Chinese New Year in Box Hill

It's the first day of Chinese New Year today. It's a searing 36 degrees, and I'm waiting for Chris to cook our breakfast.

The whole of Carrington Road in Box Hill was closed for the CNY festivities yesterday. We meant to head up there to have a look during the day, but it was too hot to even contemplate moving out of the cool darkness of our basement. Eventually, we emerged at about 6pm, but had to head to the city for a housewarming.

I thought we must have missed the boat for the festivities, but when we got back to Box Hill at around midnight, the party was still in full swing. There were little stalls set up along Carrington Road selling all sorts of snacks and dim sum, and a carnival packed with screaming kids had been set up in the carpark.

We wandered along and browsed the stalls. There were all sorts of iced confections sold like ice kachang, ice longan, red bean ice, etc. The strangest thing I saw was a stall selling 'egglets'. They looked like little kueh baloo and were sold in a round mass, like a waffle. There were the usual suspects like taiwanese sausages, bbq pork jerky, char siew pao, etc. and the weird like grilled glutinous rice with chips (??). The most popular stall appeared to be the hot/cold crepe stall, which sold freshly made crepes wrapped around ice-cream and topping. We had been snacking non-stop at the housewarming party, so I could only fit in a small supper of prawn dumplings (har gow). They weren't as good as the ones you'd get at a proper yum cha restaurant, but managed to kill the 'must-eat-some-sort-of-festive food' craving. I wish I'd had room in my stomach for the Japanese tako balls; they looked delicious.

I was amazed that the street was still bustling and awake at midnight, with more and more people arriving, and the stalls showing no sign of closing for the night. I wish I'd had my camera with me to capture the mood. It was great, and it really made me glad I live in Box Hill.