CNY Dinner 2012 - Ushering in the Year of the Dragon

Apologies for the lack of posts as there have been lots of changes happening all at once and falling sick again and again only added to pot!

I did manage to have a CNY celebration by going back to my favourite place for lobster noodles - Mandarin Kitchen. It was back to a traditional dinner with festive names for the dishes instead of the 'Poon Choi' which I had in 2011.

Some of us got into the spirit of things by dressing up in shades of bright red or traditional costumes - hey, when else can you do it right?

As always, I am intrigued and mesmerised by the names given only during the festive periods to regular dishes that otherwise go by their descriptions. So what did we have?

風生水起： 中式三文魚生

Being Prosperous: Raw Salmon Salad with Fish Sauce Dressing. ￡16.80

Otherwise also known as 'Yee Sang'/'Loh Hei' or the Prosperity Toss, everyone at the table is meant to dig their 

chopsticks into the big plate and toss the ingredients as high as possible while shouting out positive sayings for 

the year.

The version here is missing out on some of the vital ingredients like crackers, yam and the right combination of 

sauce, beggars can’t be choosers I guess.

發財好市：金蠔發菜

Lucky money creates good business: Stewed Large Dried Oysters with SeaMoss. ￡13.80

The Lucky Money is symbolised by the sea moss while good business is symbolised by the oysters. 

金華春夢： 香煎金華鴨半只

Glorious Dreams: Pan Fried Half Duck. Old Shanghai Winter Favorite ￡16.80

I’ve been waiting forever for the lobster noodles to arrive and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It was as good as I 

remembered and still holds the benchmark for me in London.

香色滿園： 川式雞菇煲

The perfume of flowers fills the garden: Chicken Chili Hotpot with GeeBee Mushrooms & Aubergine. ￡12.80

龍氣精神：杞子人參羊肩肉

Strong health and stamina: Ginseng Herbal Lamb Shoulder ￡15.80

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the names of some of the dishes as they were specifically requested.

Here is to an excellent Dragon Year to you!

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Dim Sum Diner, Queensway

There are a lot of places that offer dim sum in London, but try to count how many that are tasty and of good value and I can count them all with my two hands. Nevertheless, I am always scouting for new places and wider options. A new dim sum place opened recently, taking over the site in Queensway that used to house the infamous ‘Kiasu’.

Touted as an American-style diner offering both modern and traditional dim sum, I was thinking, “what do you mean by both modern and traditional? American-style dining?”. All thoughts of trolleys and roundtable dining went out the window. My love for dim sum coaxed me to accept when I received an invitation to DimSum Diner. As it was, not all authentic/traditional food is the most delectable and not all fusion/modern food is unpalatable. I was ready to go and let my taste buds do the talking.

Minimalism is how I would describe the décor with long rectangular wooden tables and benches. The benches were more comfortable than they seem, as mentioned by my dining companion. The menu is split into various categories with the usual being steamed, baked, fried, sweet with the addition of diner and small plates. Everything is priced at £3.80 with sides being £2.50.

After some recommendations, we placed our orders and ready to start.

L - R: Phoenix prawn dumpling, Guinness crabmeat dumpling
L - R: Fish and spinach dumpling, vegetarian parcel, XLB

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Ushering in the Year of the Rabbit at Gold Mine, Bayswater

This is a little late to be posting CNY get-togethers and meals but my US trip was right smack during the 2 weeks festive period. So it is only now that I am able to write it up. I managed to join a friend's reunion dinner right before I left which was at Gold Mine in Bayswater. This was chosen as apparently they do 'Yee Sang' which is a Malaysian/Singapore tradition. I grew up eating this every year during CNY.

What exactly as Yee Sang? I'll let Wiki do the explanation:

"Yu Sheng, yee sang or yuu sahng (simplified Chinese: 鱼生; pinyin: yúshēng), or Prosperity Toss, also known as lo hei (Cantonese for 撈起 or 捞起) is a Teochew-style raw fish salad. It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. Yusheng literally means "raw fish" but since "fish (鱼)" is commonly conflated with its homophone "abundance (余)", Yúshēng (鱼生) is interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng (余升) meaning an increase in abundance. Therefore, yusheng is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor."We also ordered most dishes from the festive menu.

These are regular dishes that have been renamed to auspicious words or phrases which adds to the festive vibe. These are Chinese phrases that comprises of only four characters. It's not easy using just four characters but it makes it short and sweet while not editing on the meaning. I think that these are ingenious and was what I wanted to write about. I shall try my best to explain each of them through the dishes that we ordered (Photos may not be accodring to names and apologies for the shaky photos).

年年有余 £25

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