Chinese New Year in New Zealand

Yu Sheng (Raw Fish Salad)

This is the first year we are away from home during Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations. So how did we celebrated CNY in New Zealand? It was a quiet affair for us since we do not have any family in Wanganui, and CNY is not a public holiday here.

If we had been in Auckland, which has a large number of ethnic Chinese, there would be more to do. I did an internet search and found that Auckland has a lantern festival to mark the occasion, lion dances etc. Given the numerous Chinese supermarkets and restaurants up in the City of Sails, buying traditional goodies and eating festive foods would have been relatively easy. Not so where we are... so we had to make do.

Tradition calls for a reunion dinner on the eve of the Lunar New Year when everyone one returns to their family. In China and where-ever there is a large ethnic Chinese population, there would be an exodus of people in the days leading up to the New Year. The tables would be laden with festive dishes with auspicious names such as Guaranteed Abundance (Bao Yu or abalone), Good Fortune and Wealth (Ho See Fatt Choy - a dish made up of braised dried oysters and black fungus). There must be so much food that leftovers are guaranteed. To have insufficient food would be inauspicious. Since I had pretty busy work schedule right up to the eve, I was pretty tired by Saturday, Feb 13th. To compound it, we had signed up for a Cheese making course at the Community Education Services locally and it was a full day’s affair on Saturday (CNY eve), which meant we did not have time or energy to cook up traditional goodies. That evening, we just had our own reunion dinner with a good piece of porterhouse steak and a simple salad with fresh veggies from our garden. On Chinese New Year’s day, we had a wonderful time Skype-ing with all the family back in SG and we ate crunchy snacks, drank a delicious chilled white wine to accompany a tasty Insalata Caprese made with Mozarella from the Cheese School. Too bad we missed out on "ang pows" (little red envelopes with money) by not being able to visit family.

Yu Sheng (raw fish) is one of those festive dishes that seem to turn up in every chinese restaurant in Singapore during CNY. Since we had been invited to a BBQ that evening, we said we would bring a salad. Our Kiwi friends (bless them) knew it was CNY and thought it would be a good idea to help us celebrate! Moreover they were intrigued by the idea of a communal salad toss up. That afternoon, we put together a home made “yu sheng”, using carrots, cucumber, red peppers (instead of yam strips), cabbage (instead of daikon) and topped it with crispy noodles and Cheezels (the cheezels looking like old fashioned gold coins). Smoked Salmon was used as the "raw fish". Little zip locs of pepper, five spice powder, crushed peanuts, plum sauce and peanut oil completed the portable feast. We brought this colourful platter to our Kiwi friend’s house.

The toppings were then sprinkled onto the salad after each item was introduced with auspicious sayings. Everyone had a great time tossing the salad, shouting greetings and wishes for good health, wealth and fortune. It was done with such enthusiasm that we were in danger of losing the salad onto the floor!

Tossing Yu Sheng

The Lo Hei Yu Sheng Ritual, (as far as I can gather from the Internet):
Step 1: All gather at the table, offer New Year Greetings.
Words: Gong Xi Fa Cai (Congratulations for your wealth) or Wan Shi Ru Yi (May all your wishes be fulfilled)

Step 2: Raw Fish (in our case, cold smoked salmon) symbolising abundance is added
Words: Nian nian you yu ( may every year have abundance)

Step 3: Pomelo (or ruby grapefruit segments for us) is added, with the words: Da ji da Li (not sure what this means)

Step 4: Pepper and Five Spice powder are sprinkled over: Words Zhao Cai Jin Bao

Step 5: Peanut oil is poured out circling the ingredients (to increase profits and encouraging money to flow in from all directions)

Step 6: Chopped peanuts are sprinkled over symbolising gold and silver in the house

Step 7: Sesame seeds, representing flourishing business is also sprinkled over.

Step 8: Crispy noodles (and Cheezels in our case) are then added with wishes that literally the whole floor be covered with gold.

Step 9: Everyone tosses the salad with chopsticks shouting new year greetings and wishes for good health, striking lottery, good health, promotion or whatever else seems desirable and good.

An Abundance of Good Food

The BBQ dinner was a feast, the dinner table groaning with an abundance of food. Everyone had a wonderful evening - laughing, eating (too much), enjoying a good chat and each other's company. So if you asked me how it compared with celebrations in Singapore? As someone has so aptly put it - same same but different la.. Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!

Preserving the harvest

Tomatoes galore

Now that summer is in full swing, there is fruit aplenty and sometimes, an overabundance even. Rather than forcing oneself to eat yet another tomato fresh from the garden or letting fruit rot on the vine, the best alternative is to preserve the harvest.

In our eagerness to have fresh tomatoes, we had planted 8 plants, including several heirloom varieties, and beginner's luck would have it that all are producing more than we can eat. In case you are wondering - we have Black Krim, Purple Cherokee, Golden Nugget, Tommy Toe, Green Zebra, Red Roma and 2 heirloom ones, which we cant remember the name of.

Tomatoes and Apricots, all chopped up, ready to cook

Anyhow, we get about 250 - 500g of tomatoes everyday, that plus some apricots from the supermarket that refused to ripen (never buy stone fruit from supermarkets if you can help it) made me decide on cooking up a chutney.

The recipe is really simple, and you can add any fruit to the tomatoes - cooking apples, add body and texture, sliced onions do the same. Sultanas or raisins add some sweetness - anything goes really. The aim is to get a mixture of sweet, tart, spicy and slighty salty flavours that will slowly blend together as the chutney matures.

Aromatics

So here's the recipe:

Tomato - Apricot Chutney

• 0.5kg fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 0.5kg fresh apricots
• 2 large onions finely sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 cardamom pods, peeled
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
• 2 tsp salt
• 250g brown sugar
• 150ml malt vinegar

Put all ingredients into a non-reactive pot, bring to the boil, let simmer with low heat for about 30min or till fruit and onions are soft, stirring occasionally to prevent mixture from catching. Taste and season if neccesary. Meanwhile, prepare jars for bottling.
Once mixture is ready, bring rapidly to a boil (a.k.a. jam making) for 5min till silky and jammy.
Bottle while hot.

Chutney simmering away

The chutney may be eaten fresh but letting it mature in a cool, dark place for a week or 2 is better. (some things are better when aged a bit...)

Chutney bottled, ready for maturing

This chutney goes well with cold meats, especially pork and chicken and will do well as a sweet but tangy glaze for a ham. Enjoy!

Back to the Mountains... at last

Ruapehu emerging from clouds

Established in 1887, Tongariro was the first national park in New Zealand and the fourth in the world. It is also a dual World Heritage area, a status which recognises the park's important Maori cultural and spiritual associations as well as its outstanding volcanic features.

The Park is only 2h away from where we are and now that we have learnt to drive longer distances, visiting this wonderful playground over a weekend is very do-able. The drive itself is very scenic, twisting and turning along SH4, often referred to as the "Para paras".

One of the big reasons for relocating to New Zealand is the wonderful hiking opportunities that exist here. Now that our house is more or less settled, what better way to start our hiking adventures than ticking off what has been described as one of “the best day walks in the world”

do not underestimate mountain weather

Many people underestimate the nature of mountains. Sometimes, due to the accesibility of this tramp, people may get into all sorts of trouble. We had made a booking for a shuttle bus run by Discovery Lodge. However, the day that we had wanted to make the Crossing, the shuttle was cancelled, due to bad weather. The owner-operator Callum Harland - an experienced mountain runner who appreciates the change-able nature of mountain weather and operates the bus only when it is safe. The Discovery Lodge runs the earliest shuttle (0545h) to the start, allowing hikers to enjoy the "wilderness experience" before the "hordes" arrive. (Most other operators arrive at the start between 0730h and 0830h) The pre-dawn start also gives plenty of time to take in the fantastic views and complete the crossing before the day gets too hot. They also have a wonderful pick-up schedule starting from 1230h and hourly thereafter till 1630h, which means that if one is fast, or the weather bad, you can complete the hike quickly, get down and back to warm hot showers or if the weather is good, take your time and snap endless photos, bag the peaks of Tongariro and Ngauruhoe and not worry about missing your pick-up.

When we arrived in National Park the day before, it had been raining badly the past few days and the mountains were completely covered in cloud. The weather report for the next day suggested a small break in the weather and we jumped at it. Waking up early to catch the 0540h shuttle reminded me of midnight alpine starts and I was happy to get back into this mode.

an early start

The track from Mangatepopo Car Park to Soda Springs is flat, well formed and easily covered in an hour. It was very pleasant stretching the legs on this section, stopping at Soda Springs for a toilet stop (no more toilets till Ketetahi hut!!) and a quick drink of water before making the ascent to the Crater rim.

I had visions of hard work on scree (memories of the infamous Caneleta on Aconcagua), but the new track which zig zags its way up was really easy underfoot, steps well formed and it kind of took the excitement out. Almost a walk in the park. We hurried along as the clouds were creeping up the mountain and unfortunately, we were beaten to the South Crater by the weather.

view down to Soda Springs, clouds moving in

With thick cloud and the possibility of rain, we decided against climbing to the summit of Ngauruhoe and after a snack, walked briskly across South Crater, trying to imagine the views!

South Crater in the mist

Reaching the far end of the South Crater, we climbed up to Red Crater, again, not too steep, but the rocks and clay were somewhat slick from the mist and care had to be taken.

Red Crater rim, rocks, slick from mist

Just as we topped Red Crater, rim, the highest point of the Crossing, the clouds parted briefly and we were treated to a magnificent view of the Emerald lakes.

Emerald Lakes emerging from mist

Descending to the Emerald Lakes needs a little care, as the path is on loose scree and the ridge is moderately exposed. In high winds and poor visibility, one could potentially be blown off. This probably is the only location with some objective danger on the crossing, assuming one does not attempt the summits of Ngauruhoe and Tongariro.

descent from Red Crater, note sulphur stains

At this juncture, we noted sulphurous smells and saw numerous steam vents on the side of the crater, many with sulphur deposits around them. It was a reminder that the area is still very much a geothermal area and volcanoes here are by no means extinct.

Once we had gotten down to the Lakes and were about to explore their shores, the wind picked up and clouds came in again, this time with rain and this rain followed us all the way down to Ketetahi Car Park.

Blue Lake in the rain

So, looks like we'll have to go back, sometime soon to re-visit the area in good weather, bag the summits and take in the views (and snap a few pictures!!)