Chinese New Year

Gung Hai Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year – it’s the year of the Ox. In the Chinese Zodiac, According to Wikipedia:

The Ox is thought to be the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. The Ox is a power sign, like the Rat, Snake, Dragon, Tiger, and Monkey. They’re quite dependable and possess an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.

How fitting that this is the year of the Ox – it seems that we’ll need to apply fortitude and hard work to become prosperous in these times. But the bright side of it is that with hard work it is possible to accomplish all that you desire.

People born under the sign of the Ox tend to be:

• Kind, caring souls
• Logical and filled with common sense
• Down to earth – feet firmly planted on the ground
• Preoccupied with security
• Strong-minded and stubborn
• Individualistic and highly intelligent
• And they enjoy helping others

During the New Year in China, people travel from all over the country to reunite with their families, share meals and welcome in good luck of the new year.

In New York, we flock to dim sum houses to enjoy delicious bites, celebrate life and welcome in prosperity.

The Lion danced into our dim sum hall with a couple of loud drummers. To our dismay, everyone stopped eating during the dance – we were still waiting for a table at the time.

Lion dance in the dim sum dining hall

When we finally got to sit down and enjoy our own delicious dim sum, here is a little bit of what we got to eat:

Shrimp and roe shumai

I didn’t eat these – actually, no one did except my father in law. He’s the only one who really enjoys chicken feet:

Chicken feet

This is more my speed – delicious shrimp dumplings:

shrimp dumplings

To give you some perspective of what it was like, here’s a shot of the dining room. We were sitting all the way at one end. It was completely packed with people, too. And even though the dining room is so large, we still had to wait for about an hour to get a table.

dining room