I have these views on the most unforgettable New Year’s Eve dinner.

The first point of view is that fifty years ago, my family was still very poor. It’s hard to say you can eat just one meal of meat in a year. The family raised a pig, slaughtered it during the twelfth lunar month, and made bacon into a pig, planning to eat it for a year. My grandma is the best at making cured meat. After killing the New Year pig, she cut the fatter pork belly into cubes, boiled and fried it, then marinated it in a vat, layered the meat with a layer of coarse salt, and then filled it with oil. I can't bear to eat it at ordinary times, but only eat one during festivals or when there are big or small events at home. On New Year's Eve that year, my grandma took out a piece of meat from the urn and cut a large portion into diced meat dumplings to eat on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I left a small portion and fried a plate of marinated meat and leeks for our family before eating dumplings. The adults drank a few glasses of wine while eating the dishes, leaving all the fat slices of meat for me and the children to eat. The years pass silently and quietly. The fried leeks with marinated meat on that New Year’s Eve dinner made me miss it for half a century.

The second perspective is that the New Year’s Eve dinner in our rural areas is very simple. The family makes and eats dumplings together. There are two kinds of fillings for dumplings, one with large meat filling and one with leek and egg filling. There is no cooking, but there is a pot of braised meat and bones. Anyone who wants to eat can take a piece. After the dumplings are cooked, two bowls are served first to honor the ancestors, then firecrackers are fired, and everyone starts eating. I think it doesn’t matter what you eat for New Year’s Eve dinner. The important thing is that the family is happy and reunited, spending time with the elderly and children, and celebrating the New Year lively.

The third point of view is that during the Chinese New Year, I like to eat the big pot dishes cooked by my mother. The ingredients are the broth used to cook the meat, plus the Chinese cabbage that was cooled earlier, which we call dry cabbage, plus home-made fried tofu, vermicelli, yam, and meatballs. Boil it in a big pot and eat it deliciously. My mouth is watering. But this was many years ago. Now that my parents don’t live at home, I don’t even cook the ingredients for cooking pork, making tofu, steaming rice cakes, and steaming steamed buns for the New Year. Without the New Year flavor, the rice is not as fragrant as before.