The restaurant bore a festive look as the guests arrived to celebrate with their friends. The elaborate dinner included traditional items, such as Jiao Zi (a dumpling filled with pork and finely chopped vegetables), whole-roasted Peking duck, Cantonese beef, pork with Hoisin sauce, pepper crab, and lamb with vegetables.
Song Chun Lin, a PhD student in the chemical engineering group at the UT, made another traditional dish, Si Chuan La Rou (smoked bacon), for his friends and colleagues. Mandarin oranges and lychees were served at the end of the meal. Oranges are often given as gifts in China on this special occasion as the name spoken in Chinese sounds like the word for gold. The dinner ended with traditional Chinese tea being served.
The atmosphere was enlivened with small games and karaoke performances which went on throughout the evening. Talented Chinese students belted-out popular Chinese songs amidst cheering from their friends.
`These kind of events help bring back some sweet memories of home', said one of the guests nostalgically. Yang Liang, a PhD student and one of the event organizers, comes from southern China, close to the area battered by the recent snow storms. Luckily, his family escaped unscathed, though he has heard stories of those who were badly affected. `The Chinese Government and the local villagers provided food to the stranded people,' he said. Andreea Niculescu, a Romanian PhD student was especially overjoyed with the chance to feast her eyes and her taste buds on real Chinese food. `I enjoy everything Asian,' she said with a contented smile, `and today was a special treat for me.'
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