Last of LNY

In case you didn't know, Lunar New Year is actually supposed to be a 15-day celebration, although obviously mostly people don't take things that far (we all have to work, right?) However, most of Macau kept decorations up, so it was still fun to walk around and see what was there.

As usual, the Venetian had one of the more impressive displays, although the mix of Italian and Chinese was a little strange. The columns at the main entrance were wrapped in red paper with extra detailing between, and decorations inside were all...extra large. They also had some poor guy walking around in an emperor outfit and ridiculously fake beard so tourists could take photos with him.

An example of the columns

Giant cherry blossom (plum blossom?) tree

3-D "fortune" (福) character in the middle of the casino floor

Bow yes/no?

This last photo isn't a decoration, exactly, but it caught my eye with its clever modification of the "tiger" character (虎)
For our apartment, I managed to pick up a mini-tangerine tree that someone else was throwing out. I remembered that Emily had wanted to buy one at the Tap Seac festival (toward the end of the entry), and I was still personally curious to find out if the fruits were edible or not. Unfortunately, after a couple days we realized the leaves were sporting quite an impressive layer of fuzziness, so we had to dispose of it as well. I did try one of the fruits, concluding that it was edible (at least it didn't make me sick) but rather sour.

The ill-fated shrub

Friday night, UM hosted a dinner at the Macau Tower: a 13-course meal for just 88 MOP (Ming managed to finagle it so we only had to pay the full-time staff price instead of the part-time staff price, which was considerably more). The menu included standards like fried rice and fresh steamed fish, but also some more unusual items.

"Barbecued whole suckling pig" (more like crispy-roasted)

Deep-fried shrimp mousse balls and taro rolls with almond (yum!)

Braised pig's tongue with sea moss and dried oyster (interesting texture...)

A "Chinese petit four" with red bean soup (and a GRB!)

More dessert: another "petit four" and fresh fruit

We ETAs and the Grinnell fellows ended LNY in proper fashion by celebrating the Lantern Festival (元 宵節) with a group gathering for GRBs (湯 圓) at our apartment. After looking up recipes, we decided it would be too much trouble to attempt making our own, but the grocery stores conveniently sell frozen packs =P

A freezer-ful of GRBs

I think we left them in a bit too long...still yummy!

Throw in a couple games of Apples to Apples, and it was both a fun and filling way to end the Lunar New Year vacation =)