The Chinese New Year Fair

A crazy-belated Happy Chinese New Year to you all! YES I know Chinese New Year was almost two weeks ago, but since my CNY posts last year and the year before were both varying degrees of late, I reckon I'm starting a bit of a tradition. Besides, this might just be the perfect time to be posting since tomorrow is the 15th day of the 1st month in the Chinese Lunar calendar, otherwise known as the Lantern Festival (元宵節). While I learned that in Hong Kong the CNY holiday lasts only three days, traditionally the Lantern Festival brought a close to the CNY celebrations. Couples would go out and look at lanterns and try to guess the riddles on them, and families would gather around and eat tangyuan (湯丸).

In four of the past five years, I celebrated Chinese New Year a little willy-nilly without my family in Montreal, so to have it come at me full force in Hong Kong was a huge change. A lot of the traditions leading up to and over the first few days of the Chinese New Year are still practised. I obviously knew about "年廿八，洗邋遢", which means you should clean house on the 28th day of the last month of the Lunar year and about 團年飯 ("tuen neen fahn"), the big family dinner on the last day of the year, but there was *lots* more I didn't know about, like the idea of "收爐" ("sau lo", literally, turning off the stove), which is when businesses ceremoniously finish business for the year. One of my favourite shows in Hong Kong, So Good, had a historian come in and talk about the different traditions for EACH　DAY that are mostly out of practice except amongst the older generations.

In addition to 團年飯, a traditional activity on the last day of the year is to go to the Chinese New Year Fair, or to 行年宵 ("haang neen siu", literally "walk the end/last night of the year") after the big supper. The fair is also referred to as 花市 ("fa see"), which literally translates to "flower market". My dad sent me out by myself on the day before to avoid the crushing crowds, and to pick up some pussy willow for the flower arrangement we had in our home.

(Yes, this is *avoiding* crowds)

Despite being called the "flower market", most of the stalls were devoted to *not* selling flowers.

I wasn't about to spend money on plush versions of food when I could get the real thing, and the fair was the perfect place to try some cheap Chinese street foods.

The first snack I tried was "Sugar green onion cake" (糖蔥餅, "tong choong bang"), which is made by cooking up some cane sugar and malt sugar and pulling it into this white mass that looks like corrugated plastic, then topping it with a mix of more sugar and desiccated coconut before wrapping it in a thin flour "tortilla". It was only $10 HKD. (<$2 CAD)

The tortilla cut the sweetness a little bit and the whole concoction was really flaky. Despite having a paper bag to catch the crumbs, I still managed to get it all over myself. It was ok, but not my favourite thing in the world.

It didn't take much more walking around before I decided I wanted something savory and substantial, and at around the same time I found myself in front of a hot food stand that seemed to be calling my name. They sold traditional Hong Kong street foods, like curry fish balls on a stick, BBQ squid on a stick, and bowls of "shark fin" soup.

I opted for a bowl of shiu mai, which were really fish balls wrapped with the yellow rice sheet, and a cone of sweet popcorn. Washed it all down with some Chinese bottled drink that's supposed to be soothing and hydrating or whatever. But of course, it had so much sugar in it that you simply can't believe that sort of thing.

I saved picking up the pussy willow for last because the bunches were very tall and I didn't want the guy to cut it for fear he would cut it too short. On my way out though, I couldn't resist grabbing a bingtang hulu (冰糖葫蘆), which is a skewer of frozen, candied haw and #8 on the list of 100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die.

I found a bench outside the grounds to enjoy my treat. While I was buying my individually-wrapped stick a family stood behind me contemplating their choices, and the saleslady advised that the candied strawberry would be sweeter. I was glad that I went with "tradition" because the haw wasn't sour, but gave a nice tartness that contrasted that contrasted with the sweet malt sugar. I'm sure I looked ridic with my bunch of pussy willow resting on the crook of my arm while I was holding the my skewer in the same hand and taking photos with my camera in the other hand. Whatevs.

Jealous? You don't have to go to China, or even Chinatown for that matter. Elyse Sewell (of ANTM fame) teaches you how to make your own candied fruit skewers here.

The Chinese New Year Fair is held every year during the week leading up to Chinese New Year in Victoria Park, which sits between Causeway Bay and Tin Hau MTR stations, in Hong Kong. There's a smaller, more flower-centric one in Mong Kok.