Chinese New Year And A Dim Sum Lunch
Happy Chinese New Year.
It starts tomorrow on January 31st until February 15th,
when the moon will be the brightest.
The Year Of the Horse:
2014 is the Year Of The Horse
in the Chinese Zodiac.
The Year of the Horse will feature fast victories,
unexpected adventures and surprising romances.
It will be a good year for travel, the further away and off
the beaten track the better. High energy and
decisive action will bring victory.
A fast paced year.
Chinese New Year Decoration:
To celebrate the New Year a little early,
I decided to take a little trip down to Toronto's
Chinatown to see how the stores and restaurants
were preparing themselves for this most
important holiday in the Chinese calendar.
It is the celebration of a new life.
When you walk into a Chinese store,
you are met with a beautiful sea of crimson red and gold.
It is so beautiful.
Placemats, coasters, lanterns, and papers
are all in this beautiful color combination.
The red just ups the energy wherever you see it.
Here is a paper cut medallion
with two happy horses celebrating their new year. 
Our Visit To A Dim Sum Restaurant:
We decided to have a traditional Chinese lunch at a
Dim Sum Restaurant. Many of the Chinese restaurants are in one
very large room with large round tables placed throughout the space.
prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food
traditionally
served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. Dim
sum is
also well known for the unique way it is served in some
restaurants,
whereby fully cooked and ready-to-serve dim sum dishes are
carted around the restaurant for customers to choose their
orders while
seated at their tables.
It is very noisy in the Dim Sum restaurants I have
visited. People shouting for the different carts to stop
and large families sitting together at the round tables
laughing and enjoying their meals makes lunch feel like a party.
We were the only non-Chinese people in the restaurant and
I felt like I was in China and not just
a couple miles from home.
We were the only non-Chinese people in the restaurant and
I felt like I was in China and not just
a couple miles from home.
Typical Dim Sum Plates:
I wish I could remember the names but these
are my favorites. The white dumplings have shrimp in the middle
and are so tasty. The bamboo basket on the right is
filled with a dumpling filled with a pork ball.
In the Chinese New Year, dumplings are
served as symbols of prosperity.
Here are three other dishes we tried.
The one in the back is a dumpling-like dish filled with beef,
along with a noodle dish and a roll of shredded veggies.
How Chinese New Year Is Celebrated:
1.) Clean house from top to bottom. Don't wash your hair during the
initial days of the New Year as you may wash out newly
acquired prosperity.
2.) Decorate your house and doorways with red ribbons and lanterns
to ward off evil. Wear new red clothing at the start of the
New Year.... how about this red dress from Ralph Lauren?
3.) Serve dumplings and fish for your New Year's Eve meal
to have prosperity in 2014.
to have prosperity in 2014.
4.) Set off fireworks on New Year's Eve to bid farewell to the
old year and welcome the new.
old year and welcome the new.
If you live near a Chinatown,
go have a mini vacation in your own city.
The beautiful reds and golds of the culture warmed up
a most bitterly cold day in Toronto.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Priscilla Mae Etsy Shop
Clare is wearing her big red hat
to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Stop by my Etsy shop here
and say hello to Clare.
