Vegan Lunar New Year and My 40th

This year's lunar new year falls a day before I hit the big 4-0!  The first day of the lunar new year is traditionally without meat- how perfect is that?  I thought that I might as well celebrate both at the same time, and make some of my favorite foods.

2011 Year of the Rabbit:  Orange Rabbit

I'm a second generation Taiwanese gal, being the first in my family to be born here.  And, even though I was raised with a lot of authentic cuisine, my palette has definitely grown to include a lot of international and Americanized flavors.  I have a feeling that a lot of my relatives in Taiwan would laugh at me if they knew about the siracha sauce on my pizza or the nutritional yeast flakes on my rice (probably not as bad as Vegennaise on my sushi though).

Longevity Noodles

Noodles symbolize longevity, and are typically served on birthdays and other celebrations.  The longer the noodle, the longer the life.  What a great reason to have noodles on my birthday!  The key to good rice noodles, is to soak them, then pan fry them until tender.

Wonton Rabbit

This is my attempt to make wontons in the shape of rabbits... someone said they could also be whales.  Let's just say they're an abstract interpretation.

Nian Gao:  Chinese sweet mochi cake, coconut flavor

Our good friend and world famous beatboxer, singer, and musician, Butterscotch just brought us this mochi cake back from her Hong Kong tour.  It's made with coconut milk, glutenous rice flour, and sugar.

Deep fried nian gao

I cut it into slices and deep fried these... they were SO good- crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  

Happy Lunar New Year!

Here's one of Butterscotch's latest videos.  She is so fricken talented!  Check it out.