Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Xin Nian Kuai Le!



I hate to be the bearer of bad news--but Chinatown on Chinese New Year was kind of a bust. Between a bad venue for the firecracker presentation, a late start time (and I mean it was supposed to start at 11, and those darn firecrackers were not booming until long after noon), freezing weather, screaming children, a broken stroller and just a general rusty feeling after doing mostly indoor activities for the last little while it was just not that hot. Plus, all the stores were closed because of the holiday and I desperately needed to buy myself some Chinese cabbage and Chinese chives so after circling and circling that little town, I finally had to beg in my very best, broken Chinese for a shopkeeper to let me in. He had sympathy on the crazy tall white girl with hysterical children and opened his shop for me, so at least my Chinatown adventure of the day ended on a good note and I was able to go home and make my dumplings!
 
The dumplings were amazing btw, and between a Chinese New Year party on Friday and a dinner party on Saturday, we polished off 100 of them. Maybe I shouldn't admit that--but they really were that good so I don't feel that bad, and heck, I was known for my dumpling-eating skills on my mission. How's that for talent? Definitely worth that trip to Chinatown!

I also made homemade fortune cookies out of small tortillas from a recipe I found in the Food Network Magazine. That magazine is amazing in every way, those are my true feelings on the matter. They tasted just ok, but I filled them with some of the most hilarious fortunes from real fortune cookies I found on the internet. You know, like this fortune:
Your resemblance to a muppet will prevent people from taking you seriously.
And then there was this one:
It's about time I got out of that cookie.
And one can never forget the awesomely-translated fortunes:
Nothing happines unless first a dream.
 
On that note, happy Chinese New Year!

3 comments:

  1. That sure took a lot of effort to make those yummy dumplings, but I know that they were AMAZING and APPRECIATED! Love that you got to use your Chinese!! :)

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  2. Move to Houston. Please. That is all i ask!!!

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  3. Your fortunes are hilarious! And I will totally not judge y'all finishing off bucket loads of dumplings, except to judge they must've been delish

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