Happy lunar new year! Xin nian kuai le, gong xi fa cai, etc, etc. I have to confess — I am pretty terrible at being chinese (unless I’m awesome at being chinese, like… when getting food freebies in Costco). I decided I wanted a small little Chinese new year get-together chez moi and I ended up having to call my mother…

Me: “Mommy? What do chinese people eat on chinese new year?”
*Mother audibly signs* (some things you can only ask mothers)

So apparently, every province/region has their own traditions. My mom’s area tends to have fish, my father’s area tends to have wontons. I know how to make edible wontons… I don’t know how to cook edible fish! That was pretty easy.

But what I forgot to ask was — what do Chinese people drink on CNY?

Traditionally, you drink only hot things while eating. Something about digestion. My dad’s region prescribes to the hot-soup-only side of things, while my mother’s side tolerates a couple cups of green tea. While I’m sure Chinese people somewhere do traditionally drink alcohol, my family is dry. No luck on that front.

Last night, I had 3 friends over for wonton-making and eating. We each cradled a bottle of some type of Sierra Nevada — standard casual dinner thing. And I just happen to have a whole cupboard full of awesome tea I’d love to share with friends. Somehow though, asking if people want tea is like calling for an end to the party, like it’s some kind of binary — either you don’t mention tea and keep drinking (alcohol), or you do mention tea and implicitly mean that everyone should stop drinking (alcohol) and go home. Goodness, that’s the exact opposite of what I mean! I enjoy having a good cup of tea during dinner. I enjoy a good cup afterwards. I mightily enjoy double-fisting a bottle of beer and a cup of tea (and god knows, Neil & I have spent a couple evenings tasting, in alternating swigs, ____ (belgian ale, or insert awesome beer here), and _____ (pu-erh, or insert exotic scary tea here)). But how, when, do you introduce the pot of tea into a normal 20s-something dinner party (that doesn’t consist of your single other tea-friendly friend)?

Maybe I should mention “Hey, here’s some great tea I just picked up from Food Emporium… and by the way, here’s a bottle of beer for when you’re done with the tea”. Or spike the tea. Mrm.

Well, until I figure that conundrum out — we have e day to celebrate today. Y’know what word has two e’s in it? Beer.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Beer, Tea.