Wonderful photos! I love love love Lo mai gai--we always call it chicken rice in lotus leaves. Gosh, a package of them takes up so much room in my cupboard! Your dumplings look delicious, but I've never had jai, and I wouldn't know where to start on the Tray of Togetherness. Is congee like "jook" or am I misremembering this?

Thanks for posting lovely photos of food porn!

Actually, it is Luna New Year, not just Chinese New Year, because it is celebrated by many other cultures.

Immediately, and as soon as possible, go to get all your supplies from your local Chinese stores. In another day there will be mob scences and many items will be gone.

dcarch

That's right, sooz. Gongee is another name for jook, or vice versa.

Jim

Thanks Jimster for answering that question for me.

Sooz, my husband and little man love Lo Mai Gai as well. That's why I spent 4 hours making those yesterday. I should have made more than 4; it wouldn't take more time and I could always freeze the extras. The Tray of togetherness is cool because you can put whatever you want in it. Of course, traditionally the foods chosen are symbolic and that each food item represents a certain good thing in life. The link below explains much better than I can.

Darch, oh yeah, we are going to Chinatown today to see what they have. Our Chinatown is pathetically small but we just have to make the best of it. Little man and I will explore grocery stores and the cultural center. May buy some more decorations for the house too.

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: Tray of Togetherness

Although all Asians celebrate the Lunar New Year, they don't all use the same calendar as the Chinese. Just FYI.

Al, I failed to say how good those dishes look. They are among my top favorite Chinese dishes, although Jai is a new one to me. I haven't tried making sticky rice in lotus leaf but enjoy it whenever I see it as a dim sum offering. I must make congee again soon. So delicious!

Thanks for the inspirations.

Jim

This all looks amazing!

Al, food looks delicious.

As for the tray of togetherness... it is mainly sugar coated dried fruits and lotus seeds.

Jkom51, you're sort of right. The lunar date is all the same. It is the western calendar that sometimes would be off for a few hours (time zones) which if fallen around midnight, it makes a difference of 1 day. A couple of years ago, this happened. Before the end of the war in 1975, the Vietnamese had always used the Chinese time zone and our New Year date was the same as of the Chinese. After 1975, the Vietnamese communist government wanted to use the local time zone which is off several hours from the Chinese. About 2 years ago, this resulted in the Vietnamese New Year date being 1 day before the Chinese New Year date.

Thanks everyone! We've just returned from our Chinatown excursion. It was a long but fun day. We ate a lot of Chinese baked buns: cocktail buns, pineapple buns, BBQ pork buns, and hotdog buns! Little man and I joked about our fun buns lunch! LOL

We went to the Chinese Cultural Center but things were not quite set up. Seemed like they were not going to be ready until this weekend. So we went to visit a few Chinese grocery stores. OMG, it was like a zoo everywhere. People were shopping like crazy. No surprise though, two more days of shopping before the big day.

We bought a pack of Chinese New Year treat called Cows Ears, some deep fried cookies, for the occasion. But we were out for so long that we ended up eating the whole bag before making it home! LOL

Image of Cows Ears:

Then I bought these gorgeous Chinese kumquat (like mini oranges). They are small but sweet in a strange way. Hard to explain. I did save some for the Tray of Togetherness.

Image of kumquats:

We are going to the zoo all day tomorrow so I will make the shrimp dumplings tonight. Will start the chicken congee in the slow cooker before we leave tomorrow morning. By the time we get home we will just heat up the shrimp dumplings and eat them with the chicken congee. Should be another fun day for us.

By the way, hubby and little man just ate two of the Lo Mai Gai and they LOVED it. So it's worth the time making them. :-)

Al

This is a wonderful thread!!!

You know, that chicken congee looks so good for someone that is having a bad cold :(. I'm going to make some for tonight's dinner :)

Al, the "cows ears" look really interesting, so they are deep fried?

The congee just looks to thick and gelatinous for me, LOL, the texture would do me in I'm afraid, but I've made gorgeous marmalade with kumquats.

Annie

Annie & ntt, If I soak the rice with a bit of salt and oil a couple of hours before cooking, then use the slow cooker to cook the congee overnight, the texture always turns out think and creamy.

Annie, the cows ears are deep fried. The picture is not my picture; I just borrowed from an online site. I didn't even make any cows ears. When I went to Chinatown with little man we bought some from the Asian market. We were out for 5 hours and were so hungry that we ate the whole package before we got home! LOL

But I will send the link to the recipe just in case you would like to try. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Cows Ears recipe