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Just a week ago we celebrated Chinese New Year, welcoming the Year of the Ox. And like every other CNY, it’s the perfect the opportunity for us to cook and eat a lot of good food and observe our cultural traditions.

This year, Mama Lam made a Poon Choi / Pancai / Big Bowl Feast / 盤菜. According to Mama Lam, the concept of this giant feast was originated from the late Song Dynasty when Emperor Bing fled to Hong Kong to escape the attack of Mongolians. The villagers in HK hosting the emperor pulled together everything they could find and cook, and due to the lack of serving vessels, they resorted to washing basins to be able to hold all the food. And this village tradition has been passed on and modified to the current form, typically being served for celebrations and special occasions.

How many layers do you think there are in this Poon Choi that Mama Lam made?

Mama Lam prepared each layer separately then assembled the Poon Choi carefully. There were veggies, fish balls, braised pork, mushrooms, prawns, dried scallops, abalones, dried oysters and black moss, chicken, and the centre-piece pork knuckle. She even created a drawing to ensure we build it correctly!

Here is a quick video to show you the various layers of our Poon Choi:

It was so much fun digging in. Every time we went into the pot we would fish out something different to try. It’s like uncovering treasure in an bottomless chest. At the end, there’s chicken broth mixed with all the sauces at the bottom so we heat it up and cooked up some noodles in it and it was awesome!