Red Egg and Ginger Party
Yesterday I attended a Red Egg and Ginger party held by a teacher friend of mine. It's a Chinese celebration held when a baby is one month old. I had never been to one before and I was looking forward to it!
The celebration was held in a lovely banquet hall, all decked out in red with gold utensils. John and I were at a table with four other teachers from the school and their husbands.
Evelyn, of course, was the baby guest of honour, and she made the rounds and was held by practically everyone by the end of the evening.
The Chinese symbol above means "Double happiness".
One of the mother's cousins came around with a good luck soup for everyone to try. It's tradition for the new mother's mother and her female relatives to make this soup to help give strength to the new mother. It's made with eggs, pig's feet, ginger and vinegar, among other ingredients.
There was an -incredible- number of dishes served, all passed out with speed and efficiency by the staff. They were very patient with all our questions about what each dish was and what was in it! Dishes included pork skin appetizers, chicken, egg and seafood soup, scallops, shrimp with vegetables, pork rice, noodles, and the fish dish below. As you can see from the green bean photo below, everything was beautifully presented and garnished, too.
The dessert was yummy, too, with almond cookies, mango soup, fruit gelatin diamonds and cupcakes (I had a purple one) served. There were also red eggs for everyone to take home after the meal (see top photo).
We all had a good time. I found among the teacher husbands a couple of iPad geeks and a Tolkien fan who had read "The Simarillion" and liked it as much as I did! :)
As part of my package to Evelyn I stitched a "Year of the Dragon" new year picture.
I'm really glad I had a chance to share in such a lovely celebration!
The celebration was held in a lovely banquet hall, all decked out in red with gold utensils. John and I were at a table with four other teachers from the school and their husbands.
Evelyn, of course, was the baby guest of honour, and she made the rounds and was held by practically everyone by the end of the evening.
The Chinese symbol above means "Double happiness".
One of the mother's cousins came around with a good luck soup for everyone to try. It's tradition for the new mother's mother and her female relatives to make this soup to help give strength to the new mother. It's made with eggs, pig's feet, ginger and vinegar, among other ingredients.
There was an -incredible- number of dishes served, all passed out with speed and efficiency by the staff. They were very patient with all our questions about what each dish was and what was in it! Dishes included pork skin appetizers, chicken, egg and seafood soup, scallops, shrimp with vegetables, pork rice, noodles, and the fish dish below. As you can see from the green bean photo below, everything was beautifully presented and garnished, too.
The dessert was yummy, too, with almond cookies, mango soup, fruit gelatin diamonds and cupcakes (I had a purple one) served. There were also red eggs for everyone to take home after the meal (see top photo).
We all had a good time. I found among the teacher husbands a couple of iPad geeks and a Tolkien fan who had read "The Simarillion" and liked it as much as I did! :)
As part of my package to Evelyn I stitched a "Year of the Dragon" new year picture.
I'm really glad I had a chance to share in such a lovely celebration!