Happy Lunar New Year! 元宵节快乐！

Hello Sibeiho Friends,

Happy New Year greetings from the Sibeiho team! Not many people realize that we celebrate CNY over a period of 2 weeks.  Almost every day has a special significance. This Saturday, its 元宵节 and officially the last day of Chinese New Year.

We plan celebrate 元宵节 with some friends over hot pot. An American friend once told me she never understood why we love hot pot. I think one of the love for it stems from childhood. As a kid, its one of the few times you can legitimately play with food at the table and no adult was going to force you to eat what you didn’t want to. 

Childhood fondness aside, we think its more because its a communal thing. Our communities like to 聚一聚, (ju-yi-ju) which literally means come together.  When we lived in Singapore, it was very normal to go home for family dinner at least once a week. For a hot pot meal, it hits the point of  聚一聚 as we get to sit together, cook together and gossip together while we wait for the food to cook. As we lived in different parts of world and friends become our families, we like to gather and 聚一聚. 

We appreciate your patience with us for being quiet these few months as we’ve had to travel a fair due to personal issues. We are determined to try to work things through. Keep sending us your well wishes - they really help to keep us going when things get rough! 

Until then, please stay connected and we hope to celebrate with you soon.

Happily Cooking - or at least thinking about it,

The Sibeiho Team

PS - 元宵节is also one of the couple of Chinese Valentine’s Day we have on the lunar calendar.  Happy Valentine’s Day in advance!