[Sca-cooks] Late-breaking, tentative Chinese New Year Menu

[Philip Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Based on what we were able to shop for today; we may end up snowed in to
some extent for New Year's Eve and the following day. We're sort of
semi-postponing our usual New Year's Day celebration for Saturday, so
the Evil Spawn can make it home (he's got a weird school schedule and
it's right around mid-terms).

So, after shopping today and with the realization that what is in the
house right now may constitute our New Year's menu, here it is:

New Year's Eve (Wednesday evening after sundown -- in China it's
midnight, but the 19th-century Chinese immigrants, and many of their
descendants, stick to the older tradition that goes by the rising of the
New Moon) --

-Fried Whole Fish -- two, porgies this year
-Steamed Lop Cheung (sweet dried pork sausages)
-Poached Chicken
-Stir-Fried Shrimp (maybe with green peas or in an omelette)
-West Lake beef and cilantro soup
-Steamed white rice
-Fruit

New Year's Day (for us, this year, probably Saturday)

-Fried fish (reheated, probably refried and served with chili sauce and
the sweet-and-sour sauce from...)
-Steamed Sausages
-Fried, battered prawns with sweet-and-sour sauce with pickled ginger,
pineapple, cucumber pickles and scallion
-Five-Spice Beef
-Soy Sauce Chicken
-Stir-fried, diced poached chicken and ham with celery and pine nuts
served in lettuce leaf rolls
-Iron Steak (fried, mallet-tenderized flank steak slices, stir-fried
with oyster sauce and black mushrooms
-Soup -- if we can get out again we'll try to pick up some winter melon,
otherwise dried bean curd sheets and dried mushrooms in chicken broth
-Jai -- Buddhist Delight -- yes, there will probably be dried shrimp
and/or scallops in this in with the fresh and dried vegetables and
cellophane noodles, please don't bother telling me you know a Buddhist
who is a strict vegetarian; Siddhartha apparently wasn't one. The jai
may end up rolled up in spring rolls.
-Another shrimp dish, either barbecued shrimp in the shell or
bacon-wrapped shrimp rolls

If for any reason there's not enough food I have about ten bags of
frozen, high-quality steamer juicy buns with pork and shrimp filling,
and various other comparable items.

Spouse wants to make steamed Cantonese Dai Bao (sinister significance of
the lard that magically appeared in the shopping cart today) with pork,
sausage, shrimp and hard-boiled egg filling... that could actually
happen...

As usual, no one is invited, and no one unwelcome.

Happy New Year, all! I probably won't put in an appearance for a day or
two after Wednesday afternoon.

Adamantius