hotpot originated from sichuan province and involves a large bowl in the middle of a table heated from below full of food of your choice - usually a mixture of meats, organs and vegetables. there are different varieties of hotpot but today we had mushroom hotpot which consisted of mushrooms and a chicken. however, there was a fantastic variety of mushroom and they made the water in the pot, which you drink as a soup, a wonderful flavour. later we added several vegetables including lotus root and had steamed meat buns (baozi) and sweet glutinous rice cake as sides. we filled a room with people sitting at several tables and toasted to the coming new year - xin nian kuai le, and wished for good fortune - gong xi fa cai.
i was thinking as i ate how often i see my own cousins and other relatives. not very often. i thoroughly enjoy how close chinese families are. they often live close by and sometimes even with each other. more often than not we will have lunch at qingwei's nana's - wai po - with several other relatives and enjoy fruit and conversation afterwards. i bring a notepad. sometimes it can feel too much but mostly its just really nice.
after the family meal we walked slowly back to xian tinghongs home where we watched a dvd of footage taken during and in the hours after the earthquake earlier in the year. this was really difficult to watch and made me realise how terrifying it would be to experience such a thing. it was a little bizarre watching it sitting comfortably in a house that had been rocked by the same earthquake. as i type, yaya, qingweis toy poodle, is playing with her pink sleeping gown and i am thinking about getting another toffee.click [here] for more images
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