2012, The Year of the Dragon

This can be one of the most boring times of the year for Westerners: the holidays have finished, all of the decorations cleaned up and put away, and now the cold seeps in! As such this is a great time to be in Asia as we are just ramping up to the biggest festival of the year. This year the Chinese New Year, or Lunar New Year, is early. It falls on January 23rd. As described in Wikipedia, "Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Spring Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name 春節 (Pinyin: Chūn Jié), since the spring season in Chinese calendar starts with lichun, the first solar term in a Chinese calendar year. It marks the end of the winter season, analogous to the Western carnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: Zhēng Yuè) in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as Chú Xī (除夕) or "Eve of the Passing Year." Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year".

One of my Chinese neighbors recently posted on our neighborhood googlegroup this description of how she and her family will celebrate the holiday and I thought it might be fun for you to hear an insider's story:

"The first date to mark on your calendar is Jan. 22, 2012, it’s the new year eve. This is the most important day of the year for families reunion.  A feast, firework from 8pm to mid-night are traditional ways for locals to welcome the new year. The firework thing are getting a bit out of norm in the recent decade though. We will for sure hear fireworks through the night and the next day. Jan. 23, is the new year day, people go out to visit relatives, and giving out “Red envelop” ( real money in it, can be 100, 200…800, 1000). Only children gets redevelops…( this is the time of the year I wish I could have five kids or more).  You’ve probably heard from your Ayi the tradition that no sweepings and cloth washing on the first day of a new year. Yes, it’s true.  It’s said Good luck may be swept out or washed off on the first day. Besides that, we are supposed to only speak of happy and nice things this day.

The next date to mark is Jan. 26, the fourth day. From late afternoon to the morning of Jan. 27, it’s time to welcome CAI SHEN, God of wealth. Expect lots lots of fireworks.   Locals typically get up early on the fifth day of new year (Jan. 27) because we believe CaiShen likes hard working people, yes, early birds get food.

Third date is Feb. 6. Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the new year. If we were living in the  past century or earlier, this day would have been the only day in a year that young women were allowed to go out at night. It was the only night the whole night was bright, with thousands and thousands lanterns.   It’s a tradition for locals to solve riddles and win prices that day, and also eat Tang Yuan/ Yuan Xiao, i.e., round dumplings made with sticky rice and sweat fillings. As you probably have notices, the round shape a lot times relates to “completeness” and “family reunion” in China.

To share with you my plan for the Chinese new year holiday:

first, do a thorough clean of my house before Jan. 22…when I still have Ayi to help.

Order three pieces of  firework for the above mentioned three occasions.

Start to get the list of food for the new year eve and we will eat at home. (Chinese restaurants won’t have good chefs those days, all gone home).

Tour around the Lantern street in Yu Garden the weekend before Feb. 6. Buy the most expensive round dumplings (RMB20/pack)  from Carrefour and eat (after boil) on Feb.6…

Oh, one more thing…to get a list of families who only have one child for my new year visit…haha… I have two kids."

Our neighborhood is planning a fireworks party Sunday night the 22nd, and I'm very excited about it! In the meantime everyone is decorating and I thought I would share with you some of what we've seen around the City.
This is the 'Seasonal Aisle" as it would be called in the stores in the States, of our local Supermarket. The red, featuring so prominently in nearly all Chinese rituals and decorations, symbolizes good fortune and joy while the gold symbolizes good luck.

 

This is one of my favorite decorations at a nearby mall, featuring the traditional Chinese Cheongsam dress and the dragon motif for 2012

I recently purchased this dragon decoration for my own front door and it will remain up throughout this lunar year.

I also bought some lanterns to hang out front and got such a laugh when I took a good look at the packaging:

Santa and his reindeer: really? But with a little help from Xiu, our ayi, we got them put together properly and have hung them on the front gate.

If you were born in the years '00, '88, '76, '64, '52, '40, '28, or the January/February of the following year, you may be a dragon in the Chinese Zodiac. As per Wikipedia, dragons are described as Magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, eccentric, intellectual, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, artistic, generous, loyal. Can be tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, impetuous, brash. Do you Dragons recognize yourselves in there anywhere?

So mark your calendars: you are officially absolved of all cleaning duties on Monday the 23rd. I'm still trying to figure out if that includes dishes? Keep an eye out on the 26th and 27th for Cáishén. I hope he finds you all this year, that you recognize him and welcome him in! And perhaps there is a Lantern Festival in your neighborhood. If so I hope you get a chance to check it out. For the second time in a month, I wish you all a very Happy New Year: Xīnnián kuàilè! (新年快乐). But for the first time I wish you Good Luck in the Year of the Dragon: Lóng nián jíxiáng! (龙年吉祥). And last but not least, I wish you great prosperity: Gōngxǐ fācái! (恭喜发财). (I can proudly say that, while I have no recognition of the Mandarin characters, my vocabulary has progressed that I have a limited command of the pinyin words within those 3 wishes! Depending on the day and how much coffee I have or have not had!)

Our love and best to you all~

YuYuan and the Old Shanghai TeaHouse

One of the things my Mom wanted to do during her visit here was, naturally, to visit a teahouse. When Heinz's Mom was here she made the same request and following an afternoon visit to YuYuan (Yu Gardens) we mistakenly took her to the HuXinTing (Mid-Lake Pavillion) Teahouse, the famous one in the middle of the pond, outside the garden, accessed across the zig-zag bridge.

It certainly is scenic, and historic, and we enjoyed watching the crowd in the square below from our view at a window seat on the second floor but while once regal, (having been visited by Bill Clinton and Queen Elizabeth ll) sadly over the years it has become little more than a tourist trap and the tea service consisted of a tiny pot of tea, a few bland cookies of indistinguishble flavor and a few sweets, again of indistinguishable flavor or origin, for a ridiculous price. And the waiter was surly. The kids and I had gotten cones of Dairy Queen softserve (yes, there is a Dairy Queen in the YuYuan Bazaar and there is always a line, even in winter!) for about 7RMB a piece -about $1.06 USD, and then caught up with Heinz and his Mom at the Teahouse, while Heinz ordered a bowl of icecream (flavor choices were vanilla or red bean) at the Teahouse for about 58 RMB. Yes, that is about 8$ USD. For ice cream. I walked away from the experience feeling that we should have known better, and vowing never to take a guest there again. Sorry Stephanie!
Fast forward 6 weeks and I got smart and consulted Lonely Planet: Shanghai. It recommends The Old Shanghai TeaHouse, described as a "wonderfully decrepit 2nd-floor teahouse, overlooking the Old Street (Fangbang Rd). It's a shrine to the 1930's, with period typewriters, sewing machines, electric fans and even an ancient fridge." So we took the bait.

And could not have been more pleased with our experience. It's a delightfully intimate upstairs room with one row of tables along the windows while the backwall is lined with the treasures listed above.

The tea selection was extensive and the snacks menu had everything we needed. We ordered steamed dumplings and Shepherd's Purse Wonton Soup for the table. They were delicious!

Mom ordered Sultry Jasmine tea. It starts out as the dried flower, all curled up, looking more like something made of fabric or yarn than a tea starter!

She was instructed to let it steep for at least 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, Heinz ordered one of the Kung Fu Teas. (And yes, we are incapabled of saying that without doing some sort of slash-slash! hand motions!)

The actual pouring ritual was quite elaborate: pour the hot water onto the leaves in the one tiny (covered) pot, strain that water out into another tiny pot (see the strainer upside down on the tray), pour that first serving off into a tiny little cup, barely bigger than a thimble. That gets turned upside down into your actual drinking cup to sit for a minute, and finally that first pour is dumped into the tray beneath. From what we could gather, the first pour was considered too strong to drink, and the tiny thimble-like cup merely served to engage the sense of smell as the waitress very eagerly instructed Heinz that he was to smell it after it was emptied. Then the entire process was done a second time, minus the part with the tiny thimble-like cup, and Heinz was instructed to drink up.

But our waitress was delightful, and both Mom and Heinz enjoyed their teas. (I have never been a tea drinker so I stuck to my chocoholic nature and had Cocoa.) We sat and enjoyed our view of the street and the shops below

and Mom really got a kick out of the old radio, very similar to the one she and Aunt Mel used to listen to, laying on their living room floor as kids!

By the time we finished, Mom's jasmine had fully opened.

So if you are looking for an enjoyable TeaHouse experience either with your guests or for yourself, avoid the trap at the center of the lake. Leave the Bazaar (and the Skull Soupery and Cornish Hen Tepee-ery) and go down the street to The Old Shanghai TeaHouse. You will be so glad you did! But before you leave the Bazaar, we definitely recommend a stroll through the Gardens. It had turned into a nice day, a bit cold but sunny, so we decided that a visit was in order. Mom waits at the entrance as we buy the tickets.

One meaning of Yù is Jade, and I have heard the YuYuan referred to as the Jade Garden (Yuan=Garden) but I actually think that while the pinyin is the same, the character of the name is actually diferent than the Mandarin character for Jade. Another source lists Yu as meaning "peace and health", and cites this as the origin for the name based on Pan Yunduan's building the gardens for his father's pleasure. Unfortunately it is very difficult for me to reverse-check a Chinese character, so in the meantime I offer this from Wikipedia:

The garden, located in the center of the Old City, was first established in 1559 as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years building a garden to please his father Pan En, a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, during his father's old age. Over the years, the gardens fell into disrepair until about 1760 when bought by merchants, before suffering extensive damage in the 19th century. In 1842, during the Opium Wars, the British army occupied the Town God Temple for five days. During the Taiping Rebellion the gardens were occupied by imperial troops, and damaged again by the Japanese in 1942. They were repaired by the Shanghai government from 1956–1961, opened to the public in 1961, and declared a national monument in 1982.

Thankfully, as it was a weekday, it was not terribly crowded. 

(Unfortunately I did miss noting which building this is above- sorry Mom!) The old traditional Dragon walls; seen around the city, I think this is the only one with an actual dragon head carving. This one could benefit from a closer look; click on the photo to see it larger.

Chinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and folklore...In contrast to European dragons, which are considered evil, Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck. (Wikipedia). The Year of the Dragon is soon upon us! More on that to follow!

The quintessential Chinese doorway: This round doorway is often referred to a moongate because of its shape. It represents the full moon, or happiness....The threshold, typically raised 3-5 inches to help control rainwater, must be stepped over upon passing through this doorway. This brings that act of entry into the conscious thoughts of the person entering. It impresses upon the visitor an awareness of the privelege of their entry into the property (Wikipedia). I wish I knew what the characters overhead say.

And no Chinese Garden is complete without willow trees and goldfish! So Beautiful!

We do hope you've enjoyed your visit. Hopefully next time we can show you around for real!

Our love to you all~

Fun with Food, Episode 2

I really did not think I would have enough material for a new food blog this soon but this one is simply begging to be written.

Earlier this week, during the last few days of my Mom's visit we went back to YuYuan for the afternoon. Around the corner from the stall selling Skull Soup I found this:

I call it "Cornish Hen Tepee". Hungry yet?
On the walk back to the car after a very pleasant afternoon of lunch at the Old Shanghai Tea House and a leisurely walk through the actual Jade Garden (Yùyuán-more on that to follow) we came across this lovely sight.

Here, let's get a closer look:

Yes, that's chicken, suspended above the street on plastic-coated hangers. It appears to me that they are completely gutted but what I don't understand is how they get them so flat? They look like something from the Aliens special effects cabinet. Let's get the full effect and look at them from the back...

Surely you are hungry by now, which is good because on the way to our next destination, we pass the this place:

And if you need a little something sweet after you eat, perhaps you would like one of these:

Yes, that is a tomato flavored "lollie" as my British friends call them. And no, it does not taste any better than you might imagine. It simply tastes like tomato paste. With a little more sugar then anyone should ever add to a tomato.  

Welcome to the New Year! Let's hope the food choices get better from here on out! Our love to you all~