Got Fish?
February 18, 2007On Chinese New Year’s Eve there are 3 big meals: 1) Breakfast at the usual time, 2) Lunch/Dinner at about 3:30 pm or so and 3) Late Dinner 10 pm or so. Alice’s Ma outdid herself with a great selection of dishes.
As good as the presentation is the taste is even better. Below is a shot of our 2nd meal of the day. Breakfast looked similar but with a few less dishes.
Notice that central in the table is a fish which is traditional to have for the New Year’s feast. They have a saying that equates with prosperity “Nian nian you yu” 
which basically means “Every Year may you have abundance in your life” The last character “yu” which means surplus or abundance has exactly the same pronunciation as the word for “fish” ergo you eat fish at New Year.
And the last shot is of us eating the late night dinner. We moved the table into the living room because Nathan was sleeping in a room next to the dining area and also we could watch the New Year’s Eve show on CCTV. Well .. they could watch it.
This meal was basically all the leftovers from previous meals with plates of hot steaming jiaozi (dumplings) added to the mix. There were three coins wrapped somewhere in the jiaozi which spell good fortune for those that get them (provided you don’t lose teeth biting the coin). The lucky winners were Alice’s sister-in-law, Alice’s niece and Alice. Yeah the menfolk were shut out this year.
