Happy year of the Snake! As usual, we ate way too much food and this year I didn’t even lift a finger to cook, what a life! You can see last year’s feasts here and here, notice the similarity of the dishes? That’s because most families have their special dishes they cook and eat on this very special day.

|Below| Taiwanese mullet roe, turnip cake and fried nian-gao.

|Below| the spread! Almost ready to eat. On the right, frying my mom’s famous shrimp spring rolls.

|Below| Chicken soup with homemade meatballs and leafy vegetables, a sample platter of drunken chicken, roast chicken, smoked fish, spicy pickled cucumber, and baked gluten with wood ear mushroom.

|Below| 8-treasure rice made with purple wild rice. And the best thing ever- my mom’s shrimp rolls.

|Below|Dinner # 2 with my in-laws. My mom-in-law steams nian-gao every year and they are the best! The one of the left has chestnuts, dates, and walnuts. The one on the right is plain.

|Below| Spring rolls stuffed with bamboo, cabbage, and pork. Pork chops on the right, in that delicious sauce made from Worcestershire, soy sauce, and sugar.

|Below| Bokchoy and soy bean sprouts.

|Below| A whole steamed bass, topped with fried scallion and ginger. The big pot of soup on the right has a gazillion things in it – meatball, fried tofu, egg dumplings, spinach, bamboo, mung bean noodles, and chicken.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!