Sumptuous dinner!
CNY Sunday dinner — sumptuous multi-course family dinner. Continuation of the CNY eating from the morning's reunion lunch.
CNY Sunday dinner with BB — sumptuous multi-course family dinner. The continuation of the day’s CNY eating after the morning’s reunion lunch.
The CNY eating-marathon dynamic is real. Reunion lunch in the morning, mid-afternoon snacks and CNY cookies, then dinner at another family member’s house or a different gathering by evening. The day cycles through multiple meals and snack sessions, with each course adding to the accumulated CNY food intake.
The sumptuous dinner spread probably included:
- Another whole steamed fish (different family, different preparation)
- A roast meat platter (roast duck, char siew, siew yoke combination)
- Pen cai or another premium-ingredient pot
- Sea cucumber or abalone braised dish
- Long noodles (different from lunch’s noodles, different preparation)
- Multiple vegetable dishes
- Soup
- CNY cookies and snacks for the close
Different family households mean different recipe variations on the same CNY dish category. The roast meats from one branch of the family will have different sourcing and seasoning than another branch’s; the soup will have different herbal additions; the desserts will rotate through different kueh and tang yuan variations.
The CNY dinner format keeps with the same family-style approach as the lunch. Multiple dishes shared off the centre of a round table, with everyone serving themselves portions onto rice bowls. The proper Chinese eating philosophy of balanced flavours across the meal — meat and vegetable, salty and fresh, rich and clean, hot and cool.
The pen cai is the headline at most CNY dinner spreads. The “treasure pot” (盆菜) is the Cantonese tradition of layering multiple premium ingredients into a large clay or metal pot. The bottom layers usually include radish, lotus root, bamboo shoots; the middle layers add fish maw, dried scallops, mushrooms; the top layers feature the premium ingredients — abalone, sea cucumber, prawns, roast pork, chicken.
The eating ritual for pen cai is the dig-from-the-top approach. Use the serving spoon to take portions from the top layer first, then work down through the lower layers as the meal progresses. The braising liquid that pools at the bottom is the most concentrated flavour and gets ladled onto rice for the last few mouthfuls.
CNY family dinners are the small rituals that anchor the year.
Overall: 4.7 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Excellent CNY family dinner — annual tradition kept.
