Bao and Boil Round-Midnight

The Lunar and the Gregorian calendar positioned themselves into a double booking this year.  My older daughter’s birthday which falls on the fourth of February is usually close to the Chinese New Year season, but this year it fell squarely on 除夕, Lunar New Year’s Eve.  Turning eighteen she is, and it’s a day to be honored, and reflect on.  And, it’s high-holiday’s in China as well.  Any descent northern family should be heading “home” to make some dumplings this evening.  As a result, we did not head out to Shandong today, but rather, stayed around the home and celebrated here. 

The vegan, requested lasagna, avec du fromage.  Avec du fromage?  Oui?  Avec plaisir, ma fille.  But this was going to run up against tradition, like requesting a coconut curry on Thanksgiving.  My wife was not going to want a lot of Italian tastes on a night like tonight.  I offered to have the birthday dinner done early, so we could clean up and have dumplings ready to bao and boil round-midnight.

I asked about what else she’d like to do on her big day and she reminded me that she’d asked for a puzzle.  Right.  I’d actually gotten her brother one for Christmas, but he’d already taken off for Shandong and I’d missed the chance to borrow that one. I called the place where I’d bought his puzzle, not far from home and though they answered the phone, they confirmed that they were, of course, closed.   Where do I get a puzzle on Chuxi?  In my mind’s eye I could see the one I’d got ten years ago in a museum in Seoul.  But as I recall, we’d lost a piece or two and besides, I couldn’t find it anywhere.  But during that search, in the closet by the laundry I found a rough looking Chinese puzzle and a Beatles Anthology puzzle I’d forgotten about from some years ago.  She confirmed that the latter would do. 

I biked over to our big western market Jenny’s to get my Italian ingredients around noon.  Place was packed with folks buying up their ingredients for the big feast.  She and most of her staff are from Henan, but no one there was heading home for the holidays.  It’s a good thing she wants to make a buck because every other place around is shuttered up, and everybody seems to need a last minute something or other.  My first Chinese New Year in China was in Shanghai many years ago and I can still recall that eerie, disconcerting feeling, biking around the metropolis in the middle of the day, when, for the first time all year, everything was closed.

Biking back I called out “Happy New Year” to each of the guards, and each time I wondered if it was wrong to say so the day before the day had actually arrived.  I considered saying “Happy New Year’s Eve” to the these fellas, who obviously were also not heading home, but that sounded notably more ridiculous.  Some thuds were sounding off in the distance.  Nothing like what you'd hear back in Shandong, but it’ll do. 

Monday, 02/04/19