So I feel like even though everyone knows I work as an online editor, most people still probably don’t know exactly what that means. What, exactly, do I do? Well, I thought this was a good example. Today, among other things, I made this slideshow of celebrations of the new Lunar New Year from around the world. Check em out.

And while you’re at it, check out this nicely done New York Times video of celebrations in Beijing to get a little taste of exactly what the festive spirit feels like here this week.

OK, click through for more lantern photos. I won’t subject the home page to so many of them…

And like a good citizen, I’ve decorated my door accordingly in preparation. (Why? Read here the story of the legend of the monster Nian, and why red door decorations are used for Chinese New Year still today.)

The sign in the middle is the Chinese character fu (福), which means “good luck,” more or less. It’s traditionally hung in the middle of the door upside-down because the Chinese word for “upside-down” rhymes with the Chinese word for “arrive;” thus by hanging it upside down, you’re inviting good luck to arrive.*

*Or so I’ve been told. I’m obviously no scholar of Chinese.

Obviously, I love Chinese food. But I really only know how to cook one thing, my soy-soaked chicken rice cakes — which I’m pretty sure isn’t even authentically Chinese but Americanized Chinatown. But I live in China and I should be able to cook Chinese food easily and cheaply, if only I could learn how!

I’ve often been directed to Chinese cookbooks by well intentioned Chinese friends and teachers, but they’re always written in Chinese, which presents a big challenge. Reading a road sign is one thing; reading a recipe, quite another. Short of hiring a cook or adopting a Chinese grandmother, I’ve instead gone this route.

I downloaded on Kindle this book — Mrs. Chiang’s Szechwan Cookbook — which was a steal at just over $5! I’m also quite surprised it’s even available on Kindle (it was originally published in the ’70s, with a new edition in 1987), so many newer books I’d like to download aren’t there yet.

I’ve browsed through it and it seems to contain many legitimate staples of Sichuan cuisine, from what little I know of it, like mapo dofu (spicy tofu), gongbao jiding (kung pao chicken), ganbian sijidou (fried green beans with peppers and pork). So now I’m going to try to teach myself to cook Chinese food over the next few months. No idea how that will go, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted and share any success.

I’m also keen to get the books of Fuschia Dunlop — a British chef who trained in Sichuan and has written a book about its cuisine as well as one about Hunan’s. I read her first book, but have no idea where it has gone to, and the one time I’ve found the others here, they’ve been incredibly expensive (US$50 plus). So next time I go home, I’ll add those to my list as well — and hopefully will know how to cook a little by that time!

Update: I should also note that for more learning-to-cook-Chinese resources, the Speaking of China blog has a good Q&A with a Western woman who has learned to cook Chinese and blogs about it.

Though I’ve been to Macau several times now, this was the first time I explored Coloane, the laidback Portuguese-style village that feels worlds away from the casinos (though it is, in fact, only about a 10-minute car ride away).

Our first stop in exploring the village was Lord Stow’s Bakery, the place that made the egg tart a famous Macaunese treat in the 1980s. The place is quaint and small and yet packed, with many patrons anxious for the treats. We had some egg tarts (which were the best I’ve ever had), mincemeat pies, crossiants and brownies — all of which were pretty top-notch.

The egg tarts are clearly homemade, as you can see the ladies preparing a new tray of them below:

Yum, egg tart! I’m usually not wild about them because I don’t much care for egg, but this one was especially sweet without an overwhelming egg taste.

We stayed in Macau at the Westin, a great hotel tucked away on Hac Sa Beach. It’s pretty secluded but has full amenities — including a golf course and a driving range where you can hit balls into the ocean. You really could come for a weekend and not leave the hotel if you wanted (it also has bars, restaurants, a pool, a gym, etc.).

It lies right along the beach, so you can easily go for a run (as we did) or a walk along the water and emerge at the end in a little villa full of large Portuguese-style homes, making you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time.

The Westin (a bit cloudy and dark):

We also explored other areas of the Coloane Village, including its waterfront plaza, with an old Catholic church and plenty of open-air restaurants. Standing in the midst of it all, you can find yourself quite surprised to remember you’re still in China.

We had an excellent lunch at an outdoor Portuguese eatery called Nga Tim’s Cafe, with chorizo, steamed vegetables in sauce, fried squid and (my personal Macaunese favorite) African chicken.

Dinner was reserved for Fernando’s — the most famous restaurant in Macau, at least among Hong Kongers — which I’d never been to despite several prior visits. Fernando’s is another Portuguese-style restaurant that appears to be run by actual Portuguese people. It has (what I assume is) a very Mediterranean feel to it inside, with brick walls, open windows all around and checked tableclothes.

We stuffed ourselves with freshly baked bread, salad (which Brian exclaimed had the ripest tomatoes he’s seen in a long time), chorizo and a roast beef and potatoes dish, accompanies by Portuguese beer and sangria. The best part: all this food and drink for only 400 HK dollars (less than US$50). It’s also within walking distance from the Westin, or the restaurant has a shuttle bus that can pick you up from hotel for a small fee (depending on how many people are in the bus; ours had seven people so it was 20 HK each).

We also had a funny story: We happened to be talking about IU basketball (this was right after IU lost to Michigan State and my former boss in New York, who is an MSU alum, had emailed me to tease about it), and the couple at the table next to us interrupted to say, “Excuse me, we couldn’t help but overhearing you talk about Indiana basketball, and we are both IU grads.” Wow, small world, right? In a restaurant on the outskirts of Macau, four IU grads all seated next to each other. IU is funny like that, you never know how far its branches will reach.

Our dinner at Fernando’s:

We also made a brief visit to the newly opened Galaxy Casino, which closely resembles the Venetian: massive, with shops and shows, restaurants, bars and a movie theater if you’re not big on gambling. I played 20 HKD (about US$3) and made it up to 150 HKD before losing it all again, so I’ll say it was a success.

The Galaxy:

If you want to go:
Lord Stow’s Bakery, 9 Largo do Matadouro, Coloane, +853 2888 2174
Nga Tim’s Cafe, 8 Rua Caetano, Coloane, +853 2888 2086
Fernando’s, Praia de Hac Sa, Coloane, 853 2888 2531 

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you will remember that one of my favorite restaurants in Beijing is a Yunnan place (Xiao Yunnan, or 小云南), or perhaps recall my visit there to Kunming.

Anyway ,Yunnan food is distinctive because it mixes Chinese style with Southeast Asia. A lot of it is spicy, and it mixes in many local ingredients not abundantly found elsewhere in China (especially mushrooms).

We had dinner on New Year’s Eve at this little place called Rainbow Yunnan in Causeway Bay. I was pretty pleased with the food: We ordered an appetizer that was called “rice cakes” in English but came out as a nice thinly sliced pork topped in sesame seeds; a chicken and potato dish stewed in a sauce, reminiscent of the Xinjiang-style dapanji; the famous Chinese dish of green beans fried with spicy red peppers and bits of pork — so good that it even convinced me to eat a vegetable — and a dish of thinly sliced beef cooked in a hot chili oil broth.

The food was great and I definitely intend to go back again. The atmosphere was cozy and the prices reasonable. Add yet another to the list of my Mainland-style favorites.

If you want to check it out yourself:
Rainbow Yunnan
+852 2881 8992
Yah Ying Building, 18 Shelter St., Causeway Bay (close to the Hong Kong Central Library)

Life.

The year 2011 has been a rough one with some very major trials for me. The two biggest life events this year were the death of two of my most very dear family members and confidantes: I lost my Grandma in January, and my Nanny in July.

It also was the first year in a while that my life was mostly stable (minus my apartments). I remained both in Hong Kong and at my current job for all of 2011, giving me almost an eerie amount of stability in my usual chaotic life. And in other, more positive, events: I experienced my first Hong Kong Rugby Sevens. I moved three times (to Lamma Island, back to Wan Chai to finish up my lease, and finally back to Lamma and my little island getaway),  and joined a dragon boating team. I had a swinging Fourth of July party, even hosting four U.S. Navy sailors. I experienced my first T-8 typhoon and was thoroughly unimpressed, and I kept taking Chinese lessons twice a week, much as it hurts my brain. I’ve eaten loads of amazing Chinese food, and I met my goal of last year of not spending Christmas and New Year’s alone this year, so that’s a plus.

Travel. 

My friends Joanna, Willa and Sara all came to visit from America. I took Joanna to Macau; sort of accompanied Willa along with some other friends to Cebu in the Philippines, and took Sara for a taste of real China to Xiamen in the Mainland. I made my annual trek home to New York, Philadelphia and good ol’ Indiana in the U.S. of A. in July; Brian and I took a vacation to Borneo Island in Malaysia in the fall; I went to Kenting in Southern Taiwan to cheer on my friend Allison in her first half-ironman race in November and fell in love with Taiwan; and of course I made three or four trips back to Beijing. And when weekend plane tickets were too expensive, I simply explored a few of the many things to see in Hong Kong and made at least four trips via ferry to neighboring Macau.

Running.

Once again, I fell short of my alleged goal of a 500-mile year. I guess I don’t really try that hard to actually meet it, but at least I did run more this year than I did last, so therefore I’m progressing rather than regressing and we’ll call it a success. I ran the Hong Kong half in 2:16, in February and the Macau half in 2:08 in December, as well as various other smaller races in between. Since I’ve now done the two major half-marathons closest by, I’ll have to be on the lookout for some new ones in 2012 (Angkor Wat, anyone?).

Reading.

I got a (company-provided) iPad and wrote about my thoughts concerning eReaders versus books. Love it or hate it though, the Kindle has given me the chance to read new books that haven’t yet made it over here and some others that would be impossible to find in Asia, which is why I’m mostly a fan.

Though I took a bit of a breather from reading after my crush to try to reach 50 books in 2010, I picked up steam once I moved to Lamma and found myself with a 30- to 45-minute daily commute that I could dedicate to reading time. This year I read 31 books, down from last year’s 48 but still not too shabby.  (Check out a full list of the books I’ve read on my Shelfari account.)

As usual, about half (12) of the books I read this year were China-related (sorry, I’m a nerd). My favorites were all the books by Xinran (I read four in quick succession), a former host of a radio show in China who now lives in the U.K.; the foreigner-in-China memoir Chinese Lessons by John Pomfret; and a fictionalized but based on history series of short stories about life in the re-education labor camps during the Cultural Revolution called Woman from Shanghai.

In the non-China fiction category, I read three books by famed eclectic Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, who has quickly become a favorite with several more of his books now on my to-read list; I finally read and couldn’t put down both Khaled Hosseini books about Afghanistan (Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns) and the classic The Godfather, which assures me I’ll understand the movie much better the next time I watch it. I’d be amiss not to mention the Hunger Games trilogy — if you haven’t read them, just do it quick before the movie comes out in March; and my top pick overall from 2011 was The Art of Fielding, a fantastic story loosely about baseball but really just about human interaction. And a couple good read-in-two-days, beach-reading chick-lits: Maine and Girls in White Dresses.

I also listened to all of the New Testament on audio files, though I didn’t even breach the Old Testament, which perhaps can be tackled this year?

Blogging.

I haven’t blogged as much this year as I did in 2010, I feel. That’s mostly because life in Hong Kong — as opposed to life in Beijing — simply isn’t that different from life in America on a day-to-day basis so there’s not always much to say. But I try to keep my friends and family informed at least once a week with what I’m doing and what’s going on over here just so we can help to feel more connected. After all, a 13-hour time difference makes it tricky to keep up with everyone. WordPress made a review of 2011 for me here.

I must note that I mentioned a book excerpt we ran about Chinese “Tiger Mothers” and ended up with thousands of hits on this post, in which I didn’t even really say that much. Yikes. Take note: Apparently if you are looking for traffic, you should write about Western vs. Eastern methods of parenting.

What’s Next?

So what’s to come for me in 2012? I really don’t know. I’d like to run more and read more and travel more. Maybe I can find another fun half-marathon somewhere in Asia. I’m planning to attempt to tackle the English-language translation of the Chinese classic Dream of Red Chamber (think China’s version of Shakespeare or Milton or Homer), but it’s more than 1,000 pages, so it will surely take all year. I hope to eat better (I’m starting to try vegetables!) and get in better shape, but doesn’t everyone hope that for the upcoming year every year? I plan to continue taking Chinese lessons and hope to be able to speak and read more and I’m going to focus more on my Chinese characters. I’d like to visit more parts of Asia and I will, of course, come back to the U.S. at least once, though I’ve yet to decide upon a date. I’m down to one credit card with a balance, and if I could get it paid off in ’12, that certainly would be cause for celebration. I plan to keep playing soccer and dragon boating, and to hopefully keep meeting more people and finding more good food.

I’m not setting any ultra-specific goals, I’m just going to go with the flow because honestly 2011 was a rough year and I’m just ready to start anew with 2012. Here’s hoping for better fortunes for us all in the (soon to be) year of the dragon.