Kung Hei Fat Choi 恭喜發財

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! I wish you all a prosperous year恭喜發財, good health身體健康, and that all your wishes come true萬事如意!

How are you going to celebrate this 15 day long festival? With food! Before my grandfather passed away and before I moved to the UK, we used to go to his house for almost every meal during the Chinese New Year period. We would only eat vegetarian food on the first day of the New Year, probably because my grandfather believed in Buddhism. I remember he used to make a mountain of ‘Law Hon Jaai’ spring rolls, filled with Chinese mushroom, black fungus, carrot and bamboo shoots - full of crunchy delights that made grumpy little me forget they were meat-free.

I have not been back to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year since I came to live in the UK, and it has been more than 10 years now (I am not old, I just came to live here when I was REALLY young). As the years go by, I tend to make more effort to keep the traditions alive. I guess I am worried that one day I will not care about it anymore, and lose touch with the Chinese side of me. That would be very scary. So this year I followed the tradition to clean the house on the 28th of December (Chinese calendar), and bought some new stuff including pyjamas, socks and bedding to prepare for the New Year. I feel particularly proud of my candy box, obviously koala biscuits are the way forward.

My husband's side of the family was over for lunch on the first day of Chinese New Year. Apart from the must-eat dishes like Law Pak Go, Nin Go and Tong Yuen, I also made a few dishes that carry special greeting messages:

Law Pak Go (Chinese radish/turnip cake) – radish sounds like good fortune in Chinese.

Pork and chive dumplings – the dumplings look like old Chinese currency, symbolising prosperity.

Steamed whole grey mullet – fish sounds like leftovers in Chinese. It is good to have some leftovers every year, as it means we are not lacking anything.

Prawns with salted egg yolks – salted egg yolk give the dish a golden look, a good look understandably.

Clams in chilli sauce – fresh and lively clams give good motivation for the New Year.

Roast meat platter, braised whole chicken with spring onion and ginger sauce, and broccoli with beancurd and Chinese mushrooms – they appear in ALL Chinese festive meals by default.

Fried purple sweet potato mochi cake – no meaning, just something I wanted to make.

Nin Go (coconut and glutinous rice cake) – literally means gaining height every year.

Tong Yuen (black sesame glutinous rice balls) – the shape and the name give the meaning ‘reunion’.

Happy eating in the year of snake! Tssss…

Grilled Eel in Seoul

I never knew that eating eel would cause such a big fuss in this country, until I was introduced to jellied eels. For those who do not live in the UK, this dish consists of chunks of eel boiled in a stock, which is then left to cool and jellify. In my world that translates to EWWW. No wonder eel has such a bad reputation here.

Steaming is the most common way of eating eel in the Tang household. My dad would cut the eel into chunks, marinate it in a garlic and black bean sauce, steam the dish at a high heat, and then finish with a splash of hot oil – a truly delicious dish that I demand to eat every time I go back to Hong Kong. The downside of eating eel this way is the bones, I know that many people avoid eating eel because they are so put off by this. The Japanese people are a bit smarter, they eat them filleted instead. Check out how they do it here.

On our final day in Seoul, we went to an eel restaurant in the Jongno area for lunch. There were several tanks full of different types of live eel outside the restaurant - a promising start. We ordered three eel between five people. Similar to the Japanese method of preparation, they were pinned onto a board, filleted and then grilled on a bed of charcoal. The soy sauce glaze caramelised the skin under the heat to form a golden crispy crust, around the firm and meaty white flesh. The freshness was phenomenal.

As with most of the barbecue/grill restaurants in Seoul, the meal came with a few vegetable sides to eat with the meat. This time we also had some deep fried eel bones. They were wonderfully crunchy!

Eel restaurant

If you are interested in cooking eel at home, you can get them from Billingsgate market or Chinese fishmongers. I have seen them in SeeWoo in North Greenwich. The eel I mentioned above is freshwater eel, please do not confuse it with conger eel which is much bigger.

This is the last of my Seoul posts for now! You can find all the Seoul posts here.