Happy New Year (oh, and Valentine’s, too)
Double lucky for luuurve: Valentine’s Day plus Chinese New Year are landing on the same day this year. How awesome is that? Even though I’m not Chinese in the slightest, I’ve been celebrating the Lunar New Year with traditional firecrackers, Hóng Bāo (those red envelopes), dragon dances and loud, loud drumming forever. Since moving to LA, I’ve made it a bit of a tradition to head down to Empress Pavilion for dim sum before the parade. I can’t recommend it enough – my favorite dim sum in all of California so far. And the parade is just so wholesome and happy, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better place to spend your day. Everything is open and everyone is out and everyone is happy. What more do you need?
Dim sum isn’t all dairy free, so you’ve got to use common sense when ordering, but you can bet on it for the most part. Luckily Empress Pavilion is one of those places where you can just flag down the person pushing the cart that smells most appealing to you. One of my favorite things to order has got to be Char Siu Bao (and yes, the “bread” is completely dairy free – here’s a recipe) because it reminds me of Char Siu Rice in Singapore, and probably the only reason I ever tend to (ever) eat pork. And the “Chinese broccoli”, too. Although that always tends to be the hottest, slowest, and most sought-after trolley in the restaurant each of the dozen or so times I’ve been there.
Not so much with the ordering of dim sum for me this year, as a very generous friend has offered to have us stay in her very lovely (and very haunted) hotel. More on that later…Back to New Years/Valentine’s: I am particularly in love with celebrating the lunar new year over our Western, traditional Gregorian calendar because it’s a bit like having a second chance at a fresh start every year. January was just a rehearsal – now, it’s the New Year for real. And because by now you’ve had enough time to recover from December’s holiday madness, you’ll actually have a passing chance at sticking to those resolutions you made. For good measure, every year I buy a pocket sized Buddha or zodiac animal that represents what I’m hoping for most out of the coming year, and carry it with me in my purse, or put it on my desk at work, until the next year. It helps me remember all of the fun of Chinese New Year, the great food, and my resolutions, too.
Best wishes to everybody for this weekend! Hope you find health, wealth and happiness for Valentine’s Day and the Year of the Tiger!
