2019 Chinese New Year is just over. Today is the 10th of January in Chinese calendar. It's time to summarize my eating history over the festival.
On day 5 of CNY, nine of us went to cinema at Time Square and had dinner after. As I said in my last post, I love siu mei, so do many of us. So we had three in a row - roasted pork (char siu), goose and chicken. I must say siu mei is widely available in Hong Kong, but good quality ones are rare, especially char siu. The one here served on hot plate is one of the best among what I have ever had.
Noodle and Rice are always our favorites.
This fried rice has used dry oyster (which means good business). It is a very popular ingredient during Chinese New Year.
Vegetables are musts as a matter of balance diet. At Chinese New Year, the chef has made use of the salty egg yolk to create a sense of gold and the color was very beautiful. In fact there were also millennium eggs in this dish.
Dinner Venue: Chung's Kitchen, 12/F Time Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Note: To my surprise, this restaurant does not charge any service fee!
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On the New Year day, my brother took us out for dinner. This was the fish that I want to highlight. I live in Hong Kong, fish dishes are nothing new to me. But I must say this one was very unusual. It's the tail of a giant grouper.
Estimated from the size of the tail, I think the whole fish may be over 1 meter long and weighted 15 kg. It was slow cooked with some tofu sheets and roasted pork and served on hot pot. The waiting time was a bit long but we all thought it deserved. There were big lumps of meat which made us fully satisfied. Although there were bones, but they were big and easy to be identified. Even I don't really like fish bones, I love this giant grouper very much.
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We eat a lot of puddings 糕 over Chinese New Year. 糕 sounds like 'growth' and it carries very good and positive meaning and that's why they are so popular during CNY.
Most puddings are sweet but turnip pudding is savory. We make them at home and very often make some extra for our relatives and friends. Below is the home-made turnip pudding gift from my friend. The basic ingredients are generally preserved sausages (lap cheung), preserved meat and dry shrimps. We can add others per our personal tastes. My friend knows that I love abalone, so you can see there was one in the middle, and there were slices of dry scallops as well.
There are different ways to re-heat turnip pudding, steam, pan fry, stir fry or micro wave. But I like none of them. I usually make them at home and eat fresh from the steamer. I must say this is the best way to eat turnip pudding. But this one was from a friend, so I had to re-heat by steaming which is rather environmental and healthy.
Cassian Flower Pudding 桂花糕
This is the sweet pudding which is somehow jelly like and generally served as cold cut. It was the dessert at my year-end family gathering dinner.
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We also eat a lot of sweet dumplings 湯丸 around Chinese New Year, either home-made or at restaurants. 湯丸 and 團圓 (gathering, everybody meets each other) sound very similar, and this is the reason why they are popular around new year time.
Here are the two types of sweet dumplings that I had this year.
擂沙湯丸 is always my favorite. They are served warm with very fine sugary coating. This was from my new-year-eve dinner at New Shanghai Restaurant at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
This is another type of sweet dumpling which I forgot the name. Sweet dumplings are sticky, with or without fillings. This one has some roasted ground peanuts as the coating, also served warm. They were made to order, so there was a little waiting time. This was from the new year evening dinner that my brother bought us.
After Binge Eating...
So what would you do after binge eating? My answer is 'fasting'.
If you have ever read my post of "Why I Set Up This Food Blog", you will know that I generally eat one meal a day (OMAD). If you do an internet search of OMAD, you will know that it is a very popular eating pattern nowadays.
After the heavy eating days, I went on a 40-hour fast and have successfully completed. I finished dinner at Thursday (Feb 7) night, and resume eating on Saturday (Feb 9) lunch. That way I have had a full day of Friday to let my body and the digestive system a good rest.
Now I feel comfortable. I went on the scale and gained nothing.
Hong Kong Food Blog - Chinese New Year 2019
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