We didn't plan to celebrate Winter Solstice with family – but it happened.  My family met with family friends for a dinner at the Flamingo House Restaurant on Cambie St and 59th Ave. in Vancouver.

Chinese Winter Solstice is according to the guidebooks, supposed to be a time of gathering with family and friends, and relaxing after the long hard harvest of the fall.  For us, it provided a wonderful time of respite between the busy-ness of Christmas shopping, organizing for Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and working at the library.  This was a time of joy for re-connecting with good family friends, some of my parents' best friends and their children that I grew up with, and their children now aged 7 and 9. 

There were 12 of us in total.  3 were now grand parents,  3 were now parents, 3 were single adults, and 3 were children aged 18 months to 9 years old.  My goodness – a lot of “3's.”

I introduced my girlfriend to my family friends whom I had grown up with, as we traded stories from our childhood, as well as recent stories of dragon boat exploits.  We all caught up on each other's news and achievements, new job postings and the activities of the children. 

With my Auntie (we called our parent's friends Aunt and Uncle as signs of respect – this also carries over from traditional Chinese culture), I helped order the food.  I selected the set dinner course for 10, which costs $198, and included Peking Duck, lettuce wrap, crab, deep fried tofu, sole, fruit salad with prawns.  It was all so delicious and much more than we all could eat.  And all at great value and price.  Chinese dinners really are the way to go for large parties.  For the quality and quantity of food we had, you would have had to spend about $50 to $60 each per person.  As tasty as the prime rib dinner with tiger prawns that I had at the Keg last week, when my fabulous girlfriend took me out prior to seeing Holly Cole in concert at the Orpheum, I have to say that this was the better choice for a large group, both for value and price. 

Flamingo House restaurant owner/manager Joseph Lee even came over to say hello to me.  Joseph is a very wonderful host.  He always recognizes and remembers me.  Not an easy task if you host hundreds and thousands of people in one of Vancouver's busiest dim sum and up-scale dinner restaurants.  But perhaps it is easier, if said restaurant patron hosts Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinners, called Gung Haggis Fat Choy, in your father's other restaurant called Flamingo Chinese Restaurant on Fraser Street, and he brings said restaurant manager/owner onto the City Cooks television program and asks you to cook specialty Chinese dishes with haggis that you have never before done.  Here's a brief description of our adventure cooking with City Cooks host Simi Sara.  Joseph has a pretty good sense of humour, and he looks good on television despite his nervousness. Check out Joseph's special recipes for haggis wun-tun, haggis spring rolls and haggis stuffed tofu.

But Joseph Lee isn't nervous in his restaurant tonight. Business is good – the restaurant is full.  It is “dong zhi” Chinese Winter Solstice and Western Christmas time – a good time for many families to go out for dinner.  After New Year's the restaurant business will slow down, as it is a traditional time for restaurants to take their holidays or do their renovations.  Then it will get busy for Chinese New Year festivities once again.

One of my favorite winter adventures was going to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Classical Gardens last year for Winter Solstice.  It was very magical.  The Garden was lit with candles and Christmas lights – otherwise – you never see the garden at night because of its early closings.

One of the real coolest things they do is to create lanterns for the bare trees.  In each lantern are leaves that fell from the trees during autumn… so they are in effect, hanging the leaves back on the trees – with lights!  Very Cool!

There was music at the Gardens… Erhu (Chinese violin) player Ji Rong Huang was playing traditional Chinese and Western tunes in the Water Pavillion of the Gardens.  I bought two cd's by Ji Rong… I have to love this guy!  First of all, his name is Huang (the Mandarin version of Wong), secondly – He played with Harry Connick Jr. one time, when Harry met him by chance at the Horseshoe Bay Ferry terminal and invited Ji Rong to join him onstage at the Orpheum with his band.  Third, he plays Western music, and we agreed to get together sometime to do a duet of Hungarian Dance No. 5.

Anyways back to the Garden… and solstice.  Check out the link to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens.   This is what you will find:

Tuesday, December 21 from 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Winter Solstice Lantern Festival
An event partnership with the Secret Lantern Society www.secretlantern.org

In China, the winter solstice festival, dong zhi, is a time when friends and family gather together, exchange gifts, and eat, drink, and laugh long into the deep, dark night to mark the rebirth of yang qualities of light and warmth as winter waxes and spring approaches. Enjoy a magical celebration of Dong zhi at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sun Classical Chinese Garden & Public Park as we host the Secret Lantern Society's 11th Annual Winter Solstice Festival for Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside from 6:30 – 10:00pm.

Join a procession from Science World or Strathcona Community Centre at 6:00pm. Then, follow the sea of hand-made lanterns and the compelling rhythms of drummers to our magical Garden come to life at night. Be enchanted by the displays of special hand-made lanterns in the trees and pond; paintings of winter colors by the Oriental Arts Club; music; samples of traditional dong zhi foods such as sweet dumplings and eight treasure soup and demonstrations of traditional folk arts presented by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver. Free event, but donations appreciated.

Visit the other Winter Solstice venues at Granville Island, the Roundhouse Community Centre, the West End Community Centre, and the Coal Harbour Community Centre.

Yesterday, I met Betty Armstrong of the Vancouver Folk Players, at the St. James Community Square.  They just completed a wonderful Christmas celebration complete with pantomine plays.  Betty was very enthusiastice and told me about how pantomines incorporate archetypal figures.

Betty told me that there are a whole series of English pagan traditions that are perpetuated in Vancouver by the Folk Players.

She told me about the special Dec 21st Winter Solstice celebration on Granville Island that will involved the Vancouver Folk Players and the Vancouver Morris Men.

“I know the Morris Men, ” I said… “I saw them at Coal Harbour on Canada Day.  They do folk dances and folk songs… and one of the fellows plays accordion.”

Do people celebrate Winter Solstice Eve?

They celebrate Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, All Hallow's Eve aka Halloween.  Personally I like to celebrate Birthday Eve, and with the right person… Valentine's Eve.

Yesterday evening, I went Christmas shopping with my girlfriend.  Alas, she has been late shopping because she was very busy planning the two date concert tour for the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra that she manages.  The self-admitted “stress bunny” was dreading going into the Christmas crowds, so I volunteered to go shopping with her and help her de-stress from both the road trip and shopping.  In return, my fabulous girlfriend decided to take me for dinner at the Cheshire Cheese Inn in the Vancouver neighborhood of  Kerrisdale – a generally very conservative and well-to-do area of Vancouver. While there are a few Chinese restaurants – I haven't seen any Chinese bakeries, butcher shops or supermarkets, yet.

Kerrisdale still retains it's British roots, especially with shops and restaurants like the Cheshire Cheese Inn.  As soon as you approach this establishment, you can tell there is a “pub” like ambience.  There is patio for the folks who still like to smoke.  Walk through the recessed front doors, and window bays greet you on either side – for an old english pub type feel. (How I now miss my 1980's nights spent down at the Windsor Arms Hotel's “Rose & Crowne Pub” that had actually recreated an English street scene complete with street signs, and windows, and brick paving… but I digress).

I looked about the restaurant, and noticed all the patrons appeared to be of British stock, except the table immediately near the entrance with 3 Chinese people (maybe they had been born in England, or Hong Kong, and missed the English ambience).  I half expected the waitress to speak with an accent reminescent of “Upstairs Downstairs,” “Fawty Towers,” or any of the British comedies.  But alas, she spoke in a very Canadian accent, and wore very Canadian clothing with low riders and a top that couldn't get tucked into her pants – oh but that's not the style anymore is it?

The first thing my girlfriend asked the waitress was if they had Strongbow on tap.  She is a fan of the English apple cider.  Funny, that she doesn't ask for BC Okanagan cider, since she was raised in the OK valley.  Opening the menu was a veritable culture relevation for me.  Here were traditional English dinners such as “bangers and mash” – no definitions provided – but I have learned it is sausages with mashed potatoes.  Also on the menu were minced pies, Shepherd's Pie (containing absolutely no shepherd in it to my grave disappoinment), and fish and chips (Ah… fish and chips… with vinegar… with Ling Cod… a Vancouver tradition on the disappearing species list).

I chose the dinner special of roast chicken with vegetables and mash, also served with a vegetable barley soup (gee… almost as good as the beef barley soup my mother used to make – why would my 4th generation Chinese Canadian mother make us beef barley soup?  I think she learned all these recipes from her father – who worked in an English restaurant in Vancouver).  My girlfriend ordered a burger with fries, that we dipped in my gravy for my mashed potatoes.

By incredible chance, a young man with tousled blonde hair came over to wish my girlfriend Merry Christmas.  He was one of the percussion players of the VYSO, and he was being treated out to dinner by his grandparents for his birthday.  He raved about the VYSO tour which had played in Victoria and Courtney/Comox.  Courtney had been particularly enthusiastic for the VYSO concert.  Over 400 people filled their small hall compared to the 165 audience members in the BC's Capitol city of Victoria.  The VYSO in Courtney, was THE BIG SHOW in town for everybody.  I did suggest to the VYSO manager, sitting across from me that perhaps the VYSO should build up an annual tradition to hold concerts in Courtney and Nanaimo for the future.

Anyways… this young and talented 17 year old musician commented about how he was able to meet people in the orchestra that he hadn't previously met before.  He spoke about how excited he was to get to blow the ferry's horn during the ferry passage, as well as how much fun it was to spend so many social hours with his orchestrat mates, parents and friends.  He gave Deb a big hug and thanked her for all her hard work for the VYSO.  And so, with my girlfriend happy that all her hard work really helped to make a very fun experience for the kids of the VYSO, she finished her Strongbow, and decompressed some more…

for other adventures in Vancouver's dining environment check out: www.vaneats.com hosted by my friends Roland and Barb

Gung Haggis Fat Choy announced in 2005 First Night Vancouver Program

Gung Haggis Fat Choy appeared in ads this weekend the ads for First Night Vancouver 2005.   First Night returns to Vancouver for 2005 after a two year absence.  It takes place at Library Square, CBC Plaza and Q.E. Plaza.

6pm, 8pm & 10pm at the “Fun Too” venue.  Look for a large heated tent on the Q.E. Plaza.  We are sharing the tent with Construction Ink Theatre Company – creating a comedic look at local history with one of Vancouver's most intriguing tales. 

The program describes Gung Haggis Fat Choy as celebrating “Scottish Hogmanay and Chinese New – all rolled into one!”  Expect a Chinese bagpiper.  Expect a Scottish singer to sing in Chinese.  Expect the familiar to be reinvented cross-culturally.  Expect the unexpected.

This is a family oriented version of the increasingly popular dinner show event.  The program will feature story-telling, sing-a-longs + musical performances.  All will be relevant to the cultural fusion of the event's namesake.

Host is Toddish McWong, with famed performers Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault from Silk Road Music, who were featured in the CBC television special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.”

Also appearing will be Dragon River Shadow Puppet Theatre's Karen Wong and Zhongxi Yu, contemporary Mo-Hop singer LaLa, and David McIntosh from award-winning Battery Opera.

Jazz + traditional Christmas songs = Intercultural music

That's why I have always loved Christmas music outside the normal traditional versions of pop standards, and Christmas Standards.

I love Holly Cole's versions of Christmas Blues, Please Come Home for Christmas, and Baby It's Cold Outside.

Vanessa Williams has an exquisite version of “What Child is This” as well as “Go Tell It On the Mountain/Mary Had a Baby.”  African-American Gospel music blended with traditional Christmas standards means a swinging Christmas.

Diana Krall can swing Christmas with Jingle Bells, Christmas Time Is Here, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on her Christmas EP.  She also released a version of “The Man With the Bag” on her US “Target” edition of her “Look of Love” album.

I love the old Motown Christmas songs, especially Stevie Wonder's “One Little Christmas Tree,” and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles singing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”  And the Jacksons singing “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree” for me, beats Brenda Lee's version any time.

Jose Feliciano's “Felix Navidad” was always a favorite in our household, as we grew up.  It just doesn't sound right when I hear Celine Dion singing it.  But Celine sounds great singing Christmas songs in French.

And then there are the Cheiftains – grand holders of celtic tradition, and more recently of cultural fusion.  I love their recent albums blending celtic music with Spanish, Brittany, Nashville Country (Another Country and Old Plank Road) and Canadian Maritimers (Fire in the Kitchen).  The Bells of Dublin is a fine Christmas cd with Canadian musical guests Colin James and the McGarrigle Sisters. 

Christmas music: It's themes are universal, no matter what musical language it is performed or sung in.