A New Year's Life Journey
Hsiao-Ching Chou
The beginnings of lion's head meatball stew.
Back in 2010, I contributed an essay to Edible Portland about the meaning of Chinese New Year to me. I dug this up recently to share with a friend and wanted to post it here, too. I feel that it was the definitive piece about this particular aspect of my life journey. The eve of the Year of the Sheep (or Ram or Goat) is Feb. 19, 2015, so I offer this piece as a wish for a new year filled with good fortune.
Over the past decade of Chinese New Year celebrations, I've realized that the holiday has served as a milestone marker, a veritable growth chart of my evolution from a career girl to wife to a working mother of two. If hosting a feast was at first a way to gain friendship and stature, the wisdom of age focuses the lens on what has always been: Chinese New Year is a ultimately a time for family communion and reconciliation.
Hot pot