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Post by hwinpp on Feb 13, 2010 4:51:59 GMT
Gong Xi Fa Cai everybody!
Wishing you a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year!
May the Year of the Tiger bring good luck, opportunity and prosperity!
I'll be 'out of office' (and therefore off the internet) until Wednesday.
Coming to the office this morning I already noticed a marked decrease in traffic.
Everybody is praying today, lots of burning hell money and expensive cars, fire crackers are starting to go off.
But tomorrow, 14th, is the big day. I'll see if I can get some pictures.
;D ;D ;D
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 13, 2010 5:35:02 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2010 5:55:45 GMT
Have fun, HW!
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Post by spindrift on Feb 13, 2010 12:22:23 GMT
Happy New Year, HW...
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 14, 2010 10:01:43 GMT
Happy New Year to you all! There was a small dragon dance in Exeter yesterday, but it could have done with some music and other noises. The performers did seem to have fun, though.
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Post by lola on Feb 15, 2010 3:02:12 GMT
We went to Joy Luck Chinese Buffet this evening, a place near here we've always snubbed. My husband's Chinese university students tell him it's the place to go, though, so the three of us went and pigged out for $7.99 each. We decided that the hot pot seems to be the thing to get.
The place was full of Chinese, including two groups of his students. There were also quite a few people who appeared to be from India, and a couple of young European men who seemed to have wandered in from a different, more hip, movie.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 15, 2010 4:20:31 GMT
;D Oh, I'm sure you raised the hipness quotient exponentially, Lola. Why had you all snubbed the place? I'm guessing bad decor, so often the hallmark of Chinese restaurants in the US. (Is this universal?) I take a certain perverse pride in actually enjoying the decor in those restaurants, especially since it's so often grafted onto whatever restaurant had the premises previously. (I like bad Mexican restaurant decor, too. )
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 15, 2010 4:22:22 GMT
Sorry -- must do this: Should gong xi fa cai be forgot, and neeever brought to miiind ... EVERYBODY! Come on, you all know the tune!
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Post by lola on Feb 15, 2010 4:39:51 GMT
La la la hm hm hm HMMMMM. Had to fake the words there at the end.
Oh, I definitely agree about decor. One thing I liked about this place, besides the plastic EZwipe tablecloths and the no nonsense hostess who demanded I sit down at the table and not linger by the door waiting for my husband and daughter to come in, was the curtain of plastic flowers that divided the rooms.
We had snubbed it because it was a Buffet joint, and assumed it would be the oriental equiv of what we call the Golden Hog Trough, full of big beefy midwesterners going back for their 5th helping of fatty food.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 15, 2010 4:44:57 GMT
VALENTIGER!!!!!!
And yes, I did feed Renzo, so I didn't get any scary tiger apparitions in our home.
I did have a minor bit of everyday shittiness. I was at an Asian shop wanting to buy dumplings, clearly marked at such and such a price, and cashier rang them up at such and such higher price. This is illegal according to consumer protection law here, but I think she was deliberately playing "no speak French" (or English) and I knew it was unwinnable so I walked out, as I am not going to be screwed over, even for $3.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2010 6:22:32 GMT
Special New Year's surcharge!
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 15, 2010 7:25:57 GMT
You should have sicced your Valentiger on her!
(cute, LaG ;D)
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 17, 2010 6:46:10 GMT
This is where I celebrated on Sunday, started like this: An hour later like this: And around 3pm the whol street was involved... We drove out to Paav Village, Banthea District, Kampong Cham Province to visit a young lady my good friend T. has been exchanging SMS with. Arriving early we small talked until lunch time and then more and more people started showing up, more and more food was served (we'd brought a roast chicken, fried dried pork with sticky rice, fruit and English sausages) and the beer started coming in slabs. By 3.30 we needed to get back to PP or we'd never have made it back that day... Good times!
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 17, 2010 7:09:00 GMT
GREAT, Hwinpp! Everyone is obviously having a wonderful time. My gosh, the FOOD on the table! Did you have to leave by 3:30 because of the distance home, or because you feared becoming impaired? Love the sequence you show.
(what are SMS, please?)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2010 9:04:42 GMT
In Singapore, I learned that it is traditional to eat raw fish for the new year (and the price of it skyrockets at that time). I don't know why it is a tradition.
Is there any specific item that "must" be eaten in Cambodia for the new year?
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 17, 2010 9:24:15 GMT
We were already slightly 'impaired'... So it was high time to high tail it out of Dodge! We've told them we'll come visit again for the third new year celebration... Khmer New Year in mid April If there's one typical food stuff at CNY in Cambodia it must be the sticky rice cakes that are wrapped in banana leaves. I've described them somewhere before and in fact Bixa pointed out they looked startlingly similar to tamales (?). I've never seen this shape in other SEA countries, they're cylindrical, with a filling of white beans on one end and a filling of fat pork in the other. In Malaysia they have a salad called 'issang'. It's the first dish on the table and everybody has to have a go at throwing up the ingredients to mix them. I never liked it much, too much carrot...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2010 19:19:43 GMT
I would like to mention that of course Chinese New Year did not go unnoticed in Paris. The city hall of the 10th arrondissement always does something, even though none of the official Chinatowns is even in that arrondissement -- but of course there are plenty of Asians in every part of Paris. The street on which the city hall is located is part of the garment district, which is becoming more and more Chinese (surprise, surprise!), so there were Chinese lanterns all along the street. Meanwhile, the city hall of the 13th arrondissement, where the biggest Chinatown is located, didn't have much on the building itself, but the entire neighborhood was festooned with banners. A dragon dance had just finished as I drove down one of the streets. Later the same day in Belleville, where the 2nd largest Chinatown straddles the 11th/19th/20th arrondissements, there were also some decorations for the new year, even though the configuration of rue de Belleville is not conducive to symmetry. Nevertheless, many firecrackers had marked the event. Strangely enough, the main New Year's parade is not scheduled until next Sunday, so perhaps I will have a chance for another report.
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 19, 2010 3:14:15 GMT
Is Belleville far out of town?
I've been to the 13th and quite liked it there.
A lion dance troupe just passed as I was writing that line above ;D
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 19, 2010 4:51:35 GMT
What great pictures! I love the first one of the tail end of the dragon dance.
Kerouac, what is the impressive building at the back of your fourth photograph -- the one with the huge fanlight? Also, was the City Hall of the 10th arrondissement always a city hall. It's is so very impressive!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2010 5:58:26 GMT
Belleville is a neighborhoood in northeast Paris, HW.
Bixa, the building in the distance is the Gare de l'Est where the trains go to eastern France and Germany.
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Post by lola on Feb 19, 2010 15:36:36 GMT
Great photos, K2.
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