I’m nursing my stomach and fighting my eyelids to remain open as I write this.
Today happens to be Chinese New Year 2012 – the year of the Dragon!
Since there is a large influence of Chinese in Thailand, there are quite a lot of festivities and feasting that goes on.
A few years ago (back when I was teaching English), I got my students to explain to me some of the normal traditions and customs on Chinese New Year’s in Thailand, but this time around, I mostly just feasted!
Yesterday I went to a local market here in Bangkok, things were crazy – people were scurrying to purchase food like boiled ducks and chickens.
The feast this morning was all about duck, chicken and pork.
We started things off with duck. A lovely bird boiled in light soy sauce flavored water so it stayed juicy, fatty and just slightly salty.
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After taking a turn on the chopping board, the duck looked like this, big meaty chunks of moist duck waiting to be devoured.
The fried noodles, were alright, slightly on the plain side, but still good.
The tastiest dish for Chinese New Year was the chicken.
It was boiled in plain water first, then chopped up into fist sized chunks and stir fried along with dark soy sauce.
This is a wok filled with 2 full chickens being fried up with soy sauce! My mouth was watering.
It was spectacular, the pieces of chicken were tender and glazed in an outstanding dark soy sauce – with rice it was deliciously comforting!
The chicken went down just as easy as the duck.
This is about as close to vegetables as we got for this feast, a small bowl of soup made with mushrooms, tofu and clear mungbean noodles.
After I was already stuffed with duck and chicken and pork, it was time to eat some Thai roasted fish known as pla pao. The fish was rolled in salt and then grilled over low heat charcoal.
The fish was flaky, moist and spectacular!
Since all the food was boiled, it needed some extra flavoring.
That’s where the Thai genius of flavoring techniques came into play. We made a sauce that consisted of outrageously spicy little chillies, tons of garlic, lime juice, sugar and salt.
I lathered everything I ate in the sauce, it was incredible.
Little snacks and Thai desserts are common at Chinese New Year in Thailand. They are available all over the streets and throughout all markets.
My stomach is out of space at the moment, but after I take a little nap I’ll be ready to start snacking again!
Happy Chinese New Year 2012!
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Apple
12 years ago
Oh that duck looks amazingly delicious! I was in Thailand in December and miss it.
Mark Wiens
12 years ago
Thanks Apple!
Li
12 years ago
sooo jealous of you right now! However I did have a nice lunch at a Thai restaurant and had a sweet and sour egg dish called egg-in-law, which was delicious
Mark Wiens
12 years ago
Hehe, thanks! Hope you had a good Chinese New Year!
sully86
12 years ago
mark: back at my hometown celebrating with my family and relatives. Been stuffing myself crazy with food.
Mark Wiens
12 years ago
Awesome to hear this, have fun!
Annie – FootTracker
12 years ago
wooo, the sweet Thai snacks got my attention! How did that one taste?
Happy Lunar New Year! Stay safe while abroad. (I saw the Chinese news about there are cases of a kind of flu breaking out in Asia, so take care ~)
Mark Wiens
12 years ago
Thanks Annie, I didn’t even know about the flu breaking out, I’ll keep an guard. Those sweets are pretty good, sticky with the wonderful flavor of coconut! Happy Chinese New Year!
Annie – FootTracker
12 years ago
Yep, its bird flu again, so stay away from the birds. (Good thing it does not pass from human to human yet ~)
Mark Wiens
12 years ago
Thanks for sharing Annie, I’m keeping an eye out.
Turkey’s For Life
12 years ago
Happy Chinese New Year to you too. 🙂 Those chillies look feisty. We love red hot chillies in our food so I bet your sauce was great.
Julia
Mark Wiens
12 years ago
Thanks Julia, hope you had a good one!
tunimaal
12 years ago
He man how much did ou eat? You must get fat with all of that food!!!! Or will you work out a lot right after it??? 🙂
Mark Wiens
12 years ago
Haha! I’m getting there!
sully86
12 years ago
Mark: Happy year of the dragon to u!!! Are u celebrating?
Mark Wiens
12 years ago
Thanks! Not celebrating very much, just with a feast. Apart from that, I’m taking it easy and just relaxing! How about you?