The Catholic practice of assigning a special devotion to each month goes back to the early 16th century. The best known of those devotions is probably the dedication of the month of May to the Blessed Virgin Mary. May is considered the season of the beginning of new life. Already in Greek culture, May was dedicated to Artemis, the goddess of fecundity. In Roman culture, May was dedicated to Flora, the goddess of bloom, of blossoms. The Romans celebrated ludi florales (literally: floral games) at the end of April, asking the intercession of Flora for all that blooms. This is also related to the medieval practice of expelling winter. May 1 was considered the beginning of growth.
But for me, it seems like May is the month of meeting and eating.
You see, after all the Christmas and (Chinese) New Year festivities, we tend to take a break ... to give our waistlines a chance to get back to their normal size. Then we are so caught up with our work, and our daily schedules, that dont feel the need to meet up with friends just yet.
And once the kids exams are over, it suddenly dawns on us that we have not met our friends for quite a while, so we start touching bases. And before we know it, we start making plans to meet up ...before we all go away for the June vacations.
So with May almost coming to a close .... I have managed to meet up with quite a few friends.
One restaurant that we went to recently was the Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck restaurant at Paragon in Orchard Road. It came highly recommended. Of course the must have dish there is the Peking duck :P. But do note that there is a one hour advance order if you want to eat that duck.
The chef starts off by cutting out the skin from the part just below the back of the neck. That is supposedly the BEST part of the duck. It is meant to be dipped in sugar and savoured. And it was truly delicious! (You only get about 6 small slices of this wonderful skin!)
Then the rest of the skin of the duck is sliced off and wrapped in crepes together with some scallions and cucumber, and served with some sweet sauce. As for the remainder of the duck, it is then chopped up, and you have a choice of how you would like it cooked. We had ours fried with salt and pepper.
However, be warned that at this restaurant, they tend to encourage you to order well beyond what you can eat, and do try not to order off the menu ... the prices can be exorbitant!
Happy eating!!
3 comments:
Oh, your May sounds much better than mine, meeting & eating are so fun!
Just days ago Bear mentioned that he misses Peking duck, and we're not sure where to have it. Thanks for your recommendation. ;) I'll have all the skin and he can have the rest of the duck since I've never liked its meat. HAHAHAHAH! =D
Eat the skin with sugar?
Never heard of...Must try!
hahaha, eat and eat. but must say this looks so yuuummm!
it's the end of May already... what's next for June? is it school hols already, will u n family be going anywhere? have a fun time with the children, SAHM!
(p.s. u r always such an early riser, thanks for coming by, you're always the 1st to comment, always so happy to hear from u).
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