Chinese New Year

KUNG HEI FAT CHOY! ("Congratulations and be prosperous!". Enter the Year of the Tiger, luckiest sign in the Chinese zodiac!

As a symbol of joy, red is the choice of colour for celebrations. And the pronunciation of ‘red’ as “hong” (meaning ‘prosperous’) makes it an auspicious sound too.

Dragon Bull cocktails chilled with dry ice kicked off an evening last week as the Hong Kong Tourist Board in Canada threw its annual Chinese New Year dinner. Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) is the most important Chinese festivity, so it’s always a special event.

Toronto’s Pearl Harbourfront Restaurant was the venue, with a 10-course dinner organized by Hong Kong celebrity chef Alvin Leung. Living in Toronto from age 6 to 18, Alvin trained as an engineer before discovering food as his passion. A true Canadian, he even drinks Molson Golden beer.

Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) is the most important Chinese festivity, so it’s always a special event.

It was an evening of “extreme cuisine” with dishes ranging from stuffed conch Portuguese style to a sorbet dessert with maple syrup, strawberry and smoke flavours.

Alvin exuberantly describes his Hong Kong restaurant as having “No momma and pappa food --- no momma and pappa price!”

All photos © Gary Crallé 2010, made with Olympus EP-2 Pen camera and 14-42mm standard lens.

The Toronto dinner is held in tandem with the Cathay Pacific International Chinese New Year Night Parade in Hong Kong itself.

For tourist information: www.DiscoverHongKong.com/canada

Southern California

A 30-image photo album of a 2-week driving trip through southern California is currently posted on the Olympus Facebook site. Here's the direct link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=176417&id=63355899492&ref=mf
Click on each picture to enlarge and see the accompanying description. All photos © Gary Crallé 2010. Commercial use prohibited.