Our Chinese New Year dinner party was a perfect excuse for me to kick off my culinary bucket list. I have only made a few Chinese dishes in my life and I won’t lie, it was hard to find a couple recipes that weren’t longer then the Cheesecake Factory menu.

Friends don’t let friends eat at chain restaurants.

I decided on Chow Fun noodles and Yang Yang crispy beef. They both turned out great and I can foresee making the noodles again and but as good beef was, it was fried and I don’t do fried foods. Don’t get me wrong they are D-E-licious to eat but I don’t dig having grease splattered along my counter top. Then you have to figure out what to do with a pot of used oil, gross.

I made sure to have all my ingredients prepped and ready to go.

Mise en place

I left them meatless and it was just fine. I found all the ingredients at Ranch 99 market, although it took me awhile wandering around the store. I boiled the fresh noodles for about 2 minutes and then drained them before adding them to the wok. Next time I would use a tad less ginger and add some sambal {spicy chili paste}.

The beef was pretty easy to cook, cutting the meat took all the time.

The only thing I can suggest is if you go to all the work to make these dishes, serve them right away. Taking Chinese food to a dinner party isn’t the best way to go about it.

Getting enough to eat at our dinner parties is never a problem. I didn’t get all the dishes but here is a glimpse of what we devoured.