Chinese New Year Food: Traditional Dishes and Recipes
When and how is it celebrated?
Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar and always falls between 21 January and 20 February. The festive season lasts 15 days and ends with the Lantern Festival. The most important evening is New Year’s Eve, when the whole family sits down together for the reunion dinner, and many people travel hundreds of kilometres to be there. There is always plenty of food, because leftovers stand for supplies in the new year. Many families fold dumplings together at the kitchen table in the afternoon. In some households, knives and scissors stay in the drawer on New Year’s Day so that nobody cuts off their good luck, and people eat what was prepared the day before. At the Lantern Festival at the end, there are sweet glutinous rice balls.
What is on the table?
In the north, Jiaozi are on every table. The half-moon dumplings look like old silver ingots, and whoever bites into the one with a hidden coin is said to have a good year. The Chinese word for fish, yu, sounds like the word for abundance. So a whole Steamed Fish with Ginger and Soy is served with its head and tail, and a little is deliberately left over. The name of Nian Gao, the sticky rice cake, can be understood as ‘higher year after year’. In the south, golden deep-fried Spring Rolls are popular because they look like small gold bars. Cantonese families pan-fry slices of Luo Bo Gao, the radish cake, until crisp. Long noodles stand for a long life, so they are never cut short. For the Lantern Festival there is Tangyuan in a sweet soup. Their round shape stands for a family that stays together.
Tips for your own festive meal
For a festive meal for four, one fish, one braised dish, one vegetable dish and a platter of dumplings are enough. You can fold the jiaozi two days ahead and freeze them raw. For the meat dish, Hong Shao Rou works well: red-braised pork belly that tastes even better reheated the next day. Serve it with Chinese Broccoli with Garlic from the wok. For dessert, make Eight Treasure Rice. Shape it the day before, and on the day it only needs half an hour in the steamer.
