Celebrating This Year’s Spring Festival
Citizens with ethnic Chinese origins in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A. also celebrate this festival.
The prime-movers of Cebu’s hospitality industry also host grand celebrations to usher in the Lunar New Year. After all, Chinese New Year’s Eve is the most auspicious time of the year to hold a family reunion, eat good food, and drink good wine with prayers and wishes for good health, wealth, and happiness. 2024 marks the Year of the Wood Dragon.
Marco Polo Plaza Cebu general manager Max Huber recently hosted a media lunch at the Hai Shin Lou Restaurant to highlight the culinary delights of Marco Polo for the Spring Festival.
Chef Kenny Yong Tze Hin crafted 3 sets of Gong Xi Fa Cai menus that follow traditional emblems of affluence and prosperity.
The Media Lauriat (Menu A) began with the Lo Hei Yu Sheng Ceremony. Lo hei is Cantonese for “tossing up” the Yu Sheng (raw fish, julienned veggies, condiments, spices, and then mixed), and chopsticks are used to toss the special. The higher, the better. This ceremony represents togetherness and hope for good fortune in the coming year.
The following dishes were then served: Braised Assorted Sea Treasure and Bamboo Pith Soup, Slow-cooked Pork Knuckles with Sea Moss, Golden Prawns with Salted Egg, Braised Home-made Tofu with Lohan Style, Roasted Golden Crispy Chicken, and Superior Fried Rice with Shrimp and Pork Brisket.
Bamboo pith (Phallus indusiatus) is commonly called bamboo mushroom and it gives a bubble-wrap-like texture to your mouth when you eat it.
Regular Tofu is colored white and Buddhists wear white to funerals as a symbol of mourning. Chef Kenny perhaps added egg yolk to the homemade tofu to give tofu its golden color and umami taste. For the same reason, the rice is stir-fried and Chef Kenny may have added dried shrimp (Udang Kering) to give the fried rice its aromatic smell and taste.
Desserts were Deep-fried Tikoy with Sweet Potato and paired with Chilled Assorted Jelly. Fried Sweet Potato has a crunchy texture and this gives this Chef Kenny’s Tikoy a unique character.
Lastly, I left some food on my plate because Chinese etiquette, excuse me, requires that there must be “leftovers” to symbolize abundant provisions in the coming year.