Food and Bev: New year, new post.

Happy (two) new year(s)! (Standard and Lunar new years bookended January this year.) The last two months have been such a whirl between the holidays and work...I hope everyone had a warm and happy holiday, despite the Polar Vortex's best efforts. A terrible cold has me captive indoors today, making a long-overdue blog post the perfect afternoon activity while sipping soup (this batch made particularly tasty by a roasted turkey wing I found stuffed in the back of my freezer last week - a quick whiff of the holidays returns!).

I came home Thursday evening exhausted from an already long week -- we are deep into a three-month launch period for a year-plus-long project (partially contributing to the months of relative radio-silence here). Between that, recently renewed wedding planning, and the usual facts of post-holiday life, Chinese New Year sneaked up on me this year. Wednesday night I had resigned myself to the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to follow all the new year traditions, particularly the house cleaning that is supposed to happen in order to allow the fine layer of good-luck fairy dust to settle on your environment (or whatever the actual explanation is -- that's how I always pictured it). About half way through the day Thursday I was gripped by a sudden panic which ended in a frenzied laundering/vacuuming/cleaning of my apartment when I came home. I called my mom afterward and we laughed together about how strong the pulls of tradition can be, especially in times of perceived life stress and upheaval.

I was happy, also, to be able to have the full list of traditional food items on my list the next day with my Boston-based sister and her friend...we got take-out from Gourmet Dumpling House, one of our local favorites especially for xiaolongbao, possibly the best food on earth. The take-out packers must have forgotten that part of the point of new year's dining is to have leftovers...they gave us double the number of pairs of chopsticks we needed (or, perhaps, we just ordered an absurd amount of food for three).

Xiaolongbao, long noodles in soup with dumplings, spring rolls, pea shoots, stir-fried fish and vegetables, rice, crispy noodles...and some cheesy bread from Panera, just because: