I’m nursing my stomach and fighting my eyelids to remain open as I write this.

Today happens to be Chinese New Year 2012 – the year of the Dragon!

Since there is a large influence of Chinese in Thailand, there are quite a lot of festivities and feasting that goes on.

A few years ago (back when I was teaching English), I got my students to explain to me some of the normal traditions and customs on Chinese New Year’s in Thailand, but this time around, I mostly just feasted!

Yesterday I went to a local market here in Bangkok, things were crazy – people were scurrying to purchase food like boiled ducks and chickens.

The feast this morning was all about duck, chicken and pork.

We started things off with duck. A lovely bird boiled in light soy sauce flavored water so it stayed juicy, fatty and just slightly salty.

After taking a turn on the chopping board, the duck looked like this, big meaty chunks of moist duck waiting to be devoured.

The fried noodles, were alright, slightly on the plain side, but still good.

The tastiest dish for Chinese New Year was the chicken.

It was boiled in plain water first, then chopped up into fist sized chunks and stir fried along with dark soy sauce.

This is a wok filled with 2 full chickens being fried up with soy sauce! My mouth was watering.

It was spectacular, the pieces of chicken were tender and glazed in an outstanding dark soy sauce  – with rice it was deliciously comforting!

The chicken went down just as easy as the duck.

This is about as close to vegetables as we got for this feast, a small bowl of soup made with mushrooms, tofu and clear mungbean noodles.

After I was already stuffed with duck and chicken and pork, it was time to eat some Thai roasted fish known  as pla pao. The fish was rolled in salt and then grilled over low heat charcoal.

The fish was flaky, moist and spectacular!

Since all the food was boiled, it needed some extra flavoring.

That’s where the Thai genius of flavoring techniques came into play. We made a sauce that consisted of outrageously spicy little chillies, tons of garlic, lime juice, sugar and salt.

I lathered everything I ate in the sauce, it was incredible.

Little snacks and Thai desserts are common at Chinese New Year in Thailand. They are available all over the streets and throughout all markets.

My stomach is out of space at the moment, but after I take a little nap I’ll be ready to start snacking again!

Happy Chinese New Year 2012!