The days leading up to the start of the lunar new year is often a time for extensive house cleaning. All the bad luck and negative energy that accumulated over the past year is believed to be literally swept out of the house, making room for good fortune in the new year. So I felt the perfect way to spend the first day of the Year of the Tiger was with a little soul cleansing.
At a friend’s studio in East Hartford, Adam and I relaxed with a half-hour long vibration sound massage. With the use of Tibetan singing bowls, tingshas, or chimes, and various gongs, our friends at The Conduit create harmonious vibrations that are thought to balance one’s natural energies and wash away any negativity one’s body may be harboring.
Although a difficult experience to describe, “gonging” can often produce a meditative state that leaves one feeling relaxed and re-energized. Afterward Adam explained that he felt as if he had been transported to another plane, whereas I, although I didn’t feel as if I “went” anywhere, floated through the rest of the evening on a little contented cloud.
After our “massage,” it was off to the grocery store to gather the ingredients for our New Year’s feast.
In China, it is traditional to serve “lucky” foods throughout the New Year’s festival. Some foods are considered lucky due to their appearance. Noodles for example are thought to symbolize long life. Other foods are deemed lucky because of the way the Chinese word for it sounds, such as the Cantonese word for lettuce, which sounds similar to the word for rising fortune.
Dumplings, or Jiaozi, are another popular New Year’s dish as they resemble ancient Chinese ingots and therefore represent wealth and prosperity. Families often spend New Year’s Eve together making jiaozi, sometimes folding a coin into one of the dumplings to pass good luck onto whoever finds it.
In order to encourage some of our own good fortune, the menu this week included chicken lettuce wraps, pork dumplings and longevity noodle soup.
At the grocery store we examined each bag of egg noodles. “But they’re all so short!” I exclaimed. “We can’t have longevity noodles that are only an inch long!" As I continued to measure each variety, Adam went off to ask for noodle advice. As a result we were able to find the noodles we hoped would bring us long life.
We then poured over which oyster sauce to buy for the lettuce wraps. Spicy, not spicy, low sodium? As I put down one bottle in favor of another, two containers toppled off the end of the shelf and shattered on the floor. As faces turned in our direction and my cheeks flared hot I considered us all lucky that oyster sauce doesn't actually smell like an oyster on a bad day.
We apologized to the nearby man at the sushi station and while stifling giggles we scurried off in search of sherry and tapioca pearls. After several laps around the store past mop-laden employees and a few more stops for directions, we had finally gathered all our ingredients and were on our way home.
Preparing each of the three dishes at the same time turned out to be quite a bit of work and we were both tired and hungry by the time dinner was ready at 10 p.m. Still, our efforts paid off as Adam exclaimed that he liked everything!
The lettuce wraps with water chestnuts, red pepper, green onions and celery were deliciously crunchy and the dumplings filled with juicy pork, Napa cabbage, bamboo shoots and fresh ginger were worth all the work once pan-fried to a light crisp.
Even the soup was a hit. With chicken, green onion and a hearty dose of white pepper, I found it reminiscent of hot and sour soup. Eating the soup was more of a chopstick then a spoon operation and even getting the noodles from pan to bowl was a challenge as we had indeed found the longest noodles possible and it is thought to be bad luck to cut them.
For dessert we had Chinese bubble tea. A new experience for me as well, bubble tea is a mixture of tea, milk and white and brown simple syrup served over ice. The “bubbles,” actually large cooked tapioca
Since the pearls themselves don’t really taste like anything, using a different kind of tea can make any flavor of bubble tea. The one important element we lacked for this interestingly textured beverage was a large straw with which to fish out the bubbles from the bottom of the glass.
In the Chinese zodiac, the tiger is a sign of bravery and is said to protect one’s household from fire, thieves and ghosts. May this Year of the Tiger bring you all renewed strength and vigor, and of course good fortune.
To find more about The Conduit and vibration sound massage, visit their Web site at www.GongThePlanet.com
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