Happy CNY

Happy Lunar New Year! Today is the first day of 2008 according to the Chinese calendar. Some young people may find it troublesome to celebrate the chinese new year, visiting relatives and family friends' apartments for home-cooked meals seem to have lost in tradition. But as for me who have lived in the states for years with no holidays granted, every CNY in HK is precious to me and I am still eager to ask for red pockets shamelessly to make up my losses in the states.

Our Shanghainese tradition is to have giant spring rolls in CNY...yeah, everything on the table for Shanghainese has to be large and generous in portion. We don't like the tiny finger size spring rolls served at dim sum restaurants. Our giant spring rolls are packed with vegetables like julienned chinese cabbage, bamboo shoots and mushrooms, and most importantly a thick juice/broth that can burn your tongue.

So, this is what I had for my breakfast today..these are perfectly cooked with a nice golden brown color and crispy skin.

We dip these into chinese vinegar to eliminate the oily flavor and help with digestion.

Auntie C gave us some home-made daikon cake. At dim sum place you probably end up with something mostly flour and water and chinese bacon is hard to trace.. this one is very generous with daikon, bacon and little dried shrimps.