Dear Steemit friends:

Today, Sweetsssj pays a new year call to all my steemit friends. 拜年 - bai4 nian2 is the expression we use to mean paying a new years call to somebody. Simply put, it means wishing someone a happy new year. Along with it, paying a lot of respect and often some guiding words of wisdom. What else happens during the Chinese new year? Red envelopes! Gimme gimme gimme!
Today i'd like to invite you all to join me for my new years eve family dinner!

The significance of the New Years Eve Dinner：
The main event of the Chinese New Year celebrations begins with the New Years Eve dinner. No celebration can begin without this very important activity. From the eyes of an outsider, having dinner is probably a very normal and regular activity which isn't worth celebrating, and most of the other times, that would be correct. However, in the hearts of a Chinese person, the New Years Eve dinner is so much more. It serves as a platform for creating long lasting fond memories of time shared between you and your closest family. For me, I have a very clear memory of what I ate each year at every New Years Eve dinner, whether it's last year, the year before, or even the year before that, I can remember each and every dish I had at each respective new years dinner, and I can even remember the feelings I felt at those times. In ancient China, the new years eve dinner was so important that jail officials even let some prisoners go back to their families just for this occasion. Now you can get a feeling for how important this dinner is to the people of China.

年三十 - Last day of the Lunar Year, is often labelled as the reunion dinner. This is because aside from enjoying the wonderful food on offer, you also enjoy this dinner with your immediate family or close family. It is a time that everyone expects to spend with their family and therefore during this time, your whole mind can be put to spending quality time with your loved ones. During this new years eve "reunion" dinner, family members feel even closer than usual, for instance, sons and daughters will show more filial piety to their parents by raising a drink to their honour as well as taking on some responsibility over the dinner procession. But it is also an opportunity for the younger generation to show their appreciation to their parents and elders for raising them up healthy and continuing to care for them. For this reason, during the New Years Eve dinner reunion, I am at home all day just spending time with my family and letting them know how precious the time with them is.

Origins of the New Years Eve Family Dinner：
The origins of the new years eve family dinner come from a traditional folk tale about a monster called Xi. At the end of the year, this monster would come out and terrorise people just for fun. However, the people realised the monster Xi had some weaknesses, namely he was afraid of the colour red, and also loud noises. So, at the end of the lunar ear, everybody would post up Spring Festival Couplets on their doors, and set off firecrackers as a way to "Qu chu" (drive away) the monster Xi. This method actually worked and from henceforth, the final day of the lunar year was named "Chu Xi" - literally to drive the monster away.

This years new years eve dinner will be at a restaurant. If we are in our native home town, then we'll likely have the dinner at home instead.

The restaurant is quite special because it has no public lobby where diners will eat. Instead, the entire restaurant consists of private dining rooms. In a previous post, I wrote about why Chinese people like to dine in private dining rooms. You can read that
here.

For the new years eve dinner, the restaurant requires diners to order their food in advance. This way, they can prepare the food and make sure they have the right quantity on the day. Guests must order their food 5 days in advance, or they will not be served food on new years eve. Most if not all the dishes have their own picture display of what the dish looks like. If you're a visual person, it's very easy to see what dishes look like, even if you don't recognise the names of the dish.

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Here's one of the chefs, busy in action！

Here's a huge pot used for steaming dishes！

Some other things not on the menu but written by hand..

On the first floor of the restaurant, there is no lobby, just the live sea food area.

The public tables occupy a very small area of the restaurant just next to the sea food area.

Taking an escalator up to the second floor, I found this table with some fine writing paper, a writing brush, an ink stick and ink stone. Aren't they beautiful?





These birdcage like light fixtures.

I really love these very festive traditional sofas.

In the corridor you can see it's just private dining room after private dining room.

The dining room comes with a very large round rotatable table, the shape of the table signifies reunion.Each private room actually comes with two rooms. The main dining room, and it's own washroom facility.

Here is another birdcage lighting fixture, this one reminds me of the birds'nest stadium in Beijing.

Canadians will recognise this instantly, this is some rice wine we brought ourselves to the restaurant. Unlike some restaurants in the west, restaurants in China will not charge you, or even be offended if you bring your own beverages to consume.



We'll watch the Chinese New Year Gala on TV whilst eating.

Next up, the 15 dishes making up the New Years Eve Dinner, off we go!
First we have the cold appetizer dish, the fragrant stir-fried and then cooled asparagus. It's a little sour and spicy but really refreshing and a perfect appetizer.

A very healthy tree fungus (wood ear) salad.

A more western traditional salad with some salad dressing.

Some cold beef slices served with some fragrant sweet chill oil.

Now it's time for the hot dishes. First up is the scallion pepper silver carp. It's customary during New Years Eve dinner to eat fish because of the saying "successive years in abundance. (Lian nian you Yu)" Which sounds similar to "Lian yu" - Silver Carp.

Charcoaled Goose. This dish was so popular that before I could even get a picture, many pieces were missing! I must admit, it smells incredible so I can't blame them! The char-coaled goose is red in colour which also represents prosperity (红红火火)(Red and Fiery!)

Perhaps the most beautiful main dish are these three lobsters. They're made like some kind of art display beautifully placed and uses wonderful matching of colour too. They make for a good photo from any angle. But alas, it would be a waste not to eat, so I ate some of the Lobster meat and found it to be amazingly delicate. Apparently the head chef comes from the Zhejiang province where this style of cooking is very common. I am still most impressed by the tender soft lobster meat. Like with most dishes there is a little superstition behind it, this lobster dish is suppose to represent good omens for the new year.



Steamed Mandarin fish, this is also a flavour that I agree very much with. Cooked in a very light way, it's a perfect dish for tasting the natural flavour of the fish as it would have straight out of the ocean. Because very few sauces are used, the flavour retains the original and natural taste of the sea, and the fish itself was killed just before it was cooked, so it is very fresh. According to superstitions, Fish welcome the god of wealth if they are on the table. Off the dining table, they ward off evil spirits.

Red braised pork. Full of flavour and one of the most traditional dishes found in almost every Chinese Chef's cookbook. Delicious by name, delicious by reputation.

The five crops represent a bumper harvest. The five crops include: Corn, Peanuts, Sweet Potatoes, Yams, and Pumpkins.

Celery fried prawns.

Fried Glutinous Rice Eggs.

Scallion with soy sauce and lettuce

Fresh Dumplings, it is customary to eat dumplings in the north of China. The shape of the dumplings are like the golden ingots used as money in ancient China. The hidden meaning of making dumplings is good luck, whilst eating them represents living a prosperous life.

For dessert we have some Golden Quicksand Pastry Flakes.

Since there was only four of us, we couldn't eat all of the food we ordered as such, like always, we will pack it up and take it home to eat at our next meal. Waste not want not !

The Chinese New Year Festival largely centres around eating for it's main activities. Starting from the New Years Eve dinner, all the way to the 15th day of the first lunar month, each meal has a certain significance in celebrating the Spring Festival. Thus, we can expect most people to follow the same result as the pictures below!

Finally, I hope you all enjoyed the New Years Eve dinner, and all the stories, superstitions and customs around the celebration as well as the food! Once again, wishing everyone a happy new year!

Sweetsssj在这里给大家拜年了，新年快乐，红包拿来哈哈！今天带Steemit的朋友一起来品尝我们的年夜饭吧！年夜饭的寓意：在中国新年习俗里得重头戏，非年夜饭莫属。在大家看来，年夜饭可能是一餐普通的晚饭，但是在中国人心中，年夜饭不仅是美食，更是美好的记忆。就好比我，对于春节的记忆，是由各种吃的片断连接起来的，我可以回想起去年，前年，大前年吃年夜饭的场景以及吃了哪些菜，由这些年夜饭的记忆回想起那时过年的心情。在古代的中国，一些监狱官员甚至在春节放囚犯回家与家人团圆过年，可见年夜饭对古代中国人是何等的重要。年三十又叫做团圆饭，除了享受美食，人们更加享受一家人围在一起分享欢乐时光。人们的亲情因为年夜饭会变得更加紧密，儿女们能在年三十和长辈团圆，更是对于爷爷奶奶们精神上最大的安慰和满足。陪着家中长辈吃年夜饭，更体现了儿女的孝心。也给年轻人一个机会，借吃年夜饭来感激父母的养育之恩。所以在过年的时候，我会一整天待在家里，多花时间陪家里的亲人。
年夜饭的由来：年夜饭起源于一个民间传说：古时候有个凶恶的怪兽叫夕，每到年底就会出来害人，后来，人们知道了怪兽夕最怕红色和声响，于是年三十晚上，家家户户贴红色的春联，燃放爆竹，来驱除夕兽，从而求得新一年安宁。这种习俗流传下来，年三十晚上便称为除夕了。接下来我们就一起来品尝年夜饭的15道菜吧！先是凉菜，香炝龙须菜。吃起来酸辣的味道，非常开胃。健康的凉拌木耳。大拌菜，浇上沙拉酱。将牛肉，配上香辣酱好好吃。热菜上来了，这是葱椒花鲢鱼。年夜饭吃鱼，鲢同“连”谐音,过年吃鲢鱼代表连年有余。炭烧鹅，拍之前已经被人抢走了几块，主要是味道太香了。烧鹅是红色，寓意红红火火。最漂亮的主菜就是这三只龙虾了，好像一个艺术品，都舍不得吃，从每个角度拍都很美。龙虾肉吃起来软软的，因为这个餐厅的厨师来自浙江东洋，所以是江浙菜系，口味鲜美，非常嫩。吃龙虾寓意新的一年有好的兆头。清蒸桂鱼，也是我喜欢的口味，非常清淡的用料，可以直接品尝到原汁原味的鱼鲜美的肉质。根据历史典故，餐桌上的鱼招财，餐桌外的鱼能辟邪。红烧肉，每一块的颜色很漂亮。吃五谷有庆丰收的寓意，五谷包括玉米，花生，红薯，芋头，土豆。西芹炒虾仁。香煎糯米鸡蛋。葱油生菜。鲜水饺，在北方过年都会吃饺子，饺子形状像古代的金元宝,包饺子意味着包住好运,吃饺子象征生活富裕。甜品是黄金流沙酥。因为我们只有4个人吃，所以这顿饭一定是吃不完的，年夜饭讲究一定要打包，或者剩下一些，也是连年有余的寓意，会留到大年初一吃。最后希望大家喜欢我对于年夜饭的介绍，再次祝大家新年快乐！