[Sca-cooks] OT / OOP : Tentative Lunar New Year Menu

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Hullo, the list! As in some past years, we're trying to pay more attention to the cleaning and general organizational side of things for the Lunar New Year, and more attention to anyone that may be on the premises, so we're trying to balance the festive and opulent side against keeping the labor to a comparative minimum...

So here's what I've got. Lots of familiar stuff from previous years, one or two new items:

SUNDOWN:
	Soup TBD -- leaning toward a plainish, clear but strong consomme-type broth of chicken, pork, and shrimp shells with herbs
	Pan-Fried Fish (x2)
	Steamed Chinese Sausages (multiples of 2)
	Poached or salt-baked chicken (scallion and ginger oil dip)
	Roast pig (purchased)
	Shrimp (probably plain marinated and dry-stir-fried with ginger and scallion, possibly dry-fried with salt, five spice and chiles)
	Plain blanched green veg TBD
	Steamed Rice
	Fruit

SUNRISE AND BEYOND:
	Steamed Chinese Sausages
	Pan-Fried Fish -- may jazz up with sweet-and-sour pickled ginger sauce
	Sliced Ham, Soy-Sauce Chicken, Abalone Phoenix (IOW, arranged on platter as a phoenix)
	Shrimp with Lobster Sauce
	Twice-Cooked Pork (sweet glaze, chili paste on side)
	Five-Spice Beef (sneaking Lillét in as the secret coup de grace)
	Beancurd "Duck"
	Cold Bean Curd and preserved duck egg salad wrapped in lettuce leaves
	Jai / Buddhist Delight  -- possibly rolled into spring rolls
	Bacardi Barbecued Shrimp
	Soup -- See above
	Stuffed Black Mushrooms, pork and shrimp filling
	Iron Steak with onion and mushrooms
	Assorted Pickles - Shallot, Shrimp and Lotus, Baby Cucumber, etc.
	Steamed Rice
	Fruit

As usual, there should be coffee, an assortment of Chinese teas, beer, some nice Gewurtztraminer, some Pouilly-Fuisse, a Shiraz, and discreet quantities of a Celtic grain-based medicinal tonic. And some of that nasty sweet bubbly stuff kids like... including Manhattan Special Sarsaparilla, if Certain Evil Spawn don't inhale it all within four seconds...

Happy New Year (Tiger) to all!

Adamantius







"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter