Crystal Jade Dining IN Offers New Set Menu for Chinese New Year 2016

Wazzup Pilipinas!

I'm currently flabbergasting on a tongue-in-cheek look at what the year of the fire monkey means for markets and a handful of well-known global personalities.

We all know that the monkey is an ambivalent animal that is loved for his human-like antics but mostly disliked for his lack of social grace and unpredictability. Though some find it humorous, not everyone is pleased, So, will the Year of the Fire Monkey live up to mimic its animal counterpart?

The predictions I hear lately have a state of having simultaneous conflicting reactions, beliefs, or feelings towards some object, or having an attitude towards someone or something that contains both positively and negatively-valenced components.

Will the year 2016 become not as stellar as optimists hoped it would be? I'm still hoping progress continues for the year and the rest to come even if it takes a longer wait. But who is doubting? The start of the year has been very awesome for me so whatever experts say, it all lies on our unwavering optimism and that persistent determination to rise up again after every fall. Sometimes you are at your most peak when your vulnerability is being tested.

As always, I've been very lucky to be among the few selected bloggers to get an invite to the launch of a new set menu for Chinese New Year 2016. From January 22 until February 28, Crystal Jade Dining IN will be offering the Chinese New Year 2016 new set menus. Revel in the elegance of their newest dishes as families partake of what the restaurant has to offer for CNY 2016.

"Experience the worldwide celebration of the Year of the Red Fire Monkey with Crystal Jade Dining IN as they hold a month-long celebration with four delectable treats and an enticing spread of all-time favorites highlighted by new dishes to help attract good fortune and auspicious tidings this 2016."

We did the ceremonial tossing of the salad for luck and prosperity. So from a neat Prosperity Toss Salad serving - to a tossed, with unavoidable spills, we had fun with our chopsticks combining efforts tossing the salad at Crystal Jade Philippines launch of their new set menu for Chinese New Year 2016 Year of the Fire Monkey.

But I'm way ahead of the story. Was it obvious that I was excited with the salad toss? Hahaha! I was wondering what shouting Lo Hei meant during the tossing of the Yu Sheng or Lo Shang - tossing up a good fortune. I was later informed it translated to "rise" - to refer to a hopefully thriving business.

With all the auspicious meaning and well wishes behind this tradition, there is definitely no harm in doing it.

Crystal Jade Dining IN aims to be the best fine-dining Chinese restaurant in the country. It is steadfast in upholding its promise of authenticity, which has fully captivated the hearts of its loyal diners around Asia and the Pacific and the United States for almost 25 years - an impressive distinction over most Chinese food and beverage brands in the market.

The restaurant is situated in High Street, Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Tagig. It has two levels - the huge main dining area and upper dining areas probably for customers who prefer a little bit of privacy.

As you can see from the photos below, the restaurant can accommodate hundreds of guests which makes it perfect for a grand celebration or gathering.

The decors are not that extravagant, but elegant and sophisticated. This is what I like about Chinese restaurants - neat but cleverly classy in interiors.

Upon entrance to the restaurant, you'll be greeted by some displays of wines and delectable treats. These will give you ideas to dine, drink, and have some take-outs for "pasalubong" to your loved ones. True enough, we went home with a box of "tikoy" or what is called glutinous rice, after our dining experience. It would have been better if we went home with a bottle of wine, but that's just asking too much already. Lol!

Crystal Jade Dining IN brings you four (4) fabulous treats to help you embrace the new year with good luck and auspicious tidings. We got to experience one set that even came with an exciting portion before everyone could sit down and dine.

As soon as we were complete, they announced a special activity before we all start to chow down on their new set menu of Chinese New Year 2016. It was the tossing of the salad. By the name of the salad, you'll immediately realize it's done for prosperity. You should watch the video I embedded above so you can watch and listen on how it's done and what is the meaning of the act and the ingredients that made up the Prosperity Toss Salad.

Prosperity Toss Salad while still intact

Order the Yu Sheng “Prosperity Toss Salad” for greater luck and wealth this Year of the Monkey! This is available for 4-6 pax for P880, & P1,680 for groups of 8-10 pax.

Prosperity Toss Salad up close

With raw fish symbolizing abundance and excess, pomelo or lime for luck and auspicious value, pepper to attract more money and valuable, oil circling the ingredients to encourage money to follow in from all directions, carrots added to the fish to indicate blessings of good luck, shredded green radish placed on the fish to symbolize eternal youth, shredded white radish for prosperity in business and promotion at work, peanuts crumbs dusted on top to symbolize a household filled with gold and silver, sesame seeds to symbolize a flourishing business, deep-fried lour crisps in the shape of golden pillows is added with wishes that literally the whole floor would be filled with gold, and then tossing the salad an auspicious 7 times with loud shouts of Lo Hei.

Prosperity Toss Salad after it got tossed and partially spilled

Everyone will surely enjoy the opening ceremonies. There may be some spills during the salad tossing, but that's what makes life a lot more fun and pleasurable. The excitement and eagerness to enjoy the outputs of our hard work even though there were some failures on the sides.

As many would say, you can't really avoid some of the mistakes and even disastrous events in your everyday adventure, but still we need to be appreciating the many blessings we got instead.

The Prosperity Toss Salad is obviously a bit messy after the tossing, but the output is a delicious salad anyway with majority of the ingredients still intact.

Double-boiled Crab Claw Soup with Superior Mushroom in Fresh Coconut

Sip your soup filled with crab claw, mushrooms, cabbage and then scoop out the coconut or buko afterwards or even during the sipping. But since the Double-boiled Crab Claw Soup with Superior Mushroom in Fresh Coconut was full of ingredients, you'll be delightfully munching on them too. This is really a pleasurable soup that will surely satisfy your taste buds.

Cabbage Wrapped with Sauteed Bamboo Shoot & Black Moss

The Cabbage Wrapped with Sauteed Bamboo Shoot & Black Moss is your generous portion of vegetables to balance your Chinese New Year 2016 menu set with healthy yet delicious options.

Roasted Suckling Pig

Their Roasted Suckling Pig seems different as the usual "litson" has all shiny and oily looking crispy skins. But Crystal Jade's version is equally crispy in the outside (skin) and tender and juicy in the inside (meat) minus the oily look. You don't need to doubt how we welcomed this generous treat because everything, except the pig's head, on our plate was gone in just a few seconds.

Treasure Pot

A symbol of family unity, the Treasure Pot “Pen Cai” is brimming with all-time Chinese favourites for the whole family to share this Chinese New year! Prices start at P4888.

This huge dish above was undeniably a very intriguing part of the menu since it was called Treasure Pot. Generously topped with seafood, fish, pork and chicken meat, you'd be surprised to find out what's deep down below the pot. I want to tell you already what to expect but I guess it would be best if I was not a spoiler.

But if you want to really know what makes it a treasure, you can inquire through the comments section of this blog or send me a private message on our official Facebook page at http://www.Facebook.com/wazzuppilipinas or send me an e-mail at rossdelrosario@gmail.com

Glutinous Rice with Crab Meat & Salted Egg Yolk

The Glutinous Rice with Crab Meat & Salted Egg Yolk is their special "tikoy" all prepared and cooked neatly for you. The sizes are of almost equal proportions, and laid out accordingly by rows and columns that makes it a lot more attractive than how we usually cook and serve "tikoy" in our home.

A variety of fruit drinks

You don't need to worry about finding your favorite drinks as they offer so many choices. Everyone in our group decided to order a different one so we could take photos of each one. From a single fruit smoothie or shake like watermelon to a mixed fruit variety. They also have the fresh coconut or buko juice that you'll sip directly out from the fruit, or nut, itself.

Flourishing Fortune Glutinous Rice Cake

The Flourishing Fortune Glutinous Rice Cake is shaped like two Koi fishes - one is large and another one very small as if they are mother and child fishes. This is absolutely very appealing to take home and display in our dining table, but you might be too uneasy to cook it after as it is such a shame to waste such a creatively done food treat.

For only P680, take home Crystal Jade Dining IN’s Double Fish Glutinous Rice Cake and start off the year on a sweet note!

A Round Glutinous Rice Cake, a deliciously sweet treat to attract auspicious tidings all year round, is also available for only P580 and comes complete with a box.

Thank you Crystal Jade Dining IN for the sumptuous feast that still lingers in memory until now even after I've dined at several other restaurants after. There are several reasons why I should return and try them all again, and maybe the other splendid dishes they still have in their regular menu.

If you want to celebrate Chinese New Year, or any other occasion, with a big bang, then head on over to Crystal Jade Dining IN for a Year of the Fire Monkey feast that would definitely start your year right.

For more information and updates, please check their official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CrystalJadePH