Meet Anita Lee From Mandarin Garden

Anita Lee runs the Chinese take-away Mandarin Garden in Winchester Road in Chandler’s Ford.

Mandarin House has an open kitchen. While waiting for your food, you could actually watch how your food is being prepared. I love watching the chef tossing the noodles in the air. How does he do that? The wok looks heavy!

Mandarin Garden in Winchester Road, Chandler's Ford. — Anita Lee runs Mandarin Garden in Winchester Road, Chandler’s Ford.

Anita owns and runs Mandarin Garden for 9 years. She came to England from Hong Kong when she was about 20 years old over 30 years ago. She spent most of her life in the Chinese catering business.

Anita used to run a successful take-away business in the New Forest, but later sold the business and bought Mandarin Garden in Chandler’s Ford. Why? “I really love this location.” Anita told me cheerfully.

Anita lives in the New Forest, and travels to Chandler’s Ford every day to run Mandarin Garden. She loves this place.

Deep fried chicken. — Deep fried food is very popular.

Anita is managing the Chinese take-away all by herself. She told me that her husband has retired and her son is still at college in Southampton, therefore she runs the business independently.

I first met Anita two years ago. I ran a charity event to raise money for Piam Brown Ward in Southampton General Hospital, and Anita kindly donated a huge box of Fortune Cookies to me for sale, and she also sold me another box for half price.

Anita celebrates the Chinese New Year. She said it is important to eat food with symbolic meanings, such as fish, chicken, noodles, dumplings, meatballs, and abalone if you could afford it. Anita said Chinese people give money in the Red Envelope to children, give tangerines and kamquat plants as gifts, say kind words and exchange goodwill.

I am amazed that Anita runs the business all by herself. She answered that women can also be successful: “We can all achieve, men or woman.”

Fried noodle — Noodles symbolises longevity.

Anita would like to send Chinese New Year greetings to her customers and our readers. She wishes everyone great health in the New Year 身体健康（shēntǐ jiànkāng), and also be successful, like a horse, as a famous Chinese saying encapsulates it well: 马到成功 mǎ dào chénggōng (Win instant success upon the arrival of a horse.)

Here is an outstanding horse painting by Xu Beihong (徐悲鸿) (19 July 1895 – 26 September 1953), a renowned Chinese painter born in the Jiangsu province of China. Xu Beihong was known for his Chinese ink paintings of horses and birds.