Since Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year fall on the same day this year, I decided to celebrate the one that’s more relevant to my life – Chinese New Year, of course! (I’m hoping that stores will have post-Valentine’s-day chocolate clearance sales. 
)
Not that I’m Chinese or anything. Just surrounded by Chinese people at MIT (where the surrounding coefficient increased with respect to time, and Chinese people includes people of both Chinese and Taiwanese descent because I’m lazy). Despite being surrounded by said Chinese people for years, I’m still pretty clueless about things like “what to order at a Taiwanese restaurant on Chinese New Year” because I never had to think about those sorts of things on my own; I could just wait for the closest Chinese person to bring/order me food, and I was happy. (I have the same problem with dim sum).
I ended up eating a bunch of food because a) I ordered a lot of food; and b) because the tenchou (at least, I assume he’s the tenchou) gives out food randomly. First, I ordered spicy wontons because I had a coupon from the last time I went, but they were less crunchy than wontons I typically think of, and more flowy, like the white shrimp things one can order at dim sum places.
Next came the crab fried rice (…it was the cheapest thing on the special menu) and free soup – I have no idea what the soup was, but it had scallions and was tasty. The fried rice was also possibly the best fried rice I’ve eaten. Ever.
While I was eating fried rice, the tenchou sent over some Peking duck and dark, leafy vegetable – score! I was actually considering the Peking duck, since Chinese New Year is a special occasion and all, but was put off by the fact that it was the most expensive thing on the menu.
I also had a bottle of Taiwanese beer around this point, which was also really tasty. I mean, drinking beer is my default unless it’s really bad, but it reminds me of the beer I had when I went to Shikoku a year ago – the one in which the sign on the table said that it was appropriate for women too. That beer was also surprisingly tasty.
Despite being full after finishing all that food, I was determined to eat some dessert. I’m fond of almond-flavored Chinese desserts (particularly almond tofu), but I saw peanuts, and I was sold on that. Specifically, white ball dumplings in peanut soup. For the peanut soup, imagine red bean soup, but replace the red beans with peanuts. The soup itself was not the tastiest thing ever (maybe not as sweet as I was expecting?), but the dumplings – which turned out to have peanut filling – were really good. I could eat the peanut balls and drink Taiwanese beer all day, except then I’d be really drunk and probably on my way to getting really fat. Also, I’d probably get sick of both, and that would be sad.
It occurred to me as I was walking back (I know, this place is within walking distance – if it were less expensive, I’d have food consumption issues.), as I was complaining to myself about how full I was, that I’m actually not unhappy. Sure, I don’t really have any friends who are easily accessible, but anyone I could want to talk to I can access online (and if I don’t, it’s my own fault). I have my own place – even if it’s really cheap and cold all the time – and my own income – that I can live on. I’m only subject to my own whims; for once, my happiness isn’t dependent on someone else in my life. My job is both non-stressful and intellectually stimulating. I’m doing okay.
