Asian American basketball player, will be the first NBA player since 1947, certainly made us all Asian Americans proud.  Of course, being a Chinese mother, I am also equally fond of him graduating from the Harvard Crimsons.  He was just signed by the Golden States Warriors, and he will be one of the guards in the team.

Jeremy grew up in Palo Alto, California.  His first exposure to professional basketball started at the age of 5, when his father took him to his first basketball game.  Yeah, so this has been a good year for us, first Ed Wang to the NFL, and now Jeremy Lin to the NBA!!!!

Check out his highlights here at his Harvard days.

The Little One has been loving to do Tangram lately, so I diligently looked up some more options online and found quite a few websites that the little ones can practice on the computer.  Tangram is an ancient game originated in China, consisting of 7 geometric shapes and put together to form shapes.  Check out these sties to see if your kids will enjoy them too.

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/area/tangram.html

http://www.creativeimaginations.net/PAGE4.html

http://games.ztor.com/tang/

Yi mein – 伊麵 – Flat Egg Noodles

Looking for an easy noodle recipe on this hot, humid, lazy summer day….then came across with this popular dish that I love growing up.  Dried fried yi mein (乾炒伊麵) is a very popular dish served in most Chinese restaurant.  They serve this dish for birthday and wedding banquet as well.  It usually comes together with the fried rice at the end of the banquet, as the noodle represents a long life and/or a long marriage.

Yi Mein is a type of Chinese flat egg noodles, made from wheat flour.  They are known for their golden yellow color and the chewy characteristics.  The noodles are usually available in dried form, and involves soaking to make it “stir fried-able”.  It is usually served with shredded port, mushroom, and sometimes with crab meat.

Now I don’t have any of these noodles on hand, and am way too lazy to drive 20 minutes to the nearest Chinese grocery store to get the noodles.  I have some other noodles in the refrigerator, let’s see if that will work.  I will report on that later this week!

加油 – jiā yóu

Today, my oldest had his first swim meet for the summer. While he was swiming with his teammates, his little brothers cheered him on. In particular, my 2 1/2  year old started saying 加油, jiā yóu, 加油 as he watched his brother swim. I was kind of surprised by this outburst of Chinese as his Chinese is limited to food and some simple instructional words such as go, come, eat, etc. It turned out, there was a Ni Hao Kai-lan episode where Kai-lan and her friends cheered for Ho Ho. The best way to understand 加油 is in a sentence, it basically is the equivelent of  “Go, Name (Ho Ho), Go!

This again affirms my believe television is ok as long as it’s educational! Seriously, if my kids are going to watch tv, at least I know they are learning!

Cute cute cute….mini panda pillow by mymimi, available at ShanaLogic.  Each pillow is 7″ x 7″, perfect to decorate any little kiddie’s room.  My other favorites include a cute little owl and the mini Geisha.  Thinking of that, we have a birthday party coming up for an eight year old girl, this will make a perfect gift!

Zongzi – 粽子 – zòng zi

Zongzi is a traditional Chinese food made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling.  Just like moon cake and most other Chinese food, there are different versions of Zongzi, and there are different versions of eating Zongzi.  Fillings vary from mung beans, red bean paste, Chinese sausage, salted pork, salted duck egg, to chicken, and taro.  I like to eat mine dipped in sugar, while other people may eat it plain.  My husband likes it with soy sauce.

Zongzi is traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival.  However, it is a favorite of lots of people, so you can see them in the Dim Sum carts too when you go to Chinatown.

I’ve recently brought one over to my Venezuelan friend’s for her to try.  She loved it.  It reminded her of the Hallaca, a traditional Venezuela dish that she loves growing up.  That was pretty funny.  I have two pictures here of Zongzi and Hallaca, can you tell or guess which one is which?

Tomorrow, June 16th, is one of the Chinese holiday called Dragon Boat Festival.  The actual lunar date is May 5th.  When I was little, this holiday consisted of 4 things for me: No school, Dragon Boat race (super boring watching it on TV, sorry, it wasn’t that exciting for a 10 year old girl), eat Zong-zi (sweet rice mixed with meat wrapped in Bamboo leaves), and taking a bath at noon.  The day will then ends with a nice dinner, with everyone in the family gathered around.

A few things you should know about the Dragon Boat Festival.  1)This Dragon Boat festival is to memorializes the Chinese patriotic poet Chiu Yuan (340 BC-278 BC or 343-290 B.C.), who committed suicide by jumping into the river after tying himself with big rock on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.  He was loved by the people at that time, and many fishermen tried to rescue him but his body was never found.  Then the people threw food into the river to feed the fish, so that the fish wouldn’t eat Chiu Yuan.  The people then splashed the water with their paddles and beat the drums loudly to try to scare the fish away.  Yes, you got it.  That is exactly how the Zong-zi and the Dragon Boat come from.

Now the Dragon Boat race becomes an international sport.  So whoever and whatever you are, raise your cups and give yourself some Dragon Boat spirit.

Ice Cream Bar – 雪糕 – xuě gāo

Chinese language is very interesting, as many of you already know. These two characters, if translated separately, means snow and cake respectly.  In addition, Ice cream, is known as 冰淇淋, bīng qí lín, totally different from ice cream bar, or 雪糕.

Anyway, I found these adorable 雪糕 from H Mart, a local Korean grocery store. These 雪糕 have the shapes of a panda, almost too cute to eat!  There are also many different flavors of 雪糕, including green tea, red bean, green bean, taro, in addition to the traditional vanilla and chocalate flavors.  

My favorite flavor as a child is red bean, what’s yours?

Check this out!  A Qing Dynasty table clock was sold for $3.8M at a Sotheby’s auction this week.  This auction was held at the country estate of Patricia Kluge in Charlottesville.

The clock, one of the top showcase pieces sold Tuesday for a price more than triple the $1 million estimated top value after a heated telephone bidding session. A Chinese collector jumped in with an offer of $1.2 million for the nearly 200-year-old gilt-brass-and-enamel timepiece, then cast the winning bid of $3.78 million several minutes later.

This clock was dated back in the Qing Dynasty (1736-1795).  It’s definitely a masterpiece, I wonder what it would look like in my dining room…… 

A good friend of mine got married a couple of weeks ago.  It was a beautiful wedding on a beautiful sunny day, and I was very honored to be in the bridal party.  She had a semi-traditional Chinese wedding, as her husband is not Chinese.  One of my favorite Chinese wedding tradition is the Tea Ceremony.  This is when the bride and the groom serve tea to the elders and show their respect, it is also a chance for the elders to give their good wishes to the newlyweds.  I don’t want to risk not explaining it right.  Here’s a good explanation of what I found on The Chinese Historical and Cultural Project.

On the wedding day, the bride serves tea (holding the teacup with both hands) to her parents at home before the groom arrives. She does this out of respect and to thank her parents for raising her. The tea at this time does not need to have the lotus seeds or dates, and the bride does not need the assistance of a “lucky woman.” She pours and serves the tea by herself without the groom.

Traditionally, after the wedding ceremony, the newlyweds serve tea (holding the teacups with both hands), inviting the groom’s elders to drink tea by addressing them by formal title, e.g. first uncle or third aunt.

The general rule is to have the woman on the left side and the man on the right side. The people being served will sit in chairs, while the bride and groom kneel. For example, when the newlyweds serve tea to the groom’s parents, the bride would kneel in front of her father-in-law, while the groom would kneels in front of his mother.

The newlyweds serve tea in order, starting with the groom’s parents then proceeding from the oldest family members to the youngest, e.g. the groom’s parents, then his paternal grandparents, then his maternal grandparents, then his oldest uncles and aunts, and all the way to his older brother.

In return, the newlyweds receive lucky red envelopes (“lai see,” which means “lucky”) stuffed with money or jewelry. The helpers, who are usually women blessed with a happy marriage or wealth and chosen by the fortune teller or bride’s mother, also get lucky red envelopes stuffed with money from those being served. These envelopes are placed on the platter which holds the teacups.