was the master chef of the event, preparing a roast leg of lamb (Note: Geng prepared for this day at LEAST a month in advance. He made 3 full roast legs of lamb in the preceding month to make sure he would get it right for the actual feast day), a delectable fish dish, and mussels. Yin-Hu made what to me tasted like sweet BBQ chicken and Jacqueline (a welcome guest from the other 6th fl kitch) brought Asian lettuce wraps. As you can probably imagine, we ate for hours. And hours. And then continued to eat. I strategically wore a jumper-dress so as my stomach expanded, it would not be confined by tight waistbands :-)

The best part about the evening though was getting to know the Chinese students on the hall and learning about such a significant tradition in their culture. I loved hearing stories about how Chinese New Year is celebrated within each of my friend's families and getting the opportunity to replicate some of those halfway across the world in Edinburgh.