Footscray Lunar New Year Festival
We went to the Footscray Lunar New Year Festival recently – Chinese New Year is tomorrow, but the Festival was held a couple of weeks ago. It was a hot and windy day, so we showed up at Footscray early in an effort to beat the heat.
We did a quick lap of all the stalls, and then decided we would have yum cha and then return to the Festival. We headed to our usual yum cha haunt – Dai Duong.
We pretty much ate all our usual stuff. The first two things we had were pork buns and radish cake. Alastair ate both the pork buns, so I don’t know what they were like, but the radish cake was good.
Bro said yes to a basket of tripe. The tripe was really good – lovely flavour and not too chewy. I know most people don’t like tripe, but it’s really so good! We also had some pan fried pork dumplings. I love these with red vinegar.
Next up was a basket of steamed dumplings – I think these had prawn and garlic chives. They were fantastic. The wrappers were smooth and thin, and they had big pieces of prawn in the filling. We also had beef cheong fun, which were fine.
Yum cha isn’t over until Bro has eaten a basket of chicken feet (normally a whole basket by himself) whereas I don’t leave until I’ve eaten an egg tart. There were only two egg tarts per plate, so we had to get two plates so everyone received one. I got to eat the extra one. Wahoo! Alastair finished off with a bowl of dessert tofu.
Read about a previous visit to Dai Duong here.
After filling up on yum cha, we went on a walk through the festival and took some photos. Unfortunately we were too full to eat anything! Waah! There was lots of grilled stuff going on.
More grilled stuff.
I was full, but still bought a drink – this was a basil seed drink with what I think was grass jelly. It was kind of strange. The seeds sort of looked like tadpoles!
There were lots of dodgy looking rides and games.
Some kids looked like they were having fun on the rides, but I don’t know if I’d trust my life on them!
The MFB had a tent, and they were giving out paper models of fire engines – complete with road cones and little paper firemen! Squee!!
We arrived just in time to see the firecrackers being lit, but unfortunately there was a crowd and I couldn’t manage to get a photo. Afterwards there was a lion dance. A stall was also selling funky balloons.
Some more drinks on offer.
And more grilled stuff – corn, betel leaves and meat on skewers.
There was also dried squid hanging up for sale.
This was a big pile of betel leaves stuffed with beef.
And egg cakes (I think! Someone correct me if I’m wrong!)
I have no idea what this was, but it was GREEN. And HIGH. How could I not take a photo??
Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day! We aren’t doing anything for CNY (I haven’t even cleaned the house – gasp!) but we are going out tomorrow for a late lunch/early dinner. More later. I hope everyone has an auspicious and love filled day!
Hannah
February 14, 2010 @ 2:23 am
But most importantly, do they grow up to be frogs in your tummy? 😛
I've been wanting to try tripe again for months now – my dad cooked some when I was about ten, and it didn't fare too well with us kiddlywinks. I'd love the chance to try some now with a more open mind!
mademoiselle délicieuse
February 14, 2010 @ 10:21 am
Happy New Year to you too! I find I can't consume basil seed drinks because, I agree, they remind me of tadpoles =p
Sarah
February 14, 2010 @ 11:46 am
Fabulous, fabulous photos!!
Happy new year!
xox Sarah
Jodes
February 14, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
I sampled some of the egg cakes – I go to the festival just to have some of them!
Happy New Year!
jfox
February 14, 2010 @ 4:53 pm
your photos are amazing – and i'm adding dai duong to my yum cha list =)
we express cleaned our flat yesterday – so don't feel too bad =p happy new year to you!
Ms Baklover
February 14, 2010 @ 5:29 pm
Oh wow! Thanks for the great wrap. I didn't make it this year, so bummed. Looking forward to trying Dai Duong one of these days too.
Conor @ HoldtheBeef
February 14, 2010 @ 8:17 pm
I wonder what that tall green stuff is??? Maybe it contains some sort of plant material to feed the tadpoles in your tummy 😀
Agnes
February 15, 2010 @ 10:27 pm
Hannah: Ewww frogs in my tummy. 😉 Good luck if you try tripe again! It's the trying part that's important, even if you don't like it.
mademoiselle: yes, I wasn't particularly into the basil seed drink either. But at least I tried it!
Sarah: Happy new year!
Jodes: Too bad I was too full to eat anything after yum cha. Happy new year!
jfox: Dai Duong is good. Quick, there's always room, the food is mostly good. Even my parents said it was "okay" and coming from them, it's a huge compliment 😉 I've only ever been for yum cha though.
Ms Baklover: aww no! You'll have to wait a whole year for the next Lunar New Year Festival 🙂
Conor: Haha!
Maria@TheGourmetChallenge
February 17, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
Happy new year!! I'm so disappointed that I didnt buy that tiger balloon at crown. It was only 5 bucks and I could have had so much tigery fun!!
Tha basil seed drinks looks so awesome. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure those tad pole egg looking things are basil seeds. I had some in a soup once and they look exactly the same. I'd be so up for that drink!!