Happy Chinese New Year!

Mid February was Chinese New Year Time in Taiwan.

We ended the year of the Dragon and began the year of the Snake! 

Here is Elli roaring at our Lion Scroll, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

The Lunar Chinese New Year Festivities are about 2 weeks long and end in the Lantern Festival.  These holidays are probably their most important holidays all year. Kind of like Christmas in the US.

A little history if you care from Wikipedia "According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called theNian (Chinese: 年; pinyin: Nián). Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again."

People put food out in front of their homes and we definitely heard our share of firecrackers all night long on some nights.  The firecrackers are a string of red paper gunpowder packets and can be deafening.  Our family participated in hanging up the red scroll around our door and windows to celebrate good fortune, happiness, wealth, and longevity.  We also gave some presents to our building guard and helper in the traditional manner: Money in red paper envelopes called hóngbāo' (红包).  This is the main form of presents given to children from adults as well.  We didn't give any to the kids though-- they had christmas already! :)  During this time, some kids get quite a decent amount of cash.  Most parents take it to put into savings for school.

Potsticker Making:  One of the most important aspects of this holiday is getting together with your family and enjoying traditional food.  So my neighbor Lilu invited our family and other neighbors over for a night of traditional potsticker and dumpling making.  Lilu is from Beijing originally and it was so fun to learn from her and actually learn authentic chinese cooking. It actually took quite a long time to make the potstickers and you have to do it quickly before the dough dries.  That's why it is a family affair so that it can all get done in time.  

Lilu is the one standing.  My friends Addy (from Thailand), Monika, Sara, and I were all her pupils with a little help from little hands along the way.

Lilu's Dad from China came down for the holidays and was the master chef behind all the cooking.

Lilu was a strict task master-- I was told on a couple of occasions that I was doing it completely wrong (Lilu doesn't mince words) but she said I did pretty good at the end so I was really proud of my growth. 

 Oh how far I have come from defrosting ground beef meat in a sink full of water and ruining hamburger helper.

You have to roll the dough in a very particular manner and then you put in the filling and either fry or boil it.  These are what real potstickers and dumplings should look like! 

The dish below was called 7 vegetable dessert or something like that.  It took her dad half the day to cut up all the vegetables for this dish.  Lilu says that's why so many chinese and taiwans don't cook a lot because it takes too much time.  I have met many taiwanese people here that can't cook at all or cook very seldomly.  They eat out at local eateries often.

So while the woman were learning the art of dumpling making, the men were watching all the kids.

Or were they?

It was a super fun night and everything was so delicious.  I am very grateful to have such a cool friend here to teach me and enjoy the holiday with!

Dunhua Street - Chinese New Year Special Street Market

During Chinese New Year, there is a special street night market that is set up on one of the streets in Taipei.   It sells all sorts of decorations, snacks, and foods eaten especially at this time of year.  It is the quintessential place to go during chinese new year with all the food and goodies and decorations you will want to celebrate.  It was incredibly crowded, but nonetheless we stuck out like a sore thumb and our girls attracted a ton of attention as usual.

Above Elli and Daddy enjoying some fried fish balls (not my fav) and below you can see the candy heaven that was around every corner.  We bought a bag full of candy, but we really shouldn't have because people kept giving Elli free candy all night (more on that later.)  These bins filled with candy are as tall as Elli btw!

Bacon and Egg shaped candy.  Pretty fun.

Now to the drum barrels full of fried and dried shrimp, anchovies, and dried and flavored shredded meat. Yum.

Below is goat brains... no not really.  We actually had no idea what it was but it was disgusting looking.  Actually it could have been goat brains, who knows!

Do you think they will run out? 

More important question: How long has the stuff on the bottom been there?

Shredded feathery meat anyone?  These 5 foot crates should be able to satisfy your craving.

Beautiful caligraphy.  People often get three red signs or scrolls made to put on each side of the door.

The taiwan people love a massage and huge random stuffed animals.  Who doesn't? 

Another favorite specialty here in Asia are drinks with jello like things in them.  Utah - don't think you are the only ones who can get creative with some Jello!!!   Bubble Tea or Bubble drinks are all the rage here - drinks with little tapioca balls in them.  Other times they are more like little squares of floating jello in it.  Todd got one drink that was filled with warm milk and grass flavored jello.  He loved it, but it is definitely an acquired taste, and I have no desire to acquire it!  As you can see it was a hit with Sienna, though.  She got angry whenever we took it away.

So Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!! 

One last thing we got to do during the festivities is visit the Chang Kai Shek Memorial for a little show.  We got a little distracted with the birds in front of the Memorial area and missed the lion dance at the beginning but got to see a few other cool things!

There were sooooo many birds and Elli just loved it.  Of course, people kept sharing their bird food with her (there are some perks to having such an adorable blue eyed blonde girl in Taiwan) and she had a ball feeding them.  They landed on my arm (the bird Elli is feeding is sitting on my arm) and would eat straight out of your hand!  At one point I had a few ON me.  I made sure we sanitized afterwards...pretty sure I know how bird flu spreads so quickly here!

Such a giddy little girl!

After we saw the birds, we went into the memorial where this show was going on.  This girl was awesome! I love Chinese acrobatics.  It was really cool to watch.  

This guy.  Hmmm. All I can say is Bless His Soul.  He was the bubble man.  He did a 15 min. thing all with bubbles.  Coming right after the girl acrobat might have been a poor choice.

This guy sure had a hot outfit on.  Gray, sparkly spandex, high white leather boots, and a loose baby blue blazer ... wow!  Can't go wrong there.

Happy (Belated) Chinese New Year!