Bill and Jen's Adventures: The Year of the Horse

January 31st - Happy New Year; welcome the Year of the Horse!

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, some friends of ours organizes a big table at the fancy Chinese Restaurant located in the old royal bath building just down the street from our house. It was a 10-course meal, complete with an exuberant lion dance after dessert.

First Course - Crispy Duck

The first course was a tasty crispy duck that you tucked inside a bun and drizzled with one of several sauces. It was delicious!

Bill's Happy - No Corn or Corn Derivatives!

Our friend who organized the dinner made sure that the meal was free from corn, corn starch, etc. Bill was so happy, as he hasn't had Chinese food ever since a bad experience several years ago. The restauranteur assured us that these were traditional recipes and didn't include any of that stuff - Bill didn't have an allergic reaction - huzzah!!!

Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant

The food just kept coming and coming, and it was all delicious. The atmosphere was a neat mix of Victorian and Chinese; odd, but it worked!

Yummy Grub

We were stuffed by the time the desserts arrived, but they were so cute we couldn't resist. Little egg custards, sweet sticky rice balls, and a candied strawberry? Yes, please!!

Dessert

And then it came time for the lion dance. And dance they did!

Lion Dance!

The tradition is to put some money in the red envelopes left on the table. When the lion comes close, you give the red envelope offering to the lion and you'll have good luck in the new year.

Lions in Action

Of course I gave the lion money - who would pass up a year's worth of good luck?!?

Lions in More Action

I have posted two short clips; first, in a jumpy, bad quality file with no sound that should play on mobile devices (phones and tablets). The same clips are posted again in a much higher quality, but can only be seen on laptop and desktop computers. Tell me which one you prefer (low or high quality) for future posts.

Low quality: