Chinese New Year was last month. It’s been a long time since I sat down to dinner cooked by my Mom. We always have had a special meal such as this on new year’s eve. The dishes often have a connection with Chinese traditions.
We started with a cream style corn egg drop soup. Not traditional, but it was easy. Then we had stir fry BBQ pork with assorted vegetables. In Cantonese, it’s called yew gor yuk ding. Roughly translated as cashews with diced meat cubes and vegetables.
The next dish is similar to shiitake mushroom with dried oyster and seaweed dish. This version has king mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms and bok choy. Traditionally it contains dried oysters and seaweed. In Cantonese, it’s called ho see fat choy. Ho see sounds like prosperous and fat choy sounds like hair and means healthy.
The last dish is a chicken, ham, and broccoli dish. It is called kum wah yuk shi kai. Kum sounds like gold in Cantonese. Kum wah (jinhua) is also a famous ham in China. Yuk shi means jade. Kai is chicken. It’s a homestyle Cantonese dish.
Oh and white rice, which we had, but not in the photos. In Cantonese, everything is about how it sounds and what it resembles.
Thanks Mom, for the food and the memories!
