BUMP as we are welcoming the Year of the Snake!
What’s on your menu tonight? We were going to get take-out sushi before we realized what day it was, so now we might also have to make a few dumplings 
Every 12 years, I think of this Far Side.
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Any chance you can enlarge that? I can’t even read it with my glasses on 
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Unfortunately, all the images I can find are similarly grainy. God’s thought bubble: “Boy…these things are a cinch!”
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The wood snake is my zodiac sign, in case you’re interested.
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I am defrosting my last whole black bass. The plan for tonight is sweet and sour with rice and a vegetable. Not sure what vegetable, but there will be one.
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So that would make you 60 this year. Or 120.
How dare you. I will be turning 12.
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If you were turning 12, you’d be a water snake!
Could be worse, though. If you were born in 1948 or 2008, you’d be a Dirt Rat. (Actually an Earth Rat.)
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I didn’t realize there was a variety of snakes!
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Yeah, most people aren’t aware of how the ‘element’ thing works. Most know there are 12 animals, but there are 5 elements, too: earth, fire, water, metal, and wood. The animals cycle every 12 years, but the elements also cycle, too, so it takes a full 60 years before you get back to your original animal/element combo. A lot of Chinese believe that hitting 60 years old is particularly auspicious, since it’s a complete trip around the double cycle (animal and element), so often the 60th birthday is cause for a big party. The 80th and 88th are also popular, but for non-zodiacal reasons: 8 is considered a lucky number.
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Oh, how interesting. I knew the 8 thing, but not the 60 thing.
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That’s fascinating!
I know I’m a pig (of course I am 
), but how does one find out about the element for one’s birth year?
Here’s a color-coded chart: https://www.bendigojosshouse.com/zodiac-calendar/
And wikipedia has a more accurate but harder to read table: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astrology
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Here’s this evening’s fish - roasted rather than deep fried. Full write up over on the What’s For Dinner thread.
Happy Lunar New Year!
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Pork noodles. Marinated and roasted pork tenderloin, garlic, carrot, snow peas, mushrooms, lo mein noodles in a dashi, miso chicken broth, sbe, green onion and a little mild shishito pepper. WoL smashed cucumber salad. 물.
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🐲Gung Hay Fat Choy!🐍
Every year we’d go see the HUGE dragon parade in SF or smaller ones in the East Bay. We’ve been having a few Asian inspired meals this already month, mostly grilled salmon, shrimp or chicken with steamed rice and a veg, or just an 8 treasure fried rice for dinner.
For Saturday night I’m thinking of a favorite, foil wrapped chicken and stir fried zuke, carrots and onion. Or maybe the Tomato Beef Curry (from the Chinese Village Cookbook, 1975 by Rhoda Yee) over rice. Lots to play with here.
The roomate is an ox:water_buffalo:, I’m a sheep:sheep:, dotter is a snake:snake:(she HATES snakes* and the son is horse:racehorse:. For years I thought I was monkey 
until I realized my birthdate fell within the days of lunar new year calendar changes. Very important if you are a late January or early February baby.
Nowadays, we pull out the tangram puzzles to play with, drink tea and enjoy fortune cookies after the big dinner.
- when she was born, my MIL, her grandmother (with some Chinese ancestry that she celebrated), gave the dotter a ‘year of the snake’ poster which hung in her room for years. I found out just a few years ago that the poster caused her great distress when she was a wee one and that is why she dislikes snakes so much. So one time, many years later when she was away at college, she called me up (I was at work) and asked me, “Mom, how do you cook a rattle snake?” I knew. I warned her about the bones.
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Love that cookbook, although I’m biased. Rhoda was one of Mom’s college roommates. As a kid, I knew her as Auntie Rhoda.
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This is imho the best and easiest to follow cookbook on ‘Chinese’ food. I’ve been using it pretty much since it came out. My BIG failure has been TWICE making the Tomato Beef Curry accidentally coating the beef with baking soda instead of cornstarch. There was no saving that meat.
