China News Service, Beijing, February 10 (Reporter Wu Kan) "Celebrate the New Year and welcome and send off all night." "Chinese New Year's Eve is the most important reunion day for Chinese people, the steaming Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is a testimony of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, and the original hometown dishes are a good way to relieve homesickness."
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the overseas Chinese Yin Chuping family brought the taste of their hometown to the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner table. "My hometown is in Zhejiang **Tian, and the locals often say 'December sugar cake for the New Year', sugar cake is a must-have food for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. Yin Chuping said that when he was on a business trip in São Paulo two days ago, he bought sugar cakes at a sugar cake workshop opened by a hometown in Qingtian, in addition to the traditional glutinous rice and brown sugar cakes, there are also flavors such as peanuts and red dates.
Yin Chuping's New Year's dishes include not only Chinese dishes such as sauced beef, braised fish, and sweet and sour pork ribs, but also Brazilian flavors such as barbecue, steak, and black bean rice. At the dinner table, the family chatted while eating, looking back on the hard work and harvest of the past year, and looking forward to life in the coming year.
Yin Chuping said: "In previous years, I would take my children back to Qingtian for the New Year, although I didn't go back this year, but I ate hometown food, and it was like going home." ”
In Zurich, Switzerland, on Chinese New Year's Eve, Lu Jinlian, president of the Zurich Chinese Traditional Culture Association, and her family went together to prepare a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. She said: "My parents-in-law used to open a Chinese restaurant in Zurich, and they cooked good dishes, and they were in charge of the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, and I worked with my children. ”
My husband's family is a Hakka family, and the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner has classic Hakka dishes such as plum cabbage and meat; My hometown is in Yancheng, Jiangsu, and the Chinese New Year's Eve rice also has braised pork balls in the 'Yanfu Eight Large Bowls'. Lu Jinlian said that the Chinese New Year's Eve meal should not only be delicious, but also a good omen, white chopped chicken means auspicious wishes, plum vegetables button meat means prosperity, and braised pork balls mean reunion.
In Lu Jinlian's view, Chinese New Year's Eve is a time for relatives to gather, and while enjoying food, they also feel the warmth of home and the preciousness of family affection. "After the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, we will sit around to celebrate the New Year, the in-laws will give the juniors the New Year's money, we will also pay tribute to the elderly New Year's red envelopes, and my husband will also take the children to write and paste Spring Festival Lian, so that they can fully experience the New Year's customs." ”
I haven't been back to my hometown for the New Year for several years, and I miss my mother's Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. Zhou Quanqing, president of the New Zealand Hubei Association, returned to his hometown in Jingzhou, Hubei Province a few days ago to reunite with his family for the New Year.
Sweet and fragrant lotus root pork rib soup, crispy and refreshing cold cabbage sprouts, fragrant and tender fish cakes, sweet but not greasy eight-treasure rice ......"This year, my family's Chinese New Year's Eve dinner has 12 dishes, all of which are Hubei specialties. Zhou Quanqing introduced that red cabbage sprouts and Honghu lotus root are hometown specialties, and after the red cabbage sprouts are frosted, the cold salad can present the best taste; Boil the lotus root and pork ribs in a casserole, the lotus root has a creamy texture and the pork ribs are tender and tender.
Fish cakes and eight-treasure rice are also the hometown flavors of my heart, and the fish cakes are made from freshwater fish into surimi, steamed with egg whites and fatty meat grains; Eight treasure rice is made of red dates, lotus seeds, etc. and glutinous rice, which are steamed into a billet and then stewed with sugar and lard. Zhou Quanqing said that for this reunion dinner, the family began to prepare nearly half a month in advance, marinated preserved fish and bacon, filled sausages, and made fried balls, fried lotus root boxes and other fried goods.
After a busy year, the family must have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner neatly and reunitedly, which is an unchanging tradition of Malaysian Chinese. Lin Guoyuan, president of the Malaysian Alumni Association in China, said. On February 7, Lim drove from Kuala Lumpur back to his hometown of George Town, Penang, to reunite with his family.
Our family's Chinese New Year's Eve dinner is mainly poon choi, which is a very popular New Year dish in Malaysia, and it carries the beautiful hope of 'pot full of bowls' and 'family reunion'. Lin Guoyuan introduced that the cooking method of poon choi is exquisite, which is made of more than 20 kinds of raw materials such as abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw, dried scallops, roast duck, roast meat, shrimp, mushrooms, yuba, etc., which are made by frying, frying, burning, boiling, stewing, marinating and other processes, and finally potted layer by layer.
New Year cakes are also an indispensable New Year flavor for Malaysian Chinese. Lin Guoyuan said that the New Year cake is a kind of charcoal-baked cookie made with Nanyang flavor, and "kuih kapit" is the first must-eat sweet cake, as well as different categories such as honeycomb cake, potato flour cake, and pineapple cake.
According to local customs, on the morning of Chinese New Year's Eve, Lin Guoyuan and his family also worshiped their ancestors at home, expressed their nostalgia and gratitude to their ancestors, and prayed for protection and blessings.
He said: "Many people say that with the change of the times, the taste of the New Year in Malaysia is getting weaker and weaker, but in fact, the Malaysian Chinese have always continued the traditional New Year customs, and I believe that these New Year customs will also be passed on to the younger generation." (ENDS).