For Chinese New Year this year I headed to
Chinatown in search of some Lion dancing and delicious dim sum!! It was pouring
with rain on Sunday, but that certainly did not stop the crowds of people who
decided that (like me) Chinatown was the only place worth being in London on
Chinese New Years.
The atmosphere was electric with numerous
lion dancers shimmying around Chinatown going from restaurant to restaurant
picking up cabbage leaves (and money of course!) and the lion's entourage encouraging the dancing with some drumming. We headed to Joy King Lau, the
venue we seem to return to again and again when in search of delicious dim sum.
As expected there was a queue that went
right out the door. (Luckily) I was running a little late, so by the time I
joined my sister and her friend we were pretty much being seated!
Dim sum (dumplings generally) is my food of choice when it comes to Chinese food, so when my sister asked how I wanted to celebrate Chinese New Year dim sum was the obvious answer! Many, many years ago, our family lived in Guangzhou in the Guangdong province of China. We didn’t live there for long, but living there was my first experience of China. For two years we lived at a hotel that had the most authentic dim sum restaurant complete with waitresses pushing around steaming trolleys full to the brim with all types of dimsum. It became part of our family life in Guangzhou and remains one of the very few things I remember about living there.
After consuming our body weight in dim sum, for a ridiculously cheap price I must add, we decided to join the crowds and wander around the streets. Despite the horrible weather, everyone stayed incredibly enthusiastic and keen to follow around the lion dancing! After nearly having my eye poked out one too many times I decided to call it a day and leave Chinatown in search of some peace and quiet…
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