Lunar New Year Feast

And to cap off the Lunar New Year posts, the Feisty Family had their feast… and I took pictures. 

First up, green beans cooked in fue yee or fermented bean paste.  Unfortunately, the beans must have been old or something, because they came out really tough.  Not crisp-tender, not overcooked mush, but just hard to chew – which everyone agreed was because the beans must have been old.  I don’t know.  We couldn’t give them to the kids beacuse they were too tough to chew. 

Pan fried butterfish!  Small fish that are really quite yummy when baked.  I think my brother in law dipped them in flour, then quickly pan fried them.  Yum. 

A platter full of various banchans to eat with our rice – spicy tofu, spicy squid, small fishies, black beans, pickled purple radish, lotus root, cucumbers, and some kimchi in the center.  I seriously can make an entire meal out of just these with some fluffy white rice, yum. 

Shrimp cooked in a spicy mixture with some bell peppers.  I didn’t feel like getting my hands dirty so I opted out of eating these (and I don’t really like shrimp that much). 

Steak, cooked medium rare, over a bed of watercress. 

My mom made lo mein – noodles for longevity – I was really happy because she doesn’t cook that often anymore for me, so this was a nice surprise.  YUM!!! 

After my Taiwanese breakfast with the other food bloggers, I’d run over and picked up two orders of dumplings from White Bear.  As usual – yummy!  I couldn’t stop eating these…

Then, a bunch of store-bought sushi… white tuna, tuna, spider roll, California…

Eel and some special rolls…

More special rolls…

Some ‘shrimp chips’ or ‘ha peen’ – yummy and almost-super-freshly-fried.  I used to love these as a kid.  (I also loved scooping plain rice into them because of the textural contrast.) 

The whole spread! 

…and then my mom crammed more stuff onto the banchan platter.  Seaweed salad, mung bean sprouts, and the like. 

My first plate: sushi, lo mein, green beans, watercress, dumplings, a piece of steak and a fish.  Soooooo good.  I love feasting with my family 🙂

Close up of the fish: topped with scallions, a bit of soy sauce, and some ginger.  Yum.

Towards the end of the night, my brother in law’s sister dropped off some dragon cookies for the kids.  I took a picture but obviously didn’t eat it because I’m not one of the kids 🙂 

Another great feast with the Feisty Family!!!  Yum!  Happy Year of the Rabbit, everyone!  (Or whichever animal it is that your culture has for this year!)