Happy Lunar New Year

January’s community kitchen happened during Lunar New Year this year, so we decided to make a Chinese themed meal. We might have gone a little overboard with the number of dishes – but everyone got pretty excited and there were so many suggestions!

Wonton Soup for many
Spooning wontons into bone broth at CARMA’s Community Kitchen

We ended up with this menu:

Wonton Soup
Potstickers (shrimp and chicken)
Fried fish with homemade sweet and sour sauce
Chinese Tomato Egg Stir-fry
Ma Po Tofu (beef)
Fried Rice (veg)
Steamed Rice
Chow Mein (veg)

Dessert was Mango Pudding!

Much thanks to volunteer Chris who made the mango pudding in advance and was so helpful with sourcing the wontons and potstickers (we didn’t have time to make those ourselves).

It was a feast. We made lots of food so folks could have seconds (and thirds!). “Another delicious meal,” said one participant. “Finally, something with spice and flavour!” said another resident. We don’t always do spicy dishes, but when so many options, we made the Ma Po Tofu dish with some decent spice levels and it was a real winner!

community kitchen meal
Just part of the feast for Lunar New Year at CARMA’s Community Kitchen