Party!

Okay people.

No one else seems to be stepping up, so I'm having a Chinese New Year party. Aw, yeah! You're all invited.

But what to make? I'm not sure I can create a menu that everyone will enjoy. Don't want to go too authentic, as the masses won't be able to handle that (nian gao? Classic and easy to make, but not popular).

Here's my menu. Let me know if you think there's anything I should add or subtract:

Dishes:

• Potstickers, pork and vegetarian, with my own homemade special sauce.
• Egg rolls or spring rolls. I don't think I'll have time to make these in mass quantity, so I'll have to visit Sam's or Costco I guess. So much for food snobbery.
• Shu mai, probably shrimp. Classic dim sum fare, and I want to use my steamer.
• Lettuce wraps. This actually is a traditional snack, please don't give P.F. Chang's any credit for it! (p= poser, f= fake)

Small snacks:

• Wasabi peas. Eeee hee hee hee!
• Japanese rice snack mix.
• Wait, why are all my snacks Japanese?! Fine. Let's add some Taiwanese sausage with garlic on a table water cracker or toast points or some other carb vector.
• Veggie tray. Eh? Just in case. I'll make a Thai (Thailand, not Taiwan) style peanut butter & soy based sauce for dipping, along with the traditional ranch dressing.
• Kim chee. Maybe.
• Shrimp chips. For some color. Maybe.

Beverages:

• Soda. Duh. Maybe some Apple Sidra, if my guests prove they deserve to try it.
• Wine, one red, one white, just 'cause.
• Beer. Kirin and Tsingtao, and some ghetto Taiwan Beer if I can find it. Ha! And some Blue Moon of course, and maybe something more mainstream, but I don't know what.
• Tea. I have no idea how I'm going to serve it to people though. Making a big pot of it and pouring it into styrofoam seems so wrong.

So what do you think? Should I fry up some rice? Should I make noodles (a CNY food representing long life)? Or fish? Or black-eyed peas? I think I'm already too ambitious as it is. I don't knoooooow!