Happy "Moooo" Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, which farewelled the Year of the Rat and welcomed in the Year of the Ox. For Chinese people in New Zealand, especially in Auckland, Chinese New Year coincided with Auckland Anniversary Day, a public holiday for Aucklanders. So on New Years Eve, which is Sunday 25th January, Chinese people can stay up as late as they want and party the night away, or, more precisely, welcome in the new year.

The usual routine for me on Chinese New Year is to get together with family, and have a big feast on good Chinese cuisine. Red packets are also given out to the young ones, mostly containing an amount of money. I'm glad to say that I still benefit from receiving red packets from my grandma and a few of my uncles and aunties.

But not anymore! Since I moved to the UK, what can I do for Chinese New Year? No family to celebrate it with, no friends close by to hang out with - it seemed like a pretty quiet, even depressing, one for me. Especially coming from a person who is truly westernised. And worst of all, no red packets! This would probably be the first Chinese New Year where I have not received a single red packet!

I looked up the Internet to see what was going on in London on Chinese New Years Eve. Unfortunately there were no shows or performances happening on Sunday 25th, and quite rightly so. The proper tradition on New Years Eve is to feast with the family. And I had to be reminded about that too (thanks Conny). I guess it shows that I'm far too westernised to even know what exactly goes on during Chinese New Year.

So where does that leave me? There were no shows to watch, no family to feast with, no friends to hang out with, it seemed like it was going to be dull one.

It was anything but.

To put Chinese New Year aside, one of the things that I resolved to do each and every year was to learn how to cook properly. I'm not talking about boiling rice, eggs, or instant noodles. I'm talking about making proper meals for two or more people, and with a bit of style thrown in, a la Gordon Ramsay, Peter Gordon and the Naked Chef himself. Back in New Zealand, I was still living with my parents, so obviously they did most (okay, nearly all) of the cooking in the house. But now that I'm living on my own, I have had to resurrect those dormant cooking skills that I picked up in Form 1 primary school, and those useful bits of cooking information imparted by my folks. It was mostly just "watch and learn", and I'd usually just stand in the kitchen looking really dumb and confused.

In the first few weeks of living on my own here in the UK, I usually ate a microwave meal, or something simple, like instant noodles, boiled rice, a fried egg, etc. But even 10 year olds can do that. And it's not exactly healthy either. So if I was living on that stuff since the day I arrived in the country, what are the chances I could prepare a reasonable Chinese meal, fit for consumption on Chinese New Years Eve and look just as good, if not better, than the stuff I used to eat at home? The immediate answer would be no chance.

But it appears that I managed to prove myself wrong. Since I knew I was going to stay at home on Chinese New Year, I resolved to cook a Chinese feast. On the day before Chinese New Years Eve, I went to the local Morrisons supermarket to buy ingredients. It's amazing what you can find if you open your eyes in supermarkets a little more. I managed to find an entire section just for Chinese food. Soy sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, black bean sauce, and a plethora of other cooking ingredients to add a taste of China to your meal. I also purchased rice, noodles, chicken, pork and vegetables. All up, it cost me around £60, but this round of shopping will last me for a long time, except for the meat, which obviously has to be consumed quickly. Plus I bought a few other items, not related to Chinese New Year.

So, using these acquired ingredients, I decided to cook a typical Chinese meal: boiled rice, stir-fry prawn noodles, stir-fry long beans with pork mince, and stir-fry satay chicken with snow peas. But what good is this big meal if you have no family or friends to help you eat it? Well Tina, my German housemate, was around. The day before, I explained to her about Chinese New Year, and that I was going to cook a big meal. She seemed indifferent. Rather than "this is great, I can't wait for your cooking", it seemed like "we'll see what happens, and if I'm in, I'm in... and if I'm not, then I'm not". When she got home just as I was starting to cook, I asked her "are you hungry?" She replied in a confused tone "I don't know". That's a good sign that my food is going to be eaten, at least it wasn't a flat-out "no"!

So I got to work in the kitchen, while Tina waited in the lounge, probably worrying what I was going to toss out of the frying pan. After a while in the kitchen, I presented the feast on the coffee table. And she actually helped herself, and managed to sample each and every dish. And she gave a positive complement as well. Both of us haven't got sick yet, so that's a good sign too.

We discussed more about Chinese New Year. In particular, I explained that noodles appear in all Chinese New Year feasts as they represent longevity, and that I wished her a long life and a prosperous Year of the Ox with many happy returns. Grateful, she returned the complement as well.

So what have I learned? To coin a phrase from Back to the Future, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. To go from cooking the basics to cooking a nice Chinese meal, even for two or more people, is a remarkable achievement for someone who hasn't much cooking experience. It was fun, it was quick, and it was very easy to do. Even I didn't know how easy it was before I tried.

I also learned a bit more about Chinese New Year. When I was in New Zealand, I took the occasion for granted. I saw it as a time to have a big feed with family and get a red packet from my relatives. But I didn't really know the meaning behind it all. Now that I don't have any family here to celebrate it with, I had to do it all on my own. I had to read a little bit about the occasion to see what it is all about, the symbolism behind it all, even the type of food that is normally served at a Chinese New Year feast. I'm glad I dished out the noodles. I wanted to do spring rolls as well, but that was going a bit too far.

And finally, I managed to take one step in resolving one of my goals that I've set time and time again, but never getting around to it - learning to cook proper meals. Hopefully with this end result, I can expand on this, perhaps even create a portfolio of dishes complete with photos.

Actually I've already started this. For those who would like to see this feast, here are the following photos.

The raw ingredients used to make the feast. Beans, snow peas, rice, noodles, king prawns, chicken and pork mince. Rice for the boiled rice (obviously), noodles and prawns for the stir-fry prawn noodles, chicken and snow peas for the satay chicken, and pork mince and beans for the stir-fry beans.

The finished result. Delicious! Gordon Ramsay, Peter Gordon and the Naked Chef would be proud. Watch out for a new celebrity chef near you.

To close, this Chinese New Year was different without the togetherness of family, but at least I managed to indulge myself in a reasonable Chinese meal, just like back in New Zealand. It was anything but dull. And I managed to share the meal with my housemate, Tina, who basically acted in place of my family. What more could I ask for? Perhaps a red packet?

Happy "Moooo" Year!