Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as “Spring Festival,” the literal translation of the Chinese name  (Pinyin: Ch?n Jié), since the spring season in Chinese calendar starts with lichun, the first solar term in a Chinese calendar year. It marks the end of the winter season, analogous to the Western carnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese:  pinyin: Zh?ng Yuè) in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Year’s Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as Chú X?  or “Eve of the Passing Year.” Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the “Lunar New Year”.
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors. These include Korean (Seollal), Bhutanese (Losar), and Vietnamese cultures.
Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “good fortune” or “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is to reconcile, forget all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.
Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China its years are often numbered from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various scholars, making the year beginning in AD 2012 the “Chinese Year” 4710, 4709, or 4649.

Chinatown, Bangkok

The Dragon is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar, and the only animal that is legendary. The Year of the Dragons associated with the earthly branch symbol.

Traditional Dragon attributes and associations 
Zodiac: Location 5th
Ruling hours: 7am-9am
Direction: East-southeast
Motto: “I Reign”
Season and month: dry, january
Fixed element: Water
Stem: Positive
Lunar Month Dates: April 5 – May 4
Birthstone: Ruby
Colors: Red
Roughly equivalent western sign: Aries
Polarity: Yang
Food: Wheat, poultry

T?t Nguyên ?án, more commonly known by its shortened name T?t or “Vietnamese Lunar New Year”, is the most important and popular holiday and festival in Vietnam. It is the Vietnamese New Year marking the arrival of spring based on the Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar. The name T?t Nguyên ?án is Sino-Vietnamese for Feast of the First Morning, derived from the Hán nôm characters.
T?t is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Hanoi and Beijing resulting in the alternate calculation of the new moon. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Lunar calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Many Vietnamese prepare for T?t by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. There are a lot of customs practiced during T?t, such as visiting a person’s house on the first day of the New Year (xông nhà), ancestral worshipping, wishing New Year’s greetings, giving lucky money to children and elderly people, and opening a shop.
T?t is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. During T?t, Vietnamese visit their relatives and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year. They consider T?t to be the first day of spring and the festival is often called H?i xuân (spring festival).

First day
The first day is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. Many people, especially Buddhists, abstain from meat consumption on the first day because it is believed that this will ensure longevity for them. Some consider lighting fires and using knives to be bad luck on New Year’s Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the days before. On this day, it is considered bad luck to clean.
Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time to honor one’s elders and families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended families, usually their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.
For Buddhists, the first day is also the birthday of Maitreya Bodhisattva (better known as the more familiar Budai Luohan), the Buddha-to-be. People also abstain from killing animals.
Some families may invite a lion dance troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Chinese New Year as well as to evict bad spirits from the premises. Members of the family who are married also give red envelopes containing cash to junior members of the family, mostly children and teenagers. Business managers also give bonuses through red envelopes to employees for good luck and wealth.
While fireworks and firecrackers are traditionally very popular, some regions have banned them due to concerns over fire hazards, which have resulted in increased number of fires around New Years and challenged municipal fire departments’ work capacity. For this reason, various city governments (e.g., Hong Kong, and Beijing, for a number of years) issued bans over fireworks and firecrackers in certain premises of the city. As a substitute, large-scale fireworks have been launched by governments in such cities as Hong Kong.

A reunion dinner is held on New Year’s Eve where members of the family gather for the celebration. The venue will usually be in or near the home of the most senior member of the family. The New Year’s Eve dinner is very sumptuous and traditionally includes chicken and fish. In some areas, fish (simplified Chinese: traditional Chinese: pinyin: yú) is included, but not eaten completely (and the remainder is stored overnight), as the Chinese phrase “may there be surpluses every year” ( pinyin: nián nián y?u yú) sounds the same as “may there be fish every year.”
In mainland China, many families will banter whilst watching the CCTV New Year’s Gala in the hours before midnight.
Red packets for the immediate family are sometimes distributed during the reunion dinner. These packets often contain money in certain numbers that reflect good luck and honorability. Several foods are consumed to usher in wealth, happiness, and good fortune. Several of the Chinese food names are homophones for words that also mean good things.

Red Envelopes

Traditionally, Red envelopes or red packets (Cantonese: lai sze or lai see) (??, ?? or ??); (Mandarin: ‘hóng b?o’ (?); Hokkien: ‘ang pow’ (POJ: âng-pau); Hakka: ‘fung bao’; are passed out during the Chinese New Year’s celebrations, from married couples or the elderly to unmarried juniors. It is also common for adults or young couples to give red packets to children. Red packets are also known as ??/ (Ya Sui Qian, which was evolved from ???/?, literally, the money used to suppress or put down the evil spirit ) during this period.[20]
Red packets almost always contain money, usually varying from a couple of dollars to several hundred. Per custom, the amount of money in the red packets should be of even numbers, as odd numbers are associated with cash given during funerals (??: Bai Jin). The number 8 is considered lucky (for its homophone for “wealth”), and $8 is commonly found in the red envelopes in the US. The number six (?, liù) is also very lucky as it sounds like ‘smooth’ (?, liú), in the sense of having a smooth year. Sometimes chocolate coins are found in the red packets.
Odd and even numbers are determined by the first digit, rather than the last. Thirty and fifty, for example, are odd numbers, and are thus appropriate as funeral cash gifts. However, it is common and quite acceptable to have cash gifts in a red packet using a single bank note – with ten or fifty yuan bills used frequently.
The act of requesting for red packets is normally called (Mandarin): ???, ???. (Cantonese): ???. A married person would not turn down such a request as it would mean that he or she would be “out of luck” in the new year.
The Japanese has a similar tradition of giving money during the New Year called Otoshidama.

As with all cultures, Chinese New Year traditions incorporate elements that are symbolic of deeper meaning. One common example of Chinese New Year symbolism is the red diamond-shaped fú characters (Chinese: ?, Cantonese and Hakka: Fook, literally “blessings, happiness”), which are displayed on the entrances of Chinese homes. This sign is usually seen hanging upside down, since the Chinese word ? “upside down”, is homophonous or nearly homophonous with ? “arrive” in all varieties of Chinese. Therefore, it symbolizes the arrival of luck, happiness, and prosperity.
Red is the predominant colour used in New Year celebrations. Red is the emblem of joy, and this colour also symbolizes virtue, truth and sincerity. On the Chinese opera stage, a painted red face usually denotes a sacred or loyal personage and sometimes a great emperor. Candies, cakes, decorations and many things associated with the New Year and its ceremonies are coloured red. The sound of the Chinese word for “red” ( ?) is “hong” in Mandarin (Hakka: Fung; Cantonese: Hoong) which also means “prosperous.” Therefore, red is an auspicious colour and has an auspicious sound.

2011 has been a year full of excitement, challenges, up and downs, personal as well as professional. 2012 will be for sure a year to move ahead, preparing for the worst and hope for the Best to come. It has been such a blast last year with this Blog site of mine and with technology advancing (iPhone 4s) and new cameras about to hit the market (Panasonic Lumix GX1 and Nikon D4) I look forward to embrace this year with full of excitement in blogging.
Since month I am working on a new design of this Blog site with the help TH from Canada who tirelessly works to fine tune a new theme. Will soon announce the launch and perhaps can introduce you the man behind coding and designing a all new look of SugarHead to come!

All pictures shot with a iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s

Duck peak & a great salad dish

Two different breakfasts

Black Mussels & spicy sausages from North of Thailand

Thai Omelett & a hot-pot

Grilled and salted fish

Mussels & some noodles with pork

Fried chicken and pork

and here we go; Ganesha!

One of the more interesting Thai Restaurants here in Bangkok must be “Taling Pling”, first time invited to by local Thai friend and a bunch of Bangkok Chefs.

Taling Pling is popular among foreigners as well as locals alike. This restaurant serves an eclectic menu of traditional Thai dishes, many of which are not easily found in other restaurants. The restaurant takes pride in its creative menu that reaches far back into Thai history, as well as reaches into the future with its progressive and creative twists to the menu. Situated in an old wood converted Thai-style house, the restaurant is also interestingly decorated with many old photos from bygone times in Siam.

Deep fried Softshell crab

“Boran”dishes range from Tod Mun Pla Krai (fried freshwater fish pattie) to Tom Yam Koong (Thai hot and spicy prawn soup), Panang Gai (dryish chicken curry) and Matsaman Gai (Thai Muslim chicken curry). Haw Mok Talay (steamed savoury seafood mousse) provides another variety to Haw Mok. Beside main dishes, their desserts and cakes are popular with local customers. Highly recommended!

Thai Mackarel with Lotus stem in Coconut cream

This old-fashioned dish is a simple expression made with ingredients commonly available to Thais, it features steamed mackerels – the fish that Thai people probably love the best and the stems of the lotus flowers – one of Buddhism’s most recognized motife.

The fish together with peeled lotus stems are boiled in coconut milk, to which a simple yet very aromatic curry paste, made only of white pepper corns, shallots and fermented shrimp paste is added.

The curry is seasoned to incorporate three flavors – sourness as the leading flavor and saltiness with sweetness to follow.

Only after seasoning the coconut broth to satisfaction, the fish and lotus stems are added, since both require only a very short cooking – the fish is already steamed and the lotus stems takes almost no time to cook. The souring agent used is Madan ( Garcinia schomburgkiana pierre). Madan is an elongated, shiny light green fruit with sharp lime-like sour flavor which belongs to the same family as mangosteen. The small Madan trees grow widely near rivers, streams or swamps and sometimes in the backyards of Thai upcountry homes, but there is no commercial cultivation of Madan.

The dish is then finished with coconut cream which gives it a silky texture and pleasant color.

Tumeric dip and condiments

Masaman Chicken

Matsaman curry gets its entire flavor from the rich combination of spices, palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind sauce.

I love the way the richness of the chicken come through the spices with a clear three tastes; starting with sweet followed by sour and then salty. The addition of the potatoes thickens the curry just enough and the roasted peanuts add a beautiful crunchy tone.

No wonder this dish, somewhat a newcomer to the Thai cuisine, was crowned by some authors as the most complex and time consuming Thai curry to make.

Matsaman is believed to have arrived Siam with the first Persian envoy to the court of Ayutthaya in the 16th century.

Restaurant view

A favorit Farang dessert; Caramel Custard

Another view into the restaurant

Wonderful Terrace

Taling Pling
60 Thanon Pan, Silom Bangkok
Phone: 02 234-4872
Open Hours: 11am-10pm daily
BTS station: Surasak