Daidai

Again, we have come to the end of the beginning of the Chinese lunar year.

Again, many of us find ourselves with a surplus of mandarin oranges in our homes. Even for one like myself, who only brought a handful of these back with me from my mom's home, plus a couple from the office. I do like these things, though I don't eat too much of them, and one easily gets sick of it over the fifteen days of Chinese New Year. Really, I only get them for their ornamental values.

That, and the prospect of attracting wealth (apparently, oranges, or kam, are symbolic of gold).

Perhaps it is this yearly surplus of tangerines that led some people to come up with a strange idea of disposing them - throw them into the nearest river. Of course, nobody would be bothered to do this, and some may even complain of river pollution, but for the carrot (or rather, orange) dangled.

The fifteenth day of the lunar new year is supposedly the "Chinese Valentine' Day" (maybe he was called Hua Lan Tai in China). Therefore, single girls should throw oranges into the water, hoping to find their perfect match, out of a bevy of prospective suitors standing downriver in the hopes of landing the right orange. I suppose it might work if they wrote down their mobile numbers in waterproof ink onto silk kerchiefs and stuffed said kerchiefs into the poor oranges, so that the guys would know whose orange they've picked.

Personally, I think it's rather silly. The girls managed to throw out the excess oranges from new year, but the guys willingly bring home discarded fruit. This may be one of the rare days when Chinese parents would be thankful for not having sons. At least, not straight ones prone to fishing for rotting mandarins.

I'm thinking it might be a better idea to just throw a party. It is the last day of new year, after all, and all the more reason to have a party. Besides, you're more likely to get lucky with a guy at a party, as opposed to crowding around a very large drain.

And of course, the theme of the party would have to be "Orange". But don't tell your guests that because if they knew they were going to help you finish eating all the oranges in your home, they'll quite likely find themselves suddenly preoccupied with an appointment for washing the neighbour's sixth aunt's colleague's daughter's dog's hair or something.

I'm thinking the meal could be something like that:

Starters: Bacon-wrapped Tangerines
Mains: Mandarin Pork Roast, served with a side of Mandarin Orange Couscous and a Spinach and Pine Nut Salad (just because there's no "orange" in the name does not mean there isn't any in the salad)
Dessert: Mountainous Mandarin Pie
(Disclaimer: I've never tested any of the recipes, so I can't vouch for any of them. But they sure do sound worth trying out - just maybe not all at the same time)

After dinner, you could watch some orange-related shows like Bleach (featuring a really hot-looking Shinigame, despite the orange hair) or for something short, No Doubt's Don't Speak MV (not really auspiscious, but Gwen looks so good with that orange in her hand). You might wanna leave out A Clockwork Orange though - haven't seen that one but I'm guessing it's not exactly festive.

And afterwards, when the party has quieted down and there are still leftover mandarins, well, I'm sure you can think of ways of using them to celebrate a Chinese Valentine's Day with one (or more) of your guests.