Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve 4715, Year of the Rooster, Dinner Party Feast

New Year’s Eve, January 27, 2017

I attended a Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner-party Friday night January 27, 2017 at the PV Palace Seafood Restaurant in Lomita, California.

Below is a list of the dishes served at that dinner.

I was driven to the dinner and attended the dinner with my Special Trusted Friend Leslie Gonzalez.

We left our office in Encino at 5:30 p.m. and arrived at the Restaurant in Lomita two and a quarter hours later.

However, when we drove back to our office in Encino from the Restaurant, after dinner and clean-up, it only took us 45 minutes to travel from the Restaurant in Lomita to our office in Encino.

Such is traffic in Los Angeles on a Friday night.

Dishes

The dishes served were colorfully presented and magnificent.

Below is a picture of the Sauteed Scallops with Garden Vegetables served at our feast. I took that photograph and all the other photographs in this article.

Below is a picture of the Crispy Boned Sole Filet.

Below are three pictures [taken by me] of the dish of Lobster in Black Bean Sauce and Scallions presented to us as part of our dinner at that feast.

 

Below are pictures of Roasted Peking Duck served at to us at our feast/celebration of Chinese Lunar New Year 4715.

The skin of a duck is considered a delicacy; served on a separate dish separately from service of the meat of the duck.

I Found Myself Eating Duck Skin

HOW TO EAT DUCK SKIN: The skin of the duck is placed on a piece of pastry in the shape of a shell then plum sauce is added.

Yum….that combination is totally delicious treat.  See photos below.

Below is a photo of flesh of the duck (skin of duck removed) which was served separately, on a separate dish.

Tradition

Traditionally, Chinese Lunar New Year’s is Christmas, Thanksgiving and Eater all rolled into one holiday.  All members of a family gather together — people who are away from their parents travel to be with their parents.

Sons and daughters visit their parents and grandparents to pay respect and brothers and sisters reunite and their children get together with cousins and aunts and uncles.

The older members of the family give gifts to the younger members of their family wrapped in red.  Likewise employers give gifts to their employees wrapped in red.

In traditional Chinese culture, it is understood that the one who gives a gift receives more than the one who receives the gift; that the act of giving is a high honor and that giving is a sign of high status.

Our host at this dinner, Norman Wong, gave each attendee such a gift.

Below is a photograph I took of the wrapping wrapped around the gift given to me.

A similar gift was given by Norman to each guest at the dinner.

Cultural Diversity

There were about 40 guests at this dinner.

All of the guests were very worldly, very polite, and very refined.

At the table I sat at the man sitting directly across from me describe the home on a farm in Germany that he owns that has been in his family for one thousand two hundred years.

He told me that architecture of his home on his farm is “Romantic”  …. meaning the same architectural style prevalent in Roman times.

He and another man talked about the kinds of different beers and wine in different regions of Germany and the kind of beer that is the favorite in each place.

One man said “The beer in Cologne, Germany, is tasteless.”
The other man replied, “No.  It just has a quiet taste.”

Copyright © 2017 by Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved