Happy New Year!

I know it was a while ago, but I can't wait to tell you about Chinese New Year!!!

So, this seems to be a trend haha, but it's been awhile!! I wanna be more consistent with my blog posts, but it seems like I'll stay busy for weeks then write a bunch of posts at once. Bear with me :)

"Always welcome the new morning with a new spirit, a smile on your face, love in your heart and good thoughts in your mind."

Anna's family friend Mr. Zhang wanted to give us the traditional Chinese New Year experience, and since we're in covid times, there are a bunch of restrictions and things were canceled this year. I'm so fortunate to have him in my life, such a generous and welcoming friend! He and his wife picked up Emily, Anna, and I and we went to one of his favorite breakfast spots in Tai Po. As usual, breakfast here is a FEAST and we tried some noodles with broth and lots of fish balls and dumplings.

I also had the exciting chance to try fish skin, which is a common treat in Hong Kong. It was super good! Specially good if you dip it in the broth.

After we ate we walked around and gathered ingredients for our Chinese New Year Eve feast! It was great to walk around and get some exercise in....except that our next stop was the wet market--not exactly the most appetizing thing. I'll include just one picture but basically imagine any type of sea creature with its head cut off and a lot of red meat hanging from the ceiling.

It's quite the sensory experience--and I mean a LOT of your senses were engaged, specifically the smell. Mr. Zhang informed us that almost all of the wet markets are actually inside to prevent diseases and other issues that occur from an outdoor market. We even saw some live chickens for sale, where they, well, kill the chicken for you. However, Mr. Zhang said that this isn't as common a practice anymore since prepared meat is becoming more common and less risky to contract diseases. We ended up buying some live shrimp for our dinner, and when Anna was carrying them she said she could feel them swimming around inside the bag, similar to how you can feel a baby kick when a woman is pregnant. Interesting.

Oh yeah! You can also buy live eels if you want. Next Mr. Zhang took us to a Tai Po wishing tree, which is actually a fake tree but you can tie wishes to it for the new year.

Emily found one on the ground that someone filled out:

The area was so pretty and I have run by there several times without even knowing that all of this stuff was here! Apparently there's some great food here too. We saw some cute murals as well.

It's so fun being in the car in Hong Kong!! I love riding around and seeing everything from a new perspective. He took us to Tai Mo Shan, which is the mountain that we went camping the next day (see the next blog post teehee). It's soooo pretty!!

It's actually one of the highest peaks and you can see Shenzhen (mainland China) from the top!! It was super windy out that day:) As you can see, Emily and Anna wore red for good fortune in the new year--I don't have anything red so I wore my pink dress😂

Once we got to Mr. Zhang's apartment, he was even more generous and set out a bunch of snacks and poured us tea in this super cute Ikea teacups (note to self: buy when back in the US!) We met his nephews and one of his daughters and all hung out in the living room. People have asked me if I can see myself living in Hong Kong, and at first I hesitate, but after seeing his apartment and the way he lives I realized I'd love it! I love the good vibes, the warmth of drinking tea with everyone, and the wholesome atmosphere.

We put on the most popular Chinese YouTube channels, Liziqi (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoC47do520os_4DBMEFGg4A). You should def check it out!!! It's honestly soooo satisfying--basically she creates things from scratch (food, furniture, traditional clothing, crafts, decorations, literally everything) and shows you how to make stuff. She's unlike most American Youtubers who feel the need to chat for 20 mins before even starting--in fact, there is barely any talking at all. It's nice music and the sounds of her chopping the wood, peeling the apples, stirring the tea, etc. Seriously I could watch this everyday y'all!! ..Anyways:)

Next Mr. Zhang and his maid taught us how to make spring rolls and dumplings!!! I loved every second of it! We filled the dough rounds with a bit of topping, dabbed some water to close the wrapper, then wrapped it a certain way and rolled it to form a spring roll. Here's a pic of me frying them using chopsticks.

We were super focused 😂😂

Mr. Zhang was proud of our creations and so I have to show you the final product:)

After eating a million of them (okay, like three of them), we hung out some more and chatted while he went to the store. Side note, one of the snack he gave us are these super good dried mushroom snacks--they sound weird but are absolutely amazing! Taste like chips. Another side note--there are no Costco's in HK (there is one in Shanghai), but they're Kirkland brand so let's pick some up when I'm back home;)

After they returned from the store we made dumplings!! Y'all know I love Crazy Rich Asians, and there's this one scene where they all make dumplings ("you put the Botox in the face, and then you pinch, pinch, pinch"). That's actually so accurate for how you make them! These were a bit harder than spring rolls but just as fun!

You also dab a little water around the edge and fold them a certain way. Mr. Zhang encouraged us to each have one row of dumplings on the pan so we could see our improvement haha--there definitely was improvement!

Time for dinner!!!! We had hot pot, which I have never had before!! It was SO GOOD OMG! I had to snag a pic from Anna since I was straight up feastin--phone didn't eat first this time. He passed around little disney plates which were super cute, AND practical because you could mix the sesame oil, spices, and soy sauce in each side. If you're unfamiliar with hot pot (like I previously was), basically there is a big pot of broth, divided up into two sides: spicy and mild. The table is filled with a bunch of different seafood, meats, veggies, fish balls, dumplings, tofu, etc. You have your chopsticks and put whatever you want in the broth for a few seconds to a few mins (depending on the food), and it floats to the top and is ready to eat! It's essentially like dipping something in fondu! We had the shrimp we bought, which was super good since it was so fresh. The beef was cut in thin strips, and it goes from raw to cooked in a matter of seconds. The fish balls and the corn take the longest to cook. We put our raw dumplings in there to cook and they were phenomenal! The inside filling had the right amount of parsley to bring it all together. I also realized I love the enoki mushrooms (they're super long and thin) and they cook right up so you can eat a million of them. I also tried clams! After we were almost finished eating, they put some more food in my bowl (a common trend in Asia haha). It looked like a thin ribbon with the same texture as sandpaper (off the record, the same texture as a cat's tounge). Turns out it's tripe. Do you know what tripe is? Sounds like a fish to me at first---turns out it's the inside of a cow's stomach. yummy! 😂😂 I wish I didn't wait until I was full to try this lol. It actually wasn't bad, kinda tasted like nothing with a strange texture.

The meal was so good! Wish I heeded Mr. Zhang's warning of not to eat more than two spring rolls before dinner 😭😂 Was feeling super full but then we were served more tea:) We hung out for more, chatting and cleaning up, then we were treated with one last thing: a homemade sweet soup. We mixed rice flour with water and rolled tiny little balls and then they added them to a sweet broth (water mixed with some black sesame balls and some flowers/herbs). It was delicious! I'm telling you, I'm already a huge fan of these Hong Kong desserts and will miss them so much in the states!

Overall, had an amazing Chinese New Year eve!!! We even saw fireworks when we went back to campus at night. We joined the rest of UNC at the swimming pool area (a meeting spot for the locals at night) and sang along with some old pop songs. The energy was high and the night was young!

xoxo