MY SARISARI STORE

Siopao seller.(Click image to enlarge.)

Siopao is a favorite Filipino snack, consisting of a meat filling inside a steamed rice-flour bun, a larger version of Chinese dumplings. The two most common fillings are asado and bola-bola. The bun is white, glutinous and sticky in texture; a square piece of wax paper or white paper is typically placed underneath while steaming, to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the bamboo steamer.

Asado siopao is filled with diced pork or beef cooked in soy sauce (with salt and sugar added to taste).

Bola-bola is a local term for Chinese-style filling; chopped pork and Chinese sausage baked with egg and flour. The bun is generally eaten with a sweet asado sauce (soy sauce and oyster sauce, simmered with brown sugar) - you can either poke a hole in the side and squirt the sauce in, or drip it onto the filling as you eat it.

Click image to enlarge.


Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

The streets that traverse the district of Binondo are full of hidden culinary delights. In Chinatown, it's a casual, no-fuss eating pleasure, where diners are neighborly and the ambience is homely. The dishes served are genuine old-time favorites-home-cooked meals.

After a long day, completely devoted to photography, I decided to reward myself with some chicken feet, dimsum, siomai and a yummy bowl of beef mami.

 

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.




Dragon dance.

In the dance, a team of dancers carry the dragon — which is an image of the Chinese dragon — on poles. The lead dancers lift, dip, thrust, and sweep the head, which may contain animated features controlled by a dancer.
The dance team mimics the supposed movements of this river spirit in a sinuous, undulating manner. The dragon's fabric and bamboo body can be as long as tens of meters.
The dragon dance is a highlight of Chinese New Year celebrations. 

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

A beer and an orange are given to the lion dancers.

Money in a small red envelope is placed at the entrance door of the store and the lion dancers need to climb to catch it.

A red envelope or red packet is a monetary gift which is given in Chinese society. The name comes from the red envelope in which the money is contained.
Red envelopes are often presented on social and family occasions such as a wedding reception or a holiday such as Chinese New Year. They are also the standard form in which cash for political bribes is given. The red color of the packet symbolizes good luck and the amount of money in the packet is often some lucky number (such as a number containing many eights, which sounds similar to the Chinese term for "prosperity").
During Chinese New Year, a red envelope is typically given by the grown-ups and seniors (usually the married) to the visiting children and juniors. It is bestowed on the days of New Year, where the recipient says something auspicious on taking the red envelope.
In Chinese society, the monetary value of the gift is very important and gifts of red envelopes are socially acceptable precisely because they allow the receiver to accurately measure the strength of a social relationship.

Lion dance.

Lion dance is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture, in which performers mimic the lion's movements in a lion costume.

The lion costume may be operated by a single dancer, who springs about while energetically moving and shaking the head and operating the jaws and eyes, or by a pair of dancers, forming the back and fore legs of the beast. The dance is traditionally accompanied by gongs, drums and firecrackers, representing the descent of good luck.

 

Technorati Tags: [Philippines, Manila, Chinese New Year, Year of the Dog, Binondo, Chinatown, Lion dance, Firecrackers, Red envelope]

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

 In the Philippines, Chinese New Year is not complete without tikoy, the sticky rice cake that symbolizes unity ("sticking together").

Technorati Tags: [Chinese New Year, Year of the Dog, Binondo, Chinatown, Tikoy]

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Imitation paper money, known as Hell Money — the word Hell meaning afterlife, as opposed to the Christian concept — is burned for ancestors to use.

Technorati Tags: [Chinese New Year, Year of the Dog, Binondo, Chinatown, Hell Money]

Oranges are symbolic of wealth. The word for orange having the same sound as "wealth"

On every street corner you could buy amulets which seem to have a direct action on your earth luck and your life balance.

Technorati Tags: [Chinese New Year, Year of the Dog, Binondo, Chinatown, Oranges, Amulets]