Chinese New Year and The world's best braised cabbage

My simplest CNY so far, but also the cosiest. This year, a few of my closest girlfriends congregated at my sweet little apartment for a simple reunion dinner. Because of my work commitments, Eszet volunteered to cook - isn't she a dear? But suspecting that dinner might be a little late, I swung by the grocery store to pick up a few extras. "A few extras" turned out to be a rack of pork belly (which was served roasted with crackling), minced pork and other things to make dumplings, and ingredients to make Molly Steven's World's Best Braised Cabbage (which really is the world's best braised cabbage I've ever tasted, so much so I've recreated it three times since CNY eve), as well as a colourful bunch of flowers (on sale at Waitrose). Eszet turned up, after battling the crowds for groceries in Chinatown, with dumpling skins, melon seeds, sesame balls, and nian gao. Quite predictably, our simply CNY dinner turned out to be quite a feast! And we played two games of mahjong, a little half-heartedly, to keep up tradition. Chatted while cracking open melon seeds with our teeth to access the tiny morsel inside. Dutifully called parents at midnight to wish them gong xi fa cai and a long life. Opened my hong bao received from parents in the post. All the time garbed in bright blinding red.

Step by step, we ticked all the CNY boxes, and retired to bed as well-brought up Chinese girls who have not forgotten things like that.

Molly Steven's World's Best Braised Cabbage

The girlfriends, in a riot of red