GASTRONOMICAL: happy year of the rat

yeah, i know the chinese new year was like over a month ago; but it's all about how you celebrate it not necessarily when. and this year was really great. for the past several years i've been going to a chinese food banquet to celebrate the new year with a group from the chinese kung-fu wu-su association that is totally cool. the founder, Master Alan Lee, is a qi-cong and martial arts master who i've known for about 10 years or so now because he and i work out of the same place on fifth avenue between 20th and 21st street called fitness results (check out both links on the side there). anyway, master lee gets this huge group of people together to celebrate the chinese new year at this place down on elizabeth street right next to Lin Sisters and, do i have to say it?, there's some awesome food to be had. it's all about the ritual of celebrating together and good fortune, and this year John and i sat with a really cool bunch of people...here's a shout out to Cat, Blake, Maia, Ken and "the Turk". (btw Cat i didn't notice the cougar on your business card when you gave it to me, very cool!) there's like eight different courses of food from pork, to beef, chicken and duck, fried rice and lo-mein. some of the seafood is a little quirky (jellyfish, seaweed, and these tiny fish fried whole) but also shrimp prepared a few different ways, octopus, shark fin soup, and veggies like bok-choi, a couple different kinds of schrooms, and a dish served in a bowl of fried noodles that looks like a big nest. oh yeah, and there's plenty of wine to wash it all down with. of course the meal ends with the requisite fortune cookies and slices of orange. how do they get such good oranges this time of the year is what i want to know. there was so much food left over that it all gets put into these take-out containers for everybody and john and i took a couple of bags and gave some away to a homeless guy that usually camps out on the steps of St. Joseph's church in our hood. he was asleep so we just left it for him. the banquet is in this HUGE place that gets partitioned off and there's such a great feeling to show up and sit with people you never met before and share a meal in celebration of the new year! this year the group i sat with was great fun, that's usually Cat's chopsticks you see in the food shots below. they were all having fun with my photo-taking for the blog and i'm going to send the link out so maybe SOMEBODY will leave a comment here and there. (i mean, c'mon people, i know you're all out there, i see you in class and i can hear you all breathing!) except for you Sandy, thanks for your comment! anyway, i know i said i was going to wait 'till tomorrow to post this but i let my OCD get the best of me when i got home so here it is. enjoy and happy new year everyone!
the banquet hall, there's Lin Sisters on the side there