Kirbie's Cravings

Chinese New Year 2017 recap

photo of the table for Chinese New Year
We celebrated Chinese Lunar New Year over the weekend with some close friends. I managed to take a few photos before our guests arrived.

Two years ago, we threw a house party for Chinese New Year, inviting a lot of our close friends. We had fun hosting everyone and I made a lot of food (recap here).

Last year, due to various reasons, we didn’t have a party and it was just Mr. K and I. I tried to make sure we did all the lucky food traditions, but it just didn’t feel the same. This year, I wanted to have some sort of celebration, but we also had a lot going on in January so we also wanted to keep it low key.

While we had loved having so many friends last time, we had regretted not being able to have more time with each of our friends since we were trying to catch up with everyone. So we decided to keep it to a small group and invited a few of our longtime friends that we haven’t seen in over a year. Time really seems to fly by fast now, especially with most of my friends having kids.
photo of the place setting for Chinese New Year

I’m usually not much into decoration, but I had this table image in my head and luckily was able to find everything I needed on Amazon. Honestly, I think I spent more time figuring out the table decorations than anything else. I really love the gold table runner. I scattered a few silver fortune cookies which are actually meant to be place card holders. The rooster statute is from my mom as this year is the year of the rooster.

The plates were a last minute decision. I originally was going to go with our regular “nice” plates, but my set of dinnerware is white and I thought something with gold would have a nice touch. Surprisingly, I found these gold rimmed plates that feel and look very real, but are actually disposable! My guests couldn’t believe they were disposable.
close-up phot of gold-rimmed plates
I kept the food menu pretty simple. I actually do wish I had put another one or two items on there, but I ran out of time. The week before the party I had a bunch of work projects and I was still working all the way up until three hours before the party. So I had to scrap one of the desserts and one of the side dishes. There was still enough food for everyone, but it wasn’t quite as abundant as my usual house parties.

We brought out our steam trays to keep the food warm throughout the evening.

Scallion pancakes.
photo of Scallion pancakes.

Chive Pork and Cabbage Pork Dumplings (I bought frozen ones from a restaurant)
photo of Chive Pork and Cabbage Pork Dumplings

Edamame Snap Pea Salad with Sesame Dressing
photo of Edamame Snap Pea Salad with Sesame Dressing

For drinks, we had San Pellegrino blood orange soda, Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider, Hibiki Whiskey and aged plum wine from the Yamazaki distillery in Japan.
photo of different liquors and glassware

For dessert, I picked up a variety of Bubbies mochi ice cream from Whole Foods. Sorry I forgot to take a photo before serving them, but here is an old post. The prices have gone up since then (it’s now $20 for the baker’s dozen), but this is still our favorite brand of mochi ice cream and we get them from Whole Foods often. I love the variety of flavors. If you just want a single flavor, they sell 8 piece boxes of certain flavors in their freezer section for $10.

It was a pretty relaxing night and it was fun to catch up with everyone and see our friends’ new baby. Hopefully we’ll have the time to host a few more dinner parties this year.

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6 comments on “Chinese New Year 2017 recap”

  1. Looks like a fantastic dinner. Were you able to find the Yamazaki plum wine locally? I’ve been wanting to get a bottle but haven’t been able to find one except to import one from out of the country. Thank you!

  2. Those gold/white plate sets are so nice! They really look like fancy china!  Everything you had/made/served looks amazing, especially that colorful salad.

  3. Very nice dinner! Where did you find the silver fortune cookies? And happy lunar new year to you and Mr. K!