Friday, February 5, 2016

Gong Hey Fat Choy or Gong Xi Fa Cai - Happy Year of the Monkey

Cake hour, to a certain extent, was supplanted by a pot luck lunch to celebrate the Chinese New Year that begins on February 8. In recent years we have been joined by many scholars from China and one of them helped organize this get together over lunch to ring in the Year of the Monkey. It was pot luck so participants brought in homemade food, the vast majority of it Chinese inspired.
The message on the board says it all!
Quite a good potluck spread!
It was held in our conference room, festively decorated for the occasion. There were many dishes that we were familiar with and some unfamiliar stuff.  Check out the pictures to get a sense of the menu.
The finishing touch!!

Sweet rice and beans, shrimp with rice and tortellini - not everything was Chinese!
Noodles, olive bread and kind of mushroom salad!
Gotta have Peking Duck
And some pork buns!
Spicy Tofu - a big hit - and some tea eggs!
The obligatory dumplings, spring rolls. spicy noodles and chicken with potatoes!
More potatoes and meat, meat flavored rice and pork hocks!

This gang is ready to go!
Several of us dressed with red for luck and prosperity though the Westerners seemed to know that more. It was a nice event that taught us about Chinese new year celebrations and gave us plenty of good food.
Red for prosperity!
Oh, yeah!  For cake hour itself, we had leftover cheesecake, even though there was also a tiramisu cake at the CNY event. For some cake aficionados, that was a bit over the top and some opted to wait for a little main course digestion before downing tiramisu.


China meets Taiwan!

Two of the great chefs!

All smiles after a delicious lunch!

The director and the pot luck organizer!

Explaining the traditions!

Taking a welcome break from research and enjoying the celebration!

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