Marsha Studio

2018 is a year of dog and it is also my father’s BEN MING NIAN (Chinese Zodiac Animal Year of Birth). For all Chinese, we must go home to celebrate Chinese new year  (CNY) with family together, not only with parents but also relatives. Usually we mentions the family which is not the only our small family with parents but also grandparents and father/mother’s brothers and sisters.

China is big as you knew already and every city in China has its own culture, it is like when i was asked to answer to a question ‘do you Chinese eat dog?’ over 95% of Chinese against eating dog, but it is still a culture for some small villages, maybe just one village. I even didn‘t know that there was a festival of eating dog meat until i read it from the news. Young Chinese against such unofficial festival and appeal to cancel it. but anyway going back to celebrate Chinese New Year with family that is our common culture.

Everyone knows Beijing and Shanghai such big cities in China, but not everyone knows my hometown Urumqi in Xinjiang province. When i met no matter Chinese or foreigners, the first impression of my look was not a Chinese (typical Chinese with small eyes). I am Han, but i was raised up with local culture, food and water. In China, we call it ‘一方水土养一方人’ which means the unique features of a local environment always give special characteristics to its inhabitants.

Chinese separates China by the Qinling Huaihe line which is a reference line used by geographers to distinguish between Northern and Southern China. Xinjiang province is belong to Northern China, we call it ‘BeiFang’, the character of BeiFang is cold in winter, around – 25 degree, but there is central heating system which provides warm water 24 hrs to every family, so it is hard for Northerners to live in Southern China (NanFang) in winter with around 0 degree but without heating system Like Shanghai. So in Xijiang, there is a cold winter, around -25 degree; in summer, we have the sweetest honey melon, water melon, fruits and we usually eat Lamb meat.

How do the Chinese parents show their love to their kids?
1: prepare all kinds of food, to ask Kids if they are hungry every 5 mins ( a bit exaggerated, maybe per hr 😆)
2: prepare the red package on CNY as a gift

For Chinese, food is one of the most important things in our life. we enjoy cooking and tasting each dish, no matter with sweet, spicy or sour sauce. I disagree the comment of ‘ it is kind of wasting food’, at the end we finish all, not matter today or tomorrow. I prefer to use ‘diversity’  for our culture.😉

For Chinese, Red package is treated as a lucky bag. Especially during Chinese New Year, the elders give kids red packages filled with money as a new year gift and wish the kids good performance for the coming year at school. On weddings, all guests prepare a red package for the bride and groom as wedding gift. When kids grow up and get a job, they will prepare red packages for elders, wish them good health and happiness. Filial piety is very important in our culture. Not because Chinese are addicted to money or too lazy to choose gifts. We would rather like to give something which people can use instead forwarding the same gift to others. Kids can use the red package to pay for tuition fee or to learn how to manage money. I read a article about some kids have saved their red package since they were born and were able to pay the down payment for a flat when they were 18 years old. Some even try their luck investing in stocks.

(I know some Brands would like to get business in China, but before starting, please learn our culture. such red package for us is a joke.)

 FOOD🤩

Day 1:
Hotpot for 接风（Jiefeng）
JieFeng: means welcome home and show your hospitality to your guest.
when we arrived home from other cities or countries, family would always get together and arrange a big dinner on the same day for us to show their happiness and hospitality. also appreciate that we arrived safely.

I know the table is huge, it is also my first time to eat on such huge table. 😆
Hotpot is popular everywhere in China, it is easy to cook, tasty and will not gain weight.

Spicy sauce is delicious but afterwards the bathroom will be occupied. It is ok, it is also a kind of ‘DETOX’. Haha.

Beef… Fancy… Fancy…

Fish…
There is a good hotpot restaurant in Frankfurt — Nudelbar Hot Pot （Kaiserstraße 74, 60329 Frankfurt am Main）Uighur is also the main resident in Xijiang and they love singing and dancing. It is often to hear the local music and watch such nice traditional dance at the restaurant. It is also possible to be invited to dance with them together.  In general, the people from Xinjiang are more enthusiasm and open.

We drink Xijiang beer and laugh-out-laud! Somtimes, i feel Germany is like my second hometown. 🍻

Day 2:

Morning: Lanzhou Lamian (Noodle) for breakfast
Lanzhou is a city in Gansu province, handmade Noodel with beef soup is suitable for breakfast, lunch and dinner. when i was a kid, sometime i had it as my breakfast before going to school.

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Lunch: Xinjiang Local Dish
Milaji(米拉吉) is a top restaurant for Xinjiang food in Urumqi, the price is a bit expensive. But still recommend to go and it offers Lamb only.

homemade yogurt and fruit tea which are only available in Xinjiang.

New Year Eve:

On the fist day of new year, better not use knife and something is sharp which means unlucky and please also stop cleaning the room and throwing away the trash which means through away the ‘money’. so we’d better prepare ENOUGH food for the next day for five families.

We also would like to have some left over from new year eve which means 年年有余（Nián nián yǒuyú) to wish abundance year after year.

all were made by mama and my aunt. The best food is mama’s food from home. 

At 12:00PM, all kids will get a red package (yasuiqian). since i am still my parents’ ‘Kid’, i got one as well. haha.

The first day of new year

we call it 大年初一（chuyi）, breakfast: dumplings or rice ball.

Usually, we decorate home with red flowers or colourful flows for CNY, but lilies is my aunt’s favourite flower… …so…it is ok👌

Aunt knows that we love her rice noddle, she made one for us after just had the dumpling and rice ball…

During the CNY, please forget about the diet or losing weight… it is impossible.

What else did we eat

土火锅 (traditional hotpot) which is made from fried beef ball and vegetables is different from sichuan spicy hotpot. Soup is so delicious without fat. I am going to cook it at home.

Grill whole Lamb which is special and not easy to get.  the meat is dry and crisp.Is is an automatic grill machine for such big lamb. there is also a small one for chicken.  
恰玛古（Qiamagu）which only can be found in Xinjiang, alkali and a ‘Long life’ vegetable.
Special slaty milk tea, my favourite drink. If you get chance to go to Xinjiang, please don’t miss it. Sehr Lecker!

have to stop for now… …then… …

Welcome to China, Welcome to Xinjiang!

 

 

(the First Three Images are from Website)