Chinese New Year coincided last year with Valentine's day on a Sunday and luckily my chinese friend Mary had informed me about the festivities at the secretly hidden little China Town in Glasgow that had a parade and celebration every year to commemorate the event . So I took my Glasgow born and bred husband to this little Chinese gem of a restaurant for a festive meal as he had never been to ChinaTown in his own city ever .
Despite booking a table for two in time to watch the parade of the dancing lions, we had to wait in a long queue to be seated in the restaurant and ended up getting a seat in the centre table,beneath the centrepiece massive chandelier,my cheeky husband jokingly scared me by saying 'Let's hope the chandelier does not fall on your head ' !!
The restaurant was totally packed with Chinese people insterspersed with a few other nationalities, and very well decorated with the new year theme all over. The remarkable feature of this restaurant is that absolutely all their tables were huge round ones with a minimum eight seater capacity - ideally designed for big family outings and get togethers.
The menu was overwhelming and taxing to look through as there were scary dishes like shark fin soup and octopus .I tend to order my tried and tested favourites like chicken schezwan noodles so I did and in the midst of the meal,in the jam packed restaurant, a group of dancers entered with heavy drumming in the background with fabulous costumes and dragon masks made of paper mache . This chubby baby boy seated right next to our table started bawling with fear as they approached the centre of the venue and they just parked themselves next to our table after doing a round of all the tables .It was a low -key version of the parade that happens in the far east , but enjoyable nevertheless .
After my trip to the authentic chinese supermarket ,I was equipped to dish out hot ' Chindian ' cuisine at home , its awesome to see so many varieties of rice noodles available just like the variety of pasta shapes any supermarket stocks , not to mention so many kinds of tofu , oriental sauces etc at the Yin Yang supermarket .
I miss the 'Indo-chinese' cuisine served by restaurants in Bombay because in Scotland,the chinese takeaways hardly add any vegetables in the dishes - they know the scots are anti-veggies so they dish out recipes that keep the clients returning . Besides,its too bland for my tastes , so I'd rather prepare my own oriental delights as it hardly takes any time in my Ikea wok .
Recently , I came across two moving books by author Lisa See : Shanghai girls and Snowflower and the secret fan. Both are very well written books about the life of two chinese women who grew up together as sisters and as friends and gave an insight to their lives under the circumstances that one can never imagine . I'd recommend these books to any avid reader or for anyone who wants a peek-a-boo to ancient domestic life in China . Their strong family ethic is as touching as is their dedication to hard work and determination to rise above hardships they are born under - a total inspiration .
