Kung Hei Fat Choi!

It's the time of the year again. :) Aside from Christmas and New Year, Chinese New year is one of the occasions that my family loves. No, we're not Chinese but we still celebrate this event every year hehe..

We usually just have a family dinner and then do some rituals for good luck on the eve of Chinese New Year :p. We searched over the net about what lucky food to serve; and as always it was my dad who cooked everything. :p


On top of the list of lucky food for Chinese New Year are fish and pork. For the pork dish we had Crispy Pata and Lechon Kawali.

Crispy Pata

Lechon Kawali

We had Fried Tanigue and Fried Espada for the fish dishes. According to the Chinese, fish is for abundance.

Fried Tanigue

The fish must also be served whole, with the head and tail attached, for a good beginning and ending for the coming year. :)

Fried Espada Fish

Another lucky food are noodles, so we had Pancit Canton-Bihon. They say that noodles represent long life. The noodles should also be kept as long as possible because an old superstition says that it's bad luck to cut them.

Pancit Canton-Bihon

Also in the list is chicken which, for the Chinese, symbolizes family togetherness, and so my dad prepared the Butterflied Grilled Chicken. :)

Butterflied Grilled Chicken

Fruits are also part of the list, oranges and pineapples being the luckiest. :) Pineapple's "eyes" symbolize new opportunities and oranges symbolize gold or money and are said to bring wealth and luck.

Lucky Fruits :p

Sweets are also lucky especially the Tikoy and Hopia. The Tikoy's stickiness symbolizes close family ties.

Tikoy Turon

Sweets and desserts also symbolize a rich, sweet life for the family for the coming year. The round shape of the tikoy and hopia also signifies family reunion.

Hopia Mongo

It is also said that layered desserts symbolize rising abundance for the coming year, and so Gia and I made this Graham Sans Rival for dessert. :)

Graham Sans Rival

We also had these mouth-watering dishes:

Spicy Tofu

Hot Pot

*** Click the photo to view the recipe :) ***

Daddy's home-made Vigan Empanada

Century Eggs

We also did some rituals for good luck like: hanging at the front door a photo of a Chinese boy and girl; putting of incense all over the house; having flowers without thorns as table centerpieces; money in red envelopes; and a bowl or basket with rice and gold coins or charms for abundance. :)

Bowl of rice grains and gold coins for abundance :)

We're not a Chinese family, yes, but I guess it won't hurt if we wish for good luck right? For as long as it doesn't take over our faith, I believe this is just fine. :)

Kung Hei Fat Choi!!!