Celebrating the Year of the Dragon - Chinese New Year 2012

Happy Chinese New Year

Today, I celebrated Chinese New Year with one of my friends Nick Zou  -whose family comes from China. Nick and his mother Mrs. Zou gave me details about how they celebrate the New Year.  Each Chinese New Year is given an animal symbol.  This year, 2012 is the year of the dragon - which means that this year will be "energetic".  Nick said it is traditional to celebrate with dumplings, Chinese candy, and fireworks.

Here are some of the Chinese candies that the Zou family shared with me. The candy with only Chinese writing was purchased when Nick's family went to China this summer.  The candy that has Chinese and English writing on the wrappers  were purchased from Chinese food stores in Maryland.

Here are Nick and my two favorite Chinese candies. The yellow one tastes like shrimp, and the red one is crispy and tastes like peanut butter. 

  My friend Nick and I holding candy

Learn more about Chinese New Year 

Toyko Seafood Buffet - Hibachi Grill & Sushi Windsor Mill, Maryland

Toyoko Seafood Buffet 

Located in a building attached to Security Mall, Tokyo Seafood Buffet was recommended to our family by a friend in our neighborhood. It is unreal how much food they offer: over 250 items served in  multiple hot and cold buffets, salad bar, plus sushi, hibachi (make-your own) and dessert stations. We call it "Buffet Heaven"...and get this...... it's all-you-can eat for $8.99 during lunch.

True to its name, they offer LOTS of seafood - cooked or raw served a ton of different ways like crayfish (left) and ...












......crabs, shrimp, scallops, fish, calms and even whole lobsters (but the lobsters are extra).

We saw many people eating crabs.  Here's Thomas eating one.

Chinese items included traditional foods such as 4 varities of steamed dumplings (above), fried 

rice, lo mein, sweet & sour pork, spicy shrimp, teriyaki chicken, spring rolls, sauteed greeen beans, BBQ pork ribs and General Tso's chicken.  And not so traditional chinese items like frog legs below.  For the record, we didn't try the frog legs...and not so sure we will on a return visit. 

The buffet had an assortment of American food - fried chicken, mac & cheese, corn bread, spare ribs, french fries, wings, mashed potatoes, crab imperial,  and a variety of soups.

There was also Korean foods like BBQ pork,  Japanese sushi and Italian pastas.







For dessert, there were many choices - cut fruit, cakes, pies, puddings and cookies.

Our favorite dessert was the chocolate fountain where we dipped all kinds of fruit.  

Even after eating all the food and all the dessert we learned they offered  ice creams cups. So we ate that too!

















This new restaurant - opened only a few months ago - is on our "MUST GO" list.  This would be great for a family meal because it has soooo many choices to pick from.  We really liked the opportunity to get our own food from the buffets....and go as many times as we liked. It gave us a chance to try new a couple of dishes that we wouldn't have ordered off a menu.

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Check back soon....more posts coming. One restaurant is new!!!

Columbiapatch.com wrote about us

Hey, guess what?

Just before the holiday we got a call from the Columbia.patch.com.  It's an online newspaper dedicated to  local issues.  There are patch.com's for many cities around the country including  Ellicottcity.patch.com in our area as well as Albany.patch.com in New York and Santamonica.patch.com in California.

So, this woman named Marge from Columbia.patch.com learned about our cookies for the homeless project and video and interviewed us for the patch.com.  It was blast to be interviewed but more importantly we were glad that columbia.patch.com could spread the word to other kids and adults to help the homeless.

Here's the link to our Columbia.patch.com article "Young Howard County Foodies Combine Baking, Caring." 

Thanks again Marge and the Columbia.patch.com!