Celestial Peach's Year of the Ox 2021-22 round-up
In February 2021, the global Chinese and luni-solar abiding community welcomed the Year of the Ox. I was proud (as was my mother and all the aunties and uncles on the family WhatsApp group) to be featured in the Mayor Of London’s short documentary film, honouring the contribution of East and Southeast Asians to London.
It was the height of the pandemic in the UK, but that wasn’t going to stop the celebration. I partnered with my friends (and next-door neighbours) The Steam Room, along with artist collective Don’t Call Me Oriental to launch a socially-distanced festive pop-up, showcasing the best of ESEA artists and food producers.
Locked down and with nowhere to go, I launched a series of Instagram lives to showcase how other lunisolar-abiding cultures celebrate this festival. Sam and Erik of Samuel Gui Yang, Dahae West, Uyen Luu, Taste Tibet and Julie Lin all did live cook-alongs to show me how they were celebrating in their respective traditions.
In March, Chinatown London invited me to be their International Women’s Day ambassador. I chose the theme #StrongAsAWoman and the weeklong event culminated in my hosting of an online panel discussion of other strong women who I had handpicked.
In April, I wanted to learn more about and honour the South and Southeast Asian Solar New Year. My foodie friends Googoo (Myanmar), John Chantarasak (Thailand), Thuli Weerasena (Sri Lanka) and Nok Vickers (Laos) took turns to take over my Instagram.
In May, I was finally able to host a potluck - the first since March 2020.
In June, I started my long reads project - Lost In Translation: An A-Z Of Chinese Food, and have been busting out an essay every 2-3 weeks.
I also helped Hackney Chinese Community Services put on a Dragon Boat Festival party for its members by organising the catering and dragon boat demonstration. The food comprised delicious bakes by Nat Tjakrawinata, Hokkien and Nyonya zhang by Come Eat Dinner and empanadas from Swilipino.
In July, Anna Jones invited me to take over her newsletter. There’s no link, so just imagine how good it was.
After a 16 month hiatus, I was finally able to kick off the Taste Of Home Dining Club series, raising funds for HCCS and the new ESEA centre launching in 2022. Our first guest chefs were the Rangoon Sisters.
In August, I teamed up once again with my friendly neighbours The Steam Room to present Beauty of Batik, a batik-themed pop-up honouring Malaysian Independence Day. For this event, I curated Batik Stories, which were crowdsourced from all around the world and woven into a collection of tributes displayed in the store window.
Potluck #6 took place!
We also wrapped the seventh edition of the lockdown baking club #AsianDessertExchange, with an IRL picnic.
In September, The Adobros cooked at the second Dining Club at HCCS. Mark presented a menu of Tsinoy dishes - the beautiful result of Chinese and Filipino cross-cultural exchange.
In October, I celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Congee Lovers Unite T-shirt with a re-print, along with a new Scorched Rice Lovers Unite T-shirt design. Thanks to all the buyers who raised £500 for the London Chinese Community Centre.
Little Yellow Rice Co were my guest chefs for the third Dining Club at HCCS. Hannah and Rob served up Hainanese family favourite dishes from the Ooi klan.
Potluck #7 took place! The theme was ‘falling leaves’.
In November, I hosted the second annual #CongeeCon, in which 100 people signed up to attend a congee gathering in the beautiful Old Church in Stoke Newington. I ended up cooking 50L of congee. Mad idea? Never…
In December, potluck #8 took place. An utterly bonkers but beautiful transformation of banana leaves…
In January, I celebrated the 100th #ChineseFoodiesofIG interview (a three-year project) with an online exhibition involving 41 artists, all visualising the answer to one question: ‘What Does Home Taste Like?’. It was featured in It’s Nice That. That’s nice, it is! A limited edition postcard set has so far raised £2,000 for the London Chinese Community Centre.
Bring on the Year of the Tiger 2022!