恭禧發財 or Happy Chinese New Year! (...also Happy Valentine's Day...it's been awhile since I've posted!)
Pickle and I have been swamped with preparations for the start of the term. Plus, I took on a freelance design gig with a short turnaround in the middle of buckling down on my dissertation, so it's been all work and no play (and very little sleep) for the past week or so. We've been surviving mostly on toast and cereal (and then just toast when the cereal ran out and we just didn't have time to do a grocery run). All this would be tolerable, but the Internet situation has been bleak. Luckily, we finally got service this week, but apparently it takes a really, really, really long time for that to happen here. I can survive on 3 square meals of toast a day (no pun intended, but I just heard it and chuckled a bit), but when you start to chip away at my home Internet access, it hurts (full disclosure: we bought a mobile plan for our laptops, but it was very limited and slow...also I know this sounds lame, but to put it in perspective, I teach online...so....kiiiiiiiiind of important.) Anyway, we're all hooked up now, we made it to the grocery (after running out of bread and Promite and tea - all that was left before we just started eating fists full of raw spices and butter), and we're climbing out from under our heap of work this weekend and into the daylight. Also, we did manage to slip in quite a few fun adventures to celebrate the Lunar New Year before the dark shadow of unmanageable workload encroached, so I thought I'd share those while I had a chance...
Sydney has a whole lineup of exciting events to ring in the Year of the Sheep (or goat...the Chinese word for the zodiac animal doesn't specify, but I'm fond of the fluffy sheep), which spans several weeks. I found details online about the CNY events in Sydney the week I arrived and started marking my calendar then. There was a lot to see and do - so much so that there was no way to catch it all, but we managed to hit a decent percentage of my list, minus a temple tour due to work conflicts and a lion dance workshop that I had been particularly stoked about. This was going to be awesome (I don't dance...like at all...not even Zumba-syle...well, who am I kidding, especially not Zumba-style...but I am seriously enamored with the Chinese lions, and this was my opportunity to BE a Chinese lion!) We had reservations - Pickle was going to be quite the sport on this one, but when he looked at the info, he noted that, given that the Chinese Youth League was hosting, it might be...you know...for kids. He called to check into it and they said adults often came, so we were very welcome.......and usually they just watched, but sometimes they even participated with their kids.......so we cancelled. Anyway, on to what we actually did...
The first event we attended was Lunar Streets. It spanned Chinatown, Thaitown and Koreatown and was really just meant to be an evening of grazing (like sheep). They blocked off traffic, set up long tables in the streets, and brought in roaming entertainment. I'd thought that there were going to be booths set up along the streets to buy food, but when we didn't see any, we just decided to do a restaurant instead. |
We roamed around Chinatown and Thaitown for a bit first, visiting some shops, like the one in the photo to the right that was so packed tight with Chinese bric-a-brac that you literally had to duck. There were two one-way lanes to the back of the store and all you could do was loop around and come back out because there was no room to pass other customers. |
We ended up having Japanese for our first Chinese New Year feast...not exactly in keeping with the theme, but it was a tasty pick! We found a place with the touchscreen ordering that's popular in Japan. It was novel to us, which made the experience more fun, and the food was fantastic - we had unadon (grilled eel over rice), a special spicy tuna roll, salmon sashimi, and okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake...if you're not familiar with this, it's like no pancake you've ever tasted. There's no one recipe; in fact, the name means "what you like", but there is typically cabbage in the batter along with other veggies; a variety of seafood and often |
pork belly accompanies it, topped with umami-filled sauces, nori and bonito flakes. Never met an okonomiyaki I didn't love!)
We finished out evening with quite the conundrum of desserts. We were passing by a Thai restaurant when a chef caught my eye through the window - she was making the most spectacularly fun dessert. It looked like some sort of frozen volcano you might have to climb between Queen Frostine and Princess Lolly in Candy Land! We headed straight in and asked for whatever that was. It was, as it turns out, a giant bowl with thick toasted bread at the bottom topped with bright pink, bubblegum flavored shave ice, sweetened condensed milk, Oreo and Pirouette cookies, heart-shaped candies and those little silver |
candy balls that nearly break your teeth. Aside from the toast, I dug it! It reminded me of something my sister would love (her favorite sundae is cotton candy ice cream with marshmallow fluff, and sprinkles...with a maraschino cherry on top - not exactly my taste, but this was a version I think we both would like.)
The following evening, we headed out to see one of the exhibits brought to Sydney for the New Year. First though, we thought we'd better stop for a bit of dessert. Pickle was not super psyched about the previous evening's kitchen sink approach to dessert, so we tried a more traditional Thai route. I ordered some boba milk tea, which I love. This was Pickle's first taste...it grew on him. |
Afterward, we headed down to Dawes Point for the Lanterns of the Terracotta Warriors exhibit under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The lanterns were created by Chinese artist Xia Nan for the Beijing Olympic Games. It includes 90 warrior lanterns and was, obviously, inspired by the famous army of Terracotta Warriors. It was quite a venue for the proud, colorful soldiers, with the grandness of the bridge looming over them and the iconic opera house illuminated across the harbor. |
At the end of the week, we headed back toward the Darling Harbour area to Pyrmont for the Lunar Markets...yet another opportunity to sample various Asian noms! The Sydney Morning Herald sponsored the event as part of the Sydney Food and Wine Festival. They set up a festive outdoor atmosphere with red lanterns creating a canopy over the seating areas and food stalls lining the perimeter. Red is the symbol of energy, happiness and good luck - exactly what you're looking to bring to the start of a new year! |
There was a Chinese New Year tree with white light cherry blossoms upon which they strung red envelopes for guests. The giving of red envelopes with "lucky money" is a Chinese New Year tradition. These packets are given to young and unmarried family members. Ours contained two (money is given in an even amount for good luck) gold coin chocolates. |
Another traditional way to bring luck to the new year is the lion dance. The lion is played by two people (a head and a........rump - to be honest, I think this is the #1 reason Pickle was relieved to get out of our lion dance workshop...there was quite the animated discussion over who would play which role.) The lions come in various colors, but all have a mirror on their face to frighten away evil spirits with their own reflections. They dance to a drum, cymbals and a gong.
The real focus of the Lunar Markets was the food...we had a yum cha sampler from Let's Do Yum Cha that was good, but not wowing, a trifecta of yumminess from Bao Stop (seriously, does anyone else think this is an unfortunate name for a food vendor?!?), and some super delish chi chi fries from Poklol, which were beer battered chips topped with our choice of Korean BBQ meat (we chose pork), kimchi, cheese, spicy mayo and shallots. We also got a coconut to drink...not as tasty or tropical as it looks. Every few years I convince myself that I'll like it - it's such a fun idea, and I like coconut, and |
maybe the ones I've had before just weren't good....but no, sadly, I just don't go nuts for the coconut water - even when presented in this novel and organic vessel. Although...maybe if it were reeeeally cold next time..............................
Anyway, the chi chi fries and gua bao were definitely the highlights. We chose one peking duck gua bao and two fried mushroom gua bao...I have NO idea why, but Pickle was afraid he wouldn't get his fair share unless he ordered his own. He's usually a great sharer, but he can be inexplicably possessive like that when it comes to food. Weirdo. |
After the markets, we'd planned to go to the Lantern Carnival, but we stumbled upon some of the Month of Love attractions on our way. Sydney's celebrating an entire month of love for Valentine's Day in February and Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in March - I love that they make month-long festivals out of so many things here! |
Here are a few shots around Harbourside and Cockle's Bay...they've turned on a lot of heartlights ;)
It was after hours, so there wasn't a whole lot going on, but we did get drawn into a love lantern booth by a very enthusiastic, robe-wearing advocate of the love lantern, the month of love and just love in general. Basically, we drew a heart on a piece of red fabric, which he turned into a lantern with a shallow bucket and some battery operated LED candles, and we floated it down the fountain. Because, love. |
Then it was on to bigger lanterns at the Lantern Carnival. There was entertainment - we watched a little 12 year-old contortionist balance all of her body weight by her teeth upside down while spinning discs on both feet and hands (unfortunately, I didn't get a picture...I know - 1800 photos of things we ingested and not one shot of the teeth-balancing, disc-spinning Gumby-like child prodigy. Sorry - you'll just have to take my word for it.) Here are some pretty lanterns...
The last event we attended was the Twilight Parade. We started with dinner at Din Tai Fung. It was about an hour wait to be seated, and we ended up being late to the parade, but Oh My Bao was it worth it. The original restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan has a Michelin star and was ranked as one of the world's top ten restaurants by the New York Times. This was not the original, obviously, but it was easy to see what has gained Din Tai Fung it's many accolades. |
They are famous for their xiao long bao (soup dumplings) with intricate 18 folds. I don't know about the number of folds, but the flavor was indescribable. We ordered 8 steamed pork dumplings, 2 truffle xiao long bao, 7 dumpling "gems" of various colors and flavors, braised beef noodle soup, and the Chinese New Year lamb dumplings for dessert. Everything was delicious, but the pork dumplings were by far the best...I'd recommend bypassing everything else and making a B-line towards a 6-basket-high tower of the steamy, porky, soupy flavor bombs! |
Then it was on to the parade! Unfortunately, since not only did we not arrive early, but actually a half hour after the parade had started, it was a bit difficult to find a place to view it. We stood in the back using our cameras to see for awhile, then found a bit of a hole in the crowd. Eventually, I scaled a bike rack/street sign for a better vantage point. The parade ran from 8-10, so being a half hour late wasn't too problematic. It was a never-ending line of fan dancers, lion dancers, martial arts demonstrations, inflatable zodiac animals, bands, floats, and dragons!
Pickle shot some footage of the dragon with his phone...here he is in all of his glory!
Our Chinese New Year highlights included lions and dragons and dumplings (oh my) - it was a pretty great start to my second new year in Sydney (in 2 months!). Can't beat that! Sending you best wishes for a happy, healthy and fun-filled year of the sheep!