Gong xi fa cai!

 

The Chinese New Year (CNY) gives everyone the opportunity to start with a clean slate, filled with hope and positivity for the year ahead. The Year of the Earth Boar has a good balance of elements in the Paht Chee chart, so there is an abundance of wealth luck in 2019.

 

For my annual CNY extravaganza, I asked the creative help of event stylist and designer Jun Jun Ablaza. We transformed our home into a Chinese imperial palace with giant colored lanterns. With Jun Jun’s creative genius and vast collection of Chinese décor, our living room became an oriental banquet hall with life-size, antique Buddha statues.

 

A traditional lion dance kicked off the exciting evening, a signal for auspicious energy to enter our house. Guests were able to dot the eyes and touch the mouths and noses of the lions, all harbingers of good luck for 2019.

 

For the party, I partnered with Honestbee, Asia’s fastest growing food delivery service. Honestbee was launching its delivery service for Binondo merchants. Now we can order straight from Chinatown without the hassle of traffic.

 

 

 

The Binondo restaurants on Honestbee provided party favorites. We feasted on lucky dishes that attract prosperity, fortune, longevity, good luck and wealth.

 

Legend has it that the more dumplings you eat during the CNY celebration, the more money you can make. So we served dumplings from Decs, Wai Ying, Shi Lin and Bai Niang.

 

Dishes for prosperity

 

Restaurants such as Lugang Café, Tuan Tuan and Wang Fu served steamed fish, a dish believed to bring prosperity. Bain Nian Tang Bao brought spring rolls. Ling Nam and Ersao opted for noodles.

 

All these restaurants are on the Honestbee app.

 

 

Fruits like kiat kiat and pomelo attract fullness and wealth, and may be purchased in bulk from S&R, Farmers Market, Isetann and Ultramega Supermarket.

 

Consumption of niang nao or glutinous rice cake is also believed to bring higher income or job promotions, available on order from Ho-Land. And no celebration is complete without tangyuan, hopia, tikoy and more Chinese delicacies from Eng Bee Tin.

 

Aside from food, Honestbee also carries lucky charms and feng shui items from New Victory Trading—lucky pig figurines, Chinese lanterns and angpao.

 

The Honestbee app has a CNY tab until Feb. 5. And there’s no need to worry if your celebration is set after this date, as the Food tab is easy to navigate, and the Grocery tab has endless options.

 

Download the Honestbee app for free on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and sign up for an account now. Visit www.honestbee.ph for more information.

 

 

Prizes and giveaways

 

For the party games, my generous friends from Bench, Watsons, Gardenia, Buddy’s Pancit Lucban and Frigga gave me prizes and giveaways. For our youthful guests, Destileria Limtuaco provided special cocktails to match the Chinese theme. For the more mature guests, we gave complimentary vita-boost drips from Dr. Sheree Bondoc of The Core Clinic.

 

Between games, feng shui queen Marites Allen revealed her forecast for each of the animal signs. For the grand prize of best costume won by Tessa Alindogan, Jun Parreño, COO of Discovery Leisure Company, donated a weekend package at Discovery Shores Boracay.

 

I was able to solicit a prize from Jun at the silver anniversary celebration of Corporate International Travel & Tours (Citti). Citti is the purveyor of luxury travel products that features unique destinations and carefully curated properties.

 

Citti organized our Balkans tour last year, and it was truly a magical trip. I had a reunion with my #GoTyaBalkan2018 gang at the grand celebration.

 

 

Citti president Shan David, accompanied by the company’s board of directors, managers and associates, welcomed their high-profile clients for a night of partying and some excellent wine at Discovery Suites’ 22 Prime.

 

At the event, raffled off were several travel-themed items including a business-class ticket and an economy-class ticket to any European destination courtesy of Turkish Airlines. Turkish Airlines general manager Erhan Balaban was there to award the two tickets.

 

Meanwhile, Jun was on hand to award the two other major prizes, a three-day package at Discovery Shores Boracay, and another three-day package at Club Paradise Palawan.

 

Citti also gave out a cabin-size Rimowa suitcase.

 

As part of Citti’s silver celebration, passengers who join the 2019 #CittiExperience leisure programs will get the chance to win for themselves a Rimowa luxury suitcase. Visit Citti at the upcoming Travel Tour Expo in SMX Mall of Asia on Feb. 8-10. To be sold are heavily discounted airline tickets, as well as top-selling tour programs, including promos for Scenic and Emerald Waterways. Scenic Waterways is Europe’s foremost, all-inclusive river cruise provider.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more details on Citti’s products, call 6316541 or 09176316541.

 

More pics on Instagram @seaprincess888.