Things usually feel a bit dreary after Christmas is over, when there are no more Christmas songs to listen to and when it's time to officially take down that Christmas tree - in February. Luckily for us, we have Chinese New Years to celebrate! It's based on the Lunar calendar and usually changes every year and this year we're celebrating it on February 16th, 2018.
Chinese New Years is a big deal. It's one of the only times our family ventures out of Mississauga to visit relatives and family friends to give them well wishes for the upcoming year and as a child, the best part of Chinese New Years were the red pockets. Now that I have an actual salary (that goes directly to bills), I'm appreciating the cultural aspects of the holiday more and enjoying the food a lot more.
Quite honestly, preparing everything for Chinese New Years can be quite time consuming. We're lucky to have an abundant number of Chinese grocery stores in Mississauga but I collect PC points so I absolutely love that I can get everything I need at
Real Canadian Superstore.
Chinese dishes always seemed so complicated to me as my mother never wanted to pass down her age-old secrets, but it actually ended up being really easy. It doesn't cost a lot to make, and the best part of going to
Real Canadian Superstore is that you can pick up authentic brands like T&T and Rooster to create these classic dishes.
All these products are available year-round and the list goes on. Not only can you find classic Asian kitchen staples, you can find fresh vegetables like bok choy there as well! Some other staples that we love to pick up at
Real Canadian Superstore is the Rooster condensed milk (goes
GREAT with toast), Ovaltine malt drink and the Nong Shim Shrimp-flavoured chips, just to name a few!
I tried making
Red Braised Pork Belly for the first time and I was pretty happy with the results.