Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

Here at My Panda Paws, we had a wonderful year.  We started this blog, and received many supports from our readers all over the world.  We started our website, which received tremendous responses from our customers, parents, and teachers. We want you to know that we couldn’t have done it without you!

We learned everything and anything including shipping, e-commerce, graphic designs, writing blogs, and much much more.  It has been a beautiful journey.  We are taking all of what we learned, and all the boo boos, and making it better tomorrow.

Happy New Year!!!  Enjoy the rest of your holidays!

P.S.  One major advantage of being Chinese, the holidays are not over until Chinese New Year.  Stay tuned, this year’s Chinese New Year is late, on Feb 14th!

Love,

Debbie and Dotty

My Panda Paws

聖誕快樂 – Merry Christmas – Shèng dàn kuài lè

Happy Holidays to all of you!!!!

Birthday – 生日 – shēng rì

Sunday is little Dumpling’s birthday, my little baby is going to be 3!  I can’t believe it!  He was just a little baby, and what happened?

Anyway, my father called on Thursday and told me that it was his Chinese birthday according to the Lunar calendar, so we snuck in a little Chinese tradition in his dinner on Thursday.  I grew up eating chicken on my birthday, my mom would always get a nice, fresh chicken for me.  I never really understand why, it’s just the way it is.  Chicken is a traditional dish that Chinese use to celebrate the honored people, or for special occasion.  Anyway, I didn’t have time to prepare for a whole, fresh, steam chicken, so I supplemented by making baked chicken drumsticks.  He likes them, and I felt that I did my Chinese part, yeah!

Happy Birthday to my not-so-little baby.

Happy Thanksgiving – 感恩节快乐 – gǎn ēn jié kuài lè

Hot Pot – 火鍋 – huǒ guō

I had a very lovely dinner with my dearest friends this weekend at my house, and our meal of choice was hot pot.  This is one of my favorite meal growing up, and still is.  Hot pot is usually eaten in winter, so we were probably a little bit too early, but the food was very good.

Hot pot is like fondue for Chinese, minus the cheese.  There are many variations in terms of what types of food to serve, but in general, hot pot refers to a metal pot of stock simmering at the center of table while various ingredients are being cooked right at the table throughout the meal.  Then food is being scooped out when they are cook, and everyone serves themselves by dipping into their favorite sauce.  Typical ingredients include wonton, fish balls, meat balls, tofu, dumplings, noodles, vegetables, mushrooms, thinly sliced meat, and seafood.  Basically, it’s whatever you like to eat.

It’s actually a pretty long meal, as you put the raw ingredients in, you will have to wait for the food to cook.  This will then usually transform into some nice conversation.  As the best hot pot requires many different types of food, so you will usually invite a few families over to enjoy all the food.  This actually makes an awesome and easy party/gathering without too much preparation, since most ingredients don’t require much work except buying them from the Chinese grocery store.  So next time when you are planning to host a gathering, consider doing hot pot.  Oh and one last thing, beer and white wine go REALLY well with hot hot!  Enjoy!

Mahjong – 麻將 – má jiàng

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  Ever since I met my husband, I’ve spent almost all of my Thanksgiving with his side of the family.  Mostly because he grew up celebrating Thanksgiving, and that his family would actually serve turkey and have traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  As a little kid in Hong Kong, we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.  After moving to New York, my family celebrated Thanksgiving in Chinese style.  Chinese-Thanksgiving consist of a big dinner serving, surprise, Chinese food!  I don’t remember ever having Turkey, we would usually have chicken instead!  This is going to be a topic for another day.

There is one thing we always do as a family though, playing Mahjong, 麻將.  Whenever we have a big group of people around, we would play Mahjong.  It’s the way our family communicates with each other, over the Mahjong table.  Mahjong is very popular within the Chinese community, and it’s such a popular game that most people have played on the computer nowadays.  But I really see it as a social venue.  I grew up watching my mom play Mahjong.  So instead of going shopping with her friends, she sees her friends over the Mahjong table.  They get to talk about families, friends, news, celebrities, anything; however, it’s not always necessary to come up with topics because then you can also concentrate on playing the game too.

The Mahjong sound maybe noisy to some people, but to me, it’s one of the most endearing sound.  The sound of the tiles hitting each other, with lots of laughter and with lots of Ai-ya.

Inspired by Debbie’s recent post on pumpkin, and how she made pumpkin seeds, I actually made pumpkin seeds this year for Halloween. I must say that it was quite delicious.

My childhood memory of melon seeds is eating them for Chinese New Year, which is a tradition we will talk about when we get closer to the New Year. The first word 瓜 means melon, and the latter 子 means child, son, seed. In Northern China, the melon-seed most commonly used is the larger white kind; while over in Southern China the most common seed is the red seed. I am more accustomed to the red ones. They must be hulled like sunflower seeds before eating, and the hulls are very hard and are a pain to eat. Once you get the hang of it though, it is very addictive, and they make a perfect snack in front of the TV.

Pumpkin – 南瓜 – nán guā

Has anyone ever wondered why pumpkin is called 南瓜, or south melon in Chinese if translated literally? Well, it turns out, pumpkin is native to South America, and is later grown in Southeast Asia. Along with 南瓜, there are 西瓜 (west melon) or more accurately, watermelon, and 冬瓜, winter melon. 冬 (dōng) has the same pronunciation as 東 (dōng), so as a child, I always wondered why there isn’t a melon called 北瓜, (north melon).

In China, pumpkin is most frequently used in soup, not the puree or bisque type we are used to here in the US, but rather the chunky and broth type typical of a Chinese dish. Chinese people also love to eat roasted pumpkin seeds, often in tea houses over a cup of tea and some good conversation with friends and family members.

Teacher – 老师 – lǎo shī

My 4 year old loves his new Chinese 老师 because she rewards him with stickers. I love his 老师 because she keeps him interested in Chinese and is able to motivate him to use the language.

A good teacher, in my opinion, can be extremely influential in a child’s development. I hope my son will learn to love Chinese.

Double Ten Day – 雙十節 - shuāng shí jié

Happy National Day Taiwan!

Double Ten Day refers to the tenth day of the tenth month of the year, hence double ten. It is the National Day of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and celebrates the Wu-chuang Uprising of October 10, 1911, which led to the collapse of the last dynasty (Qing) in China. Most historians believe this to be a significant chapter in China’s political change, moving from an imperial system to a democratic one.

Today, because of the Chinese Civil War, which ended in 1949, this holiday is only celebrated in Taiwan and some oversea communities, but not in Mainland China.