Gong xi fa cai, everyone! January 31, 2014 marked the first day of the lunar calendar for 2014, the Year of the Wooden Horse. Since it was a Friday, most of our family members had to work and were not available for partying. Hence, we celebrated Chinese New Year on the nearest Sunday (February 2, 2014) instead, with Yan Family Association (中山会馆 Chung Sun Woi Kwon), at Golden Fortune Seafood Restaurant, Kalaw Street, Ermita, Manila where we occupied the entire second floor. 🙂
新春會員聯歡大會 + 新屆理事就職典禮
As we gathered with friends and relatives to feast and spread goodwill for 2014, we also witnessed the induction of the 85th batch of officers of our Cantonese multi-clan association. These officers are responsible for organizing charitable projects and social services which benefit the Filipino-Chinese community. They are also responsible in preserving the customs and traditions of the Chinese living in the Philippines.
Although most of the association’s activities are not transparent to me (aside from celebrations like this), I heard that they offer free classes during summer for those who are interested to learn the Chinese language particularly Cantonese. The sad fact is that most people in our generation already don’t know how to speak in Cantonese. Conversed and taught in school usually are the more common ones such as Mandarin and Hokkien. We’re just lucky to have been trained to speak in all those three since childhood.
Celebrating Chinese New Year 2014 (Wooden Horse)
During the CNY celebration, we had games, raffle draws and prizes, song and dance numbers and giveaways for everyone. Still, the best and central part was the food! 🙂
Typical Chinese New Year food carries meanings. For instance, fish is associated with wealth because in Mandarin, fish is 魚 (yu) and the term for abundance is 餘 (yu). Regardless of the type of cooking done to fish, it symbolizes a positive year from start to end. 代表有足夠的東西可分讓出來（年年有餘）.
Another food that’s probably the most popular during Chinese New Year is 年糕 (nian gao) or sweet sticky rice cakes in English. In the Philippines, this is referred to as “tikoy” (actually should be pronounced as “ti kuih”). In Chinese, the term 年年高生 literally translates to “every year higher and higher.” Does it make sense that way? Let me rephrase: raising oneself in each coming year. People believe that eating tikoy will make them advance toward higher positions and prosperity (讓人們逐步晉升到更高的職位與興旺).
– Mommy –
Because we’re not too superstitious, we’re okay to not follow every single one of them strictly. For lunch, we were served with random Chinese food which did not necessarily have to convey any prosperous meanings but nonetheless were festive:
Cold Cuts Platter
Steam Suahe
Wintermelon Soup
Japanese Crabmeat with Corn Roll
Yang Chow Fried Rice
Peking Duck Golden Fortune Style
Buns
Minced Duck with Lettuce
Pata Tim
Steam Yellow Fish
Desserts
After taking small bites of each except the meat, I felt pleasantly full but not bloated, thank goodness. Then like always, we were given hong bao by the eldest members of the family association. 新年快樂! 😛
About Rochkirstin Santos-Sioco
Health and technology freak. Food and lifestyle blogger with a large appetite for food and travel.
You’re making me hungry with your post ^ ^ Anyway happy belated Chinese New Year!
I want Rice cake too yum~
Oh I didn’t know Chinese New Year foods have meanings
Thanks for sharing those info.
Have a great day!
Happy Chinese New Year. 🙂 These rice cakes are pretty low in calories, but they make great desserts and snacks! Yup, there’s a long list of Chinese food with meanings. You can search all about them online and maybe you’d want to prepare them too next year! You’re welcome. It’s always good to share info.
That was a nice feast to celebrate the Chinese New Year. I’m happy that it’s the year of the horse since I was born in the year of the horse.
You’re born on the year of the horse… *computing* wahhh you’re younger than me? ok. 🙂
Yes, I’m younger than you => Glad to know more about the Chinese New Year tradition here.
Haha yeah there are so much more to learn about. Chinese traditions are very interesting because of China’s rich history.
I liked all the food especially the Patatim…really you make me hungry now..Wooden Horse to all of us!
Of all these food though, the one I did not try was the Patatim because it’s pork. 😛 Hihi hope we’ll all be luck this year! Cheers to you, Fernando. 😀
It looks like a family reunion too. Your post makes me hungry. I like to try the peking duck too the next time we dine in a Chinese restaurant.
We meet this part of the clan only about twice in a year: during Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival. In both occasions, perennial activities are identified as eating, playing ice-breaker games and drawing raffle entries that gives everyone a chance to take home cash and in-kind prizes donated by officers and members of the association. The pecking duck is Golden Fortune style (their specialty) so better try it out here. 🙂
If I were to eat here I’d definitely go for the steam suahe, japanese crab meat and the fried rice. I’m not familiar with the dessert you mentioned here, what is it made of?
Nice picks! Hehe I don’t know what those desserts are called. It’s like bibingkang malagkit ube flavor. 😛
Wow fascinating post. That food looks sooooooo delicious! Looks like you had a fantastic time 🙂
Yup they’re good but not as good as we expected. Maybe we’ve just sampled too many versions of these Chinese food that our tastes already know which ones are better among the rest. This set is plainly average; nevertheless, we had a great time. 🙂
I’m learning Mandarin too and it’s not that easy. Yes, it’s difficult. I wonder if studying Cantonese is as difficult as Mandarin. Oh, did you get that red envelope from your grandparents? 😀 Belated Happy Chinese New Year!
Haha hmmm if you already know Mandarin then learning Cantonese won’t be as hard anymore. 🙂 These Chinese dialects are very different in terms of the tone and the sentence structures so patience and determination are really important. Nope, I didn’t receive any hong bao (red envelope) from them but okay lah, we’ve got food to enjoy anyway!
Hi Roch! Gong xi fa cai! 🙂 Have a great year… wishing you a year filled with happiness and blessings.
Thanks! I wish the same for you and your family. 🙂
OMG, Pata Tim! haha Since my dad isn’t home, we decided to celebrate the CNY with a simple meal at home than in a usual tradition at Mandarin Hotel. Nevertheless, it went well and most importantly, we had fun. 🙂 I wish you and your loves a year of fú lù shòu this Year of the Wooden Horse!
Thanks. Best wishes for the Year of the Horse 马年大吉! 😀
I didn’t know fish represents abundance! No I must have that in every meal hehe. Learned a lot about Chinese culture in this post! 🙂
Haha sure you can have fish in every meal. There are different types and each cooking style would result to a different taste. You won’t grow tired of them even if it will be served for an entire year. 😛 Check on recipes online, learn from someone or experiment it yourself!
Wow! the dishes looks awesome!. Hope I could try those too very soon! ♥
Try these Chinese dishes for a good lunch or dinner adventure. If you’ve got time, visit Chinatown and go food tripping! 😀
wow I am really impressed that your clan is so organized.. I wish I could do that too..the food looks yummy too!!
Hehe yup. I commend them for organizing these celebrations and activities for us.
Wow, the food are very delicious and very tasty that you are making me hungry at 12:30 in the morning. I’m glad you had a wonderful CNY. We weren’t able to celebrate it because my parents didn’t want to anymore.
Ohh it’s okay to skip is this year but I guess you’ve received greeting from friends and relatives. Simple “祝大家马年快乐！” without the frills of decorations and festive food is enough. 🙂 What matters is that you’re happy and are bonded as one family.
Very great celebrations…
So nice and very yummy food…
Belated happy chinese new year to u..:)
Happy CNY to you, too. 😀
all the foods look yummy! i miss eating that buns dip in chilli crab sauce haha. WE had duck and slices of ribs and crispy pork for CNY.
Wow those sound equally as delicious! Nom nom. 😛
Wow the food and omg, you occupied the whole 2nd floor. You must be so many in here. You seem to enjoy so much of the celebration. I miss this kind of festivity, kaso New year lang January 1. 🙂 Never celebrated Chinese new year pa, I hope when my parents are here, makikicelebrate kami ^_^
We occupied 16 tables this year so there were about 192-200 attendees, more headcount than last year. Yes, I enjoy this kind of family gathering because it happens only once or twice a year.
I know now where you’ve got your pretty face! Hah! Your mom looks so young! Parang sister lang. My surname sounds chinese but we’re not following the chinese tradition though I want too haha The foods looks appetizing!
Haha she will be happy when she reads your comment. Super flattered. 🙂 Thanks!
Gong Xi Fa Cai! Most of the foods that you posted are supposedly my list to be take down during my CNY vacation in Penang. But unfortunately most of the shops are close and I was unable to taste these Chinese delish. 🙁
Ohh I miss Pata Tim in Phils.
You can always have a taste of these all year round when restaurants and food stores are open. 🙂
Pata Tim is a taker..
I think its good that you understand and honor tradition but not neccesarily follow them.
Bades well! 🙂
I still have Tikoy in my fridge given to me as a gift.
Dunno what to do with it literally since I dont eat much these days.
There are so many recipes for tikoy. 🙂 You can fry the tikoy with egg on a frying pan. You can slice the tikoy into smaller pieces and put it inside the lumpia wrapper like turon.
sarap naman ng food! we don’t celebrate Chinese New Year but we do love Chinese cuisine 🙂
Yay! Chinese cuisine is one of the most varied and developed cuisines in the world. Many local restaurants in the Philippines infuse Chinese cooking style with other cuisines, making up to a wider variety of flavors, spices, ingredients and tastes. 🙂
happy chinese new years 😀 wish you good health and luck 😉
omggg the food though! i can’t even.. seriously looks so good!!!
Haha. Happy Chinese New Year! Thanks, Charmaine. I wish the same for you and your family. 🙂
this is one of those chinese new years that I was not able to have some tikoys huhu T_T anyway thanks for informing about the meaning of foods during chinese new year! i didn’t know most of those!!
Yes, I don’t know about other cuisines but Chinese food has a lot of meanings and symbols because of the sound of each word. There are many words that share the same pronunciation so people identify those as wishes being expressed for luck, positivity, fortune, etc. You’re welcome! 🙂
It was nice celebrating the CNY kahit hindi ako Chinese. LOL I’m glad you had a blast sa celebration niyo!
Filipinos here who have Chinese friends also celebrate CNY. Thanks. 🙂
The Yang Chao Fried Rice is enough to make my mouth water. I am going to eat one soon 🙂
If this is how you celebrate Chinese New Year, can I come celebrate with you next year?
Haha yup, I can bring a friend. Just contact me. 🙂
Oh, Chinese New Year’s not a national holiday in Philippines? That’s too bad, it’s been declared national holiday in Indonesia for the past… geez i can’t even remember, 12 years ago (i just googled LOL). That looks like you’ve had quite a feasts there!
It’s only a special non-working holiday. Companies get the freedom to announce whether or not the employees can take the day off or not. Those who go to work will have premium pay, while those who don’t won’t get paid for the day. Yeah, this is because we’re not a Chinese country anyway.
Look at those pics! Looks like you had a lot of fun 🙂
xo
Yeah we had, with all those food! 😛
All the food you share to us are looks so delicious…becauce of this…i feel hungry now and wanna to eat, lol…anyways my favorite food of chinese is Tikoy…every new year we had that food…hope this 2014 is a good year for you :-)…
Haha why not, let’s eat. It’s almost lunch time! 😛 Thanks!
Those are lots of chinese good foods – may we all have a blessed and happy 2014 ahead of us! <3
I was secretly hoping for more atypical Chinese food to be served. Anyway they were good. 🙂 Happy CNY!