The Chinese New Year began this week on January 23rd.
We’ve chosen to include this celebration in our Dinner Club for 2012 because we
all just happen to be dragons; Gretna Dragons, that is! (Our home town and
school mascot here in Gretna ,
Nebraska
From www.apples4theteacher.com:
The Chinese New Year begins according to the Chinese calendar which consists of
both Gregorian and lunar-solar calendar systems. Because the track of the new
moon changes from year to year, the Chinese New Year can begin anytime between
late January and mid-February.
Our Dinner Club has had Japanese and Thai meals before, but
we’ve never done Chinese, so this weekend is it! I apologize that I took a bit
of a “vacation” on my blogging for awhile, but we do skip Dinner Club the month
of December, so we only had one month under our belt this season before a long
(and somewhat unwelcome) break from our monthly festivities!
No matter. We’re back in cooking-action and I’m back to
writing about it (belatedly)! Thanks for reading! I’ve always said that,
audience or not, I enjoy cooking, eating and writing; I would do this whether
anyone read or not. However, I’m happy to say that, including my friends and
usual subscribers, I’ve had along the lines of 6,000 hits to my blog now. Not
much in terms of cyberspace, but certainly enough to keep me writing for my own
sake!
The Dragon, (simplified
Chinese: 龙; traditional
Chinese: 龍), again according to Wikipedia, is one of the 12-year cycle of
animals which appear in the Chinese
zodiac and Mongolian zodiac related to the Chinese
calendar and Mongolian calendar, and the only animal that is
legendary. Our group spent some time researching the foods of China
We’re having some
traditional favorites, such as hot and sour soup and Jiaozi (Chinese pork
dumplings) blended with highlight items like the Hazelnut Crusted Duck Breast
with Sundried Cherry Sauce that is to be our entrée. My assigned portion of the
meal this time is dessert. Asian themes tend to be tricky when it comes to
dessert, however.
For our Japanese
meal a few years ago we had a delicately flavorful green tea ice cream that was
quite the hit. We also sampled the less popular “anmitsu”, made from agar jelly
(somehow it includes seaweed, I don’t actually remember now) and bean paste
(OK, pretty nasty, but fun to attempt and to try). The gent who prepared it was
gracious enough to prepare the aforementioned ice cream in addition to this
more experimental and more traditional Japanese dessert. We all still agree, we
may not love everything we make, yet we’d rather live openly and try new
things!
For our Thai
night back in October of 2008, we had another dessert with uncommon flavors
here in the Midwest ; a lemongrass sorbet with
mango. We all really enjoyed that one… Maybe we should stick to ice creams or
frozen treats, but this time we’re trying out a traditional Chinese item that
I’ve added my own “kick” to! (Let’s hope it works out, or we may never have
Asian dessert again! My dessert is individual warm egg custard tarts.
According to the
magazine I drew the recipe from, “These jewel-like tarts are edible treasures
in Hong Kong , whether ordered in a bustling
dim sum restaurant or at the counter of a tiny bakery. The glistening
bright-yellow custard looks like a quivering fresh egg, neatly enveloped in a
rich, flaky pastry.” (Cooking Pleasures February/March 2004)
I’m making the
recipe as printed, but adding my own twist with a fresh Mandarin orange sauce.
I thought it seemed like it could use a little something extra for our American
taste buds. Although I’m sure the tarts are good on their own, we rarely eat as
simply here as they do some other places in the world. I prefer flair and
flavor, and it’s my dish so I can sauce if I want to!
I’ll let you know
next week how it all works out and what my “Best Dish” is for the night! Maybe
you could hang a paper lantern and haul out the chopsticks? It’s the New Year
all over again…!
Here's our menu for the night:
