We are not Chinese, but that didn’t stop us from celebrating the Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year this year was on Monday, January 23rd this year. Not being able to get that day off we decided that Saturday would be our Chinese New Year, which turned out good because that is when Riverside happened to be celebrating too.
In Riverside they have a very solid Chinese community but it isn’t large enough by itself to justify a festival. So in Riverside they call it the Lunar Festival and include all Asian communities. The activities start out with a ton of firecrackers and then a parade. After the parade they have the festival which included various demonstrations, handicrafts, and booths of all types.
Looking at all those booths we were really tired and hungry so we went out to eat. Bet you can’t guess what we ate? Pizza!! No, we had Chinese Food (or what some would say is American Chinese food). We went to a restaurant called the Lotus Garden. It is a really nice place and for $15 a person we got a ton of food! There was soo much food that we had it again on Sunday. My (John’s) favorite was the chicken and rice soup. When it comes to the table they add puffed up rice and it makes a big fizzing sound.
I love Denise in the awesome Korean dress. You need to add that to your Sunday wardrobe, Denise!
I know, I agree… let me add that since I am not exactly the size of the average Korean woman, this dress is not quite fastened in front. And there is a heavily embroidered gold piece that would go on the chest and around the shoulders (covering the white shoulder straps on the dress and what you can see of my blue polo).