You know it’s getting close to Chinese new year when you walk out of your apartment complex and virtually every shop in the street is completely covered in splayed open carcasses of fish, ducks and basically anything that moves, salted and drying out in the winter smog.
I’m not quite sure why this tradition came about but I’m betting it’s something to do with the low humidity at this time of the year, if they’re anything like my washing, in the high humidity summer, they’d never dry out. Anyway, H tells me that there’s a couple of reasons for making the dried fish, it’s traditional at Chinese New Year (I’d have preferred turkey and mash to be honest) and it’s non-perishable (you have a lot of relatives and markets are closed over the festive period) (I’ll stick to tins of beans and frozen pizzas thankyou very much). continue reading…
