Year of the Rabbit

My friend Trevor is aghast. He can't believe that my family and I would have a dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year on the same night as the Super Bowl. Trevor is not Chinese so he is naive in the ways of Chinese people. Chinese people are short and small in stature. We would get killed on the field. We are thinkers not tacklers. We are not football players. Or football watchers as it turns out. So the overlap of Chinese New Year's dinner with the Super Bowl is not an issue for my family. 

BUT there is an issue. The issue is that Chinese desserts SUCK. I have done a little research, hoping against hope that my memories of Chinese restaurant desserts are actually only part of the picture. No, my memories are the entire picture. I should have done my research before I offered to bring dessert to the dinner that my cousins Terry and Brian are hosting. I would surely perish if I lived in China. The top of the line, premium, elite dessert, the one you have at weddings and banquets, is red bean soup. It's mushed up red beans that are sweet. That's just not right. These sweet red beans are also put into buns, pure white steamed buns (no flavour, just texture) and, again, called dessert. And cakes are steamed, not baked. I also discovered Water Chestnut Cake. No flour, just water chestnuts. There's also Eight Treasure Pudding which as far as rice puddings go is "chewy rather than creamy". Then there's Neen Gow, or New Year's Cake, made from glutinous rice flour. I don't think so.

I settle on Cherries in the Snow. Doesn't it sound poetic? It's an almond milk gelatin cut into cubes (the snow) topped with a cherries and port sauce. There are 3 things that intimidate me: yeast, shortening, and gelatin. Yeast because it's ugly, it smells bad, and it's alive. Shortening because it's an unnatural white and is used in pie crust that I never have attempted to master. My mother was a great pie crust maker. I can't compete with that. Gelatin intimidates me because it also seems unnatural. And isn't it made from horse parts or something? Anyway, I am woman, I am invincible, I can work with gelatin.

Cherries in the Snow

Just in case Cherries in the Snow is a bomb I decide we need a back up dessert. We go to a Chinese bakery in Chinatown to buy a cake. This is always an adventure. My cousins who grew up in Vancouver all went to Chinese school as kids where they learned basic Cantonese. My family moved east when I was very young so my sister and I never did. Reportedly the first language I spoke was Cantonese but my parents soon realized they had better teach me English. Their own ability to speak Cantonese was basic so although we got by for a little while they knew it would not equip me for all the talking that was to come. The clincher was when I spoke to another kid in Cantonese and when that kid didn't respond, because she didn't understand Cantonese, I punched her! Anyway, I've come a long way from that...!?

When I'm in a Chinese store I immediately feel a connection. These are my people. This is my culture. But although I recognize a lot of the food I have no idea what any of it is called. The shopkeepers speak to me in Chinese but I have no idea what they're saying. I feel like an impostor. The Hubby comes in with me. Although he's not Chinese he fits in more than me. Nothing is expected of him. He can stumble with pronunciation of words, they can laugh at his ignorance, it's all expected. The shopkeepers ask us if we want something written on the cake. Yes, Happy New Year please. Do they understand us? No idea. They bring it out proudly showing us their calligraphy.What does it say? I have no idea.

Happy New Year Cake...I think

Dinner is wonderful. As Terry says, it's important we keep up tradition even though none of us really know what we're doing tradition-wise. She and Brian make noodles for long life, chicken with Chinese mushrooms in white wine and sherry, cha siu (barbequed pork), baby bok choy. My sister makes a delicious "Asian-inspired" salad. Cousin Craig brings meat-stuffed buns. My Dad and Sinikka bring fortune cookies.

This is the fortune that was inside my fortune cookie

The two desserts are actually very good. Cherries in the Snow is light with a subtle almond flavour. The cake is light and not too sweet. Both very typical of Chinese desserts.

I am content in our version of Chinese New Year. Happiness has arrived.

Happiness

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy New Year!