Our Asian Easter
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2015
CHOP, CHOP, DUCK?
Gordon Carving our Easter Duck
Our Asian Easter
How our Asian Easter came to be.
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We bought a Peking Duck from the Asian Supermarket, added some Asian side dishes, it was great!
So, that is what we did!
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“No, Chop, Chop Duck!”
While we were at the Asian Supermarket we wanted a Peking duck and we gave the woman behind the counter our order. She was trying to be helpful and she asked us, “You want I chop, chop, duck”? She had a large cleaver in her hand and was moving it in a chopping motion. She once again asked, “You want I chop, chop, duck”?
That’s when we realized that she was asking us if we wanted her to cut it up? She was holding the cleaver over the duck. Seeing as how we wanted a nice whole duck on our Easter table and not something chopped up we immediately shouted simultaneously,
“NO CHOP, CHOP DUCK”!! NO CHOP, CHOP DUCK”!!
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Plum Wines
The Japanese plum wines were great before dinner drinks.
Bamboo, and my Money Tree
Looks like a lovely Asian spring.
My Karate Kid II Matcha tea whisk. I found it at one of the Asian stores we visited. It is like the one Kumiko uses in the tea ceremony with Daneil-san. I was so excited to find one! When we were paying for it the girl behind the counter looked at it and asked me what it was? I jokingly told her that it was SHE who should be telling that to ME! 🙂
The Tea Ceremony From Karate Kid Part II
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Kumiko Tea Ceremony
I love the music from this movie.
You can see the matcha tea whisk in the photos above.
Now I have one.
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Happy Asian Easter
Can you spot the only egg on the table?
How about the bunny?
I bought the egg in Hawaii, I think at the Byodo-In Temple from the Valley of the Temples. It’s hand painted. I’m surprised it has lasted through all of our moves.
Funny how an egg is as fragile as it is strong.
It was a lot of fun getting out all the lovely Asianware that Gordon had brought me back from places like Singapore and Hong Kong from his 20 year career in the Navy.
Brian, Veronica and Gordon digging in!
They Have Eyes!!
I think the one thing that we aren’t really used to in our American-Caucasian communities are the fact that our food usually doesn’t have it’s head with eyes staring at us while we eat. 🙂
With 6 You Get Eggroll
(Wasn’t that a Doris Day movie from way back? Anyway, it just reminded me of that when we bought the eggrolls. Except that we bought 9. Oh, Nevermind!!)
On the left are our napkins with fans for the ladies, even some candies bouquets of flowers and on the right is my tea set from Singapore.
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My Easter Dinner Plate
Our Menu
Peking Duck
Roasted Vegetables with Tofu
Char Siu Pork
Steamed Dumplings
Shrimp
General Tso’s Chicken
(Pronounced Two)
Lo Mein Noodles
Fried Rice
Egg Roll with Dipping Sauce
and
Hot Green Tea with Dinner
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Dessert
Honey Melon Cake Roll and Green Tea Ice Cream
But we LOVED the cake!
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Monkee, with his Monkey on his back.
Happy Easter to all,
Julie
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Who Needs an Easter Basket Anyway?
My Twist on a Easter Basket
I picked up all these items at the Asian Supermarket.
Pretty Bowls with Pretty Candies
That is NOT Easter Grass!
They are dried tapioca sticks used in soups. I thought they were very colorful and lovely. Asians are smart people. You can tell that simply by shopping in their grocery stores and seeing how they eat. It’s ingenious! No wonder they are so good in math.
Oh, and FYI: They don’t lose their hair the way that Americans do. It’s because of their diet. Also, Asian women that stay in Asia have the lowest breast cancer rates in the world.
Look how pretty!
Salted Duck Eggs
While we were scouring the supermarkets I spotted these salted duck eggs and Gordon and I decided to try them. We knew about them from our years of living in Hawaii with the Filipino culture. They take eggs and bury them in the ground for one month, then dig them up and eat them. They are considered a delicacy. I figured that since these were salted (cured) that they would maybe taste better.
WELL, we did try them and all gathered around the kitchen trash can spitting them out. I also deleted all photographic evidence of that.
But they do look really pretty all shrink wrapped in their
red packaging.
My Noodle Nests
I had some old vegetarian noodles in the pantry that I was going to throw out when I realized that they would make cute little nests for these egg shaped rice crackers.
My Vegetarian Noodles
I love these noodles! They are great in soups. Just drop one little clump into the broth and you have this instant noodles soup.
(I also placed them in the red bowl above with the duck eggs on top of them.)
Everything at the Asian store is always so beautiful.
My favorite, the melon seed and sesame seed cookies.
So what do you think?
It’s different, but I’m not afraid of different.
Sometimes different is a lot of fun!
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No matter what your culture,we wish you a Happy Easter!
Julie and Gordon
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If you would like to view our other Asian pages:
Click Here For: Whann Way Asian
AND,
Click Here For: Whann Way Asian, E Ho ‘Omau (Continues)
AND,
Click Here For: Julie Loves Asian
AND,
Click Here For: Asian Edible Gifts
AND,
Edible Gifts of the Asian Variety
(Note: Edible Gifts of the Asian Variety is the same post as Asian Edible Gifts. I have both listed here for accuracy, but one is a Page and the other is considered a Post. Confusing, I know.)
AND,
Click Here For: Our Asian Easter
AND,
Click Here For: Whann Way Sushi
AND,
Click Here For: My Love Affair With All Things Asian
AND,
Click Here For: Asian Steamed Buns: Bao and Manapua
AND,
Click Here For: Our Purple Sweet Potato and Taro Stuffed Steamed Buns and Asian-Pacific Sliders
AND,
Click Here For: Our Asian Inspired 4th. of July
AND,
Click Here For: Gordon’s ‘Year of the Tiger’ Sauce and Nam Jim Jaew
AND,
AND,
AND,
Chisana Atsukau (Small Treats in Japanese
AND,
AND,
Japanese Girl’s Day (Hawaii Tradition)
AND,
Asian Eats (More Great Recipes to Enjoy)
AND,
AND,
AND,
AND,
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