Hello! First of all, let me wish you a very prosperous and fulfilling year of the tiger!

CNY 2010 was  little lonely, I spent it with my gf and an ex-classmate of hers who happened to be alone in Shanghai as well. Despite the small attendance, she insisted on a reasonable feast nonetheless for new years eve reunion dinner, for traditions sake. Hence, both of us whipped up 8 dishes, signifying ” fa ” which means prosperity in chinese.While I said we whipped up 8 dishes, in actual fact, 2 of them were bought back.

The dish on the front left, which is a sichuan salad of sorts, and far right at the back, chicken feet, which is supposed to symbolize ‘groveling’ more money.

This was a simple classic dish, beef slices stir fried in oyster sauce.

Pipa tofu, this effort belonged to the missus. It’s essentially tofu mashed with spring onions and pressed with dried scallop bits, before steaming. A light sauce is then prepared and poured over it.

Steamed prawns. I think that while steaming prawns posed like this is more visually appealing, having them steamed with the shell on actually seals in more flavour.

Steamed fish with pickled chilli.

Lastly, fried chicken dice in birds nest. The birds nest refers to the potato made nest which ended up being too small. The dish reminded me of kungpao chicken.

Also present on the table was another one of my creations, curry springrolls. However, they didn’t end up too photogenic, so I decided not to put them up.

That’s all for now! It’s already been a busy year, and I expect it to get busier!

Take care, and God Bless!