Happy New Year…year of the glorious rat! And no, it is not true, we do NOT eat Rats…at least my family does not. Come on, please, that’s the poor folks of Vietnam, never mind those articles in the Wall Street Journal, delicacy, that’s disgraceful, at least in my opinion.
I went to temple twice this year, the Chinese temple in Hacienda Heights, beautifully decorated, educational and then to the Vietnamese temple down the street where they serve vegetarian food; tempeh galore, fake fish, quite interesting stuff. Next, we went to my aunt and uncle’s house for our yearly intake of salt and pork. (just kidding mom and aunties:). I used to love this stuff when I was a kid and still do to an extent, once a year is just fine now.
This year, I was able to sit at the ‘adult’ table since I am a cool-inarie and such. The adults always get dibs on the best of the best of the food, although conversation was in Vietnamese which turned into English real quick cause of me. The staples we ate were rice cakes or 'banh chung', cured mackerel, pork sausage 'gio', and pickled vegetables (shhh…to mellow out the salt of course). My other aunt, Thanh brought over Gingered Pork and Chicken Bamboo Shoot soup. My aunt, Lily, who is an avid French cook prepared other specialties like Chicken a la gelatin, Vegetable soup with tripe and shark stomach lining (I kid you not, dried and sold in a plastic bag), a typical French dish, Beef ragout and lastly sautéed pea shoots. The grand finale dessert, Beard Papa puffs, Vietnamese flan, chocolate cake (it was aunt Lily’s b-day) and fruit tarts. It was a festive night but I had to leave early for work and missed out on the gambling, another tradition we do with our new found money or red envelopes. As a kid I could care less but now it's just not the same anymore playing with my own money. So 2008 which is bound for changes, especially now that I am finally an ‘adult’!
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