Happy Chinese New Year!

For those of you who don't know, Chinese New Year falls on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14, or this Sunday) this year. This year's zodiac animal is the tiger... it promises to be quite a tumultuous year! Unfortunately, I haven't finished all the goodies I was planning to do before Chinese New Year (or Valentine's Day for that matter!) but I was still able to join in the festivities in Chinatown this year. It was a pretty big affair, and it seems to be getting bigger every year! Besides the lion dances, parades and performances, there's lots of street vendors selling food and goodies... so much fun! Kung Hee Fat Choy/Happy New Year!

Lion dance: people usually give them money for good luck! This little guy wasn't scared at all!

Zodiac charms to hang in your house; I ended up getting a string of the 12 zodiac animals... this year is the year of the tiger!

People buying gao (traditional Chinese rice cake with a red date for good luck... very good!)

Miniature Lion heads for display

Have you guys heard of bubble tea or boba? This is new; I never saw them before last week! I know, I know, it looks like frog eggs or something, but it's really good I promise! It's called poppin' boba (I got it at Hula Boba on N. Pauahi St. in Chinatown) Instead of being tapioca pearls these are little jelly globules encapsulating juice... very refreshing. This is yogurt flavored poppin' boba on top of frozen yogurt... in the future I'll try another flavor like lychee or mango (but this one was still sooo good and very refreshing)

I love these little solar toys!