Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year!

Here we are again, Chinese New Year! I hope everyone will have a prosperous year of tiger!

So what did we have for our family CNY dinner? This year we went to the ever reliable China Palace, at the Holiday Inn. The food and service there is always great, and prices reasonable! This year we broke away from the traditional Chinese New Year dinner (eg. having whole fish, abalone and muscles, the hair like vegie, etc). Here are some of the dishes we had:

Mixed-entree: Deep-fried prawn balls, spring rolls, deep-fried pork (sweet), and an egg dish that you eat with lettuce (San Choy Bow style). Everything was lovely, especially the pork. (I have an extra-sweet tooth this week, for some reason!). Everything also looked very grand on the silver dragon serving platter.

Chicken with Chinese Herbs: This was really lovely and light. The herbs were fragrant without being over powering.

And what is a Chinese celebratory dinner without Peking Duck? Thai style Peking Duck is very different from what I had in Beijing, where a lot of fat is eaten with the duck skin. In Thailand, duck skin served is crispy, and very little fat - I guess this makes a "healthier" version, so we can eat more! The great thing about peking duck is that you get two (or sometimes more) dishes from the one duck. This time we had the meat stir-fried with pickled cabbages and bean sprouts - delicious!

Stir-fried tofu with vegies: This dish looks better than it tastes, but still very nice!

Another dish worth mentioning is Calamari Stuffed with Prawns - unfortunately, the photo didn't turn out, but it was very interesting and scrumptious. The calamari outer were coated with what I think might have been salted egg yoke, fried and topped with a salt and chilli mixture (which looked and tasted like instant noodles' seasoning!). Yum!

Needless to say it was a great meal, and we were all extremely full and happy! : )

China Palace, Holiday Inn

Chiang Mai-Lamphun Rd

Tel: 053 275 3000