My Chinese New Year Dinner Party...

It's been a very busy week preparing Chinese dishes and blogging about them for Chinese New Year menu inspirations, meanwhile trying to celebrate with my family on the eve, and thinking ahead on what to make for the deferred "reunion" dinner with the entire family at my parents this weekend. 

First things first, upon arriving at my parents, a prayer by burning incense and placing it in a bowl filled with raw rice in front of a mini altar dedicated to our ancestors. Incense sticks are lit up, held between your clasped hands, wishes and prayers are sliently chanted while performing a sequence of three standing bows. Then the sticks are placed into the rice bowl and left to burn until finished. This is to pay respect to the loved ones who've passed on as well as asking for protection and good luck.

My parents, sister, brother and sister-in-law all had their favourite dishes to contribute for our feast, and not only did we delight in the amazing array of foods we were about to eat, but the best part was relishing in cooking together and reminiscing old times and favourites around the family table.

Tag team: My brother preparing and wrapping dumplings and my mother pan-frying.

Very skilled jiao zi wrapping, as my siblings and I used to always wrap together at the family table growing up. 

Wrapping my bean curd veggie rolls.

Sis-in-law Yoko's Japanese Fresh Tofu Salad

My mom pan-frying my bean curd vegetarian rolls and dad preparing egg noodles.

The feast consisted of Roasted BBQ duck, Deep-Fried Eggrolls (with BBQ pork and bean sprouts), Pan-fried Bean Curd Vegetarian Rolls, Jiao-Zi (Pan-fried meat dumplings), Pan-Fried Turnip Cakes, Chow Mein with Bean Sprouts, Beef and Mixed Peppers in Black Bean Sauce with Rice Noodles, Roasted Chicken Wings, Deep-Fried Capelin Fish (lots of eggs fish) and some Japanese specialties in the next photo... 

My sister-in-law Yoko is Japanese, and she prepared some overly delicious inari (beancurd skin stuffed with mixed vegetable rice), pretty Japanese sweet egg omelets shaped into hearts and fresh tofu salad with poached tomato and cucumbers. This was such a super refreshing dish to balance out the heavy meats and deep-fried dishes which was mixed in a light vinaigrette with onion, garlic and rice vinegar. 

Inari- beancurd skin stuffed vegetable rice

My Dad's Egg Rolls

Let the feasting begin...

One word... STUFFED!

The night continued on with fun rounds of karaoke... oh the memories.... and new ones now with our kids...

And of course, the night cannot be complete without a ton of red lucky money pockets to depart with...

I hope you had a fantastic Chinese New Year celebration with your family and loved ones...