Happy Lunar New Year!

I celebrated the Year of the Dragon with my friends this past weekend!
It was my first time celebrating the Chinese-style Lunar New Year.
When I’m back home in Korea, our family usually eats rice-cake soup on New Year’s Day.
The Chinese celebrate the Lunar New Year slightly differently.

In China (especially in the North), it is customary to have a reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve
and eat dumplings around midnight. 

We could have easily bought pre-made frozen dumplings, but we wanted to make them from scratch for extra luck this year. The dumplings symbolize fortune and wealth. I usually avoid eating red meat, but I couldn’t resist these dumplings. These were the best homemade dumplings I’ve ever had! You can easily get authentic Chinese ingredients at the Asian Food Market on Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road.
 

 

We decided to be creative and made our dumplings in all shapes and sizes. My friend even made a heart-shaped dumpling. The boys wanted more meat so they made ‘fat’ ones. 

We also made some Hong Kong–style dumplings. The wrapper is yellow and has a round wonton shape.
These are my favorite because they are petite and cute!

During my Chinese recitation class, our professor gave us red envelopes (hongbao) with coin chocolates in them. The red symbolizes good luck as well. The clementines represent another ‘fruitful’ year. One of our classmates baked chocolate chip cookies too. I basically broke my New Year’s resolution to eat less. 

Xin nian kuai le! Gong xi fa cai.
Happy New Year! Best wishes for a proseperous new year.