While it seems like New Year’s Eve was forever ago, I wanted to share with you a little bit about how I spent mine and the fun things we did to make ringing in the new year a little more memorable (and surprisingly I remember it all..)
This year we chose to pass up the parties, skip the bars, and cozy up with great company by the fire with a good meal, tons of booze, snacks, board games and all in our pajamas!!
I had a blast planning out the dinner, and decor. The dinner was entirely based on good luck traditions from around the world.
The dinner was coursed out and I kept a Thai theme going throughout the meal to have a feeling of cohesiveness.
First course:
Chinese Cabbage salad
recipe here (this reminds me of an amazing salad i had in California that i’m obsessed with)
Cabbage represents paper money, eating this on New Years promises to bring you plenty of wealth in the year to come
Second course:
Pork soba noodle soup recipe here
In Japanese culture slurping soba noodles on nye represents long life, but only if you don’t break or chew the noodles 😉
Main course:
Pork sliders and Thai chili roasted whole snapper
Pork represents two great things for your year to come;the pigs rotund shape represents prosperity and the way they root forward with their noses in the soil helps to move you forward into the new year. Roasted whole fish is lucky in three ways; they travel in schools (prosperity) the scales represent wealth, and lastly the Japanese word for fish “yue” literally translates to “more than enough” tying together the wealth and prosperity.
Dessert:
Vasilopita cake
a Greek nye tradition, a denser lemon zest flavored cake, that a coin is hidden inside and the one who finds it in their piece is the recipient of one whole year of good luck! (yay for joy! our coin finder this year)
… are you still wondering what flavor tripping is?..
last year, matt and I visited this place in chicago called ING, a restaurant that focuses on flavor tripping using a little tablet called a “miracle berry”
“The miracle berry is a small red fruit originally grown in Africa which has extraordinary taste changing properties – it changes the taste of sour and bitter foods to sweet.
The active ingredient in the Miracle Berry Fruit, known as Miraclulin coats the tongue and blocks out the taste bud receptors which are responsible for sour, bitter and acidic flavours. The outcome is that all foods which taste sour, bitter or acidic miraculously come to taste sweet.”
so basically we set out a bunch of different types of fruit and acidic foods, such as pineapple, apple cider vinegar, mustard, limes, grapefruit, and salt and vinegar chips, and gave everyone a tablet. The effect lasts for about 30mins, this is such a fun idea to do with a small group and everyone had a blast!
Here’s to a happy 2013!
feeding the fox 